550 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[October i, 1890. 
large crystals of felspar, — the latter, perhaps, it is 
which adapts the soil to coffee cultivation. Large 
blocks of limestone rock appear here and. there 
throughout the country, and dark close-grained 
trap crops up as well in the same locality, precisely 
as it does in the Andamans Before leaving the 
magnificent forests of Perak it must be noted that 
to the botanist — and perhaps even more to the 
casual observer — they possess especial interest, not 
only because they differ so much from the forests 
of Ceylon and Penang but because they exhibit 
vegetation in so many unique and startling forms; 
the creepers especially are most beautiful in form and 
colour, but where all ate lovely it is impossible to 
award the prize to any particular variety. 
Waterloo estate coffee is entirely of the Arahica 
species. A few trees only of Liberian coffee near the 
bungalow give sufficient proof of how this variety 
of coffee suits this part of the country. Those who in 
years past have followed the hi tory of the Waterloo 
property are aware that it was almost abandoned when 
old friends Logie and Tom Fraser undertook to 
resuscitate its fortunes, and so well have they suc- 
ceeded that the old coffee is again bearing well 
and the weeds and jungle stuff, which at one time 
almost choked the coffee, have disappeared, and 
the coffee bushes — now in the form commonly 
known as umbrella trees — are bearing well and at 
the same time are in vigorous condition. The 
two and a half years old field at the top of 
the estate, some two thousand and odd feet in 
elevation, is a very fine field indeed — as good as 
the best I have seen anywhere during my thirty 
years’ experience of “ the fragrant bean.” 
The young plants in an adjoining clearing have 
made a grand growth during the time they have 
been planted out ; and with a sufficiency of labour 
to carry on operations the outlook of Waterloo 
is extremely satisfactory. As a fair samp'e of 
what may be expected by planters taking up 
land for coffee in the adjoining forests Water- 
loo amply proves that there is every pros- 
pect of success and a bright future before in- 
vestors. The pests that have proved so disas- 
trous in Ceylon are not unknown in Perak, 
but the testimony of those who are most in- 
terested and who have watched them for years 
past tends to prove that their attacks are not 
attended by the virulence and devastating effects 
with which we are unhappily so well acquainted. 
Of this a casual visitor is necessarily but a poor 
judge ; and were it not that it is but right to 
mention their existence as a matter of fact con- 
nected with coffee cultivation in Perak, they would 
hardly have been alluded to at all. 
Liberian coffee on a few bushes at about 1,900 
feet flourishes exceedingly, as also down at almost 
sea level. At Kamouning, probably 500 feet above 
the sea, there is an estate of some 140 acres 
in different stages up to eighteen months or two 
years, and the coffee is looking vigorous and 
promises to do well. There is some fine soil on 
this property, and plenty of limestone available 
in one part of the estate. As far as could 
be ascertained there is no estate of any size 
in Perak at present where Liberian coffee has been 
proved to be a success, but the proprietors of Kamou- 
ning have estates in bearing in one of the adjoining 
states and are very confident of similar results from 
its cultivation in Perak. 
Around Lady Weld’s bungalow— some 15 or IG 
miles from Thaiping — a variety of trees have been 
planted as an experiment, and amongst them are 
some very fine specimens of Libor. an coffee, say 
fifteen feet in height, bearing well, with flower and 
fruit in all stages, as becomes the nature of the plant. 
The situation of the garden is not well adapted for 
cacao, being flat and at times of high flood actually 
under water, but some of the trees have evidently 
grown well, but are now much diseased and decaying 
away. 
The squirrels from the adjacent jungle which 
surrounds the garden evidently make short work of 
the cacao pods. 
Oeard indiarubber has grown to a height of 
20 to 25 feet — perhaps more — and the seedlings have 
begun to show themselves amongst the dense jungle 
round about. This gives a hint of what might yet 
be done in Ceylon : a few bushels of seed collected 
year by year by those who still have Ceara trees 
on their properties, thrown broadcast in the belts or 
useless jungle adjoining their estates, might in a 
few years prove a profitable investment, in the same 
way as the cinchona seedlings promise to do in the 
forest around the Kandapola estates, or at any 
rate did some half-dozen years ago. 
The Hermitage is a bungalow built on an isolated 
spur of the Buboo mountain, some 3,000 feet above 
sea-level, and is reached by a riding road nine miles 
in length, cut through the jungle from Lady Weld’s 
bungalow which is 15 or 16 miles from Thaiping. 
On the steep sides of the knoll on which the 
Hermitage stands, tea, coffee and cinchona have 
been planted and have apparently done a great deal 
better than might have been expected, considering 
the steepness of the land and its exposed situation. 
The bungalow was originally intended as a sanatorium 
for the Resident, but another one has been erected on 
the summit of one of the hills overlooking Tnaiping, 
and the Hermitage is occupied by an old Ceylon man, 
Mr. J. F. M. Cock, in the position of Superintendent 
ofGovernment Gardens. Nothing much is now done 
immediately around the Hermitage, but half-way 
down the hill is an estate called “Cicely,” where 
tea is made and coffee is grown in a small way. Just 
now the Perak Government is advertising 1,000 lb. 
of tea for sale; but it is understood that the garden 
has been rented out to a Chinaman. Some of the 
tea made at Cicely is very nice indeed, and fully 
justifies the encomiums showered upon it by some of 
the home journals ; but, again, some of it — as 
served at resthouses and other places — is very poor 
weak stuff. 
There can be no doubt that the moist warm climate 
of the Peninsula is especially adapted to tea, but in 
the meantime there is no possibility of its taking any 
place in the London market simply because there is 
none to send at present. 
Perak has, no doubt, a great future before it 
when the labour supply is put on a better 
footing and capital is attracted by the advantages 
that are offered by the administration. 
-O 
TROPICAL CULTIVATION IS SELANGOR, 
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 
KWALA. LUUPOK — LIBERIAX COFFEE CULTIVATION — SOIL 
AND CLIMATE— HANDSOME RETURNS — GEOLOGICAL FOR- 
MATIONS — A GBEATLV-FULT WANT— COFFEE PULPERS 
— LEAF-DISEASE AND GREEN BUG— ARABIAN COFFEE — 
— FORESTS AND LABOUR SUPPLY. 
Selangor adjoins Perak on the East and South, 
lying nearer Malacca and Singapore. As yet tin 
mining has constituted the principal industry of 
Selangor, but large tracts of land have been taken 
up for cultivation of various tropical products — 
coffee, pepper, sugar, tobacco, tapioca, &o , <S:c. 
To begin with, however, reference will be confined 
to coffee and what was learnt about it from personal 
observation. Kwala Lumpur is the capital town of 
Se'angor, reached by nineteen or twenty miles of 
