AGRICULTURE IN MALACCA. 
714 
I consider that each cooly, if stimulated by a promise of a few 
dollars at the expiration of his period of servitude, would be able 
to raise at least 36 dollars worth of annual plants, and twelve 
men at this rate, would raise 432 dollars at the end of the year. 
Dr Oxley, who has had considerable experience of the working 
of labourers of all nations in the Straits, observes,* “it is surprising 
how much better the Chinese work when they are paid by the task 
rather than the day, and singular enough they are better content, 
working harder and earning less by the former system than the 
latter. Few labourers in the world can equal them, when working 
on their own account, but on regular wages they are most complete 
eye servants: they are however, upon the whole, the best class of 
field labourers.” This trait in the Chinese character is so well 
known by their own countrymen in the Straits, that they seldom 
employ them in any speculative undertaking without giving them a 
small share. 
Of the above amount, I propose that about one-third should be 
given to the Overseer, to induce him to keep the men under him to 
their work; which with the promise made to the Coolies would 
amount to nearly 200 dollars, leaving a profit of about 2o0 dollars 
to be deducted from the yearly expense for the period of four 
years, thereby reducing the total expenditure of seven years to 
2,000 dollars. At the end of the fourth year no more vegetables 
ought to be cultivated, but the growth of innoxious grasses ought 
to be encouraged, as by the entanglement of their roots the lalang 
seeds are kept out of the soil j but as they are apt to insinuate 
themselves wherever they can find an opening, care must be taken 
to eradicate them whenever they may make their appearance. 
At this time also, a compost of cow-dung and burnt earth ought to 
be spread on the surface; a good portion of which must already 
have been washed into the soil by percolation, from the first 
burning of the jungle, and the subsequent cultivation of the 
intermediate spaces. 
I admit the great advantages resulting to the cocoanut trees 
from having the intervening spaces entirely unoccupied even by 
innoxious grasses, but the enormous expense attending such a mode 
of cultivation, with the existing feeling against agricultural 
speculation in Malacca, renders the undertaking impracticable 
to any but foreign capitalists, and of these we have none, and 
probably never will have so long as Singapore offers a temptation 
to mercantile pursuits, f 
* Journal Indian Archipelago V. II. page 651. 
t The Cocoanut begins to bear at the end of the seventh year, but full crops can¬ 
not be expected until the ninth year. During this interval the utmost average 
quantity that can be expected will not exceed 25 nuts yearly, and assuming a planta¬ 
tion of 12o acres, at 3o feet, to contain 5,8oo trees, the number ot nuts produced 
will only be 145,ooo, which at eleven dollars per thousand is 1,595 dollars per 
S 19 
