550 



THE AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITION AT MED AN, 



SUMATRA. 



The following is a report on my visit to the great Industrial and 

 Agricultural Exhibition lecently held in Deli. I left Penang in the 

 S. S. Malaya " on the evening of the 27th ultimo and returned on the 

 morning of the 2nd instant. On arriving in Medan I called on Dr. de 

 Bussy the Honorary Secretary of the Land Conut or Agricultural 

 Section. He kindly directed me in finding lodgings which would not 

 have otherwise been easily obtainable. The exhibition was held on the 

 esplanade facing the Station, the area is said to be about seven acres 

 in extent, and so numerous were the building that every part of it was 

 covered. The arrangements were in the hands of a general purposes 

 Committee with the Resident of the East Coast as President, and 

 each of the 8 Divisions were managed by Sub-Committees. The 

 divisions were (a) Buildings (b) Industrial Arts (c) Chinese {d) Agricul- 

 ture (e) Cattle (/) Battak (g) Amusement (h) Fisheries. Judging from 

 the admirable way every thing seemed to work, the organization was 

 excellent. The buildings were solid structures of planking, with attap 

 roofs, and I was informed that the large structure known as the feast 

 tent, put up a little while ago by the Railway Co. when celebrating 

 their 25th Anniversary cost 8000 guilders alone. 



The building allotted to the agricultural section was a lofty domed 

 octagonal structure with avenues radiating from it. The central portion 

 contained the very complete collections of tobacco leaves of nearly if 

 not every known kind whilst outside the building on one side were a 

 series of nursery beds shewing the tobacco plants in vigorous growth. 

 This was a wise precaution for at this season the tobacco grown on 

 estates is all harvested so that it gave visitors an opportunity of seeing 

 the living plants ; and to this must be added the value to planters, of 

 seeing other kinds of tobacco than what are usually cultivated on estates, 

 In addition to the different kinds of tobacco shewn in the Central Hall, 

 the Director of the Agriculture Experimental Station shewed a com- 

 plete series of plants under glass cases which were more or less affected 

 by diseases which prey on' tobacco together with the distinctive in- 

 sects in their various stages, all neatly set up in glass cases ; and easy 

 for inspection and study. To supplement the above instruction, were 

 a number of huge photographs on the walls all of which illustrated some 

 phase of tobacco culture. Not less interesting were the series of soils 

 from different parts of Sumatra, Deli, Langkat, Serdang Sec, and a 

 complete equipment of apparatus for analysis of soil was shewn along 

 side. The remaining exhibits in the Central building call for no 

 comment being of such things as harness and saddlery, a few cases of 

 tools etc. 



No. 1 Avenue was devoted to Agricultural implements used on 

 estates, such as ploughs, various baskets and hand barrows for carry- 

 ing tobacco leaves ; levels, and road tracers and such like. In avenue 

 No. 2 was contained some most interesting agricultural produce. The 

 lower half was occupied by the united Serdang Sumatra Rubber Plan- 

 tation Co. who shewed some excellent Liberian Coffee in bulk, both in 

 cherry and parchment, some bales of the tree cotton cleaned and un- 

 cleaned. The most interesting of their exhibits was the Rambong rub- 



