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Singapore. Surely when this was proposed, neither the Engineer nor 
the Medical Health Officer had in mind the state of vegetable cultiva- 
tion in the Colony. The bulk of our population consists of people, 
whose food is principally a mixture of rice and vegetables. Without 
the night-soil removed from town the numberless vegetable guardens 
in the country must be abandoned. The result will inevitably be that 
vegetables will be grown in Johore and elsewhere — Ehio perhaps and 
if there is danger in the use of such matter, the risks of infection will 
be increased, since our sanitary authorities cannot possibly control 
these foreign growers. It seems to us that the most useful method of 
disposal of excreta for this Colony — in view of the urgent needs of 
vegetable growers — is some scientific means of treating the manure in 
different depots in the country and then distributing it to the 
gardens. The risks of this form of manure carrying infection are 
not great inasmuch as the night-soil is thoroughly fermented before 
it is put to the soil. One can easily conceive of its utilization in an 
appropriate manner without offending the taste of even the most 
fastidious. 
Without some good manure, it is not easy to raise plants on such 
exhausted soil as forms the habitat of lalang as a rule. This much 
maligned grass is in our opinion a friend to man in disguise. When 
the soil is composed principally of clay — and the surface humus has 
been all washed away, there are very few plants that can grow on it. 
But such land is sooner or later invaded by lalang — whose underground 
stems penetrate deeply, and ramify in all directions. In this way the 
surface soil is broken up. As the grass grows up and dies down, a 
quantity of organic debris begins to collect, and in course of time, 
affords a suitable nidus for the growth of shrubs and forest trees. 
If it were not for the lalang, the afforestation of such waste land would 
take a very long time indeed. But unfortunately lalang is very treach- 
erous to get rid off, and is very fatal to the growth of young plants. 
There are very few tree seedlings, that can survive in the struggle for 
existence. Even such hardy trees as the coconut palms become sallow 
and sickly and eventually stunt and die. Para Rubber trees make a 
brave struggle, and if there is enough humus in the soil, soon outgrow 
the lalang, and if closely planted may force the latter to die out on 
account of the shade. 
The method of stamping out the lalang must be carried out 
systematically. As soon as an acre or so of the land has been 
ploughed, holes 3' x 3’ are dug out at about 20' intervals, and filled 
with manured humus, the seeds of labu — the bottle gourd, or of 
other species of quickly growing acucurbita are sown. The young 
plants quickly spread all over the ground. In the meantime, the 
ground is turned up a second time, the stems of lalang being thrown 
up, collected and burned. 
In a couple of months, the gourd has flowered and withered away. 
Again, the land is hoed, and then as a rule some atropaceous plant 
such as chillies or egg-plants are planted in beds. The ground is 
by this time well freed of lalang, and is scrupulously weeded. The 
young plants, replanted usually from a nursery, are manured with a 
diluted mixture of ripened excreta and water daily or thrice weekly, 
