143 



wherein it might be raised. Maize likes a good soil, but it does not 

 remove much from it ; and it permits cultivation to be continued 

 while it is growing. 



Ragi. 



The third cereal for Malaya is pei'haps ragi — Eleiisine coracana : 

 but after I'ice and maize none is worth much consideration. 



Ragi is grown in India on poor lands, and in the Himalaya 

 largely fulfils the function of furnishing beer. Elsewhere in dry 

 seasons and over diy areas the quantity grown increases, a fact which 

 speaks against a wide use of it here. It is on the ground for six 

 months. 



SOBGHITM. 



Sorghum holds in India a very much higher place than ragi, 

 but for areas where there is no forest ; and in them at harvest-time 

 the air resounds with the din of boys acting as scarecrows, or the 

 incautious passer-by may find himself bombarded with clay pellets 

 intended for the flocks of small birds which demand such a large toll 

 out of the crops. In forested areas sorghum is rarely grown and 

 then in the less productive feathery panicled I'aces in small quantity. 



The smaller millets would only be grown liere by Sakais and 

 the like. 



SUGAE. 



The second gi*oup of food-stufEs on which the Peninsula pays so 

 greatly is sugar. . But sugai'-making has unfortunately recently died 

 out for economic reasons, and it cannot be made to pay until labour 

 is again cheaper. 



It is believed that there were Chinese cultivating sugar-cane in 

 the area, now Province . .Wellesley, before the founding of the 

 Settlement of Penang. And it is recorded that in 1800 labour had 

 become too expensive for it to pay. Then again the situation 

 improved and in 1836 there were Chinese in the Province who, on 

 quite a considerable scale, made sugar either black or clayed 

 according to the state of the market Avhich they watched very 

 closely. From Province Wellesley the industry spread into Krian : 

 but it never really developed so as to send its produce beyond the 

 local markets. And after one big efPort at working with the best of 

 machinery sugar making died out. 



The modern sugar industry is a wonderfully developed one : 

 efficiency to the last degree is needed : big central factories pay best 

 because of the economy in working : every advantage has to be 

 sought for: the cane must come to hand in steady and adequate 

 supplies, and the by-products must find a sale. Then again very 

 much of the sugar produced comes to the market with tariff 

 protection or artificial aid : and from all this I do not see any way of 

 reducing the sugar bill of the Peninsula. That cane which is grown 

 for eating seems eminently suited for the purpose, and the 

 introduction of new races is hardly called for at the moment. 



