August i, 1883.J 



THE TROPICAL AGKlCULTUKliJl', 



145 



PLANTING ACTIVITY IN THE WEST. 



Jlr. D. Morris's paijer read before the Royal Colonial 

 Institute made very plain the revival of planting 

 activity in the tropical West, notably in Jamaica 

 and in the splendid but hitherto comparatively un- 

 known lauds of British Honduras. A good deal of 

 this revival is due to Mr. Morris himself, for we 

 (in Ceylon) well know his keen interest and marvel- 

 lous energy in promoting Tropical Agriculture and 

 Economic Botany, and in this connection we cannot 

 help saylug tliat but scant justice has been done 

 Mr. Morris for what he, at least honestly and earn- 

 estly, tried to do for the Ceylon planters in con- 

 nection with the Coffee Leaf Disease. We are apt 

 to forget in the disappointment that ensued that, 

 practically, Mr. Morris was at work for only some 

 tlu-ee months on this subject, two of these being 

 months taken from his engagement in Jamaica. 

 Remembering the difficulties he had to contend with in 

 opening the campaign, that the conditions of the disease 

 as we now know, are greatly afi'ected by seasons, and 

 that Mr. M orris's description and terms may very poss- 

 ibly have been misunderstood, we think there is reason 

 for hesitating to condenm Mr. IMorris and his work 

 even in this direction in Ceylon. In other re- 

 spects, we need not say that Mr. Morris did an 

 abundance of good work here ; but he has had more 

 power and greater scope in Jamaica under a C4ovei-nor 

 so enlightened and progressive as Sir Arthur 

 Musgrave. In spite of what the West Indian Com- 

 mittee and others in London who clamour for every- 

 thing in the interest of the sugar planters and nothing 

 for "new products," we are assured that Sir Anthony 

 is admitted to be the best Governor Jamaica ever 

 had. We certainly know nothing in Ceylon of "con 

 signee's lien " and the many influences which op- 

 pose encouragement to " new industries " in the 

 West Indies. A Governor who dares to speak out 

 and to act independently incui's the most inveterate 

 opposition of the holders of vested sug.ir interests 

 who are resident in London and whose sole object is 

 to maintain the slaUi.i quo as regards the sugar industry, 

 to devote all available labour to this and this alone, 

 and to sacrifice everything else to "sugar"! 



After leaving Jamaica lately Mr. Morris visited 

 the United States on his way to Europe, and he is 

 now, we suppose, busy over his special mission to 

 St. Helena, on which lie has been asked to prayae 

 a report with reference to its capabilities for cincliona 

 and other "new products." After this is done, 

 Mr. Morris returns to continue the important work 

 lie lias in liand in the tropical West. At the dis- 

 cu.«sion which followed the reading of his Paper, 

 testimony to the value of that work was borue by 

 one e.\-C'eylon planter, we find (irom Colonies and 

 India,) in" the following terms: — 



"Mr. K 0. Haldank : I am an old Ceylon planter 

 who lately paid a visit to Jamaica, and was much 

 struck with what I saw thc-e, especially in the cult- 

 ivation of cinchoniv and cofiee, products with which 

 I have been pugagi'd for a good many yi'ars ot my 

 life. Mr. Mnrr 3 ii.as done me tin- honour to alhidu 

 to a few reniaiks wliicli I lately made to him in a 

 letter I can say thaf the cinchona I saw in Jamaica 

 was p;rhaps the finest I have ever seen ; and iln-re 

 is room un the Blue Mountains of Jamaica to pi-oducf 

 thi- "100,0 acres cf cinchona" which some gentleman 

 sa-d has not yet been sren anywhere. But I have 

 been something like .'jO.OtlO acres of it ; and why 

 Jamaica should not have its 100,000 acres in time I 

 19 



cunnot tell. One of the chief products of Jamaica 

 which has not been alluded to at any great length is 

 colTee. The climate and soil for cotl'ee are snuply 

 perfect, and there is still a considerable a'noaut of 

 virgin land to be had, and the nsual plagues ol the 

 coffee planters are there unknown. The Blue .Mount- 

 am coHee is the finest sample of coffee I have ever 

 seen. I lately brought home a little from the estate 

 of Sir Anthony Musgrave, and showed it to some 

 gentlemen in the city, one a Ceylon merchant, another 

 a Ceylon planter of great experience, and the other 

 was a South Indian planter, and they told me they 

 had never seen anything to equal it, as it was a larger 

 and bolder bean of finer colour than any they had 

 met with befere. A remark was made by Mr. Ohlsou 

 about a friend of mine who is opening land on the Blue 

 Mimutains, and who found great; difficulty in obtaining 

 labour. Two mouths ago, when I left Jamaica, he 

 said it was quite heart-breaking to find the negroes 

 refuse to worl; for him; however, lately I had a letter, 

 by which I learn that, after thinking the matter over, 

 the negroes had come to him with a rueh, and he is 

 able to obtain a hundred men a day. Clearing laid 

 is always expensive ; in Ceylon, where labour is cheap, 

 in axeman laade "is. 6cl. a day, and a man who does 

 auch hard work is entitled to good pay. After all, it 

 ss a primary charge, which, once done, has not to be 

 done over again. I must fay I would like to have 

 seen some coolies on a Jamaica property ; \ierhaps 

 because I have been accustomel to them, and bke 

 them as labourers. I have travelled a good deal m 

 the world, and seen other countries besidu Jamaica 

 and Ceylon, aud I think that in no British Colony is 

 there the same opening for a man with small capital 

 say, 1,000^. to G,0O0i, provided he is steady and en- 

 ergetic, that there is in Jamaica. (Hear, hear.") 



AGRICULTURE IN REMOTE DISTRICTS OF 



CEYLON : FROM BINTENNA TO 



MONARAGALA. 



About 10 years ago I went to Bintenna on a shoot- 

 ing expedition with a few friends. It was very shortly 

 after the Huraborawewa tank was r stored, and I 

 expected to see some efforts had been made in the ex- 

 tension of paddy cultivation aud nhere jungle once 

 stood and all vt-as wild aud unprndnctive, " the wilder 

 ness would blossom as the rose.' 



I have been down again, and I see no progress, unless 

 it be that a portion of the dagoba has fallen away 

 and most of the palmyra trees are go-ie, which were 

 once a feature of tliese parts. It seems a great pity 

 that some kind of patriarchial pressure cannot be 

 broncht to bear upon the natives in outlying distiicts 

 to take the place of the stronger meaus in force be- 

 fore tVe English took Ceylon, for wherever J go 

 far awaj from Govirnmeut centres it appears to 

 me that Ceylon is poing backward. The palmyra 

 palm in Soiiihcru India is becoming a great suuice 

 of wealth to the natives, and large quantities of 

 ia">'ery are being exported to Europe, t > be rellticd and 

 cnn'vertcd into white loaf sugar. Clienaing goes on 

 pretty biiskly, around Bintenna, and sureiv is would It> 

 no gieat troub'.c to a cultivator to ilaiic a IVw p J 

 mvi°R at the s..me "me that liesows hts kniou.- .n, ar.ii 

 m.any of tl'.cse Hould fc time bocem-^ dets. is tlicr 

 no way "f n'war-.ing the best and mo-.l ci • ^ 

 headmen, so as to induce at least a re|.lac< mi-ui n ,ii. 

 existing perennial trees which are funu >ear to j.ar 

 becomin" fewer? Sir Hercules Uohiuson «a.- quite right 

 when lie spoke of the indohnce of the nalivt, yet ilie 

 native oau and do'S work when cucour.aj;od and uffici- 

 ent pressure is brought to bear upon him. Doubt- 



