^ .? ftf ^ T R, 4. 
thefej, tke 'grain b almofl: univcrfally fcattered in the furrows, exeepf 
wlierq the drill: has been .int^roduced. The Sumatrans, who do not cal*- 
culate their own or thqir j[lomeftic's labor op thefe occafmns, m%k^ hokg 
in f (le groundj ag i have dcf£;nbcd, and drop into each a f<?w grains; 
or by a prijccfs ftill more |e<liou^?, raife the feed in beds, and afterwards 
plant it out- ^^r. Charles KJiller, in a paper pubUfhpd in the PhiL 
Trans, has (hewi) ua the wonderful effeds of tranrplantatton. How far 
it mgH be worth ttve Engliih farmet^s wliile, to beilp\v ir^m lab^r in 
the bufmefs of fowing his grain, in hopes of an inqreafe of produce, 
1 am not competent, cor is it to my prefent purpofc, to form a judg- 
ment, Poffibly, as the advantage might be found* to lie rather in the 
quantity of grain faved In the fowing, than gained in the reaping, it 
would not anfwcr the purpofe; foi; although half the quantity of feed, 
bears reeiprocally the fame proportion to the ufual produce, that double 
the latter does to the ufual allowance of feed, yet in poii^t of profit it 15 
quite another matter. In order to encreafe this, it is of much more 
importance to augment the produce from a given quantity of land, 
than to diminilb the grain necelTary to fow it. 
EenUityoffoii Notwithftan Jing the received opinion of the fertility of the Malay 
iflands, countenanced by the authority of Le Poivre and other celebrated 
miter?, and Itill more by the extraordinary produce of grain, as above- 
mentioned, I cmnot help ra}'ing, that 1 think the foil of Sumatra is in 
general rather fteril, than rich. It is a 1 moll every where a ftiff, red 
clay, burned nearly to the ftate of a brick, where it is expofed to the 
influence o]F tTie' fim. The imall proportion of the whole which is 
cultivated, is either ground from which old woods have been recently 
cleared, whofe leaves had for me J a bed of vegetable earth, fome inches 
deep ; or elfe fwamps, into which thq fcarity mould of the neighbouring 
hills, has been washed by the annual torrents of rain, in confequence 
of their low ftruation. It is true that on many parts of the coall, there 
are, 'between the cliffs and the bt-ach, fmall plains of a fandy foil, pro- 
bably left by the fea, and more or lefs mixed with earth in proportion 
to the time they have remained unco vc red by the waters ; and fuch 
are found to prove the moft favorable fpots for raifmg the prodti^ions 
of 
