150 
VIEW OF T1IE STATE OF AGRICULTURE StC, 
cotton on the island and considerable expence was incurred in gi ving 
it a fair trial. But the magnificent reports of coming crops sent to 
the Agricultural Society of Bengal, and the cheering reports of the 
London brokers to whom trifling samples had been sent, were doomed 
to a short life, for although the cotton plants of almost every known 
species were tried, and grew well, still they yielded but few pods and 
these were for the most part mildewed and consequently xot mer¬ 
chantable.* The fact is the climate is too damp generally for matur¬ 
ing a fibrous and delicate substance, requiring continuous dry and 
hot weather. 
But as has been already observed, agriculture has scarcely been in¬ 
troduced in the Straits. What little is done in planting is done with¬ 
out reference to art or science. The hoe is the implement in uni¬ 
versal use, slow and expensive, whilst the rapid and economical 
plough is wholly overlooked. Neither is the composition of manures 
attended to. But wherever fish, or bat-guano, or a dead horse or 
an old cow is to be readily got, it is carted to the field and immedi¬ 
ately applied as a fertiliser without admixture and decomposition 
with other nourishing substances, by which the quantity would be in¬ 
creased a hundred fold. 
The time is, however, fast approaching when enterprise and skill 
will reach the Straits. Its fertile soil, its rich and abundant tin and 
gold, its fine rivers opening extensive and frequent communication 
with the interior, the facility of obtaining cheap labor from India and 
China, and above all its temperate and very healthful climate will in¬ 
vite settlers, who, undertaking agriculture as a business, will avail 
themselves of the improvements of the day, and not let them re¬ 
main as now, a dead letter. 
* A full account of this attempt to introduce cotton would be highly va¬ 
luable. All such experiments, whether successful or unsuccessful, have a 
permanent importance, not only for the Settlements, but for the extensive 
adjacent countries which partake in similar general conditions of climate. 
—Ed. 
