^64 



THE TI50PICAL AGRICULTURIST*. 



[Sept. i, i8S6. 



off a portion, for the advantage off the neighbouring 

 paddy fields. Such land I would drain from 400 

 to Suit yards per acre. The drains should be steep 

 cuo'.igh to keep themselves clear, rnuning di;i,goually 

 ucros.s the hills: they need not lie more than a few 

 inches deep. The drainage syslcin generally practised on 

 the tea estates is 140 yards per acre — 15 inches deep and 

 on the standard gradient of one in fifteen. It is 

 contended in favour of this system that the 1 in 15 

 exactly hits the point of I'reping the dniu free of silt 

 without wearing the bottoui and that drains 3;« feet 

 apart are sufficiently near to prevent surface ruts. 

 This may be true locally on many lovvcouutry estates, 

 but I have had to deal with soils where easier gradients 

 did not prevent bottom scouring nor more frequent 

 drains prevent surface ruts. 



It is the very foundation of what Monclare calls 

 his system, that the more water sinks into the land 

 the better for the planter. I deny the proposition //( 

 fofo. There is a proper measure of moisture needful 

 to mantain the growth of plants and any excess is 

 injurious so long as it continues and is just as bad 

 as too little ; superfluous water very soon passes 

 beyond the region of roots if compelled to remain 

 till it sinks into the earth and therefore does little 

 harm, as the earth only retains moisture as much as 

 tills it, the same as a pint pot which if you keep on 

 pouring after it is full merely runs over, and if more 

 water than the earth can hold is forced on it, it 

 merely filters away below. I am not aware that those 

 who depend entirely on holes to get rid of super- 

 fluous water hold the notion that the laud is thereby 

 improved, but I maintain that properly arranged drains 

 is the quickest and the most economical way of getting 

 rid of it. 



BUILDINGS. 



Mr. Wildes is intensely local again in what he says 

 about buildings. We do not even know the terms 

 he uses, but it is little matter as he has nothing to 

 teach Oeylon planters about buildings. This is how- 

 ever a subject on which I am not an authority, and 

 will say nothing more. 



WEEDING, 



It appears that weeding is not so well uuderstood 

 or to carefully practised in the "Wynaad as in Ceylon. 

 The true rule is to keep the necessary labour to go 

 over the estate once a month constantly employed 

 and whatever else may fall behind, never take off the 

 weeding gang to any other work, nqteven in crof), 

 unless the precaution has taken to put on force 

 enough to go over it in a week just before the heav- 

 iest crop comes on. Once let seed into the soil, and 

 the cost of weeding cannot be estimated, and for my 

 own part, I would rather sacrifice a little crop than 

 allow my property to get into weeds. The "Wynaad 

 rates for weeding seem to be much higher than those 

 of Oeylon. A recent correspondent of the Observer, 

 states that he has weeded as low as ")8 cents per acre, 

 which extended to twelve weediugs, gives KG-^Iti per 

 annum, and I know that this may be done. 



I cannot see the force of Mr. W's. objections, to bury- 

 ing the weeds as the work goes on. If the •' renov- 

 ation " holes, are of sufhcieiit capacity to contain all 

 the water and all the silt of even exceptionally heavy 

 rains, then indeed, there will only remain the danger 

 of the weeds thrown into them taking fresh root 

 and shedding seed before the next weeding. But I 

 have no faith in holes alone as a protectiou from 

 wash, for if they ever overflow, they are certain to 

 do more damage than would be done if neither hole 

 nor drain existed. I used, when in charge of the only 

 estate weeded monthly in Ceylon at that time, to 

 give each weeder a small basket to be carried in 

 the left hand for the weeds to be dropped into as 

 picked, which were emptied on the roads, and a 

 momattie went round and buried them in pits below 

 I was in one of the wettest spots in Oeylon but never 

 saw them washed out. 



SUPERINTENDENCE. 



All that Mr. Wildes writes on this subject, when 

 stripped of details, amounts to this. The superintend- 

 ent of a coffee estate should have brahis enough in 

 bis skull to organize and administer a system, in- 





tegrity enough to act justly in all his dealings, and 

 firmness enougli to exact the right from all employed 

 under him. This is the man needed for all kinds 

 of business, but is not the man most likely to be 

 selected in this grasping and over-reaching age, the 

 abilities by all means but moral qualities he Mowed ! 

 ■\Ve have arrived at the point, of giving our sym- 

 pathy to every clever piece of roguery, at least till 

 the clever one, has run his head against the laws 

 of the land and come to grief. Smart men, as the 

 Yankies call them, Hke to deal with smart men ; as 

 an edifying exercise of their own wits, it is the honest 

 men who avoid them if they can, a piece of wisdom 

 the stupid men never learn. The old Scotch proverb 

 has it, "If he cheat me once foul fa' him; if he 

 cheat me twice foul fa' ine," 



Smart or not, the superintendent of an estate, 

 works under a disd vantage in dealing with his prop- 

 rietor's agent; he stands on a different level than 

 the man who can send him the sack any month in 

 the year, while he cannot choose whom he will serve 

 and may be left a long time without any service 

 whatever. An honest man will at once refuse to do 

 a dirty or dishonest act at whatever cost to himself, 

 but a prudent ma n will not scald his mouth with 

 other people's broth. If the system or no system 

 of my neighbour is not pleasing to me, it is no part 

 of my business to convey my views to his superiors. 

 I may be conscious that the agent under whom I 

 serve is working the oracle much more for his 

 own interests than those of his principal ; I am not 

 called on to push in my oar between them. It is 

 most probably a case of diamond cut diamond, and 

 the proprietor knows more of the affairs between himself 

 and his agent than I can tell him. Some proprietors 

 insist on corresponding with the superintendent over 

 the head of the agent: this no prudent man will 

 undertake; it is unbu.siness-like ; it causes annoyance 

 on all sides, and most probably leads to the dismissal 

 of the superintendent who submits to it. The superin- 

 tendent engaged by the local agent should have no 

 official knowledge of any interested party beyond his 

 immediate superior ; to him all communications on 

 the business of the estate should be addressed, and 

 if he manipulates them to suit the digestion of his 

 principal, it is no business of the superintendent. The 

 superintendent stands in the same relation to his 

 assistants that he himself bears to the agent, and 

 the same rule should be observed. 



One of the heaviest trials of a superintendent is 

 when am agent who has never been a practical planter 

 insists on directing the details of internal manage 

 ment. It is true that in Oeylon the visiting agent 

 is supposed to be a practical jdanter, but we are 

 all aware that high professional attainments are not 

 the sole or even the chief factor in their selection, 

 and that their crotchets may be as troublesome in 

 some cases as those of the desk planters who never 

 set a pulper or pruned a coffee tree. 



It appears to me that Mr. Wildes dwells much 

 longer on minute details than on broad principles. Any 

 youngster can master the details of working an estate 

 in a few months but while he continues a planter, he 

 is always learning something of the less obvious doings 

 of nature, and if he undertakes to become a teacher 

 of others it is not in minute directions about the 

 daily routinethat he can most benefit his fellows, but in 

 opening to them the deeper results of experience that 

 every observing man stores up duringyears of practice. 



This book may be locally useful to new beginners but 

 the author has nothing to teach to old Oeylon coffee 

 planters. 



PAY AXn ALLOWANCES. 



Pay and allowances will regulate themselves by 

 the law of supply and demand ; the employer will 

 give as little as he can help and the servant will 

 secure as much as he can get. It is the business of 

 the employer to get the fittest man he can secure, 

 and the servant to be fit for the place he seeeks to fill. 

 A good character for etHciency and trust-worthiness 

 will be Certain tu pay well sooner or later, and for 

 the rest the parties will just act according to the 

 view they respectively take of their own interests, I 



