3oO 
owning at least a garden, fruit in many parts is unaccountably rare 
and often unprocurable, 1 he European in many cases consider- 
ing he will only remain a short period in one place does not think 
it worth while to plant fruit trees of which possibly he may not see 
the produce. He contents himself with a few bananas, pines, and 
papayas. This is not the way the fruit orchards of Europe and 
America were formed. Many persons in cold climates plant trees 
which they may never live to see the fruit of, but they know well 
that to plant up the ground is not troublesome nor expensive and 
that in any case as the trees grow up they add considerably to the 
value of the land. It is even less expensive and onerous to plant 
trees here than in Europe. The trees^ are cheaper, labour is 
cheaper, and the trees require less attention than in England. 
Pruning, grafting, manuring would undoubtedly improve our trees 
in many cases, but the orchard trees are not yet at that high state 
of cultivation to which the European trees have attained, and 
much may be done with compara! ively little trouble. So that 
there is no excuse for owners of land not planting plenty of fruit 
trees. As the Peninsula gradually opens up the local demand for 
fruit must increase and with improved methods of transport all over 
it can be sent to more populous parts of the country where the 
demand is in excess of the supply. At present however the sys- 
tem seems to be to wait until there is a big local demand and then 
to plant our slow growing trees, which will not produce fruit fora 
number of years afterwards. Where fruit of different kinds is abun- 
dant it is always in demand, but if there is little or none those 
who ought to be consumers get accustomed to do without it, or if 
they want fruit use American preserves. The demand for tropical 
as well as temperate climate fruit in the crowded countries of the 
North temperate region, both fresh and preserved, increases daily 
and though at present the Malay Peninsula is too far off many of 
the largest fruit markets to be able to get its fruit to the mouths 
of the people, it may reasonably be expected that we shall find 
means sooner or later to do a good export trade at least in some 
classes of fruits. At present we have a local demand which is 
increasing, not only in or around the towns and villages, but in our 
ports, where the passenger steamers should be able to provide 
themselves with a sufficient supply for vovages, 
H. N. RIDLEY. 
SOME NOTES ON RUBBER-GROWING. 
A special article we give below is (says the Times of Ceylon) 
valuable, coming as it does from a source which combines a long 
experience of the rubber trade at home in its commercial aspect 
with the growing of the article in more than one country abroad. 
One of the hrst points dwelt upon is true promise of a large con- 
sumption. It is not necessary to dilate upon the many articles to 
which rubber is yearly freshly applied. Here in this small Colony 
