Miscellaneous. 



Lastly, I would refer to a statement by a Ceylon planter at present visiting 

 Kuala Lumpur in the Malay States. In a letter to the local "Times" the other 

 day, he says : — " All the country has been opened as far as Kuala Lumpur, but most 

 of it is overgrown with lalang grass— a bea^t of a weed, something like Ceylon 

 illuk grass, only worse." This reminded me of a paper in the Tropical Agriculturist 

 for December, 1887, which reported an experiment that a Java planter near 

 Buitenzorg had got leave to make by erecting machinery for the manufacture 

 of paper from lalang and other grass, paddy straw, etc. The advantages of grass 

 pulp for making certain kinds of paper have long been recognised, especially in 

 France ; and Esparto and New Zealand flax, we know, have been so utilised. But 

 I cannot learn of the success of the Buitenzorg experiment or whether the manu- 

 factory is now in existence. Our Straits friends in 1887 anticipated a great paper 

 industry to arise from their own extensive fields of Lalang-lalang, one that might 

 perhaps rival the industry in tinned pine-apples, of which as many as 500 cases 

 (each containing 21 tins) were then being sometimes shipped by a single steamer. 

 But since 1887, Rubber has developed and is the chief object of attention now in 

 the Malay Peninsula. 



The "lalang-lalang" or coarse rank prairie grass op malaya, 

 being a method adopted by the tobacco planters of sumatra for 

 getting rid of it out of the soil required by 

 them for the cultivation of other crops. 

 By Frederick Ponsford. 



That coarse rank grass known to the Malays as " Lalang-Lalang " is found 

 in every tropical country, state, or island to the southward and eastward of Ceylon. 

 It is met within islands near Australia and also in most of the Philippine Islands. 

 But in no other island or country does it thrive so well and grow so luxuriantly as 

 it does in the Island of Sumatra, west of Singapore, the seat of culture of that very 

 excellent and extremely fine tobacco leaf which is exclusively used as wrappers 

 or covers for cigars. In that island one sees vast areas, miles upon miles in extent, 

 of the ever verdant " lalang-grass." It grows there so luxuriantly that a man six 

 ieet in height in his helmet will be completely hidden from sight when standing in 

 this grass. 



The grass, though green, is very coarse and dry, and a smouldering match 

 thrown in the midst of it, fanned by the slightest breath of air, will almost imme- 

 diately kindle an enormous and truly magnificent prairie fire, before which will 

 hasten, seeking a haven of refuge, wild animals, reptiles and birds of every descrip- 

 tion ; graceful deer, and fat wild pig, will be found running side by side with 

 the tiger and panther ; and partridges, pheasants and jungle fowl flying, hopping 

 and running, inter-mingled with the ravenous jungle cat. It is grand, yet it is 

 dangerous ; and planters and settlers have to be constantly on the alert both night 

 and day and tax their resources to cope against these prairie fires, which are 

 extremely frequent in the dry season. Such extensive damage do these fires inflict, 

 destroying property, and causing loss of time and money, and great inconvenience 

 to the planters and settlers, that the Dutch Government passed a law enacting six 

 months' rigorous imprisonment for any native wantonly setting Are to this grass. 



It is quite a mistaken theory that where this grass grows, the ground 

 must of a necessity be poor ; for, on the contrary where there is lalang, you can 

 be sure that the soil is good if not rich. It is a notorious fact that lalang will 

 not grow luxuriantly where the ground is poor, there rather secondary growth 

 jungle takes its place. This fact is too well realized by the tobacco planters and 

 native agriculturists of Sumatra, that they are eager to clear the soil of the 

 noxious grass, and to grow thereon crops of tobaoco, rice, uiace, or tapioca. 



