828 
A GLANCE AT MINAHASSA, 
The roads are placed as suitably as possible, but on account of 
the country being intersected by mountains and ravines, many of 
them are not very easy, and great alterations would be required to 
improve them as means of transport. Although this would be a work 
of difficulty it is desirable that a commencement should be made. 
Although much of the produce is even now transported on horses, 
the greater part has to be carried by the mountaineers at a great 
cost of labour and time; sometimes a rupee has to be paid for the 
carriage of one or two gantangs of rice, and since the cultivators 
receive in value only 60 cents of a guilder for one gantang, it is easy 
to see what a heavy loss is entailed upon them. 
It would be desirable to introduce the use of carts here, and the 
greater part of the roads could easily be adapted for them. Even 
the mountain Itnpong, which was formerly considered impassable on 
horseback, has already been crossed by the writer and others with 
carraiges and horses to and from Tomohon. 
For greater exactness we here subjoin a table of the distances 
between the capitals of the different districts, compiled from the 
latest survey. 
Vegetable Productions , 
The vegetable kingdom undoubtedly still presents a wide field for 
research. We shall however limit ourselves to some subdivisions 
of this field, the knowledge of which we have gained by experience, 
and begin with the cacao. 
Cacao . — This product is cultivated in the highlands, but mostly 
on the coasts. The plantations of it are even now considerable, and 
this branch of industry only requires not to be impeded by any ob¬ 
stacles, in order to be still further extended. It forms a large in¬ 
gredient in the trade, and furnishes many petty traders with their 
daily bread, not to speak of the landowners for whom the cultivation 
of the cacao affords the only subsistence. The preparation of this 
product here differs from that in the West Indies, and as the writer 
has some acquaintance with the last, he will make it his first exam¬ 
ple, in order that by so doing he may also adapt it for the Euro¬ 
pean market. We may reckon that 1,200 to 2,000 piculs of 125 
pounds are yearly produced ; the prices vary much ; being from 50 
to 75 florins. 
Coffee is an article which must be delivered by the inhabitants 
to the government exclusively at 12 copper florins per picul of 125 
