DR. COLLTNGWOOD ON NITTMEG-CULTIYATTON IK STNGAPOT^E. 4,^ 



On Nutmeg- and other Cultiyation in Singapore. 



By Dr. C. Colling^^ood, F.L.S. 



[Read February 7, 1867.] 



The cultivation of tlie soil in Singapore Island has been carried 

 on with great industry and enterprise, and for a while with 

 success ; but, unfortunatelyj after hundreds of thousands of dol- 

 lars have been spent upon it, the planters have learned, too late, 

 that neither the soil nor the climate of Singapore are favourable 

 to the growth of those productions, such as nutmegs, cloves, 

 cotton, sugar, coffee, &c., upon which such vast sums have been 

 expended and ultimately swallowed up, bringing their proprietors 

 in many instances' to ruin. 



The climate of Singapore is very peculiar, and is marked by 

 an absence of seasonal change, which has an evil influence upon 

 man as well as upon plants. There is no regular recurrence of 

 summer and winter, no distinctly dry season and wet season, 

 but a remarkable equality all the year round; added to which, 

 the rains, instead of coming at definite periods, are capricious in 

 their fall, and therefore defeat the prognostications of the 

 planters. The temperature does not vary more than 20° or 22 

 during the whole year, ranging between 70^ and 92° as a rule, 

 and therefore is not in excess during the hottest seasons. Eain 

 falls upon half the days of the year, neither so frequently nor 

 90 heavily now as it did before the jungle was cleared away from 

 the neighbourhood of the town ; but the whole amount of rain is 

 moderate. 



The soil is poor, and will grow nothing without care and 

 plenty of manure. It consists of a fine, compact, reddish clay, 

 in the interior of the island not having much substance, and 

 mixed with sand, which increases in quantity near the sea-beach, 

 the clay predominating inland, and the sand near the coast. The 

 island was, of course, originally covered with jungle ; but there 



great 



indiscriminate 



been left standing, which would have proved invaluable as pro- 

 tection for certain crops, as well as being useful in other ways. 

 The virgin soil, covered with a thin layer of decaying vegetable 



matter, was rich enough ; but when, after a little time, its 

 material was exhausted, nothing but plenty of manure would 

 induce the growth of remunerative crops. 



Nutmeg — a plant which 



