505 
chosen for this method of propagation, but it can be done at any- 
time provided proper attention is paid to watering, but if this is 
neglected and the soil is wet one day and dust dry the next, the 
result will necessarily be unsatisfactory. 
C. CURTIS. 
AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. 
It is now some years since Agricultural and Horticultural shows 
first began to be held in various parts of the Straits Settlements 
and the Malay Peninsula. The first Horticultural exhibition was 
held at Singapore in 1 88 1 . and fora succession of years this was 
an annual event interupted at intervals when as often happens in 
the East the public interest temporarily ceases. Later exhibitions 
which included agricultural produce were held in Malacca, Penang 
and the Federated States. Most of these exhibitions were open to 
any part°of the Peninsula as well as the district in which they were 
held, but the exhibits from outside were usually very scanty. This 
was in part due doubtless to the difficulty of transport of the speci- 
mens, and also to the paucity of planters and others sufficiently 
interested in agriculture. Matters are very different now however, 
and it seems quite time that our shows should be put on a much 
higher footing. 
Mr. Curtis has put together a number of suggestions for doing 
this, which I publish with this letter hoping that planters and all 
other readers of the Bulletin, will contribute opinions and criticisms 
on the subject. 
It will be seen by the classification of exhibits that the shows will 
offer chances both for natives and for European planters. It has 
been said that Malays look on the shows as an amusement and learn 
nothing from them. This may be true in the case of a consider- 
able number, but we must remember that any ideas of improvement 
in cultivation come slowly to the Malays, and that that there are a 
certain number who will always be interested in new products, and 
attempt their cultivation and if they are successful! others will 
imitate them. The shows also as regards the Malays should be of 
assistance in restoring the lost or disappearing arts of the natives, 
and although aitistic work hardly comes within the scope of an 
Agricultural journal, yet it is worth pointing out that the addition 
of artistic exhibits in a show adds a great attraction and stimulates 
the artistic instinct lying dormant in many natives for want of com- 
petition. The Chinese are more quick to learn from shows, both 
of produce and tools. Indeed there is no better way of improving 
the implements of cultivation than by exhibiting them for competi- 
tion. The machinery and tools used by natives and indeed often 
by Europeans are of the simplest nature, and though the agricul- 
turists would use labour saving appliances if they saw them in use, 
they ordinarily have so little chance of seeing them that they are 
naturally doubtful of them. A good deal remains to be done in the 
introduction of new appliances, and indeed of many old ones as 
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