AGRICULTURAL  BULLETIN 
OF  THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED  MALAY  S T A E S . 
No.  II.]  NOVEMBER,  1903.  [Vol.  II. 
THE  CULTIVATION  OF  COTTON  IN  THE 
FEDERATED  MALAY  STATES. 
Kuala  Lumpur,  24th  September,  /po]. 
Sir, — I have  the  honour  to  address  you  on  the  subject  of  the 
Cultivation  of  Cotton  in  the  Federated  Malay  States. 
2.  There  are  probably  in  these  States  ten  million  acres  suitable 
for  agriculture,  and,  under  correction,  I would  suggest  that  not 
more  than  half  a million  are  under  cultivation.  The  present  would 
therefore  seem  to  be  a suitable  time  for  Government  to  indicate  to 
planters — European  and  native — its  intention  to  encourage  more 
particularly  the  growth  of  such  products  as  are  unlikely  to  undergo 
alarming  fluctuations  in  price. 
3.  Consideration  of  the  nature  of  the  agricultural  produce  now 
exported  from  these  States  will  show  that,  independent  of  these 
reasons,  the  planting  industry  is  likely  to  be  in  the  future,  as  it  has 
been  in  the  past,  subject  to  the  losses  caused  by  collapse  of  market 
prices. 
4.  As  an  example  of  a crop  that  has  been  cultivated  not  with- 
out commercial  success  but  never  with  any  well-grounded  assurance 
of  continued  success,  I would  instance  pepper.  It  is,  I believe,  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  an  increase  for  two  years  of  10  per  cent, 
in  the  world’s  supply  of  pepper  generally  leads,  other  things  being 
equal,  to  a decrease  of  50  per  cent,  in  its  price.  Consumers  are  not 
induced  by  a fall  in  price  to  increase  their  consumption.  Thus  if 
the  supply  exceeds  ordinary  requirements  merchants  naturallv  fear 
that  the  surplus  which  must  be  given  away,  destroyed,  or  sold  at 
any  price,  will  render  purchases  at  any  ligure  approximating  ordi- 
nary prices,  a very  hazardous  transaction. 
5.  The  factors  that  obviously  render  market  prices  reasonably 
free  from  fluctuation  are:  (a)  enormous  and  insistent  demands  met 
by  a huge  supply,  and  {b)  demands  that  increase  inverselv  with  the 
price.  As  regards  (a)  the  imports  of  raw  cotton  into  the  United 
Kingdom  alone  have,  roughly  speaking,  an  averaofe  value  of 
