!7§ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1884. 



rather larger ; the largest fruit, however, is produced by 

 the t. ioemjkoel, of which I have seen some of the size of 

 a duck's egg. AVhy this sort is so called, is not very clear. 



The (, tajar owes its name to the fact of its fruit's falling 

 straight downwards, but by the resistance of its outward 

 bent wings float hither and thither before reaching the 

 ground, which the natives call belajar (sailing;. 



The fourth sort is called t. goentjang, because the fruit 

 is made to fall by shaking ( *. goentjang). As it is much 

 less frequent than the three other sorts, and every tree 

 produces, besides only a couple of catties of dried fruit, we 

 will leave it without further notice. To obtain the tallow 

 the fruit is treated in the same manner as that of the t. 

 tin injkoel. 



For a good produce it is necessary for the dry monsoon 

 to last long, with a little rain it is true, but without heavy 

 showers. Moreover the transition must be gradual, aud 

 the wet monsoon not bring too much rain; for heavy 

 showers in the transition season cause the blossoms to 

 fall off before the fruit are formed, and even the young 

 fruit are also subject to fall if the rainy-monsoon is too 

 tempestuous. As now, iu these parts, especially in the dry 

 mousoou and iu the transition season, rains are mostly 

 preceded or attended by high winds, it is a matter of 

 course that the tengkawang proper but seldom gives fruit. 



Frequently the trees will blossom luxuriantly, without 

 yielding any crop. 



This is the case with all the four sorts of the tengkawang 

 proper. If one kiud bears, the others will bear too, and 

 otherwise none of them will produce anything. 



It is calculated that the tengkawang proper bears fruit 

 ouce every five years. Sometimes, however, a period of 

 eight years will intervene between one crop and the next, 

 and in general, perhaps, a good crop will occur only once 

 in thirty years. Though much fruit was gathered in 1«7S 

 and also this year, yet the produce in those years is 

 reckoned to have been below mediocrity. This year, ac- 

 cording to a fair estimate, only a fifth part of the trees 

 bore fruit, and that not even abundantly. 



As has been said above, the ttngkawangs proper are all 

 found growing wild. The t. toengkoel, t. rampei and t. lajar 

 grow in some places by hundreds and thousands together 

 along the Soengeis (smaller rivers), and this is not sur- 

 prising, when we consider that the fruit, falling to the 

 ground, germinate iu a few days, or floating ou the water 

 are carried down by the current and are arrested lower 

 down ou several projecting spots. 



Such woods are nobody's private property. Any one may 

 gather as much fruit as he likes ; only the self ruliug 

 Badjas have from old the right to keep the population 

 from some of these woods and have the fruit reaped for 

 their own use. 



Of the different tengkawangs the /. toengkoel is the only 

 one that is cultivated. Such plantings, like those of other 

 fruit-trees, are called temliairangs. This word cand hardly 

 be rendered by gardens or orchards, for the trees are planted 

 without any regularity, aud scarcely anything is done for 

 their culture. 



Formerly many plantations of tengkawang were met 

 with along the banks of the Kapoeas ; but the inundations 

 of 187S have destroyed them all, except those planted on 

 hilly grouuds. 



Opposed to these plantings of tembawct/ngs, stand the 

 haw /longs, that is groups of trees of one and the same 

 kind growing wild. In the same way the well-known iron- 

 wood (teblian) grows in kampongs. 



He who plants a tembawang, remains the owner thereof. 

 He may transfer his rights to others, aud these rights, on 

 decease, pass to the heirs, but very rarely are the teniba- 

 wangs divided after the death of the proprietor. They 

 mostly remain the joint property of the heirs. 



The planting of the /. toengkoel takes place in the follow- 

 ing maimer: — A piece of bamboo 2 M. a 0*3 M. in length 

 is filled with earth ami the fruit put upon this, very soon 

 it begins to shoot, and in 3 or 4 months the stem has 

 already attained a height of about half a metre and given 

 birth to three or four leaves. Then the remains of the 

 fruitpulp are removed, and the bamboo with the plant iu 

 it is planted in the ground. This is generally done in fields 

 that have served for growing paddi, some months after 

 the harvest of this plant ; for the wild wood is then not 

 yet grown up high, aud therefore need not yet be cut down. 



The fruit of the tengkawang soou germinate. If they 

 remain lying on moist ground, the first shoots of the root 

 apper within 10 or 14 days; the hard shell is then of 

 course already burst open and disengaged along with the 

 other appendages from the pulp. 



The planting is rarely performed regularly, and always 

 too close together. Sometimes the intervals between the 

 young plants are only one or two fathoms. The Native 

 says that he plants them so close together because a part 

 of them always die, and he intends afterwards to cut 

 down the less vigorous plants. 



The plants now sot in the open ground are mostly 

 abandoned entirely to their fate, and grow up along with 

 the wild wood. This acts prejudicially to their develop- 

 ment, but fortunately they grow up pretty quickly, and 

 thus partly remain alive. During the first years the wild 

 wood is seldom or never cut down, aud mostly the planter 

 does not look after his property till the advent of a tengka- 

 wang year, so commonly fully four years after the plant- 

 ing. He then cuts away the wild wood, so that, it is 

 true, the tengkawang trees now come to stand rather freer, 

 but yet much too crowded. It would indeed be desirable 

 to clear away also the poorer trees ; hut as these have 

 already attained a certain size, he finds it a pity, and leaves 

 them there ; so then the trees are in each others 's way, 

 shoot up thin ami bear fewer fruit. 



It would appear that earlier generations used indeed to 

 thiu their plantations. At least in old tembawangs the trees 

 often stand at a proper distance from each other. 



For the rest, nothing more is done to the tembawang 

 till the trees have blossomed and the fruit appear. Then 

 all the wild wood is lopped away with the object of facilit- 

 ating the gathering of the fruit, admitting a freer access 

 of wind and air, and preventing monkeys and other animals 

 from reaching the trees by means of the wild wood. 



Iu a wild state, of course, the trees grow much more 

 irregularly even than in the plantings. 



About the growth of the tengkawang aud the age at 

 which they begin to bear fruit, it is difficult to give any 

 reliable statements. Both depend so much on the nature 

 of the soil, and as regards the tengkawang toengkoel , also 

 on the way of planting. Some of the stems of the latter 

 species have at five years of age a diameter of 0'15 M., and 

 some there are which at 40 years of age first attain the 

 size of O'GO in diameter. 



Some plants commence bearing a few odd fruits in their 

 eighth year, but as a rule it seems that this does not occur 

 till the twelfth or thirteenth year. 



It is also difficult to infer how much fruit a tree can 

 produce. As to the tengkawang, this is even impossible, 

 as in a wild state the young and old trees grow promiscu- 

 ously. Of the planted r. toengkoel, however, it is gener- 

 ally said that old trees, that, are planted in good soil 

 and can grow out freely, produce, in good years, so much 

 fruit as will yield 100 gautaugs* of paddi tengkawang. 

 The meaning of this term will appear later. 



One with another, however, it has been reckoned that the 

 fruit of good trees yield from 20 to 40 gantangs oipaeTdi 

 tengkawang, and a crop of 100 gantangs is therefore no 

 rarity. 



As the price of the paddi tengkawang has varied this 

 year from 8 to 11 dollars, it may be assumed that the pro- 

 duce of one tree, worked to the article aforesaid, is worth 

 from $1'5 to -4. in exceptionally favourable cases even 



*u.t 



Let us now proceed to describe the manner in which 

 the fruit of the tengkawang are gathered in aud worked. 

 As we have seen, the planting and maintenance of the 

 tengkawang plantations cost the Native very little labour. 

 Nor does the heavy work begin till the fruit are ripe. 



As soon as it appears that the tengkawang bears fruit, 

 the Malay population bestir themselves, forsaking their 

 habitual indolence. You hear then of nothing but the 

 tengkawang, which is very natural, as it yields the population 

 so much profit. Malayans and Dajaks, who have temba- 



* The gantang is a measure of various capacity in Various 

 parts. At Sanggau it is equal to about o| Litre. In mea- 

 suring paddi tengkawomg the gantang is not swept off clean 

 to the brim, but is left with a head, as is done in Hol- 

 land in measuring potatoes. 



t The dollar values now at Sauggau /2'25, 



