6i 
-economical. As satisfying these conditions, the Malays of Negri Sembilan 
are an almost ideal peasantry. Their method of cultivation is excellent, they 
preserve their ancient habits and traditions, and they are satisfied with 
very little- In no Malay State that I know of could a more interesting and 
instructive statistical report upon Malay cultivation be drawn up. 
In Malacca, where the Malays are good cultivators and much attach- 
ed to their fields, cultivation is only one of a man's means of livelihood. 
The Malacca Malay is extravagant and accustomed to live well ; he could, 
in few cases, afford to live as he does without earning money by fishing, 
trading, carting goods for hire, wood-cutting, day-labour for Chinese, &c. 
The same may be said of the Malays of Penang and Province Wellesley 
and of some places in the Protected Native States. 
(5)— Smallness of profits derivable from paddy planting as com- 
pared W it! Other hinds of agriculture.- — 'While Chinese of the poorer 
class will embark energetically in market -gardening, gam bier and pepper plant- 
ing and other kinds of agriculture, they are hardly ever found, in the Straits 
Settlements, earning a livelihood by growing rice. T hat Chinese look on 
paddy-planters with contempt, as Colonel Low declares, is no doubt true. 
They regard it as a poor sort of trade by which only the most frugal pea- 
sants can earn a living. A Chinese in Johor, asked why he did not grow 
rice, said that he would rather be a coolie on $7 a month than make his 
living by cultivating a paddy-field. Chinese of the moneyed class are willing 
enough to trade in grain by making advances to Malay cultivators on 
condition of buying the crop, or a large proportion of it, at a cheap rate, but 
they seldom take up land for rice cultivation, and never embark in this kind of 
agriculture on a large scale. Were they accustomed to do so, the Malay 
paddy-planter would no doubt be gradually edged out of this, the only in- 
dustry that remains to him, by the ever-encroaching Chinaman. It is to be 
noticed that only one instance of Chinese rice farming is mentioned in the 
reports received from the Native States. The District Officer, Kuala 
Kangsa (Mr. Butler), mentions an “experiment”, on “a few acres”, by 
one KONG Leng, whom he thinks “ should be assisted by Government,” 
if he carries out his intention of planting more extensively. 
A well-known Mohammedan capitalist in Singapore (Saiyid Moham- 
med Alsagoff) made an experiment in rice-cultivation recently on a 
moderately large scale, at Kukub in Johor. He put three hundred 
Javanese on a piece of land (total area unknown) which had been pre- 
viously partially cleared for tobacco planting and though the enterprise was 
not unsuccessful it was not considered to be sufficiently remunerative to 
be persisted in . 
In the first year the crop was an entire failure, the seed, which had 
been obtained from the Madras Presidency, proving to be quite unsuitable. 
In the second year seed-corn procured from Malacca was used and a good 
crop was obtained. The following is the profit and loss account : — 
Wages of 300 Javanese at $5 a month each for 6 months,... $ 9,000.00 
Seed-corn, 35 pikuls * ... ... ... ... ... 37-5° 
Felling and clearing at $9.50 for each man employed, ... 2,850.00 
Total expenditure,... $11,887.50 
Receipts — 21 1 koyans of paddy at $60 per koyan , ... ... $12,660.00 
Net profit,... $ 772.00 
In the third year paddy cultivation was abandoned and the land planted with 
coco-nuts. 
* Paddy is measured by the gantang (ij gallon nearly}, or the parah (io gantangs), 800 gantangs making 
one koyan of 43 pikuls weight. 
4 chupahs — I gantang 
16 gantangs = 1 nali 
10 nalis, or 160 gantangs= 1 kuncha ' 
5 kunchas = 1 koyan. 
One koyan of rice weighs about 6,033 lbs. avoirdupois and is nearly equal to 1,044 bushels. 
