October i, 1S84.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



277 



be obtaiueil by growing olives, even though an average 

 of £-11 per acre may never be realised. Once planted, the 

 olive trees require very little attention beyond ploughing 

 the ground so as to leave it open to absorb any rain 

 that may fall, and exercising care in gathering the fruit. 

 The question of pruning the trees is one that is of great 

 interest to olive-growers. From what I have learned, the 

 plan usually adopted with ordinary fruit trees will an- 

 swer very well. Mr. Hardy, of Bankside Vineyard, noticed, 

 during a tour he made lately through Portugal and Spain, 

 that the olive trees in those countries were kept very low, 

 probably to facilitate fruit-gathering, as well as to pre- 

 vent the wind getting a hold of them, and they were 

 opened out in the middle. The yoimg olive trees at 

 Beaumont have been attacked during the last few years 

 by small beetles, which injure the trees by eating tho young 

 leaves. Several attempts have been made to destroy these 

 insects, but the only effectual remedy for the evil is to 

 keep tame seagulls in the plantation. So far as I could 

 learn, Beaumont is the only place at which this pest has 

 made its appearance. Some extensive olive plantations 

 have been made during the last five or six years, one of 

 which is fully 150 acres in extent. When this plantation 

 is in lull bearing — and it has already commenced to yield 

 fruit — the industry will be thoroughly tested. 



A large portion of the Beaumont property is under vines, 

 the wine from which has achieved a fair reputation. 

 The cellar is the most complete building of the sort I 

 have seen. Every arrangement for the convenient treat- 

 ment of the wine has been carefully studied. The walls 

 are of stone, and very thick, and the ceiling is packed 

 with sea-weed to keep out the heat of the sun. The 

 floors are well made, and the comfort of the men work- 

 ing in the cellar when the must is fermenting has been 

 well looked after. The wine made at Beaumont is of a 

 rich generous character, the finest perhaps being that 

 made from the Madeira grape, which bears a strong re- 

 semblance in character to the European wine known by 

 that name. — A ustralasian. 



THE TENGKAWANG. 



BY H. P. BAKKEB OF SANGGAU. 



As of late years the Tengkawang attracts more and more 

 attention, I have deemed it expedient to collect what I 

 know about the growth, the crop, the preparing and ex- 

 port of the Tengkawang fruits in the present article, and 

 though it makes no pretentious to scientific value,* yet 

 I flatter myself that the contents will be found interesting 

 enough to deserve the attention of the public. 



Formerly only the tallow of the Tengkawang used to 

 be exported from the west coast of Borneo, but since 

 1878 a change has taken place in this, and the dried pulp 

 of the fruit also is shipped to Singapore. 



The Tengkawang grease, or vegetable tallow, called by 

 the Natives minjdk tengkawa/ng, is the produce of the 

 fruit of a tree, of which there are half a dozen varieties ; 

 four of these are designated as iengkawang, also engkawang 

 and engkabang, while the other two are reckoned by some 

 as belonging to the same class, by others not. The first 

 four, called in this article the Tengkawang proper, are : — 



the T. toengkoel. 



the T. rambei. 



tlie '/'. lajar and 



the T. goentjang. 

 The two other sorts are: — 



the madjai/ and 



the terindak. 

 The grease, prepared from the fruit of the latter trees, 

 hears like that of the other sorts, the name of minjah 

 tengkawang. 



All the varieties of the Tengkawang proper are found 

 growing wild in the whole of the Residence Westerafdeel- 

 ing Borneo, with the exception of the regions lying along 

 the River Kapoeas beyond Silat, while the niadjau and 

 terindak seems to occur every where in those parts. The 



* A scientific treatise of the Tengkawang was produced 

 by Professor W. II. du Vriese, in 1861, entitled: "Minjak 

 Tengkawang," also Bishop Greveliuk's '• Planten van Neder- 

 landsch [ndiij," L883, p. 456 199 and " Minjak Teng 1. 

 and Minjak Tangkailah." Ind, Gids, 1881, I. p. 350. 



region where hitherto the most Tengkawang is collected, 

 is controle-afdeel ing Sanggau and Sekadau, and the Indian 

 appellations, given them in this article, are those which 

 are in general use there.* 



Let us first examine the Tengkawangs proper. 



The trees, with the exception of the T. goentjang prefer 

 the banks of rivers and rivulets, especially the tandjongs 

 or land-tongues, formed by the bends of the latter, where 

 the loam is mixed with sand, and the soil is moreover 

 more humid than on other spots. But they also appear 

 on heavy clayey soils and on the mountains, though they 

 thrive there less luxuriously and yield fewer fruit. Though 

 they can bear up agaiust inundations of short duration, 

 and seem even to thrive the better for them, yet an 

 inundatiou of long standing is fatal to them. This was 

 the case after the flood of the Kapoeas in August and 

 September 1878, when thousands of tengkawang trees 

 perished, which entailed great loss to the population. 



The T. goentjang is distinguished from the other three 

 species, first by its thriving best in soils which, situated 

 on the upper courses of creeks, are occasionally submerged 

 in consequence of insufficient drainage ; and secondly by 

 the trees not growing higher than 6 a 7 metres, and the 

 stem not thicker than 0'15 a 0'20 M. For the rest its out- 

 ward appearance is like the other sorts, but its fruit are 

 rather larger than those of the (. rambei. 



The trees of the t. toengkoel, t. rambei and t. lajar are 

 very much alike outwardly. They consist of heavy trauks 

 that branch olf not very high above the ground and bear 

 only a few main boughs, which, when the tree has the 

 necessary space (which is but seldom the case) are thick, 

 long and almost horizontal. 'With their manifold side 

 branches and large leaves these main arms form a heavy, 

 thick tuft. 



At the base the trunk is not round, but throws out 

 several shoots (banirs). The roots are thick and runout 

 far along, and even partly over, the ground. 



The biggest are the trees of the t. toenykoel ; but specim- 

 ens of the t. rambei and t. lajar with a trunk one metre 

 in diameter are not rare. 



The wood of these trees is light and soft, and is classed 

 here among the inferior sorts. Exposed to air and damp 

 it soon rots. The trunks are used for floaters under ttoatiug- 

 houses, and they are also sawn into planks, which are 

 very fit for wainscottings indoors. 



The fruit of the t. toenykoel are in their cross-section 

 almost perfectly round, lengthwise oval, and rather pointy 

 at top. Those of the other three sorts are of the same 

 shape but rather more tapering. The pulp is of a yellow 

 colour ; on germinating or drying it mostly splits into four. 



This pulp is enclosed in a hard ligneous shell with a 

 smooth surface. At the foot the fruit bears five thick 

 ligneous leaves, which are pretty firmly joined to the shell ; 

 a part of it runs out into membraneous appendages which 

 surround the shell, but are loose. These appendages the 

 Natives call gajap (wings). They are in the t. toengkoel 

 a little longer than the fruit, in the t. rambei and t. goentja rig 

 still longer, and in the (. lajar they attain even a length 

 of O'lS M. In this variety they form a kind of chalice, in 

 which the fruit is completely concealed, and are moreover 

 tough and hard. 



The fruit of the tengkawang proper grow in bunches, 

 as also the rambei. Those of the t. rambei are about of 

 the same size as the forementioned fruit, thence the 

 name of the tree. The fruit of the t. lajar have about 

 the same dimensions, but, those of the t. goentjang are 



* In the well-known work of de Sturler " Sandboek xvov 

 den Landbouw in Wed. Oost-Indie," p. CS6 s.q.q., several 

 sorts of tengkawang are quoted, that are unknown here, 

 sucb as T. blongsong, t. nnit, t. batoe and /. robe; but 

 probably these are only other local appellations for the 

 sorts mentioned here. The /. penang, also mentioned, is 

 indeed found here, but its fruit are not collected, because 

 their proportion of fat i.s too insignificant to be worked 

 with profit. It appears by the work quoted that the ttrimhih 



a to the genus Hopea, and 1 believe that the madjott 

 too ought to be included. Nevertheless, I have thought it 

 proper, for the sake, of a convenient view, to call the 



. oel, t. rambei, t. lajar and t. goentjang, the tengka- 

 wang proper, in contra-ilistiuitioii to the modjmt and 

 terindak. 



