48?f 



tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jan I, i89y, 



ness could be done in these if the hides were bet- 

 ter cured, and if they were more free from brand 

 marks, and if more care was observed in the 

 keeping of tlie different descriptions of horns scioar- 

 ate, instead of mixing elk and deer together indis- 

 criminately. 



Wlien we come to review the course of the Plant- 

 ing interests, both in the hills and so far as it affects 

 the welfare of Colombo, the retrospect of the past 

 year exhibits a very varied study. The rapid and un- 

 interruptedly steady extension of the enterprise in 

 tea contrasts in a very striking manner with the 

 almost equally steady and rapid decadence in coffee 

 and everything connected with it. It is doubt- 

 less true that some — and in perfect good faith we 

 may say many — of the estates in XJva are this 

 year giving handsome returns, aided by the rapid 

 and important rise in value of the produce which 

 has recently been established in the European 

 markets. It is also by no means an unimportant 

 fact that we may still find amongst the sale lists of 

 coffee in London, the names and distinguishing 

 markets of many estates in the other districts 

 which we have been led to suppose had long ago 

 been compelled to abandon the cultivation of the 

 berry altogether. The faet, however, is none the less 

 established that the acreage to be recorded as 

 "under coffee cultivation " has during the past year 

 been very materially reduced — in the majority of 

 cases the bushes have been rooted up and the 

 ground thoroughly cleared — whilst over a very con- 

 siderable area the tea plants have been planted in 

 the already established fields of coffee. Uva still 

 holds its own as the last stronghold of coffee culture, 

 but it is deplorable to note how even here the 

 devastating attacks of the most recently developed 

 pest have spread with marvellous rapidity during 

 the last twelve months. It had required a period 

 of three years, more or less, for the green bug to 

 work its desolating way all through the northern 

 districts, and from thence southward through Kot- 

 male and Hewaheta, spreading to the newer 

 districts around the Peak and Nuwara Eliya ; 

 but it has required but a brief 12-month3 to 

 make its appearance upon almost every estate 

 in Udapussellawa and the newly-created province of 

 Uva. Unless deterred by some climatic influence 

 which may induce the destruction of the insect 

 itself, or by the existence in the plant itself of 

 Bome recuperative energy with which we are at 

 present unacquainted, it does not need much fore- 

 sight to predict the ultimate fate of this the last 

 remaining stronghold of coffee cultivation in the 

 island. It must not be forgotten however that 

 coffee in Uva has withstood to a very great extent 

 the influence of leaf-disease which has proved so 

 fatal to remunerative cultivation in the other por- 

 tions of the island, and there consequently remains 

 to planters no little hope that after all it may not 

 be compelled to succumb to the attacks of the much 

 dreaded green bug. Tea cultivation, as we have 

 already remarked, has been rapidly extended in every 

 direction, land which has previously been under 

 cultivation as well as newly felled clearings have 

 been planted up, and the produce of earlier ex- 

 tensions has already begun to shew a very marked 

 increase in the figure exports — the figures for 1S8G 

 being about 7,800,000 lb. as against 4,37 1,000 in 1885. 

 Ihe buildings and establishments on old coffee estates 

 ate rapidly undergoing reconstruction to suit the 

 hew manufacture, and life and activity have once 

 more been restored to many an estate which of late 

 years had gradually fallen into decay and abandon- 

 ment. Following out the course of investigation 

 and review, we tind, to our regret, that the era of 

 revivification — whilst affecting in so marked a degree 

 be pUatiDg iaterests as a wliple— does not in loo 



many instances follow the fortunes of the individual. 

 There are unfortunately very many whom the 

 future presents but little more than a continuation 

 of the toil and trouble with which in earlier life 

 — and for a long series of years — they had attained 

 a comfortable position during the more lucrative 

 years of coffee planting. Of the many to 

 whom the fragrant leaf will prove the means 

 of attaining wealth and position, there will 

 be but few who survive to tell the tale of the rise 

 and fall of the once important coffee interest in 

 Ceylon; and fewer still who will be able to 

 attain a fair share of the good things attendant 

 on the more modern product of the day. It would 

 be superfluous for us to dwell at any great length 

 upon the influence which this total revolution in 

 the planting industry of the island exerts upon 

 the mercantile houses of Colombo. The profits pre- 

 viously accruing from the manipulation of the berry 

 on the seaborde were lucrative to a high degree 

 in themselves as well as from many sources atten- 

 dant upon its shipment. The profits arising from 

 a Tea Agency are comparatively insignificant, and 

 to a great measure arise from the supply of 

 material and machinery, whilst the details require 

 b»t little less attention and outlay than was the 

 case with the old staple. The consequences of 

 this alteration in the course of business are be- 

 coming year by year more evident and the Agency 

 houses in our city would seem to be compelled in 

 time to give way to a very considerable extent to 

 tea brokers and tea buyers. There is no necessity 

 for us to dwell at greater length upon the revolution 

 that is so rapidly being effected in the commerce 

 and cultivation of the island ; but we must not 

 omit to note its effect as more especially concerns 

 the native populations more or less dependent upon 

 them. A very large proportion of the villagers 

 in the Kandyan provinces have for many years 

 past been directly interested in the cultivation 

 of the berry — being themselves cultivators and 

 proprietors of the coffee plant : many others were in 

 a variety of ways dependent upon or, at any rate, 

 interested in its cultivation upon the large estates 

 of Europeans. To both these classes of natives, 

 the decadence — we may almost say extinction of 

 the coffee plant — has proved disastrous in the ex- 

 treme. The facility with which the increased 

 value of their produce fead enabled them to hypo- 

 thecate their crops and to incur a variety of 

 monetary liabilities as a natural consequence, tended 

 to intensify the difficulty of the situation when the 

 produce was no longer forthcoming. Poverty and 

 distress have consequently during the past twelve- 

 months run riot throughout the hill country, aggra- 

 vated unfortunately by a very extensive failure 

 of the paddy crops, consequent on the ravages 

 of a minute fly, which has devastated the fields 

 over large areas of cultivation in the Central 

 Province, as well as in the low country. At the 

 present moment there is being exhibited the very 

 serious and harrowing spectacle of the original 

 inheritors of the soil being steadily dispossessed 

 of the lands which have been handed down to 

 them from time immemorial, the lands meanwhile 

 falling into the hands of strangers, and the few 

 more wealthy amongst the native proprietors. It 

 is difficult to conceive a more distressing, nay, we 

 may say dangerous position, than that which is 

 being established in the Kandyan Provinces, a 

 whole population of landowners and their families 

 being absolutely and literally dispossessed of their 

 native soil and habitations and forced to seek 

 subsistence as best they may from other somxes. 

 Nor are the consequences of the failure of coffee, 

 as regards a very large proportion of the native 

 population in and around Colombo, much l^se 



