510 
AGRICULTURE OF SINGAPORE. 
satisfactory that there appears no probability of the experiments 
being repeated. It would be instructive if those planters who have 
tried Coffee, Cotton, and Cacao would place on record the results 
of their attempts to introduce the cultivation of these plants. Of 
Sugar cane we say nothing because one of the only two plantations 
that have ever been formed still exists, and we see a new chimney 
rising in Pyah Lebar. 
The soil is much more varied than it was supposed to be in 
former years, and so far from consisting entirely of decomposed 
sandstone and clay iron ore, contains a plutonic tract of about 60 
square miles, and another in which shales predominate (ante Voh 
II p. 100, 140 &c.). The following is extracted from a paper on 
the Geology of the Straits of Singapore presented by us to the 
Geological Society: 
Although the soils of the district have not the fertility of the 
volcanic and calcareous soils which occur in many parts of the 
Indian Archipelago, they are covered with an indigenous vegetation 
of great vigour and luxuriance, supporting numbers of animals of 
different species. The hills of plutonic rock support dense and 
continuous forests composed of more than 200 species of trees*, 
many of which are of great size. So long as the iron is not 
in such excess as to recompose the clay into stone or render 
it hard, those soils which contain most iron are most fertile. The 
purely or highly felspathic are the worst. But even felspathic soils, 
when intermixed with a sufficient proportion of quartz, are, in this cli¬ 
mate, capable of producing an abundant vegetation. Although it is 
obvious to every observer that there is no kind of soil in the 
district for which nature has not provided plants that flourish 
luxuriantly in it, yet it must not be hastily concluded, as some have 
done, that this exuberant vegetation indicates a general fertility in 
the soil. It is found, on the contrary, when the native plants are 
destroyed and the land is employed for agriculture, that there are 
very few soils in which cultivated plants not indigenous to the region, 
but whose climatic range embraces it, will flourish spontaneously. 
While the cocoanut, betelnut, sago, gomuti and the numerous 
Malayan fruits succeed well with little care, the nutmeg and clove 
are stunted and almost unproductive, unless constantly cultivated 
and highly manured. Yet the climate is perfectly adapted for 
them. Place them in the rare spots where there is naturally a 
fertile soil, or create one artificially, and the produce is equal to 
that of trees in the Molucca plantations. With respect to indige¬ 
nous plants, gambier, pepper and all the fruit trees flourish on the 
plutonic hills, provided they are not too deficient in iron and quartz. 
The hills of violet shale, where they are not too sandy, are equal 
to the best plutonic soils : those namely in which there is a sufficient 
proportion of hard granules to render them friable, and sufficient 
iron to render them highly absorptive of water without becoming 
* My list contains at present 217 trees but is not complete. 
