76o 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1886. 



shop lie pulJs out his little bundle of seed-pearls 

 and pays in that currency, the Chinaman making 

 a good thing out of this transaction. These seed- 

 pearls are not much valued in Europe, but in China 

 they are used as ornaments or pounded into medi- 

 cine and the shells being thin and transparent are 

 also a substitute for window glass. 



There are four principal banks of seed-pearl 

 shells in the shallow part of Padas Bay, in a ripe 

 state for working operations, and there are some 

 more where the shells are still growing ; these are 

 forbidden ground until such time, say another six 

 or nine months, when they shall have attained 

 maturity. 



The scene on the sand or mud banks in the 

 bay is lively, men, women and children up to their 

 knees in water gathering the shells that are im- 

 bedded. They seem very busy withal cheerful and 

 c battering and seem glad to see the (Tovernment 

 b oat, with the British North Borneo lievenue (lag 

 rt ying aft, picking its way among their boats. As 

 we pass the women playfully throw a few shells 

 into our boat for luck ; further on may be seen, 

 o n sticks fixed on the bank, some white flags to 

 keep "evil spirits" away. 



The collection of the Royalty on the seedpearls 

 exported was a somewhat dilficult nut to crack. 

 The Regulations said that .5 per centum ad valorem 

 was to be collected. 



Mr. C. A. Francis, the energetic otlicer in 

 charge of Batu Batu found that the .seed-pearls 

 were so easily hidden away that the revenue 

 therefore amounted to very little. A tide-waiter 

 wa s sent to his assistance, his duty being to go 

 a bout among the people, find out what i)carls 

 )iad been procured, and to search them. The first 

 month only brought in some |G revenue, and as 

 hi s pay was (fl2 a month the result was disap- 

 pointing. He searched the fishermen but found 

 little or nothing, all the while knowing well that 

 they had extracted many seed-pearls from the 

 bivalves. Little boys showing their bright teeth 

 looked up with their laughing eyes, the picture 

 of innocence, and all the time concealed little 

 packets of seed-pearls between their toes, but 

 native boys can do anything with their toes from 

 holding a nail straight with tlieni while hammer- 

 ing it into a p'ank to combing their hair. Of 

 course the natural bashfulness of I'rovince Pent 

 officials lorbad a close examination of the ladies, 

 and the result was that tliis mode of collecting 

 the Revenue was a dead failure. 



It was now suggested that |'2 should be charged 

 on every boat, but this plan was found to be 

 impracticable as fifteen or twenty persons would 

 crowd into a large boat so as to evade the tax. 

 At last the fishermen themselves were consulted in 

 the matter and they voluntarily proposed that a 

 head tax should be levied on every man woman and 

 child who were employed in fishing on the banks. 

 The old men said the young people gathered the 

 most shells as they could stand longer in the 

 water than they could, as it gave them cramp to 

 to be too long in the water, and that it was (piite 

 fair that the young ones should be taxed. 



The payment ul #1 per head per mensum was 

 agreed to by all, and the first month i.e. December 

 188.''> brought in a head tax of «H1, whilst I he 

 month of .January Irt.Sfi yielded a revenue of Silo, 

 and the peo]ile pay this mode ot taxation cheer- 

 fully and rapidly. 



1:1 (he Inland Sea at Kwala Penyu, in Pro- 

 vince Dent there are .shells of the same descrip- 

 tion, the only difference being that they do not 

 breed secd-pcarls, and it is said that in former 

 years they ilid not produce any. The Assistant 

 Resident has now sent away several hundred 



weight of Padas Bay shells for deposit on these 

 banks, believing that the admixture of the breeds 

 may remedy the defect in these barren oysters. 



The seed-pearls shelling is as yet in its infancy, 

 and it is expected that a large population will 

 settle at Batu Batu to this and other lucrative 

 occupations. As Julius Casar is said to have 

 conijuered England for the sake of her pearls, so 

 let us venture to hope that a similar but less demons 

 trative invasion will take place in Province Dent. 



PISCICULTURE. 

 To the Japanese, who add pisciculture to the 

 polite accomplishments, the following account of 

 carp culture in China will prove interesting. We 

 take it from the columns of Nature : — "A report on 

 carp-culture in China has been made by Dr. Mac- 

 gowan to the Carp-culture Association of the United 

 States. Pisciculture, it appears, was cultivated at 

 a very early period, being regarded as a branch of 

 agriculture. The carp is, of all fish, the most 

 frequently reared by artificial means in China, but 

 nearly every species of Ciiprinilne, bream, tench, 

 roach, goldfish, etc., is so raised. A treatise on 

 fish-rearing has been attributed to a Minister 'of 

 the fifth century before our era, but it appears to 

 have been really written eight centuries later. The 

 work says tha' of the five modes of rearing animals 

 by far the most productive and valuable is fish- 

 breeding. The pond used for this purpose (it goes 

 on) should be an acre in extent (the depth is 

 usually less than eight feet), and nine stone islets, 

 each having eight inlets or hays, a yard below the 

 surface of the water, should be constructed in it ; 

 tlien twenty gravid carp and four males, each three 

 feet long, are to be deposited in it noiselessly in the 

 month of March. Two months later a turtle should 

 be placed in the pond, two months later a couple, 

 and after a like period tliree more. By this time 

 there will be 8ii0 rarp. The turtles are to pre- 

 vent their being transformed into dragons and flying 

 away. The object of the islets and bays is to afford 

 greater space for the fish in their sinuous voyages, 

 for the more a fish travels the fatter and bigger 

 he becomes. The Chinese author then makes the 

 following calculation : in the following year the 

 pond will be found to contain L50,000 carp 1 foot 

 ill length, 1;')0,000 ;f feet, 10,000 2 feet. In the 

 third year 100,000 1 foot, r)0,000 2 feet, 50.000 H 

 feet, and 10,000 4 foet. A thousand of those that 

 are 2 feet in length should be retained for re- 

 plenishment, and all the rest be sent to market. 

 In another year their number will exceed all 

 calculation, and llicy require no feeding, hence the 

 value of carp culture. All the varieties, we are 

 told, come from the black species. Those destined 

 to become white change to silver or yellow, while 

 the others turn first red and then golden. Some 

 of the white sort are so nearly transparent that 

 their viscera are visible. Much of the art of 

 rearing them consists in affording due amounts of 

 shade and sunshine in the course of their growth, 

 and in changing their water, not more than half 

 of which is to be removed every fourth day. In the 

 earliest times the practice, which continues today, 

 was introduced of planting mulberries on the mar- 

 gins, < n which apiaries were placed, the droppings 

 from which fed the fish, while the leaves of the 

 trees first nourished silkworms and then goats. 

 These droppings are said to impart a i)eculiar 

 fia\our to the fish." 



.\part from some nonsense, this account is 

 valuably suggestive. Fish ponds well stocked would 

 bo valuable institutions on estates and elsewhere 

 in Ceylon. Proper fish conld be procured from 

 China. Java, India and other places. 



