711 
AGRICULTURE IN MALACCA. 
lions, I think they must, for the present, be left to capitalists whose 
enthusiasm has not been damped by witnessing former failures—- 
w'ho are not sparing of their purse, and have strong nerves to 
persevere in an expensive mode of culture, though it should end, 
as in the case of nutmegs, in the disappointment of finding after 
a five or six years labour and expectation, that nearly one-half the 
number of his trees are male, and must be cut down. The object 
of these pbservations is to show that planting in Malacca, upon a 
moderate scale, with a certain return of produce, is within the reach 
of many, provided certain indispensable requisites are attended to, 
especially during the earlier periods when the expenses are more felt 
than when the plantations are beginning to assume a thriving aspect. 
Supposing then that a speculator intends to open a plantation, 
the principal thing that ought to be attended to is a good locality, 
and one which may be approached by a road, kept in constant 
repair; for where a bad road interposes, a distance of a few miles 
is practically as bad as a distance of twenty or thirty. 
Having overcome this primary difficulty, and supposing that the 
intended planter purposes opening a cocoanut plantation, he should 
make a choice of a gently sloping or level surface, with a portion 
of swampy land in its vicinity, having sufficient inclination to carry 
off the water should the land require, draining. The swampy land 
should form a part of his lease, as he might require it, but if he should 
not, it would still be necessary in order to ensure the settlement of 
a peasantry in his neighbourhood. Land near a running stream 
should be preferred, as in localities where there are extensive swamps 
and no free egress, there often arise heavy pernicious vapours which 
steal along the surface of the adjacent grounds, and cause endemic 
fevers, especially of the intermittent and putrid kinds; running 
waters, on the contrary, purify the air and are of great advantage 
for cattle during the dry season when the fields are generally all 
parched up. 
In clearing his land the planter should preserve some of the 
large fruit or timber trees, at irregular distances, and with sufficient 
brushwood around each to prevent its being burnt, when the clear¬ 
ing is set fire to. These will serve not only as shelter to the 
labourers from the heat of the sun, but some useful purposes after¬ 
wards ; besides they will impart a picturesque appearance 
to the plantation. He should select a light soil, because the 
labour of working stiff land is very great, independent of other 
disadvantages. Marshy lands, ought not to be selected for a co¬ 
coanut plantation jfor independent of their unsightly appearance, 
and the great expense and length of time required to fill them up, 
the want of a perfectly free outlet for the stagnant waters which 
saturate and poison the soil, renders the trees susceptible of attacks 
from the beetles which eventually destroy them, it being a notorious 
fact in Indian arboriculture that only the roots of unhealthy trees 
