272 



THE SAGO PALM. 



same year 20,630 sago trees. The produce of sago in Riouw is 

 about 57,700 piculs. 



There are four or five species of palms which yield sago ; those 

 most cultivated are, however, the Sagus Konigii and the Sagiis Icevis. 

 These palms are found in every part of the Malayan Archipelago and 

 Philippines as far as Mindanao, wherever there is a genial soil for 

 them, and this consists of a marsh or bog, composed of decayed 

 vegetables, near the sea. They are most abundant in the eastern 

 parts of the Malay Archipelago, at the Moluccas and neighbouring 

 islands, with New Guinea and Borneo, and in the Philippines at 

 Mindanao. In all these sago is more or less the bread of the inhabi- 

 tants. These palms propagate themselves by lateral shoots as well 

 as by seed, and they die after producing fruit. From the first of 

 these properties it follows that a sago plantation once formed is 

 perpetual. 



The sago tree, when cut down and the top severed from it, is a 

 cylinder about 20 inches in diameter, and from 15 feet to 20 feet in 

 height. The contents would, therefore, be nearly 26 bushels, and, 

 allowing one-half for woody fibre, there will remain 13 bushels of 

 starch, or say 700 lbs. 



It may give some idea of the enormous rate of this produce, if it 

 be considered that three trees yield more food-matter than an acre of 

 wheat, and six times more than an acre of potatoes. An acre of sago, 

 if cut down at one harvest, will yield 5220 bushels, or as much as 

 163 acres of wheat, so that, according as we allow seven or fifteen 

 years for the growth of a tree, an acre of sago is equal in annual pro- 

 duce to 23 or 30 acres of wheat.* It is far from being either so 

 palatable or nutritious as it is prolific, and is never preferred, even 

 where it is most abundant, to rice. 



Singapore is at present the chief place of manufacture and prin- 

 cipal mart for granulated sago and " sago flour," as it is termed in 

 commerce, but which is, in fact, the fecula, or ungranulated starch. 

 The granulated fecula, or sago, of a dirty brown colour, used to be 

 exported from the Archipelago in small quantities, but when the trade 

 in Europe was thrown open, in 1814, the Chinese of Malacca began to 

 prepare a superior starch, known in commerce under the name of 

 pearl sago. 



All the raw sago manufactured at Singapore is brought from 

 islands to the eastward, principally from the north-west coast of 

 Borneo and the north-eastern part of Sumatra, with its adjacent isles, 

 from Siak to Indragari, but a considerable portion comes from places 

 more than 1000 miles distant. 



This article is very easily prepared for exportation in its raw state ; 

 the tree is cut down, then the cellular tissue is taken out and made 

 up into bundles. In this form some 18,000 or 20,000 tons are annually 

 imported at Singapore, where it is prepared by the Chinese, who clear 

 the meal or farina from the fibres of the cellular tissue, when the 

 flour is either made up for exportation in its natural state, or granu- 

 lated into pearl sago. 



Manufacture of Pearl Sago in Singapore, hy the Chinese. — The 

 * * Journal of the Indian Archipelago,' vol. iii. p. 312. 



