320 BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. 



"mark the course of the Kinabatangan and other rivers lend 

 " themselves to the culture of indigo, tobacco, cotton, rice and 

 " the other well-known tropical products. Such villages as the 

 " traveller meets with on excursions in the interior, are fed and 

 " maintained by agriculture, the successful features of which, 

 "belong to the natural fertility of the soil, rather than to the 



" science of the native farmer You cross a plain of rice, 



" bananas, cocoa-nut trees and other luxuriant vegetation. You 

 " see the native cultivator at work, his rude plough drawn by 

 " buffaloes, and flocks of white paddy birds sailing aloft, or a 

 " few solitary cranes adding an oriental touch to the picture. 

 " You halt on the river bank amidst tropical groves, here and 

 " there relieved by neatly kept gardens, fenced down to the 

 ;i water's edge, and containing plentiful supplies of sweet pota- 

 toes, cucumbers, maize and kaladi." 



Tohacco. 



That the country is peculiarly adapted for the growth of 

 tobacco, is demonstrated by the fact of its cultivation by the 

 natives of both coasts, and that in spite of the want of care in 

 its production, an excellent leaf is obtained. A sample of leaf 

 from a newly opened plantation on the East Coast, has been 

 pronounced by experts to be unsurpassed. Such being the case, 

 and considering that the available land in the tobacco produeiug 

 countries is becoming exhausted, it is reasonable to suppose that 

 this country will, in a short time, take a prominent place as a 

 large producer of tobacco. 



Sugar. 



Sugar is also cultivated to some extent and in some parts 

 of the country .; a primitive mill for crushing is used by the 

 natives. Considering, however, the small profit returned, 

 together with the known risks in cultivation, the substitutes for 

 cane which are being brought into the market, and the com- 

 paratively low rate at which labour is obtained in the sugar 

 producing countries, it is doubtful whether this product will be 

 cultivated to anv large extent. 



