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reserved to the Crown. Nevertheless it has proved impossible to prevent the cutting of wild trees, which is encouraged by the high value of wood as fuel, and it is probable that in most areas the amount of wild trees has diminished since the Territories were taken over.
B.
I.-CROPS.
55. The population of the New Territories is for the most part agricultural, and rice forms the chief crop and the staple article of food. It is grown wherever sufficient water can be obtained, and the fields are laid out and irrigation channels constructed with extra- ordinary care and skill to utilise to the full the available supply of water. The rice is usually sown in March, and two crops obtained before November when the dry weather sets in, except in the case of rice grown in brackish water, of which only one crop is obtain- ed. There are three main qualities of rice, the best being grown on somewhat raised and therefore easily drained soil it is sent to Hongkong for export, as it fetches a higher price abroad than the Chinese will pay here. The 2nd and 3rd classes of rice are consumed locally or exported according to the state of the market; but the inhabitants of the New Territories now depend largely on foreign rice, which is cheaper and rather preferred to the local product.
56. The next crop in importance to rice is sugar-cane which is grown extensively in the North of the Territory. The cane grows to a height of from 8 to 10 feet and is cut down when ripe and the long stalks crushed in a mill, composed of two large, rough, round millstones revolving inwards, and worked usually by four oxen, two at each end of a large beam in the form of a yoke, the centre of which descends into the mill and makes it re- volve the oxen working this like a capstan; the sugar falls into a vat beneath, and the squeezed cane is sold to make torches, and as fuel. Some years ago, an up-to-date sugar- mill was supplied by Government to farmers in the New Territory in order to encourage the industry but it was rejected for the characteristic reason that it squeezed the cane too dry and thus spoiled it for further use.
57. Peanuts are grown in fields where there is insufficient water for rice, and fetch a fair price, chiefly for making oil. Barley is grown in small quantities and used in the manufacture of Chinese spirits: sweet potatoes are grown as a winter-crop on the rice fields, and also put in sometimes in place of peanuts when the latter fail.
58. Pineapples are grown on sheltered hillsides, almost entirely in the valley stretching up from Tsun Wan to Shing Mun, and on the island of Tsing I, opposite to Tsun Wan. This industry was taken up vigorously in the first few years of our administration, and there seemed reason to believe that a good demand for cauning the fruit would spring up. But this has not been realised and the demand from the canning firms in Hongkong and Macao has fallen off a good deal: while some of the land taken up has since been abandoned owing to the poorness of the soil. The area under cultivation for 1911 was about 340 acres compared with 450 in 1908.
59. Fruit-growing in the New Territories has not hitherto been successful or remunerative. The only business venture in this direction has been the experimental farin at Castlepeak, which was started by Mr. Li Pak soon after the New Territory was taken over. He im- ported a large stock of fruit trees from California,-apples, pears, lemons, peaches, etc., and spared no expense in putting the farm in order: but at no time during its career has it been a financial success, and the imported fruits have failed most of all. But the reason for this is perhaps not so much unsuitability of soil or climate as slack management and unskilled labour. The completion of the railway through the Territory has given an inducement to Hongkong capitalists to invest money in fruit growing round Fanling, and about 100 acres are now (May 1912) being planted with lichees, oranges, peaches and other fruit-trees.
60. There are besides a number of fruit trees, chiefly lichee trees, planted in and round many of the villages, which yield fruit of rather uncertain quantity and quality: besides lichees, there are a few oranges, limes, pumeloes, bananas, and mangoes. But these have suffered in nearly all cases from want of attention, and no serious attempt seem to have been made by the natives, previous to those mentioned above, to cultivate fruit with a view to supplying the Hongkong market.