ioi 



There were ifo other gardens in Penang till 1884, nor do we heai" 

 of any attempts on the part of the Government to improve cultivation 

 or develop agriculture in the meantime. 



On the founding of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles introduced 

 nutmegs, cloves and cocoa, and founded the first Botanic Gardens 

 there in 1822. He writes to Marsden, January 31, 1823. " I am laying 

 out a Botanic and Experimental Garden " and to Dr. Wallich 

 February 8: " The Botanic Garden goes on well. I am now employed 

 in laying out the walks and stones are collected to make a handsome 

 hand railway round it " (Memoirs, by his Widow, p.p. 535, 537). 

 A superintendent of the name of Dunn was employed to look after it, 

 as early as 1819. Dr. Wallich though no doubt much interested in the 

 garden was not, as Buckley in his anecdotal history of Singapore 

 says, superintendent. He^ had come down from Calcutta for his 

 health in 1822 and returned in 1823, The gardens were on the North 

 East of the Government house (Fort Canning) and were 48 acres 

 in extent and a bungalow for the Superintendent was built in them. 

 Sir Stamford Raffles left the East in 1823, a monthly vote of 

 60 dollars was allowed for the upkeep. 



In 1829 the establishment was discontinued and ten convicts 

 were put on to keep the ground in order. Lord George Bentinck 

 had come as Governor-General. In 1827 Dr. Montgomerie who took 

 much interest in agriculture and horticulture was superintending the 

 gardens, and cultivating spices and endeavouring to induce planters 

 to take them up as there was a good demand for them and Penang 

 could not supply sufficient. 



Lord George Bentinck had been sent to retrench the .expenditure 

 of the colony and soon sold off the gardens, and that was the end 

 of the first Singapore Gardens. By this time agriculture in Singapore 

 was beginning to develop rapidly and Jose D' Almeida, T. C. Crane, 

 Dr. Montgomerie and Dr. Oxley were doing their best to aid in its 

 development. 



The Government however did not encoutrage these efforts. There 

 were no Gardens, nor was there any Botanist or agriculturist em- 

 ployed by them and the land-laws were so bad that in 1836 Dr. Mont- 

 gomerie and others formed an Agri-Horticultural society to petition the 

 Government to encourage agriculture. This does not seem to have 

 been of much use as the same complaints were made in 1 843. 

 Though a great deal of good work was done by the amateurs, 

 Montgomerie, Crane, Oxley, Almeida, Whampo and others, the utter 

 absence of any professional agriculturist who could employ his whole 

 time in the study of agriculture prevented its becoming a really 

 important feature in the progress of the country. Practically no new 

 plants were introduced, no investigations into pests, no improved 

 methods of cultivation tried during this period. 



The same year that the Singapore Agri-Horticultural Society 

 was founded a similar one was formed in Penang, but probably died 



