[80) 



CHAPTER SECOND. 

 CORN. 



Rice is the grain chiefly cultivated in the Straits 

 of Malacca. On the hh\n\ of Penaug the field is 

 confined, owing to the generally hilly nature of the 

 surface ; but Province Welleslev which is an alluvial 

 district, offers a wider range, and to it, therefore, the 

 following observations will principally apply* 1 he 

 area of this province has not y \ been full) ascer- 

 tained owing to the incrw ivctncss nf all tin- maps <d if, 

 these Inning been constructed when it was in a jun- 

 gly state, and to the irregular line of its boundary. 

 But judging from a series of triangles which have 

 been taken, preparatory to a more correct plan, the 

 area cannot well be less than one hundred and twenty 

 square miles. How much of this superficies is vt til fit- 

 ted for rice cultivation will be known perhaps in i wvy 

 few years hence, when all the sawah land shall have been 

 cleared of fnvst ; until when it can mily be trem rally 

 asserted that several detached patches remain to he lo- 

 cated, some of which consist of upwards of oUOorlongs. 

 The Malays of this Peninsula are strongly attached 

 to agriculture. The unrnariliine Malay could not 

 exist without his bindamj or rice field — and to the 

 preparation of it, every other passion, for ft while, gives 

 way. His enthusiasm in the work is such, that a 

 positive and greater gain could hardly bribe bun 

 from \\* With such a predisposition, the Malay is a 

 useful subject, where the cultivation of grain and 



