228 



Penang and Province Wellesley. 



The agriculture of Penang shows little change. Nutmeg and 

 Clove cultivation is decreasing; the output of the year has been 

 small. 



The coconut and areca nut crops were fairly good. Mangos- 

 teens were produced freely, but not in the same plenty as in 1912, 

 when the yield was remarkable. Their lowest price was 3.50 per 

 hundred. An impression gained in Penang is that from planting a 

 few years back, an increase in the production of this fruit will soon 

 follow. Durians fruited normally in 1913. The cultivation of plan- 

 tains is not increasing. The local vegetable crop seems inadequate^ 

 but there is no sign of extension within the island. 



The rice crop of 1912-13 was not good; but that of 1913-1415 

 very good. 



The last of the sugar-cane, grown for the manufacture of sugarr 

 has disappeared from Province Wellesley ; its place having been 

 taken by rubber. Towards the end an experiment was made on the 

 Central Factory plan, small areas of land being allotted to cultivators 

 who were to cut the crop as required ; but it failed, the cane 

 been ill-grown. This is of great interest as illustrating the difficulty, 

 that there would be, in establishing such an institution as a Central 

 Factory in the Province — a difficulty illustrated also by the 

 fact that small holders of the same class often turn out 

 raw tapioca, which is hardly marketable ; but such men seem to be 

 more fortunate when they turn their attention to raising crops 

 which require the gardener's skill only ; and a considerable number of 

 them, chiefly in the Central and Southern divisions, are raising pine- 

 apples, gourds, beans, brinjals, etc., as catch corps among very 

 young rubber or coconuts. These men appear not to be tyring any- 

 thing new; but in the northern division, in 1913, a small acreage was 

 planted up by Malays with the lesser yam ; (see page 227 above) and 

 so great was the profit that it appears as if the culture will become 

 established. 



One most interesting new cultivation in the Province, is that of 

 Arrowhead — Sagittaria saggitifolia — grown on an extending area of 

 rice-land near Bukit Mertajam, by Chinamen for feeding pigs, and 

 apparently profitable. About three crops are grown in the year. 



The fruit trees in the Province in a very large measure want re- 

 newing ; they are trees which were planted|round the country houses of 

 well-to-do Chinese, from whose hands in some cases they have become 

 company-property. But they are now of little value. 



There is a trade from Penang to Calcutta of small dimensions in 

 fruit, chiefly in mangosteens and the best plantains, which might be 

 fostered and become something ; pineapples, which squatters are 

 growing in the Province, might be exported also. 



