8 
The Agricultural Bulletin was published monthly, and continues to be in good 
The circulation has risen from 250 copies to 600. Several numbers of 
previous years having been sold out were reprinted. 
In one number a list of the palms cultivated in the Botanic Gardens 2^6 in 
number, was published with directions for cultivation. The list has been widely 
distributed to various gardens and establishments for exchange purposes. Since its 
publication several more palms including the new Pinanga acaulis and Borassus 
Machadoms have been added to the Gardens' collection which now numbers over 240 
Receipts and Expenditure of the Botanic Gardens , Singapore , for the year 1904, 
By balance in Bank- 
Government Grant 
By sale of Plants and Seeds 
$ c. 
614 42 
1 1 ,000 00 
4>779 4 1 
* 6-393 83 
Expenditure. § c . 
Salaries ... ... ... ... 6,190 90 
... ... ... 9,624 78 
Balan ee ... ... ... ... 57$ 15 
1 6,393 ^3 
Economic Gardens. 
A portion of the swampy low-lying ground along the Cluny Road which was 
partly cleared and stumped last year was finished and planted with Para rubber. 
Another large patch of ground formerly covered with scrub and Sago palms, was 
cleared and dug and planted with Sanseviera zeylanica , S. guineensis, S. cylindrica 
and S. Kirkii , together with Fourcroya gigantea and Musa textilis . 
There has lately been a demand for these fibre plants, which it is hoped may be 
extensively planted as a catch crop for Para rubber. An exhibition of fibres prepared 
by Mr. Schirmer, at the Agricultural Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, which attracted 
much attention, was prepared largely from fibres grown in the Botanic Gardens. 
Among the fibres thus exhibited were several different kinds of Sanseviera , Yucca, 
Agave americana, Fourcroya gigantea, Karat as Plumieri, Pandanus Raida. Pine-apple 
and Ramie. 
Experiments were made in the different methods of propagating Sansroieras by 
leaf-cuttings. 
The Ramie beds were re-dug and a fresh stock planted. 
. The cultivation of fibres in the Malay Peninsula has been too much neglected but 
it bids fair to occupy a more important position in the future. 
Cotton . — Owing to the urgency of cotton cultivation throughout the empire further 
attempts to cultivate cotton of various kinds under different circumstances were made. 
One hundred and nine varieties of cotton seed were received from the Director of 
Agriculture of India and three varieties from Jamaica, and one from Kew. The climate 
and soil of Singapore seems, however, quite unsuited for cotton culture, owing to the 
excess of rain, and the red-cotton bug, Dysdercus cingulatus , in spite of the use of 
insecticides destroyed nearly all the pods. 
Among other important economic plants introduced during the year was a set of 
fifteen kinds of Sanseviera received from Kew Gardens, some of which have too small 
leaves to be of use for fibre extraction, but several will probably prove valuable additions 
to the stock of fibre plants suited for cultivation on a large scale here. 
Carludovica Jamaicensis, the Ippe-appi, much used in Jamaica for making Panama 
hats and other such fabrics was obtained from Jamaica and is growing well. The 
true Panama hat plant Carludovica pahnata, of which a. number. of plants were planted 
out experimentally last year, have not grown as rapidly as might have been expected. 
