THE SAGO PALM. 



271 



The export of sago flour from Brunei in 1864 was 16,773 piculs. 



From Sarawak in 1864 tlie exports were 2667 tons of sago flour ; 

 pearl sago to the value of 20,000 dollars ; and raw sago, value 

 21,000 dollars. 



In 1874 the combined value of the raw sago, pearl sago, and sago 

 flour shipped from Borneo was about 19,000^. 



The raw sago is brought down by natives from the interior to 

 Brunei, and is there washed and undergoes a refining process before 

 being shipped. The labour employed in the washing and manufac- 

 turing process is exclusively Chinese ; and the three sago manufactories 

 in Brunei were established by and belong to Chinese traders. 



Whether this palm is an indigenous plant, or whether it was 

 originally introduced and cultivated, is perhaps a question : but so 

 abundant is its natural growth, that so long as it was only required 

 for native consum]3tion there was never any occasion for its cultiva- 

 tion. The palm grew wild and in luxuriance, and trees were cut down 

 whenever required. With the increasing demand by foreign markets 

 for sago flour, the inhabitants of the more accessible and more 

 populous districts have been induced to extend the existing area of 

 the natural growth of the palm, by planting new ground with young 

 shoots. No further cultivation is required. Once planted, the 

 young shoot in about seven years becomes a tree of sufiicient 

 matui'ity for the extraction of the medullary pith out of which the 

 sago flour is made, and already propagating itself by sending out fresh 

 shoots in all directions. 



In the colony of Labuan the sago traders have largely increased 

 their business, owing to the Sultan of Borneo having removed some 

 of the obstructions to the transit of sago in the neighbouring rivers, 

 and it is not improbable that this island may yet become the centre 

 of the sago manufacture of the Eastern Archipelago. In 1867 sago 

 was imported into Labuan of the value of 981 IZ. ; in the following 

 year the trade increased 100 per cent., the value of the imj)orted sago 

 being 19,841/., and the process of manufacture added 8764Z. more to 

 the value of the sago. 



In Celebes all the inhabitants feed upon sago of a very coarse 

 quality, which may be said to grow spontaneously, affording them 

 abundance of subsistence. The sago plantations are situated in 

 the valleys between the mountains, in swampy ground. There are 

 several kinds of sago tree, some of which will not produce any 

 useful fecula or starch for the first 16 years. It is collected from 

 trees of 8 years up to 32 or 35 years of age, after which the tree be- 

 comes perfectly hollow, and rots away from the top downwards. A 

 sago tree of 10 years growth will be about 27 feet high, and from 

 5 feet to 8 feet girth at the bottom, and is continually yielding its 

 crop. When the substance of the edible sago is 3 inches to 5 inches 

 thick they cut it, and this will be in two or three months, according 

 to the nature of the soil, and the oftener it is cut the faster it grows. 



There were in 1874, in the district of Tonsawang, Menado, 

 353,600 sago palms, and their produce was about 2500 piculs of sago ; 

 the price of the raw sago was half a florin the picul, and of purified 

 sago two and a half florins the picul. There were in Billiton in the 



