156 On the Climate, Productions, fyc. of Singapore. 



Coffee. This has not been cultivated to any extent in Singa- 

 pore until quite recently. As the nutmeg trees require so much 

 room when they attain their full size, and as for some fifteen 

 or eighteen years there is a large space left between the rows, 

 they frequently plant coffee trees between the rows of nutmeg 

 trees. As the coffee trees die out in the course of fifteen years, 

 they do not interfere with the nutmegs, and yet occupy the 

 ground to good advantage in the mean time. They are seldom 

 over eight feet high. The plants are raised in the nursery, and 

 are set out in holes, somewhat as described in reference to nut- 

 megs, except that the holes and sheds are very small. 



Sugar. The sugar cane has long been grown in the island in 

 its natural state, for the use of the natives. But the cultivation 

 of it on an extensive scale for the purpose of manufacturing sugar 

 was introduced by our enterprising, polite and hospitable consul, 

 J. Balestier, Esq. Mr. B. after having overcome a great variety of 

 obstacles is now succeeding well. He obtained some time ago a 

 gold medal from the Agricultural Society of India for the best 

 sugar manufactured in the British East India possessions. His 

 success is stimulating others to engage in the same business. 



Of the products of native cultivation, pepper and gambir are 

 the chief. The two are usually cultivated together, as the leaves 

 of the gambir plant are supposed to form a very good manure for 

 the pepper vines. 



Pej^er (Piper nigrum) is usually planted three or four feet apart, 

 with stout rough rails, stuck into the ground, and eight or nine 

 feet high, on which the vines climb. The pepper gardens resem- 

 ble patches of hops, except that the foliage is thicker and of a 

 darker green. 



Gambir appears to be the produce of two different plants, one 

 one of them a climbing plant, (Nauclea gambir,) aud the other a 

 shrubby plant. That from which this article is obtained in Sin- 

 gapore, is a shrubby plant from five to six feet high. The leaves 

 and twigs are broken off and boiled in water in a large kettle or 

 boiler until their strength is extracted, when the leaves are taken 

 out and strewed as manure around the pepper and siri vines. 

 The extract is then evaporated until it becomes like a thick stiff 

 jelly. It is, probably, sometimes thickened also with earth and 

 sago. While in this jelly state it is cut into cubes of about an 

 inch, or a little more. It is sometimes called catechu, and also 



