May 2, 1887.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* 



767 



result is so enormous that I am really afraicl to quote 

 it. The river service of the district may be imagined 

 when I say that I have included 73 rivers and tribu- 

 taties in my estimate, all reachable within a very tew 

 hours steam from the town of Elopuva. In most part, 

 of the East, even where the country is least inhabiteds 

 there are comparatively few places where the natives, 

 fields and clearings do not line the rivers, thus driving 

 the forest far away back, whereas with us, owing to 

 the lack of inhabitants, the land is clothed with fine 

 forest trees down to the rivers edge, magnificent timber 

 in fact overhanging many of the rivers for miles of 

 their courses ; only 10 of the 73 rivers are inhabited at 

 all and even on most of these the clearings are but very 

 few and far between. The opening of even many tens 

 of thousands of acres of land for agricultural purposes 

 would not have much effect in clearning away this 

 vast forest, and it may safely be said that, presuming 

 the larger trees in the nearer districts to have been felled 

 and shipped off, so many years would elapse before 

 the wood in the more remote districts was used up, 

 that the places which had first been exhausted would 

 again he covered with large timber trees. Not that 

 there is any chance of these nearer districts being ex- 

 hausted : in our generation at least. 



Ayriculture. — Notwithstanding, however, great the 

 benefits may be that British North Borneo may derive 

 from a properly organized concentration chiefly upon 

 one place of her trade ; from the development of the 

 timber resources, and from the proper opening up of 

 the gold fields, agriculture will in the future prove to 

 be its mainstay and chief source of prosperity and 

 revenue, and I have always felt that the future suc- 

 cess of the country is bound up with the development 

 of the agricultural resources of the Sandakan Bay dis- 

 trict. The whole of the vast acreage referred to as at 

 present covered with timber, is exceedingly well adapt- 

 ed for the growth of tropical products, but the soil to 

 the south side of the bay is that which can behest spoken 

 of from actual results, and in addition to this there 

 is also the proximity to the town of Elopura where 

 supplies of all kinds, from fresh food to labour are 

 always procurable, as well as the facilities of transport 

 afforded by water-carriage there and the fact of its 

 already being a fairly large shipping port, which 

 counts for a great deal when undertaking the planting 

 of cheap prodeuts such as sago, Manila hemp, &c. With 

 the exception of tobacco, no systematic attempts have 

 yet been made to prove the capabilities of the soil. 

 "With regard to tobacco, however, a crop raised on the 

 Suan Lambar river in Sandakan Bay, which was sold 

 last week, brought very high prices. 



The following figures will give some idea of what 

 tobacco planting means. The dividend paid by the 

 Deli Maatschappy Company for 1882 was 65 per cent; 

 for 1883, ini per cent; 1884, 77 per cent; 1885, 107 

 per cent. The Tabak Maatschappy Arendsburg, Eotter- 

 dam, paid 22 per cent in 1881 ; 25 per cent in 1882 ; 

 50 per cent in 1833 ; 60 per cent in 1884 ; and 100 per 

 cent for 18S5. The Amsterdam Deli Oo. paid 10 per 

 cent in 1882; 30 per cent in 1884; and 60 per cent in 

 1885. Besides paying these enormous dividends, I un- 

 derstand that the immense estates of the Deli Maats- 

 chappy Company, have been entirely paid for out of 

 profit, and only appear in their accounts as valued at one 

 florin. The emoluments of many of the gentlemen 

 connected with these Companies, also, are said to be 

 something enormous, being principally calculated on 

 the part profit system. I did hear that one gentleman 

 made over £40,000 last year. Trr-fits by individual 

 planters also, are extremely large. When in Singapore 

 last spring, a private planter was buying up most ex- 

 pensive things, horses and carriages and what not right 

 and left. 



There is no question as to the similarity of British 

 Borneo tobacco to that from Sumatra. 



Besides tobacco, pepper, Manila hemp, sago, Indian 

 rubber, kapok, gambier, coconuts, and cocoa are 

 among thf things that hold out most hopes of pro- 

 fitable cultivation. Tobacco and sugar cane are pro- 

 bably the best plants as regards the richness of the 

 soil ; tobacco, I have already spoken of, sugar cane 

 also flouriBhes in Sandakau Bay in a way said to be 



unprecedented in the experience of several sugar cane 

 growers who have visited us, and the juice yielded 

 by it has been demonstrated to contain an unusual 

 percentage of saccharine matter. At present prices 

 for sugar, it is of no use thinking of profitable cane 

 growing, I suppose, but if sugar cane can be grown 

 anywhere to a profit, Sandakan Bay is that place, 

 with its good soil, favourable climate, cheap labour, 

 and facilities of transport and export. 



I have spoken of the profitable results of tobacco 

 growing; pepper is hardly less profitable in places 

 where it thrives ; Sumatra used to be the chief pro- 

 ducing country, but the long-continued Acheen war, 

 has destroyed this industry beyond hope of recovery. 

 Pepper is thus spoken of by Mr. Crocker, in a memo- 

 randum written by him on its proposed cultivation 

 in North Borneo. " In June, 1880, Singapore and 

 Penang black pepper was selling at 3|d. to 4d. per 

 lb. in London ; in June, 1881, prices had advanced to 

 5d and 5^d. ; in June, 1882, it was 6Jd. ; in 1883, it 

 was the same, but in June, 1884, it had advanced 

 to 6^d. per lb., while last year the price had reached 

 yjd. ""to 7ffd." As there are no signs of a cessation 

 of trouble in Acheen, the pepper trade in that country 

 is more likely to decrease than increase. It is as 

 diflScult to find countries with soil and climate as 

 suitable for pepper growing, as for tobacco like that 

 from Deli, but there seems to be a great similarity 

 between North Borneo and Sumatra in these respects. 

 Mr. Crocker was chiefly the means of introducing 

 pepper and gambier planting into Sarawak, and as a 

 rHsult the revenue of that country has incresed largely 

 chiefly owing to this reason, from 158,000 dols. in 1875 

 to 276,000 dols. in 1884. This is another of those 

 hard facts which have a particular signification for 

 the shareholders of the British North Borneo Com- 

 pany. 



For the benefit of those who have never visited the 

 East, I may mention that pepper grows much in the 

 same way as the hop vine, and like it, is trained on 

 poles, the only difference being that whereas the 

 hop vine is cut down yearly, pepper when once it 

 begins to bear goes on continuously, and the poles 

 up which it grows must be calculated to last for many 

 years. The initial expense of working a pepper plant- 

 ation is, therefore, somewhat large, as the woods 

 selected must be of a very durable description. The 

 vine begins to bear at between two and three years 

 of age; the pepper corns are in bunches something 

 resembling currants. The gardens must be well raised, 

 and well drained ; as the pepper roots cannot stand damp 

 ground. Tobacco land for instance, would not suit 

 pepper. At 8 dols. the picul, Singapore price, pepper 

 paid remarkably well. Last June the price, however, 

 was but a trifle below 20 dols., and since then the 

 growing scarcity of the article has had a strong effect 

 on the market, and prices rapidly advanced over 4 dols. 

 a picul more. 



I have myself devoted no small attention and expense 

 to trying some of the more noteworthy plants, pepper 

 included, and most of them (coffee excepted") were 

 looking remarkably well when I left Sandakan. There 

 was always a good deal of difficulty in getting pepper 

 slips, the Chinese, the principal growers in Singapore, 

 being by no means iuclined to let their virtual monopoly 

 be infringed upon. Finally, however, by the courtesy 

 of a Sarawak gentleman, I received some from there. 

 The cultivation of gambier is usually associated with 

 that of pepper, and is also found to be very profitable. 

 Manila Hem}}, or Abaca, a well-known and highly- 

 priced fibre, extracted from the stem of Musa textilis, 

 a plant of the Banana tribe, is the means of causing 

 a large annual inflow of wealth to the Philippine 

 Islands. Musa textilis has not been found to grow 

 satisfactorily in any part of the world, except in the 

 neighbourhood of the Philippines, which have therefore, 

 up to the present, had virtually a monopoly of its 

 production. As yet but very little has been tried in 

 North Borneo; but if once it is largely grown there, 

 there is little doubt but that we should soon supplant 

 the Philippines, where shipping and commerce are 

 both exposed to so many restrictions and duties, not 

 to speak of extortions, that those connected with 



