7^ 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Aug. 1, 1902. 
was obtained by felliog the trees and cutting rings 
through the bark all up the trunks, when it exuded 
in the form of white millt, which was collected 
in leaves and set into blocks o£ different forms. 
So great indeed had been the demanel that every 
accessible tree of any size had been felled, not only 
by the Malays, but by the wild tribes who rambled 
all over the forests, and consequently in large areas 
no tree large enough to produce seed remained, 
and the plant was on the verge of extinction. The 
trees produced seed very seldom, and although Mr. 
Eidley had offered large prices for some none had 
been forthcoming. The Government of the Straits 
Settlements had consequently stepped in and taken 
measures for the protection of the remaining trees. 
The amount of gntta percha produced by felling 
and, cutting was very small in proportion to the 
age and size of the trees ; one upwards of a hundred 
years old would produce but 2 or 3 lb. 
However, a Frenchman in Singapore, had, about 
eight or nine years ago, discovered that, by drying 
the leaves and twigs of the tree, and grinding them 
to powder and then mixing the powder with water, 
the gutta percha floated to the top so that it could 
be skimmed off and pressed into blocks. He had 
started a factory in Singapore, which had, at his 
death, passed into other hands and had been even- 
tually transferred to France, whither the leaves 
and twigs were now sent to be worked. By this 
simple method, and by growing the plant in the form 
of bushes rather than trees, it was hoped that in tinve 
the Malay peninsula would be able to furnish the 
world with a good and regular supply of this valuable 
product. 
The rattan was another important jungle product. 
It was the stem of a thorny, climbing palm which 
scrambled about and over trees by the aid of sharp 
hooks with which the leaves and flower-stems were 
provided. There were a great many different kinds 
of jrattans, and Mr. Bidley gave an interesting 
account of the method of cutting them down and 
preparing them for shipment to Europe and the 
United States, for manufacture into cliairs, baskets, 
etc. As the supply was hardly equal to the de- 
mand, the plant was now beginning to be cultivated, 
and a reasonable return might be expected with but 
very little expense. 
Coffee was cultivated over a large area of the 
Peninsula, and the Urge seeded Liberian had been 
found to grow there very well indeed, and better 
than the more valuable Arabian variety ; but, un- 
fortunately of late, the price of Coffee had been so 
low that most of the planters were adding the 
valuable Para rubber tree to their estates. This 
tree, a native of the Amazon district in Brazil, had 
be6n introduced from Ceylon in 1834 to the Botanic 
Gardens in Singapore, where it has been found to grow 
with remarkable ease and rapidity, and to produce a 
very good yield of first-class rubber. 
While ccflee had been in the ascendant, however, • 
th0 planters had not troubled themselves about rub- 
ber, but now, owing to ihe increased demand for the 
latter commodity, due in great measure to the rapid 
evolution of the bicycle and the moto car, the attention 
of planters all over the world had been directed to 
this product. A large number of plants produced 
rubber, of one kind or another, but that from the 
Para tree was by far the best. Attempts had been 
made to cultivate this tree in many parts of the 
world, but with only partial success. In the cons- 
tantly damp and warm climate of the Straits Set- 
tlements, however, it has ^rown with astonishing 
rapidity. A tree raieed from seed attained its full 
height of GO feet in five or six years, after which it 
continued to increase in girth to about 4 feet, in 
twelve years. The expense of enUivation was very 
snjall, no manure being required, and the tree could 
be lapped when six years old, when it would pro- 
duce about 2 lb, of lubber a j ear. Older trees pro- 
duce more. The rubles was obtained by cutting 
pUBi 9i (imofY channel thi-ough ths bark vertically, 
with slanting ones leading into it all the way down 
the trunk of the tree, at the foot of which a little 
box was placed with the lid so arranged that, 
although the' rubber-milk could get in, dirt and rain- 
water could not. The trees were tappped in the 
afternoon and the rubber collected from the boxes 
on the following morning. Every day for a week, at 
4 o'clock, a thin slice was cut off the edges of each 
slit, and more milk ran out until the tree was finally 
exhausted. The wounds were then left to heal, which 
usually took about one or two months. The trees could 
be tapped once or twice a year according to size, 
and the rubber that obtained was worth from 4s. to 
4s. 6d. a pound. Even at half that price the culti- 
vation would be the the most remunerative of any 
in the E ist, and thousands of trees were being 
planted all over the Peninsula, as fast as the seeds could 
be procured. 
The india rubber, Jicus elistica, so oommon in pota 
in English houses, was being cultivated by many 
planters. Its app aranoe, however, was very different 
when grown into a large tree with great roots. It 
was a native of Ihe Peninsula, and throve well 
there, but its rubber was of less value than that of the 
Para. 
Another paying crop, which was cultivated where- 
ever the soil wns sufficiently sandy for its growth — 
generally along the sea-coast, was coconut ; and 
large areas were devoted to its cultivation in Sin- 
gapore, Penang, Province Wellesley, and elsewhere. 
In some places the trees were severely attacked by 
two kinds of large beetles, which burrowed through 
the shoots and soon caused the death of the 
tree. The destruction of trees, at one time, had been 
enormous, until a law had been passed compelling 
owners to destroy badly affected trees, and also 
the rubbish heaps in which one of the beetles bred. 
This law had had very beneficial results. The nuts were 
sold either for food, for which there was always a 
large demand, or as copra— made by splitting the 
nuts in two and drj ing the halves, which were used 
for the manufacture of oil and stearine. 
The betelnut palm was filso cultivated to a con- 
siderable extent, and although betel chewing had 
largely gone out of fashion in the Peninsula, there was 
still a considerable demand for the nut in India. It 
was also used to a small extent in European medicine. 
The most useful of the palms, however, was the sago, 
which was planted in a good many places in the 
Peninsula. Three sago plants would give more 
nourishment than one acre of wheat, and one acre 
of sago as much as 163 acres of Wheat ; in fact sago 
gave a lai^ger amount of food per acre than any plant 
in the world. The plant was grown from cuttings, or 
seeds, in wet swampy places, forming dense thickets, 
with its huge leaves 20 feet in length. The main 
stem crept along the ground and threw up great 
branch stems, about 40 feet high and IJ feet through, 
which eventually produced at the top great panicles 
of flowers and fruits. The plant took twelve years to 
produce its first stem, after which its growth was 
more rapid, and fresh stems appeared regularly, so 
that at most times of the year, in a big plantation, 
there were generally stems ready to cut. These were 
felled when full size, but before the appearance of 
the flowers, and cut into pieces about two feet long. 
They were then split in half, the bark and woody ex- 
terior removed, and the sago manufactured from the 
inside white pith, first into sago flour and then into 
granulated or pearl sago. A full size stem would pro- 
duce as much as 600 or 700 lb. of flour, and about 
311, OCO tons were exported annually from Singapore. 
The tapioca plant was a tall, half-shrubby plant, re- 
sembling somewhat the castor oil. It was a native o£ 
South America, but had long been cultivated all over 
the East, and was very largely propagated from cut- 
tings of the stem, which we just stuck into the ground, 
and, in a year or eighteen months, attained a height 
of about six feet, forming huge thick roots nnder 
ground. When these roots were of full size, the plant 
was cut down and the roots dug up and taken to (bQ 
