8 o6 
THE TROPJCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May I, 1891 
Labooe. — This all-iraportaDt item to the planter 
might easily and quickly be put upon a satisfact ory 
basis for those who did not object to paying their 
coolies well. At present labour is not altogether satis- 
factory but the reason is not far to seek, as you will see 
from the attached table of amount spent on Public 
\yorks and Municipalities during the past 10 years. 
But when I tell jou that neither the Municipalities 
or the Governments have any fixed staff of labour and 
that their attempts to import immigrants would not 
exceed 500 men during those ten years you will see 
how serious the position is. By the right of the 
longer purse they can always attract any labour from 
the estates, so that some planters against their will are 
compelled to work with indentured immigrants. 
With two exceptions that I know of, amounting to 
about 1,800 men, 1 sm under the impression 
that the labour imported by Government con- 
tractors would not exceed 100 men in any 
one year. I may tell you that very little work is 
dona departmental'y, and what is done departmen- 
tally the labour is derived from the fame sources in 
the same manner, the so-called open market — that 
being any coolies that can be obtained locally. Under 
these circumstances, which I trust the report of the 
Labour Oommissiou may in some way alleviate, you 
can recognise that we are driven to employ indenturer 
immigrants against our will, costing on the estate, 
with which I am connected about ®27 each ; of this 
1 may recover possibly $9, but with runaways, in- 
competents, sickuess and deaths it probably does not 
exceed an average of S6. Some of the officials say, 
'What harm do v;e do? You get a man on agree- 
ment and when it is expired we take him at higher 
wages,” but in my opinion the answer is “As long 
as you equally supply in proportion to your require- 
ments the local market, we have no cause of complainr, 
but until you do so, you are stran gling planting enter- 
prise in its infancy by competing for the labour they 
have imported.’’ 
There are certainly few if any Oeylon Planters who 
will cot say that a free coolie is cheaper at 25 cents 
per day than an immigrant at 14. 
Paradoxical as it may sound, in ray opinion an emi- 
graut is cheaper on a one year’s agreement and 20 
cents per day, than ou a 3 years’ agreement and 14 
cental owing to the bulk of the men being of a better 
class. But the recruiting in India is miberably bad, 
and owing to the treatment received at the hands of 
tho professional reerniters the men will not go to bring 
their families and friends as in Ceylon. If you get 
35 good and fairly good, 15 of indifferent, tad and 
absolutely useless in a gang of 50, you may consider 
are you well off. 
It would not matter to us whatever rates the Govern- 
meut paid if they imported a proportion of their own 
labour, as it would render the countries popular and 
induce a flow of immigration to them. 
So much lor the Tamil question, upon which I speak 
with some feeling, from having been compelled by want 
of labour to abandon 300 acres of Coffee in Sungei 
Ujong in 1884 although it 1 ad over 5 ewis. an acre 
ou it. Pickers were not to be had and as the crop had 
all dropped the year before it was useless to spend 
further money op upkeep. 
At the moment I am well supplied on all the estates 
and I hope to remain to from the growing popularity 
and a few old connections that have come from India, 
as free men, but there is the contingency to be faced 
that the Public Works in connection with the develop- 
ment of tho States may at any time be let at such rates 
that all tho labour from the estates may be drawn away. 
Wo baie then left Malays, Chinese and Javanese. 
Malays are oxoclleut labour for many kinds of work, 
am paiticul.irly nice people to work with. It I knew 
an estate had boon pb-ntel I y Malays I should feel 
inclined to put a slightly higher value ou U. They 
are such very careful planters and they plant a 
tree as if they renieinijored that it was expected 
to give returns for 30 years or more. For fedling, 
shed-building, timbor-cutling, rools and many other 
vroiks, aUliough their wages are rather high— from 
26i to 35 cents— they are not only very valuable but 
their work dots not become expensive 
Chinese as sawyers, carpenters and artisans, when 
they mostly speak Ma'ay, are largely used and good 
men at their trades. The coolies are good for heavy 
work, but the great objection to employing them 
is all arrangements must be made through the head 
man who can talk Malay and he almost invariably 
robs them and tells them it is the employer. They 
cannot therefore be looked upon as satisfactory to 
the coffee planter. 
Javanese are in much the same category. Few of 
them speak Malay and they are mostly worked 
through a mandore. I have had a guug of 60 men 
working for me for 4 years on end, and on and off 
for another 3, and never had a dissatisfied word from 
them, but then the mandore was an excellent fellow, 
and he still continues to work for me at times 
although now a man of means, 
AVatchmen are mostly Sikhs or Bengalis and I have 
no doubt in time they will bring friends to work ou 
the estates, 
S3IL. — Attached will be found the analysis of 4 
different parcels of soil. They were all taken from 
6 inches below the surface. No. 3 is of course an 
ideal soil but very wet. No. 1 is the poorest land 
of the Malay Peninsula, but I have seen fairly good 
young c-ffee on it, and it is used by the Chinese 
or Pepper and Gambler. 
No. 2 is the soil taken from Batu estate and from 
the paper you will see what the crops have been and 
are, with its surface soil intact. Only over-bearing 
trres require manure for many years to ocme. 
No 4 IS from Linsum estate and there again you 
have practical results to judge from. They are noted 
on the 1'24 by the analyst as being poor in potash 
and phosphoric acid. The one has been supplied in 
ashes and burnt earth and the other in the bones. 
There are all sorts of soi', and all kinds of land, steep, 
undulating, flat, rocky and free from stone, stony and 
extensive alluvial deposits cf rich soil. 
I cannot conclude this letter without expressing my 
hearty thanks to all the officials for all the assistance 
and kindness that they have shown to me both in the 
Straits Settlements and the Native States and to ex 
press the hope that with their continued assistance - 
may become that rare bird, a successful pioneer, owini 
entirely to the good will and assistance received ig 
difficult times from the many officials who have taken 
so much interest in developing planting in the Straitsn 
Yours faithfully, 
THOS. H. HILL. 
Soils. 
Analysis of three samples of soil marked 1 2 and 4, dried 
at 212® Fah. 
No. 1. 
No. 2. 
No 4. 
Silicious matter 
8IT06 
72-000 
68-567 
Alemina 
8-400 
14-966 
16 800 
Oxide of Iron 
4-650 
3-779 
6150 
Lime 
206 
336 
261 
Magnesia 
166 
300 
433 
Potash 
006 
135 
193 
Soda 
153 
151 
141 
Phosphoric Acid 
044 
121 
083 
Sulphuric Acid 
051 
054 
069 
* Organic matter 
Water of Combination 
5-093 
8-158 
7-303 
&c. 
100 000 
100-000 
100-000 
* Containing Nitrogen 
•033 
•126 
•140 
All cf them soils are poor in potash, No. 1 being 
particularly so. They are abo exceedingly poor in Phos- 
phuric aci<’, especially No. 1. They would all ba better 
for liming. 
So-cal'.ed soil, Nc. 3. 
Water (j. e. moisture) ... 33'CO 
•Organic matter, &c. ... 24‘56 
Plui-phoric Acid (Phospate of Lime 13‘49) 6T8 
Limo ... 5'72 
Su'plmrio Acid ... 6T7 
Oxiilo of Iron ... 4*06 
Alumina ... 2'69 
