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Singapore. Surely when this was proposed, neither the Engineer nor 

 the Medical Health Officer had in mind the state of vegetable cultiva- 

 tion in the Colony. The bulk of our population consists of people, 

 whose food is principally a mixture of rice and vegetables. Without 

 the night-soil removed from town the numberless vegetable guardens 

 in the country must be abandoned. The result will inevitably be that 

 vegetables will be grown in Johore and elsewhere — Ehio perhaps and 

 if there is danger in the use of such matter, the risks of infection will 

 be increased, since our sanitary authorities cannot possibly control 

 these foreign growers. It seems to us that the most useful method of 

 disposal of excreta for this Colony — in view of the urgent needs of 

 vegetable growers — is some scientific means of treating the manure in 

 different depots in the country and then distributing it to the 

 gardens. The risks of this form of manure carrying infection are 

 not great inasmuch as the night-soil is thoroughly fermented before 

 it is put to the soil. One can easily conceive of its utilization in an 

 appropriate manner without offending the taste of even the most 

 fastidious. 



Without some good manure, it is not easy to raise plants on such 

 exhausted soil as forms the habitat of lalang as a rule. This much 

 maligned grass is in our opinion a friend to man in disguise. When 

 the soil is composed principally of clay — and the surface humus has 

 been all washed away, there are very few plants that can grow on it. 

 But such land is sooner or later invaded by lalang — whose underground 

 stems penetrate deeply, and ramify in all directions. In this way the 

 surface soil is broken up. As the grass grows up and dies down, a 

 quantity of organic debris begins to collect, and in course of time, 

 affords a suitable nidus for the growth of shrubs and forest trees. 

 If it were not for the lalang, the afforestation of such waste land would 

 take a very long time indeed. But unfortunately lalang is very treach- 

 erous to get rid off, and is very fatal to the growth of young plants. 

 There are very few tree seedlings, that can survive in the struggle for 

 existence. Even such hardy trees as the coconut palms become sallow 

 and sickly and eventually stunt and die. Para Kubber trees make a 

 brave struggle, and if there is enough humus in the soil, soon outgrow 

 the lalang, and if closely planted may force the latter to die out on 

 account of the shade. 



The method of stamping out the lalang must be carried out 

 systematically. As soon as an acre or so of the land has been 

 ploughed, holes 3' x 3' are dug out at about 20' intervals, and filled 

 with manured humus, the seeds of labu — the bottle gourd, or of 

 other species of quickly growing acucurbita are sown. The young 

 plants quickly spread all over the ground. In the meantime, the 

 ground is turned up a second time, the stems of lalang being thrown 

 up, collected and burned. 



In a couple of months, the gourd has flowered and withered away. 

 Again, the land is hoed, and then as a rule some atropaceous plant 

 such as chillies or egg-plants are planted in beds. The ground is 

 by this time well freed of lalang, and is scrupulously weeded. The 

 young plants, replanted usually from a nursery, are manured with a 

 diluted mixture of ripened excreta and water daily or thrice weekly, 



