October i, 1S83.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



29s 



this new industry, and gave it so firm a footing that 

 growers, in sjjite of plain figures being placed before 

 them, and the oi)iniou of grocers and respectable agents 

 in England, still cUng to the trade in chips with a bUnd 

 tenacity. Owing, it is said, to this estate being purchased 

 with borrowed capital, the recent low price of cnmamou, 

 and the prodigality of a member of the old man's family, 

 the condition ut this place has been going from bad to 

 worse, till one sees acres and acres of once fine cinnamon 

 quite' snuffed out. ^^'hat remains is quite stunted m 

 growth, the result of long-continued neglect. Some agree- 

 ment was lately entered into by which the creditor or 

 his agent, either took over the property or advanced 

 money for its working; but up to date no appreciable 

 ihtfer'ence m the state of the estate is to be seen. 



Next in onler comes the estate once belonging to 

 Arbuthnot & Co., and till lately superintended by Jlr. 

 Raoul Piachaud of Goluapokuna. When this estate was 

 for sale seven or eight years ago, offers, it is said, were 

 made for it reaching up to £16,000. The agents were 

 willing to close at this figure, when Mr. Piachaud wrote 

 valuing the place at £18,000. Offers rose till Messrs. Loos, 

 Staples and Wijeyesekere took over the property at that 

 figure. This was' during the time of high prices— when 

 there were instances of gambling in cinnamon lands. 

 Before, it is said, the money was paid down, the present 

 owners offered £21,000, and so became the purchasers of this 

 fine property. So that the other three each received £1,000 

 simply for then: pluck in offering £18,000 for it. This es- 

 tate does not seem to be quite so energetically worked 

 now as before, probably owmg to continued low prices for 

 cinnamon. 



Still another instance of high price for cinnamon land. 

 A choice 100 acre block of the first noticed Galla estate 

 was bought 6 or 6 years ago at the rate of K850 the 

 acre. This fine compact property and the Ekele estate, 

 which belonged to the late Mrs. Drieberg, are perhaps 

 the most carefully-worked cinnamon estates in the Island. 

 The Planter-Proprietor is a firm and consistent believer 

 in high cidtivatiou, and, notwithstanding depressed times, 

 these properties are as clean as a well-kept garden and 

 attract the attention of every passer-by. You may re- 

 member having taken over lately from the Ohsevvei- a 

 para, written by a man from the hills, who had gone to 

 the Jaela resthouse for a change, and who in his walks 

 passing these properties was struck with their order, as 

 regards weeding and pruning. His experience is the ex- 

 perience of every passer-by. Mr. Drieberg received his first 

 training as jilanter on a coffee estate of the Messrs. Eudd, 

 under Mr. Forbes Lamie. On his mother purchasing Ekele 

 estate from the estate of the late JNIrs. Raymond, he went 

 up to serve his apprenticeship under Mr. Piachaud. As 

 after results shew, the training he got was useful. The 

 cinnamon of these estates, as can be seen by the pub- 

 lished price lists, comes thud in order, Goluapokuna and 

 Mr. Rajapakse's cinnamon being first and second ; but, as 

 I said in my last, they obtain a special-quality of cinnamon 

 by paying special prices. While there I saw the cinnamon 

 Mr. Drieberg was preparing for the Show, and I think he 

 can safely challenge the world to beat the samples, seeing 

 that the cinnamon cidtivation is confined almost exclusively 

 to our tight little Island. Although he did not get the Gold 

 iledal at the Exhibition, he fully deserved it, and he has 

 the satisfaction of knowing that the syiiipathies of the pub- 

 lic are entirely with him. WhUe on this subject I thing it 

 not fair to Exhibitors that those sending exhibits should 

 sit in judgment on what they send. Perhaps you may 

 be aware that Mr. Drieberg was the Gold Medalist at the 

 previous Show, and was awarded the Gold Medal at the 

 I.Ielbourue Exhibition together with Mr. Rajapakse. 



"RTiile at Mr. Drieberg's bungalow, an old peeler with 

 recollections of the Dutch period dropped in. He recounted 

 his expei-ience as a peeler urder t'.io Dutch rule. There 

 were no regidar gardens then, and <-inuamon grew in the 

 jungles. A° census of the peeler population was kept, and 

 every hea'! of a family Wiis ordered to deliver at the 

 Government stores a certain qiwntity of cinnamon annually, 

 the cinnamon to be cut from wherever it was growing on 

 Government or on private lands. At the appointed time 

 the village Headman w.is to accompany the peelers with 

 thi i, cinnamon to Colombo, when each man's cinnamon 

 was weighed and taken over. The poor untortunates who 

 from idleness or any other cause, deUvered a quantity less 



than that ordered, were pubUcly whipped at GaUe Face, 

 ladies being assembled at tha " upstau- house to 



"'SiT DutehS^'he requirements of the outside market 

 and aU the cmnamon they had in store beyond r.-quire- 

 mentswasbmut. (A lesson for cinnamon growers of the 

 present day on scraping chips.) It is not to be supposed 

 the old mL said, that this compulsory labour was done 

 gratuitously. Each of the registered families received a 

 f^ishel of rice, a measure of s,,lt and 7s. i,A n.or^W^ 

 With a chuckle, and an attempt at a twinkle of his 

 now siahtless eves, the old man related how they, the 

 peLi^mad^ ea'pHLl of their calling. Enjoying as it did 

 the monopoly in cinnamon, the Governmsnt watched aU 

 bushes wherever gi-owing with a jealous care and promptly 

 and severely punished all those guilty of destroying a 

 cinnamon bush, even those on private lands. .)Vlienever a 

 man felled a piece of jungle to cultivate it, a peeler 

 would on the sly scatter a few branches of cmnamon on 

 the lan.l, .and go to his hut and charge the goiya with 

 wiUfuUv destro-ving a cmnamon bush, and as proof point 

 out to him the branches scattered on his newly-opened 

 land To pm-chase silence, and save himself pumshment 

 the frightened land-o^vner would give the man a bribe of 

 rice, coconuts, &c. So that a peeler in _ those days must 

 hav; been a privileged individual. This old man with 

 commendable foresight has provided for his f uneral wh ch 

 cannot be very far ofi', considering his great age, by having 

 a coflhi built for himself. He has also given the cus- 

 tomary dhana or almsgiving for the repose of his soul. 

 So that now all he has to do is to die. 



Learing Ekele, I drove along the Colombo road to the 

 Mahara Station. This fine road always admired for its 

 evtnness, is now in a most wretched state, and is a sue- 

 cession of ruts along both the wheel t^^^^s. Travelling as 

 I did in a hackery, it was tar trom comfortable. Just as 

 one wheel got out of a rut the other entered mto one, 

 °4^^g the hackery something of the motion of a pulper 

 sieve As a result, however forward I might be sittmg, 

 a ew itrks i^ught me to the back of the hackery, and 

 Lt Is I was about to be pitched out, I gathered myself 

 ind moved forward, only to go through the same move- 

 mentTagain. A^ this pitching-out process was going on 

 Sces^utlv you may gather I was pretty well slrakenbe- 

 foreThe turn to Mahara was reached. It sened me one 

 ^,od tmrn It made my liver, which was getting torpid, 

 aet ■ but the remedy was worse than the disorder. 



Between Jae^and the Mahara turn a good i.;^ cmnamon 

 estates are passed First in order comes Mr. De Breards, 

 ffinf c^omiSlittle property, which will not suffer m 

 anuearance or in the working, if ^^sIted oftener : but it is 

 3 to abound in snakes. Bolawatte, a fine property, 

 looked peculiar, as travellers along the road were able to 

 "over ook " the property, owing to the short gi'owth of the 

 cinnamon. There is' a wonderful change ,n ^"^^ ^^Vi'^^^f^^^^ 

 of ^e place now-it seems to be gi-owing. Kapu^xatfe is 

 an estate in which cinnamon and coconuts are gi-own to- 

 gether The misuitability of the land to grow the products 

 together is cleariy indicated by the sickly yellow colom- of 

 thI coconut branches. The local agent of the former 

 owner of this property is said to have ^--"'"^ ^/^f ^^^^* 

 proprietors at a figm-e lower than othr r* offered for it. the 

 li^t barm done to valuable properties ni the hands of g eedy 

 lessees is shewn in the weedy state of this place. ^V elsara 

 estate too looks neglected. Mahara being reached and my 

 notes ended, I must say good-bye.-C'.,-. " Ceylon Examiner. 



* — — 



COFFEE CULTURE IN .JAVA AND BRAZIL. 

 {As discussed in the India Mercury.) 

 An observation in reference to the article " Brazilian 

 and .Java Coffee " by Mr. Ed. Lemos, appearing m the 

 - Uacmeen II and el shI ad, 19th July 1883. , , , , 



T e very comprehensive article will no doubt have ex- 

 cited the curiosity of all, who directly or mdire^ctly a.e 

 concerned in the coffee-culture in the Dutch ^'f-^-^f^ 

 I S ve mnny readers will be glad to know, what data 

 conceridng Netherlands Ind.a c.-m be place! ag.inst tho.e. of 

 B, ,7« As far as they regard the private Coffej^culla e 

 fn East J.va. I .am acquainted with them,-and ,vill readily 



■■^'tl^lastem-.Java there were on January 1st 18S3 



