POSSESSIONS IN TIIE STRAITS OP MALACCA. 
149 
The forests of Singapore have been pretty well cleared of the tree 
which the Malays cut down in order to come at the milky substance 
which, when boiled in water, turns into this solid substance, and the 
same imprudent and reckless people are now ransacking the woods 
of the Peninsula with every prospect of destroying the last remnant 
of the tree before long.* 
Many specimens of other products of mtertropical regions are to 
be seen in a thriving condition in the Straits, leading to the conclu¬ 
sion that if attended to on a large scale, adequate qualities would he 
obtained. Coffee alone is said not to be remunerative, owing, as is 
alleged, to the wetness of the climate which keeps the tree in a bear¬ 
ing condition all the year round, thereby decreasing its productiveness. 
It is certainly true that the trees yield fruit with very short inter¬ 
missions throughout the year, hut how far this objection is valid is 
not so clear as the same objection might he made to nutmeg trees, 
which also are in constant bearing but nereitheless yield abundantly. 
It remains yet to be seen, what has not yet been tried in the Straits, 
whether the cultivation of coffee under the conditions required in 
other countries, viz: in rich virgin hilly soil and protected by the fo¬ 
liage of larger trees from the burning rays of a vertical sun will not 
give, more especially in the interior of Malacca, the returns usually 
obtained from the plant in other places.f The few trees planted 
here and there produce beautiful small blue beans, the quality the 
most in favour in commerce, winch makes it to be regreted that as 
yet no serious and well directed attempt has been made to cultivate 
it extensively. 
Sanguine expectations were at one time entertained of raising 
411 But sec the remarks ante vol I. p. 263 .—Ed. 
■f An experiment of the kind was made in Penang, and so long as the 
constant attention which such experiments require could be given, it was 
quite successful. The ultimate result is still uncertain. "We hope that our 
local readers w ill favour us with accounts of all such experiments. There 
is not a cultivated plant in the Straits of which the habits and culture have 
been fully described, and no contributions would be more interesting and 
useful than accounts of these. We are promised papers on the nutmeg and 
cocoanut, and wc hope all our other cultivated trees and plants will be suc¬ 
cessively described by gentlemen who have given their attention to them,— 
Ld. 
