October i, 1891.] THf TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
M7 
PEPPER, TEA AND COFFEE CULTIVATION 
IN PERAK. 
la the annual report of the Kuala Kan^sar 
district, it is stated that 
Syed Musa's pepper estate at Pasir Panjang, although 
noi qiite 60 well-kept and oared for as might be 
wisheil is making fair progress. Syed Mu8a, unlortun- 
ately, knew nothiog of the cultivation of pepper when 
he commenced bis plantation, aud has therefore been 
very much in the hmda of the Achinesa coolies work- 
ing on contract nnJer him. The latter have not paid 
gQfiioient altimiiou to the tying up of the vines, and 
the estate has not always been kept as clean as it 
might be, and this I find to be the case with most 
of ttio Malay pUutaiions. Apart from these defects, 
vines are domg well. The estate is now about 16^ acres 
in extent, and contains about 14,5u0 vines, ot these 
1 500 are grown on baid-wood posts and the remainder 
on ''dudaps." The first vines were planted about two 
years ago, and there are now 5,000 in bearing, about 
three ot pikals pepper having already been gathered. 
Up to tne end of the year the Government had ad- 
vanced gl, 780 on the esta e. Advances are to be con- 
tinued up to P.OOO, and altos;ether 16,000 viies are 
to be planted. The Government originnUy provided 
Sjfed Musa with the means of opening this estate with 
a view to encouraging other natives in the district to 
take up land for the cultivation of pepper and this 
object has certainly been attained, during- the year 
600 acres, mostly in small blocks varying from one to 
five acres in eitent, havmg been taken up for this 
purposes. Some of the p autations are doing very well 
particularly those belonging to Chinese and A^chinefte 
who possess a lit lo capital. The Perak MaUys, as a 
rule, ure not so succetstul, l icking both the persever- 
huco and energy rtquisiLe for tlju ouliiv,ition of pepper 
aud having a rooted objBUiion to sinliing any monwy 
iu their plantations un ess it can be borrowed from 
Government. After Syed Musa's the largest pepper 
estates are two baojging to Kong Liin, which are 
10 aud 30 acres in extent respectively. The smaller of 
the two, on which the vines are trained against hard- 
wood poste, is worked with Chinese labour, but oa the 
30-acru block the pepper is beius;: grown aguust dedap 
trees, an i the labour performed by Achinese working 
ia ihe tribute systeai. These two ejtites were both 
started about the same time and on the same soil, it 
will therefore be iut resting and iustructive to com- 
pare their progress and uUimato success. Kong Li m 
does not appear to havo much uilficuity in obtaining 
Chinese agricultural labour, but he complain") of 
the short nours th.^ cjolit s work. The meu he is now 
employing insist on wurkiug for only eghl hours 
a day, as in ihu mines ; and to make pepper pay he 
Ba\8 it is necessary ihat thuy should work lor at leat 
10 hours. The Govoiuiueut tspcnmau al pepper plan- 
tation at the foot of Gnnong ironduk, as was antici- 
pated, has not proved a suooeaa, the soil, although very 
rich, being q li e unsuiieil for the grov?iug of pepper. 
1 In the otiitsr Governms' t plantation, at Padang 
KeugHS, the vines, appear to hu in a very flourishing 
conoiti'in. This plant itii.n is about 13 acres iu extent, 
and contains several large luirsories of pepper p'auta 
wliioh are now ready for planting out, a large nnm- 
lier having already boen supplied to Kong Liin and 
other plautors in this distric t. The Cicely Ti-a Bsla'e 
was let in June to Miissis Lim Ah Kii, Li Pch ai'd 
Olivers ; and iu July the Hermitage Tea U t itu was 
relet ti the same piople. During ilie Ki^t year the 
number of coolies employed on Messrs. Hill aud Rath- 
borue's Liberian coffee plantation, at, K .muniug, bus 
be»u inort^sed, and a vast improvemo.ut effi cted in the 
general appearance of the es'.ate. Sjvera. lield.s, which, 
for want of labour, had lo bo abai.doiuMi, have now 
been roelriiue.l, and I am infoim d that the whole 
of the origiuil clearing, about 258 acres iu extent, 
will bo clca el and planted up by March next 
and that the lirst pickiug will comiiieiice about October' 
COCO-DE-MER. 
There is in tho cabinet ot Mr. Joseph H. Wright 
of this city a very Hue specimen of tlie Coco-de-Mer, 
a carious nut produced upon the palm tree which 
grows in only one spot in the world, the Seychelle 
Islands. This specimen has attracted a great deal of 
attention and has been loaned by Mr. Wright lor 
eshi'iition in this aud other cities. We (AmericuH 
Grocer) are indebted to Mr. Wm, Saunders, Superiu- 
ten ent of the Public Gardens, WaBhiogtoD, D, C. 
tor the following interesting description of the palm 
tree which produces this remarkable fruit: 
LODOICEA sechelt.ahum. 
This palm produces the celebrated Double Oocouut 
or Ooco-de-Mer, which, until about 140 years ago 
when tho trees were discovered upon which ihey 
grew, was ooly known as a large nut fouud floating 
in the Indian Ocean aud near the Maldive Islands. 
The nuts were oidy fouud destitute of their husks, and 
mostly wLh the internal part decayed. They were 
supposed lobe produced on a tree growing in the sea, 
and Chinese and Malay pailora affirmed that the nuts 
were botne upon a tree deep in the water, which was 
s milar to a ;cocouut tree, and was visible in placid 
bays, upon tite coast ef Sumatra and adjoining coasts, 
but that if they sought to dive after the tree it 
disappeared. 
Negro priests declared that it grew near the ii-laod 
of Java, where its leaves and branches rose above the 
water, aud were the habitation of a monstrous bird, 
which carriel off elephants and tigers to its nest, so 
that mariners of the Indian Archipelago carefully 
avoided that spot. 
Great value was also preferred upon these nuts for 
medicinal properties, all of which is equally a matter 
of historical fable. 
The Seychelles lie to the north of Madagascar, ia 
about 5 cleg south latitude. It is in this group only 
that the palm is found, ai.d among them only in the 
isles of Prai'liu, Curieuse and Roun<l Island. Those 
are within half a mile of each other aud are moun- 
tainous and rocky, 
The Lodoicea attains a height of 80 or 90 feet, and 
is surmounted by a beautiful crown of winged and 
palraated leaves ; the trunk is from 12 to 15 inches 
in diameter aud very flexible; the leaves are large, 
20 feet long and 10 to 12 feet in breadth, and even 
larger. The straight aud slender etera, when surmounted 
with a he^vy crown of leaves and fruiis, has a strong 
leverage on the roots, which are strengthened for this 
office in a peculiar manner ; the base of the stem is 
roun<led, and fits into a natural hatiin or socket, about 
30 inches in diameter and 18 inches in depth ; this 
basin is pierced wi'h hundreds of small oval holes 
about ha'f an inch in diameter, with hollow tubes 
corresponding on the outside, through wliioh the roots 
ponet ate the ground on all sides, but never become 
attached to the basin or bowl, their partial elisticity 
affording a certain amount of play to the stem in 
violent gales. 
The tree requires 100 yta'S before it attains its full 
growth, and thirty years is the shortest period beforo 
it pushes out its flower buds. It requires ten years 
from the first appearance of the flower till the fruit 
reaches maturity; it bears ooly one cluster of flowers 
yearly, yet it will often have ten iu bloom at ouce: 
it his fl jwers and fruit of all ages at one time. 
The fruit is a drupe, of au olive green color, and 
generally double, t ometimes triple, and even quadruple, 
aud freq ieitly attiin? a length of 18 inches, with a 
circumference of 3 feet, and sometimes weighing 40 
to 50 pounds. It is the largest fruit which any known 
t'oe protuces. 
The immature fruit is easily cut with a knife, and 
afl'A-ds a sweet and melting aliment, of an agreeable 
taste. When it is ripe it drops on the ground, and 
is no longer fit for use. 
The unopened leaves ot young plants are used for 
making hats and bonnets ; the splitting of the leaflets 
is difficult, but is performed with considerable skill by 
those accust imed to the work. Various useful and 
extra'i ely b autiful articles are made < f these leaves, 
and mats of great durability are manufactured of the 
strong leaf fibres The leaf stalks are need for fences 
aud for rafters of houses; they are strong and very 
durable. The trunk ia so hard as to be dillicult to 
I cut with an axe; split in two and hollowed, it is udtd 
' for water gutters, and is almost imperishable. 
