180 
VEGETABLES. 
From a hygienic point of view, the use of vegetables in the 
Straits is generally very much neglected. Few persons ever cub 
tivate any at all, but 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 choeho has become quite common 
in Penang markets, and locally cultivated tomatoes, green peas 
and artichokes hove appeared in the Singapore markets, but 
only very fitfully. A good many vegetables can be grown on the 
hills, which are utter failures on the plains, where several of the 
tuberous kinds, such as turnips, kohl rabi, beet and potatoes, rur ‘ 
entirely to leaf and do not produce anything eatable at all. Mr 
Curtis, after several years’ experience in growing vegetables or 
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 
there with a reasonable amount of care and expense a 
chokes, asparagus, beet, cabbage, carrots, celery, c 
choeho, endive, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, tomatoes an 
with most of the pot herbs, such as mint and thyme. T1 
on the top of Penang Hill is, however, limited, and the expert 
of carriage of manure, etc., to the garden from the foot of th 
hill are very large, but it may be hoped that when this and oth 
hills of the Peninsula are made more accessible, we may be abb 
to increase considerably the cultivation and use of European ve 
getables. 
In the plains, a certain number of the European vegetable; 
can be grown with success, and there are also a large number o' 
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 cash 
est things the cook can get. The importance of good and variec 
vegetables in a hot climate cannot be over-rated, and there is iv 
