advances, it would prove a profitable cultivation.  The rates of commission charged generally are as follows:—­Per picul of gambier, fifteen to twenty-five cents; per picul of pepper, thirty to forty cents; and if the price of the former is below one-and-a-half dollars, and the latter below three-and-a-half dollars per picul, a small reduction is made in the rates of commission.  On every picul of rice supplied to the planters twenty to twenty-five cents commission is charged; this includes the interest of money advanced, which is never charged.  A gambier and pepper plantation is valued or estimated at about 400 dollars on an average.  The following is supposed to be a correct estimate, on an average, of the yearly expenditure and returns of a gambier and pepper plantation of 500 fathoms square, viz:—­

EXPENDITURE.
drs. c. men. drs. c. 
Eight men at 31/2 dollars and 7 Java rupees per
month, wages for headman and labourers
respectively 22.70 12 272.40
Five piculs of rice, including commission, say 6.50 12 81.60
Fish, &c. 5 12 60.0
Boat or cart hire to carry rice and produce 13/4 12 21.0
------
435.0

PRODUCE.

170 piculs of gambier, valued at l dollar 45 cents per picul, less 15 cents commission chargeable, nett 221.30 —­ —–­ 70 piculs of pepper, at 41/2 dollars, less 40 cents per picul commission, nett 287.0 —­ 508.0

Yearly profit, 73 dollars, or about L15.

Several gambier and pepper plantations have been abandoned in Singapore, partly from the ground being impoverished, but more particularly from the exhaustion of the forest adjacent to their estates.  The exhaustion of the trees by yearly consumption deprives the planters of the necessary fire wood which is used for the boiling down of the gambier.  A gambier plantation gets exhausted in fifteen years, either from the want of firewood or the land getting impoverished.

There are about 200 plantations at Johore, and the produce of gambier for the season of 1851 was calculated at 30,000 piculs.

This shrub was, at one period, cultivated with success at Pinang and other places to the eastward, but as Java was the principal market for the produce, and the Dutch had levied a duty of twelve Java rupees per picul on it, the cultivation at the former island did not repay its cost, and it was accordingly abandoned.  Prices have been lately advancing, and the Chinese are talking of trying it again.  The plant is partial to hilly land or slopes at the skirts of hills.  Two hundred plants are usually placed on one orlong of land, being six feet asunder.  They are raised from seed, and are topped to eight or ten feet, when the gambier is to be prepared.  The Chinese dry the seed slightly, and sow in rainy weather.