505 



chosen for this method of propagation, but it can be done at any 

 time provided proper attention is paid to watering, but if this is 

 neglected and the soil is wet one day and dust dry the next, the 

 result will necessarily be unsatisfactory. 



C. CURTIS. 



AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. 



It is now some years since Agricultural and Horticultural shows 

 first began to be held in various parts of the Straits Settlements 

 and the Malay Peninsula. The first Horticultural exhibition was 

 held at Singapore in 1 88 1 , and for a succession of years this was 

 an annual event interupted at intervals when as often happens in 

 the East the public interest temporarily ceases. Later exhibitions 

 which included agricultural produce were held in Malacca, Penang 

 and the Federated States. Most of these exhibitions were open to 

 any part of the Peninsula as well as the district in which they were 

 held, but the exhibits from outside were usually very scanty. This 

 was in part due doubtless to the difficulty of transport of the speci- 

 mens, and also to the paucity of planters and others sufficiently 

 interested in agriculture. Matters are very different now however, 

 and it seems quite time that our shows should be put on a much 

 higher footing. 



Mr. CURTIS has put together a number of suggestions for doing 

 this, which I publish with this letter hoping that planters and all 

 other readers of the Bulletin, will contribute opinions and criticisms 

 on the subject. 



It will be seen by the classification of exhibits that the shows will 

 offer chances both for natives and for European planters. It has 

 been said that Malays look on the shows as an amusement and learn 

 nothing- from them. This may be true in the case of a consider- 



O mm. 



able number, but we must remember that any ideas of improvement 

 in cultivation come slowly to the Malays, and that that there are a 

 certain number who will always be interested in new products, and 

 attempt their cultivation and if they are successful! others will 

 imitate them. The shows also as regards the Malays should be of 

 assistance in restoring the lost or disappearing arts of the natives, 

 and although aitistic work hardly comes within the scope of an 

 Agricultural journal, yet it is worth pointing out that the addition 

 of artistic exhibits in a show adds a great attraction and stimulates 

 the artistic instinct lying dormant in many natives for want of com- 

 petition. The Chinese are more quick to learn from shows, both 

 of produce and tools. Indeed there is no better way of improving 

 the implements of cultivation than by exhibiting them for competi- 

 tion. The machinery and tools used by natives and indeed often 

 by Europeans are of the simplest nature, and though the agricul- 

 turists would use labour saving appliances if they saw them in use, 

 they ordinarily have so little chance of seeing them that they are 

 naturally doubtful of them. A good deal remains to be done in the 

 introduction of new appliances, and indeed of many old ones as 



