ISO 
VEGETABLES. 
From a hygienic point of view, the use of vegetables in the 
Straits is generally very much neglected. Few persons ever cul- 
tivate any at all, hut restrict themselves to a few imported kinds 
and a small number of native ones often very inferior in quality. 
Attempts have been made, both in Penang and Singapore, by 
supplying seed of suitable English kinds free of cost to some of 
the Chinese market gardeners, to induce them to cultivate these 
vegetables regularly, but without much success. This is partly 
due to the Chinese disinclination to take up anything new, and 
also to the fact that there are comparatively few customers who 
are prepared to pay a good price for good vegetables ; and this not 
only deters the gardeners from cultivating newly-introduced ve- 
getables, but prevents any material improvement in native kinds. 
Many native vegetables, partly wild as they are, are far superior 
to the original wild forms -of the best European kind, but, as 
beyond a certain point, there has been no attempt to improve 
them by selection and competition, they are still very little 
altered from their original wild forms. 
Of late years, however, the chocho has become quite common 
in Penang markets, and locally cultivated tomatoes, green peas 
and artichokes have appeared in the Singapore markets, but 
only very fitfully. A good many vegetables can be growm on the 
hills, which are utter failures on the plains, where several of the 
tuberous kinds, such as turnips, kohl rabi, beet and potatoes, run 
entirely to leaf and do not produce anything eatable at all. Mr. 
Curtis, after several years’ experience in growing vegetables on 
a small scale on Penang Hill at an altitude of 2,500 feet, and try- 
ing pretty well everything that had a probable chance of succeed- 
ing, came to the conclusion that the kinds which could be grown 
there with a reasonable amount of care and expense were arti- 
chokes, asparagus, beet, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumbers 
chocho, endive, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, tomatoes and turnips, 
with most of the pot herbs, such as mint and thyme. The ground 
on the top of Penang Hill is, however, limited, and the expenses 
of carriage of manure, etc., to the garden from the foot of the 
hill are very large, but it may be hoped that when this and other 
hills of the Peninsula are made more accessible, we may be able 
to increase considerably the cultivation and use of European ve- 
getables. 
In the. plains, a certain unmber of the European vegetables 
can be grown with success, and there are also a large number of 
native vegetables, many of which, excellent when well cooked, 
are hardly known at all to Europeans, who seem quite content 
with imported potatoes and tomatoes, and native spinach, lab- 
lab beans, brinjals and okra, in fact with the. cheapest and easi- 
est things the cook can get. The importance of good and varied 
vegetables in a hot climate cannot be over-rated, and there is no 
