BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 51 



pearled for the European market. When I was in Borneo there 

 had been a great advance made in the sago trade^ through the 

 influence of the North Borneo Company, owing to the efforts of the 

 Government of Sarawak, and arrangements between Labuan and 

 the Sultan of Brunei. At the latter city I met with a few Euro- 

 peans who were trading with certain Chinese merchants and manu- 

 facturers in Brunei for sago. I visited one Chinese establishment 

 where there was rather a small plant for bleaching and pearling, 

 and I heard of others ; but owing to the unsettled state of affairs, 

 and the war between the Sultan of Brunei and the Kadyans, 

 there was a general exodus of Europeans from the kingdom. 



Crawfurd states that by far the best and fullest account of the 

 culture and manufacture of sago is given by Mr. Logan in Vol. 

 III. of the '' Journal of the Indian Archipelago f but readers 

 will do well also to consult Simmonds' " Tropical Agriculture " 

 (London, 1877), and Spon's " Encyclopaedia of Manufactures and 

 Raw Materials " (London, 1882) for an account of the cultivation. 



The following quotation from Logan deserves insertion : — 

 " When a plantation has once arrived at maturity there will be 

 a constant harvest, because the natural mode of growth secures 

 a continued succession of new plants from the time those first 

 planted have begun to extend their roots, and this succession can 

 be regulated by the knife in any manner the planter desires. 

 The Sago Tree, when cut down and the top severed from it, is a 

 cylinder about 20 inches in diameter, and from 15 to 20 feet in 

 height. Assuming 20 inches as the diameter, and 15 feet as the 

 height of trees, the contents will be nearly 26 bushels, and allow- 

 ing one half for woody fibre, there will remain 13 bushels of starch, 

 which agrees very closely with our previous calculation of 700 

 pounds for each tree, or 12 J bushels. It may give some idea of 

 the enormous rate of this produce if it be considered that three 

 trees yield more nutritive matter than an acre of wheat; and six 

 trees more than an acre of potatoes. An acre of sago, if cut 

 down at one harvest, will yield 5220 bushels, or as much as 163 

 acres of wheat, so that according as we allow 7 or 15 years for 



