398 
dered by Government by introducing seeds of all the best known 
varieties of Sea Island, Egyptian, American, Indian and West 
Indian cottons and distributing them to planters and others who 
are willing to give the cultivation a trial at a nominal price: also 
by the introduction of ginning machines and baling presses of the 
most approved types. 
If the natives showed any inclination to take to this cultivation, 
Government might assist on the lines laid down in my letter on 
Page 12. 
Attention might also be directed to the local varieties of Gossy- 
pium barbadense and G. herbaceum also to Enodendron anfrac- 
tuosum, an arborescent species which might be planted as a shade 
tree, and which produces a fibre said to be specially valued for the 
manufacture of life-buoys. 
Much however might be done by planters themselves, who by 
means ot improved cultivation and seed selection should aim at 
procuring a good staple, an increased quantity of lint, an early 
cropping variety and a variety immune to disease. The extent to 
which it is possible to increase the yield by the adoption of scientfiic 
methods, is shown by the fact that in the United States, although 
the average yield is only about 190 lbs. of lint per acre, yields, 
varying from 500 to 800 lbs. per acre, have been frequently obtained 
on many large, carefully cultivated tracts {vide year book of De- 
partment of Agriculture). 
I am of opinion that Government should take up the experi- 
mental cultivation of this product — on a limited scale at first — by 
starting small experimental plots in different localities, and, by 
means & of selection and hybridization, attempt to raise disease- 
resisting varieties and improve the quality of the lint and yield per 
acre ; and, if the results were promising, afterwards on a scale 
sufficiently extensive, to demonstrate conclusively the suitability 
or otherwise of this crop as an agricultural under taking to the con- 
ditions obtaining here. Then, and not till then, will capitalists be 
prepared to invest money in its cultivation. 
I have, etc., 
STANLEY ARDEN, 
Superintendent, Experimental Plantations. 
The Federal Secretary, 
Kuala Lumpur. ♦ 
COTTON IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS 
FORTY YEARS AGO. 
Mr. BALESTIER writes in Logan’s Journal II p. 149 “Sanguine 
expectations were at one time entertained of raising Cotton on the 
island and considerable expense was incurred in giving it a fair 
trial, but the magnificent reports of coming crops sent to the 
