THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



rjOLY I, 1886. 



returns a few acres of carciamoms ; the group of 

 estates which had the character of being the best 

 ill the district has dropped from 7.50 acres cultiv- 

 ated to 520, whilst one estate, which was con- 

 sidered a second-rate one in my time, has added 

 no acres to its cultivated area, and as 1 was told 

 the other day by one who ought to know, is far 

 the most valuable estate in the district, thanks to 

 good management. The ups and downs oi these 

 estates I suppose arc on a par with those of other 

 districts, and it is interesting to read the inform- 

 ation and to try to account for the difference 

 between then and now, whether bad management, 

 short funds or worn-out soil has most to answer 

 for. Although many old names arc wiped out of 

 tlie list of the estates, they are not singular in 

 this respect, for on reference to the list of Colombo 

 firms I find no less than twelve well-known and 

 well-to-do ones have been withdrawn. 



But these drawbacks do not appear to have 

 interfered with domestic arrangements, for I 

 find that the population of the island has 

 gone uj) 300,000 and this in spite of a 

 decrease of Tamil immigrants from 164,000 

 in 1876 to 45,000 in 1885. All the centres 

 of population appear to be adding to the 

 number of their inhabitants in a most marked 

 manner, except poor Galle, which has drop- 

 ped from 47,000 to .33,000.* Under the head- 

 ing " Occupations of the People," I find only 2,719 

 returned as coffee-pickers, and yet, ten years ago, 

 that number would have been attached to the 

 mills of one firm alone in Colombo — -but coffee 

 was King then. In the class called " landed pro- 

 prietors," there are entered 452 males and 1,525 

 females. This seems strange to me, but not more 

 strange than the fact that, in the commercial class, 

 there ajipears under " tavalam men," one female, 

 and that there are 47 female barbers in the island. 

 Woman suffrage will soon follow this, I fear ! ! 

 Reading a dictionary or a Directory is supposed 

 to be dry work — but, to any one, at all interested 

 in Ceylon, the reading of the " Ceylon Handbook 

 and Directory for 1885-86 " will be 7iot only agree- 

 able, but entertaining and instructive, 



Cos:\IOPOLITE. 



" THE CEYLON TEA PLANTER'S CATECHISM," 



Ought to be the title of the information collected 

 under the auspices of the Maskeliya Planters' As- 

 sociation when the same is republished in a com- 

 plete form with the questions and answers duly 

 following each other. Today we find room for the 

 very full summary sent us by special arrangement 

 with tlie Sub-Committee through the Honorary 

 Secretary, Mr. Welldon. We think that the thanks 

 of their brother-planters not only in jMaskeliya, but 

 throughout the island have been earned by the Sub- 

 Committee for the considerable amount of useful 

 practical information brought together in a concise 

 form in their summarizing Report. Could a better 

 illustration be afforded of the untiring, almost in- 

 satiable craving of the Ceylon planter for " more 

 light " in reference to every branch and detail of 

 his profession ? Here we have a body of men in one 

 district, — and that not the largest or most im- 

 portant in the island, — and although they have had 

 sc serai gentlemen of experien';e to leclure before 

 them, though they have had all the essays locally 

 published and all the practical books, we and others 

 have been able to introduce from India — from Moiicy's 

 l>rize essay to Dowhng's " Notes " ; from the Vade 

 Mecum to Brace's papers in our Handbooks for 

 1H74-5— yet, they are not content. They resolve 



* The liinilsof the to'-n h^. - h^ .-n circumscribed. 

 -F,l). 



to get at the diverse opinions of the men of most 

 repute in dift'erent parts of the island, as cultiv- 

 ators and makers of tea. They form a Sub- 

 Committee : draw up a series of questions : 

 have the same printed and circulated ; and 

 the result does not disappoint them. The 

 typical Ceylon planter is as ready to give as 

 to receive information, and although the Mas- 

 keliya catechism was laughed at in some quarters, 

 the result has fully justified the trouble taken, as 

 our columns testify today. The names of the 

 gentlemen who have furnished answers' based on 

 their own experience — apart from Mr. Barber's 

 special report — afford ample guarantee for inform- 

 ation of very considerable practical value, repre- 

 senting too a variety of districts at different ele- 

 vations and with differing conditions. Now it is 

 this spirit of enterprise and restless enquiry among 

 our planters that have justly earned for Ceylon her 

 high reputation in connection with the agricultural 

 industries carried on within the island. There is 

 nothing like it, at least in Northern India ; and 

 if so much has been done here almost at the very 

 outset of the enterprise to examine, check, simplify 

 and improve all the details of the cultivation and 

 management of the tea-bush, and the preparation 

 of the leaf, how much more may we not look for as 

 time rolls on? In Tea Machinery alone, how much of 

 invention and improvement is likely to be due to Cey- 

 lon planters. Full credit is given in the Report before 

 us, as to the — in some respects — unequalled position 

 attained by Jackson as a machinist, whether in his 

 Rollers, Driers, or Sieves, and if this leading patentee 

 succeeds with the Witherer he is now said to be busy 

 on, at home, he will indeed have i irnished a series of 

 machines of unique importance in the Tea-plant- 

 ing world. But it is undoubtedly encouraging to 

 learn how Ceylon planters and colonists are 

 following hard on the men of many years of 

 Indian experience: Barber's Roller is an illus- 

 tration, though it is said to owe much, very 

 much, to Thompson's "Challenge"; more local is 

 Frater's Uva Roller jiar e.rceJlence; and now we 

 have Kerr's improved roller, costing no more than 

 R350 ; while just as we write we hear that under David- 

 son's and Law's patent, a very serviceable Roller 

 nearly all in hard wood, jarrah perhaps — will 

 be offered for as low as price as R250, guaran- 

 teed to do all that is required on a small 

 garden and to give the utmost satisfaction in 

 the quality of its work. What Falrweather and 

 Megginson have done in the improvement of 

 Withering arrangements is duly noticed; and there 

 are several other suggestions both as re- 

 gards appliances, and the several modes of 

 plucking and manufacture which are certain to 

 arrest attention and to be subjected to the test of ex- 

 perience, or to searching criticism. 



One result mentioned is rather startling in the high 

 amount named for the cost of erection and fitting up 

 of a suitable Tea Factory, for a plantation of 200 

 acres, namely R12,000 to R15,000. This, however, is 

 likely to be modified as time runs on. But what are 

 we to say to the force of 300 coolies required to work 

 200 acres of tea ? At this rate fir the 150,000 acres 

 likely to be un.ler tea before 1886 closes, we shall 

 have to provide a force of 225,000 coolies. Alto- 

 gether therefore in Ceylon, over 300,000 labourers 

 will be required on the plantations for tea, cacao, 

 coffee, cinchona, etc. and even with all the assist- 

 ance that Sinhalese may give, our draft on South- 

 era India must be greatly increased. We have no 

 doubt however, that it will meet with a full response 

 in due season. 



Altogether, it is very satisfactory to learn that 

 the Maskeliya Sub-Committee arrive at the con- 

 clusion that careful planters under average cir- 



