102 
There were no other gardens in Penang till 1884, nor do we hear 
of any attempts on the part of the Government to improve cultivation 
or develop agriculture in the meantime. 
On the founding of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles introduced 
nutmegs, cloves and cocoa, and founded the first Botanic Gardens 
there in 1822. He writes to Marsden, January 31, 1823. “ I am laying- 
out a Botanic and Experimental Garden ” and to Dr. Wallich 
February 8: “ The Botanic Garden goes on well. I am now employed 
in laying out the walks and stones are collected to make a handsome 
hand railway round it ” (Memoirs, by his Widow, p.p. 535, 537). 
A superintendent of the name of Dunn was employed to look after it, 
as early as 1819. Dr. Wallich though no doubt much interested in the 
garden was not, as Buckley in his anecdotal history of Singapore 
says, superintendent. He had come down from Calcutta for his 
health in 1822 and returned in 1823. The gardens were on the North 
East of the Government house (Fort Canning) and were 48 acres 
in extent and a bungalow for the Superintendent was built in them. 
Sir Stamford Raffles left the East in 1823, a monthly vote of 
60 dollars was allowed for the upkeep. 
In 1829 the establishment was discontinued and ten convicts 
were put on to keep the ground in order. Lord George Bentinck 
had come as Governor-General. In 1827 Dr. Montgomerie who took 
much interest in agriculture and horticulture was superintending the 
gardens, and cultivating spices and endeavouring to induce planters 
to take them up as there was a good demand for them and Penang 
could not supply sufficient. 
Lord George Bentinck had been sent to retrench the expenditure 
of the colony and soon sold off the gardens, and that was the end 
of the first Singapore Gardens. By this time agriculture in Singapore 
was beginning to develop rapidly and Jose D’ Almeida, T. C. Crane, 
Dr. Montgomerie and Dr. Oxley were doing their best to aid in its 
development. 
The Government however did not encoutrage these efforts. There 
were no Gardens, nor was there any Botanist or agriculturist em- 
ployed by them and the land-laws were so bad that in 1836 Dr. Mont- 
gomerie and others formed an Agri-Horticultural society to petition the 
Government to encourage agriculture. This does not seem to have 
been of much use as the same complaints were made in 1843. 
Though a great deal of good work was done by the amateurs, 
Montgomerie, Crane, Oxley, Almeida, Whampo and others, the utter 
absence of any professional agriculturist who could employ his whole 
time in the study of agriculture prevented its becoming a really 
important feature in the progress of the country. Practically no new 
plants were introduced, no investigations into pests, no improved 
methods of cultivation tried during this period. 
The same year that the Singapore Agri-Horticultural Society 
was founded a similar one was formed in Penang, but probably died 
