6iS 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1886. 



ed with growing plants, are all of minor importance 

 to watering. There is another side to the question 

 which is equally important. Besides the possibility 

 of giving too little there is also the chance of giving 

 too much. Of the two evils it is diflioult to say 

 which is the greatest. Both are decidedly bad, and 

 tho^e who go to the one extreme generally practise 

 the o'her ; indeed a man who lets some of his 

 plants become too dry generally makes up bis mind, 

 when reprimanc'ed for it, to avoid the same th'ig 

 again, and tor a time he waters most assiduously 

 — too much so in many cases, as giving large quantities 

 of water when none is required, simply to make 

 sure of the plant not becoming too dry, is a most 

 improper way of watering. There is a happy medium, 

 easily found and followed, of keeping plants in a 

 growing state without going to extremes, a nd we 

 would advise all men who have plar s to w ater to 

 adhere to it. Surface dribblings have often been 

 decrind, and must be so now and always. Sham 

 watering of every description are delusion.s of the 

 worst form which will soon become apparent, ^\^ater- 

 ing pots full of soil before they contain many roots 

 is a common practice, and a decid edly bad one, as 

 it is at that time that the soil is most liable to 

 become soar, and if it gets into this state before 

 the roots have taken possession they cannoi} be ex- 

 pected to do much good in it afterwards. AVhen 

 plants have abundance of roots, and the pots, beds, 

 and boulers are well filled with them, it is more 

 diflBcult to do harm with the watering pot than when 

 few roots are there; but printed rules cannot be 

 taken as invariable guides, but much can be accom- 

 plished l>y what one of your esteemed correspondents 

 would call "thinking." — A. K. G. — Jot'i-iial of Hotti- 

 ciUture. 



keep it in order. The estate is well supplied with a 

 manager's house and several houses for coolies, all well 

 situated, water is good and plentiful, notwithstanding 

 the [drought. There is a nursery full of fine young 

 plants ; in short there seems nothing wanting to carry 

 on a large estate. For some reason or other the owners 

 of this fios estate have withdrawn their coolies, aud 

 it would seem, are going to abandon it, I fancy ths 

 reason is that unsufticieut cajntal was rai.sed iii the 

 first instance. Let them ask Government who are 

 always ready to help a good cause to h Ip them in 

 this — for their own credit as well as for the credit and 

 good name of the country. Should there be any one 

 who thinks an Kxperiniental Garden is wanted in San. 

 dakan district, let him visit Sebugah, and I am sure he 

 will say, as far as cotfee, cocoa, pepper and lanut are 

 concerned, that no further experiment is necessary. I 

 may add that we went to the Sebugah estate to shoot, 

 and I am going back again next fnll moon. — A. 0. 



PLANTING IN NOETH BORNEO. 



TO THE EDITOR " BUITISH NORTH BORNEO HEKALD." 



Dear Sir, — I visited the Sebugah estate the oiher day 

 and was so much taken with it that I wish to say a 

 few words in its favour in the hope that it may be 

 saved from ruin. 



The clearing seems to be about 100 acres in extent, 

 of this about 50 acres are very well cleared and planted 

 with Liberian coffee, cocoa, pepper, and lanut (abacca). 

 It would be very difficult to say which of these is doing 

 best ; one in favour of pepper or coffee as the case might 

 be would probably name his favourite plant, but as I have 

 no preference I must in hare justice pronounce all doing 

 uncommonly well. The cotfee which appears in all 

 stages from IS months old to the young plants in the 

 nurseries is fresh aud vigorous. The Cocoa is very 

 strong in the stem and shows promising signs of pods, 

 the trees have suffered somewhat from wild cattle, but 

 otherwise are all the owner could wish. The Pepper, 

 even the plants only one foot high, are all covered with 

 fruit, I think these want topping aud clearing. The 

 Lanut is waiting to be cnt and made into rope, there 

 is quite a .small forest of these which is likely to be soon 

 demolished by wild cattle and pigs. 



If any one will look at the Sebugah estate and con- 

 sider that it has been, aud is still, under a 4 months 

 drcnght. he will have some reason to praise the soil and 

 coigratulate the owner. 



The low undulating surface soil of Sebugah has no- 

 thing in its appearance to recommend it in preference to 

 that of many other districts in Saudakan. but 1 

 observeil the sub-soil to bo particularly well adapted to 

 withstand droughts, being a stiff rich reddish clay 

 which retains the moisture and keeps alive the plant. 

 1 noticed s v^ral acres cleared and holed for planting, 

 and it is .^ i...lter of regret that they cannot be filled 

 from the crowded nurreries ; indeed I should strongly 

 urge the owner to plant this up at once, and while the 

 coolies are cm the spot to clear away the ^-ecoud growth 

 that has sprung up on the part that has been tellc<l but 

 not cleared, and plant it up also, with coffee, cocoa 

 or pepper ; once thoroughly cleared and fully planted 

 up, the place would require but little attention. I 

 fancy, a few conlies sent once in three rnonths woqUl 



P^VN AND ATR. 



I fancy there is hardly a European out here who 

 has not, at some time or other, come in contact with 

 pan or uic, or both combined; and I venture .to 

 atlirm that a very large majority of these know or 



I care naught about the meaning attached to their use, 

 while a great many of these ignorant ones regard 

 their exhibition \vith disgust or aversion. These are 

 not aware how insultiug their behaviour is to those 

 who desire to welcome and honour them, nor that their 

 conduct has transformed a friendly ceremony into a 

 hastily got over farce in which valuable atr is re- 

 presented by various perfumed oils unworthy of the 

 name. Nay, in some parts of the country, the call 

 for pan is an accepted hint by the visitor to retire. 

 Let us now examine the articles familiarly known as 

 pan and atr, and then describe their real significance. 

 Pan is the etiolated leaf of Chaviea Betle, a climb- 

 ing plant of the Pepper order, familiar in the Straits, 

 where it grows in the open air. Out here it is very 

 largely grown in pan gardens, great enclosures of straw 

 or mattuig, in which the plants revel in shade and 



I moisture, and thus become blanched. At the proper 

 time the leaves are carefully picked, closely pileii on 

 one another, packed into baskets, and then carried 

 away for local sale or export. They have a hot, strong- 

 ly aromatic, and grateful taste, but are not nstul in 

 their plain state ; the^- must become a pan-supari 

 before they are edible. J^rongly stmmlant as they are, 

 their virtue is to be assisted by the mild astringency 

 of the betel-nut (supari), the fruit of that exquisitely 

 graceful palm, so common about Calcutta, the Arccti 

 catecki', and the more powerful action of catechu or 

 gambia ; then an ant-acid is added in the shape of 

 slaked lime. These drugs are enclosed iu the betel- 

 leaf, which is then folded into a Hat cone, kept in 

 position by a clove. For State occasions the cones 

 are further wrapped in gold or silver leaf. Prepar- 

 ation of pan-supari generally falls to the women-kind, 

 who make as unich fuss over their pan boxes, as 

 our grandmothers used to do over their futmy table 

 workboxes. There is hardly a married man out here 

 who has not heanl the click of the ayah's betel-chpper, 

 a small copy of the old loaf-sugar clipper. 



The real complimentary use of pan is its s\ipposed 

 value in assistin'j the digestion of the rich footl which 

 properly follows the recipient to bis home. Except 

 in purely native society, and iu some States where 

 the practice is extended to Kuropean officials or visit- 

 ors, the real use of pan has passed away, and the 

 mere bestowal of the chargt^d leaf survives. 



And so it is with the highly interesting aud poet- 

 ical exhibition of air. Christian recipients, while re- 

 garding it with an aversion equal to that of the pan, 

 forget that they see Ix-fore them the representative 

 of a ceremony coiiut-etei.1 with their most cherished 

 and sacred traiiitions ; hue they see what the sweet 

 singer of Israel alludes to in his famous Pastoral ; 

 here they recall the touching devotion of her who 

 expended perhaps her all on the ■' ointment of spike- 



