3 2 
REPORT BY THE SENIOR DISTRICT OFFICER, KLANG, 
ON PADI CULTIVATION. 
Government Secretary. 
1. I have given this matter careful inquiry and thought, and it strikes me that 
nothing but very tempting State help will encourage or incite the people here to take 
an interest in the cultivation of a product, the success of which is very precarious. In 
a comparatively newly opened up country, the seasons are irregular, and the enemies 
to cultivation of this nature great. Birds and wild pigs can, by combined and cheap 
efforts, be driven away; then comes the elephant which not only eats all he can, but 
destroys all on his way through a. field. 
2. Banana^, yams and vegetables are not dependent on season, to a certain 
extent require less care, are more productive, bring in quick returns, and are less open 
to the attacks of birds and animals than padi. In addition, when the land is cleared 
for cultivation of this sort all varieties of fruit plants can be put into it which do not 
interfere with the cultivation of the other products, and eventually a fine, valuable, 
fruit-yielding plantation is seen where a few years before only a yam or banana 
patch existed; our Malays, therefore, prefer this sort of cultivation. 
3. It takes six months before padi comes into bearing, during which time a padi- 
planter will have to maintain his family. At the lowest estimate it will take $4 a 
month to feed a Malay family, and the man must have $25 to commence with, to feed 
his family until his crop comes home. 
4. To start with, therefore, it is necessary to tempt our Malays to make a begin- 
ing, and I recommend ; — 
(1) — That he should be allowed to plant on the same terms formerly offered to 
gambier and pepper planters, that is, for three years, free of quit-rent. 
(2) — That a loan of $25 be given to each family-man wishing to plant padi, on 
the recommendation of the Penghulu, who should be held responsible for repayment 
of the loan, every year, for three years. 
5. I have recommended the loan for three years simply because it will take all 
that time on so small an advance, to get a. swamp into a regular sawah — first year, fell 
and burn; second, root up small stumps and heap for firing against hardwood and 
larger trees; and the third year, the land ought to be ready for the buffalo plough. 
6. Small advances to Malays and even Sakais have already been tried in the 
Klang District for padi-planting, and with careful supervision it has been found that 
no loss accrued to Government, and a large quantity of padi was produced. 
7. Irrespective of that taken kp by Sword & Mullinghaus, Messrs. Hill & 
Rathborne, and the Sago and Padi Co., I estimate that there are about 45,000 
acres of splendid land in the District still available for padi, which, with dams and 
sluices, could be converted into huge sawahs. 
8. Seed should be supplied to the planter free of cost, and I recommend a varie- 
ty of Java padi be supplied them the first year, which yields a crop in four months. 
C. H. A. TURNEY, 
Senior District Officer, Klang. 
joth December , i8gi. 
REPORT ON PAD! CULTIVATION IN THE DISTRICT OF KUALA 
LANGAT, DURING 1891. 
District Office, 
Kuala Langat , 4th January , 1892. 
Sir, — I have the honour to forward the Report called for in your letter No. 7 ^ T a . 
2. There may be said to be three kinds of padi cultivation : — 
i. Wet Padi. 
ii. Dry Padi. 
iii. Wet Ladang. . 
3. As to the first, I may at once say that at present there are no regular wet 
padi-fields [sawah] in the District, but at the same time it is only the padi which 
requires water that is grown. 
