50 DR, COLLINGWOOD ON NUTMEG-CULTITATIOX IN SINGAPOBE. 



who, of course, are paid at so low a' rate as to render the pre- 

 paration remunerative ; but in Singapore the population is not 

 large enougli for this; and expensive adult labour only is pro- 

 curable, and that with some difficulty. 



SugaVj on the other hand, has failed from natural rather than 

 economic causes. The chief obstacle to its cultivation is the 

 poorness of the soil, which can only be remedied by adding 

 plenty of manure ; and when this source of additional expense is 

 added to the high price of labour, considerable margin is sub- 

 tracted from the profits. Still, with abundance of manure, the 

 sugar-cane thrives extremely wellj but now another natural 

 cause steps in and neutralizes the result : this is the rain, the 

 uncertainty of which, or rather the constancy of which, is a 

 serious obstacle. The saccharometer, instead of registering 11 

 in the sweet juice, is sometimes reduced to 7^^ after rains, which 

 appear to dilute the sap and deteriorate the produce. In a 

 plantation ready for cutting, perliaps fifty acres may be got 

 down one day and of good quality ; and then a heavy rain comes 

 before the rest can be cut, and this proves to be of considerably 

 inferior quality. 



The late Mr. d' Almeida was the first to call the attention 

 of the public to the substance now so well known as Gutta- 

 pcrcJia. At that time the Isanandra Giitta was an abundant tree 

 in the forests of Singapore, and was first known to the Malays, 

 who made use of the juice which they obtained by cutting 

 down the trees, and which, when collected, they boiled and 

 purified. Mr. d' Almeida, unacquainted with England and its 

 institutions, and acting under the advice of a friend, forwarded 

 some of this substance to Somerset House^ as it was described to 

 me — but, I believe, more correctly, to the Society of Arts, There 

 it met with no attention, and was put away uncared for. A year 

 or tAvo afterwards Dr. Montgomery sent specimens to England ; 

 and bringing it under the notice of competent persons, its lalue 

 was at once acknowledged, and it rapidly became an important 

 commodity. In any case it was introduced from Singapore ; and 

 the sudden and great demand for it soon resulted in the disap- 

 pearance of all the gutta-percha trees in Singapore Island. The 

 forests of Johore, however, yield a vast supply — though these 

 must fail in time, when it is borne in mind that to abstract the 

 juice the tree is always cut down, the produce of a single tree 

 averaging 11 or 12 lbs. 



With regard to Gamhoffe, it has ne\er been regularly cultivated 



