( 36 ) 
placed in large heaps to ferment. The heaps are 
heavily weighted and the position of the hands 
changed about every 2 days. After about 8 to 10 
weeks the leaves will be cured and are then graded 
for the market. Each plant will yield usually from 
8 to 10 marketable leaves. 
General. — Apart from small areas planted by 
Asiatics (usually Javanese), little tobacco is grown 
in Malaya, that produced being generally of poor 
type, and prepared for smoking without having been 
fermented previously. The product is rank and 
strong but meets the requirements of the native 
consumers. 
The native growers state that they obtain a yield 
of about 3 pikuls of tobacco per acre, which is sold 
locally at from $90 to $100 per pikul. 
One of the advantages of growing tobacco in this 
country is the import duty, the present rates - in 
force being as follows: — 
Cigars and Snuff . . $ 1.20 per lb. 
Cigarettes . . 0.80 „ „ 
Native and Leaf Tobacco 20.00 ,, pikul. 
Other Tobacco . . 0.80 „ lb. 
There are good possibilities of extending the pro- 
duction of a low grade tobacco, but it is doubtful 
whether the development of this crop on a large 
scale would be a success. 
DERRIS (TUBA). 
( Derris spp.). 
The Malay “ tuba ” includes a large number of 
plants used as fish poisons, not necessarily belonging 
to the genus Derris ; two species namely Derris 
