7 
6. Owing to the unusually heavy rainfall (175 inches), the maintenance of roads 
and paths has been an important labour item, and for the same reason it has also been 
an unfavourable season for a great number of flowering plants. Cannas, which are 
grown in large masses, have, however, been very fine during the whole year. Their 
principal requirements being dm abundance of water and manure, the past season has 
suited them admirably. 
7. The area of land in connection with this Garden available for experimental 
agricultural work is too limited to admit of work being done on a sufficiently large scale. 
8. The seedling sugar-canes mentioned in my last annual report have made 
satisfactory progress, but, owing to want of suitable ground in which to plant them, 
the greater number, when about a foot high, were handed over to the Managers of the 
Caledonia and Prye Sugar Estates. Unfortunately the weather set in dry soon after 
those at Prye were planted, and a great many died. 
Of those planted out in the Nursery here — about 600 plants in all — there were very 
few losses, and the growth has been rapid. 
The first lot of 300 plants were planted out on the 15th February, that is, when 
just three months and ten days old. 
In August, 2,000 canes, from ten to fourteen feet high, were cut from this lot for 
further trial on the estates to which the seedlings were sent. About fifty stools of 
those judged to be the most promising and showing the greatest amount of variation 
were allowed to remain for the purpose of obtaining seed, but up to the present, and 
they are now almost a year planted, there are no signs of flowers. The seeds were 
all from a purple cane, known here as the “ Borneo," but the progeny are of various 
colours, a good number being green ones. Scarcely one is exactly typical “ Borneo/' 1 
although, as regards foliage, all bear more or less evidence of their parentage. Fuller 
details are given in a paper which will appear in the next Agricultural Bulletin. 
9. In order to test practically the time required to grow a crop of ramie from 
seed, a sowing was made on the 12th February, on a carefully prepared bed of light 
soil with protection from sun and rain. The seeds were covered very lightly, and, 
considering the quantity sown did not germinate freely. On the 2nd March the 
young plants were from four to six inches high, and at the end of that month they 
were planted out in beds two feet apart. The first cutting was made in the middle 
of August, or just exactly six months from the time the seeds were sown. Two 
months later they were ready to be cut again, and with an adequate supply of manure 
and water this may be taken as the average time ( i. e ., every two months ) at which 
cuttings may be made. 
We have in cultivation three very distinct varieties, but none of them produce ins 
our soil clean long stems, unless liberally manured. The conclusion I have come to 
is that ramie will have to be cultivated as highly as sugar-cane, and that the idea 
that it can be grown as a paying crop on poor land unsuited for anything else is 
entirely wrong. Selection of the right variety is also a point to which intending 
planters should pay particular attention. 
10. The soil of this Garden is by no means the kind that I should choose for 
planting Para rubber, as it is dry and gravelly, but there are a few trees here that 
were planted in 1886. The largest of these has a girth of about thirty-six inches 
at three feet from the ground, and as many inquiries were received respecting the 
quantity of rubber to be obtained from a tree, &c., this one was tapped as an 
experiment in June. The first day's collection yielded only half an ounce, but 
by renewing the cuts on seven subsequent occasions, one pound of dry rubber 
was obtained, being an average of two ounces for each time. This is very poor, 
compared with the results obtained in Singapore and in Perak, but, as I have 
■ already mentioned, the tree is growing in unsuitable soil, and the weather was at the 
time very wet. The climate appears to suit this tree, and the only important item of 
expenditure after a plantation is once established is the cost of collecting. 
Many applications for seeds were received, but our whole crop consisted of 
about six hundred seeds only. 
Seeds should be planted as soon as ripe, as they retain their vitality for only 
about a fortnight. If planted as soon as ripe, they germinate in about 12-14 days. 
An attempt to propagate this tree from cutting was not a success. 
n. Plants and seeds in about the same proportion and numbers as in previous 
years have been exchanged with the various Botanic Gardens and Societies with 
which we are in correspondence, but the number of pot-plants sold is greater than in 
any previous year, the total receipts from this source being $916.96, which has been 
paid into Revenue account. 
