d'H 



tUE TmPtCAL AQmQULWm$f. [MAfteii i, my, 



Cinchona.— There is a little cinchoua etill remain' 

 ing in Westeru Dolosbage, but it will soon become, 

 like coffee, a thing of the past. 



Annatto, croton, rubber, African palm, coca eryth- 

 rosylon, are being tried here and there, but these 

 are as yet in the experimental stage only. 



Akecanuts. — The cultivation of the arecanut palm 

 is perhaps the most important native industry in the 

 district. The finest nuts are grown here, and they 

 are produced in the largest quantity. It is estimated 

 that tliere are over 120,000 acres in bearing of this 

 product. The arecanut serves in place of money to 

 the native. By its means he pays his road and paddy 

 tax, and obtains his salt, tobacco, betel, dry fish, &c. 

 It is therefore an index of the prosperity of the vill- 

 agers, and I have made it my constant object to ex- 

 tend the area under its cultivation. 



Experi7nental Gardens.— A. number of experimental 

 gardens were opened during the year at ditfereat 

 points in the District, i. c, at Kegalla and Ambuan- 

 gala, and on a smaller scale at Kambukkaua, Dehi- 

 owita, Pindeniya, and Euanwella, and various products 

 have been tried at each. We have some excellent 

 Gansabhawa rules to compel people to plant up their 

 gardens, and these have been put in force in every 

 District, with the result that palms and plantains are 

 now being extensively grown. I think myself that 

 one of the chief objects in our experimental gardens 

 should be to grow native products of really good kinds j 

 and we.shall, I believe, do far better work in im- 

 proving what the natives have already, than in forc- 

 ing them to grow new ones. Take plantains and 

 papaws for instance. They cultivate in many cases 

 the poorest kinds, because they cannot get at their 

 hands the best. The native papaw is a wretched 

 fruit, while the West Indian, which grows here even 

 better is a delicious one, and some of the Straits 

 plantains are as superior to the ordinary Ceylon kind 

 as English hothouse grapes are to those of Jaffna. 

 Cacao is the only European product that a native can 

 grow round his house with a chance of its being 

 remunerative, and for this we can only supply seeds, 

 as it will seldom bear transplanting. Tea will not, I 

 think, suit the ordinary villager, but it would be well 

 to give him the chance of growing it, if he likes. 

 With the exception of these two, I think, we should 

 spend our money and energy on improving their palms, 

 their breadfruits, yams, plantains, papaws, pepper, 

 cardamoms, and, if possible, their cereals. 



It is significant how seldom one sees young palms 

 (except arecanuts, which are self-grown) of from 

 two to three years old, and I myself believe that 

 the fresh planting of these is becoming less and less 

 and that when the old ones die or become exhausted 

 the people will feel their loss very much. As it is, 

 many have nothing in their gardens but a few old 

 jack or worn-out coconut trees, and when their rice 

 crop fails, they are often brought to the verge of 

 starvation. We should, therefore, I think, apply our 

 new and most useful Gansabhawa rules more in the 

 direction of forcing them to replant their gardens 

 aod high lauds, than in making them take to new 

 and thereore distasteful products. 



New Floughs.— The new ploughs introduced by 

 Mr. Green, the Director of Public Instruction, have 

 been at work in this District during the year in 

 several places. So far the results have been satis- 

 factory. AVattagama Rateniahatmaya, of the Bella 

 Korale, used the Sewdish plough on a field of his 

 of three pelas. Last year the field gave ten amunams, 

 equal to thirteen-fold ; this year he cultivated half 

 by using the Swedish plough and half by the native 

 plough, and kept the accounts separate. Result :— 

 By native plough thirteen-fold as before ; by Swedish 

 plough twenty-one-fold. The Otara Pattu Korala used 

 the same plough on a field of three pelas, and the 

 native plough on an adjoining portion of the same field 

 of two pelas. Result :— With the native plough on the 

 two pelas, crop six amunams, equal to twelve-fold; 

 with .Swedish plough on three pelas, crop fifteen 

 amunams, two pelas and five kurunies, equal to twenty- 

 one-fold, or much the same result as in Wattagama's 

 experiment. The great objection to tbi.': plough is that 

 it it too heavy for (b« buffAloei to vrork, but tb« fam9 



objection does not equally apply to Howard's new 

 " Oingalee " plough, nineteen of which I have now at 

 work in the District, and the result of which will be 

 shown in this coming maha and yala crops. 



MR. J. TYNDALL on CEYLON TEA. 



Your readers may care to peruse copy of a letter ad- 

 dressed by Mr. J. Tyndall in October last to liord 

 Randolph Churchill, and the reply thereto of the Pri- 

 vate Secretary of His Lordship : — 



" Thomanean, Milnathort, 5th October, 1886 —To the 

 Right Hou'ble Lord Randolph Churchill, &c.,&c., &c. 

 My Lord,— In justice to the island of Ceylon, mention 

 of which you make in your late comprehensive and 

 significant speech delivered at Dartford on Saturday 

 last, I would beg most respectfully to point out 

 to you that in your reference to the rise in price in 

 the value of the coffee produced in that island, and 

 from which staple in former years the chief basis of 

 its prosperity was derived, you made no allusion to the 

 ind»stry which is now rapidly becoming a more im- 

 portant industry— namely tea. The accession of the 

 Conservative Government to power has had the most 

 marked effect in the tea market. Ceylon produces 

 a very high qnality of tea, which is now forcing its 

 way into the home market, and has especially taken 

 hold of the Irish taste. The effect of Mr. Gladstone's 

 Irish policy was such as to produce an utter demora- 

 lization of the tea market there. Dealers would neither 

 give credit, nor hold stocks, and the result was a marked 

 fall in Ceylon tea. Happily, now a rapid recovery 

 under a more stable and firm Government is already 

 perceptible. Having lived and labored for upwards of 

 thirty years in Ceylon, I am naturally anxious that 

 this new product, tea, which is bringing back prosperity 

 to the island, should not be lost sight of by the Govern- 

 ment even in these tryisg times, and I would beg to 

 bring under your Lordship's notice that the rise of the 

 tea industry in Ceylon is, I venture to pronounce, one 

 of the most striking examples of the British planters' 

 pluck ; for, after being ruined by leaf -disease in coffee 

 and again struck down by the failure of cinchona, dis- 

 heartened but not dismayed, the same men have planted 

 up the same land with tea, which, as far as human 

 foresight will allow, now promises a great future, the 

 export of tea having risen from nothing in 1878 to 

 seven millions of pounds this year, and by 1890 will 

 bring into the market 30 million of lb. per annum ! 

 Trust that your Lordship will pardon the liberty I have 

 taken in thus bringing forward to your notice so strik- 

 ing an example of what certainly may be classed with- 

 in the category of the satisfactory revival in trade 

 referred to by you, I beg to subscribe myself your 

 Lordship's Most Obedient Servant,— John Tyndall." 



To the above the following reply was received : — 



" Treasury Chambers, Whitehall, S, W., October 11. 

 1886. Dear sir,— Lord Randolph Churchill desires me 

 to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your letter 

 of the 5th instant which he has read with great interest. 

 —I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully,— Fbank D. Tho- 

 mas." — London Cor. Local "Times." 



[The grand joke is that the accession of a Tory 

 government, by giving peace to Ireland, (which it 

 certainly has not done,) is the real cause of the 

 great increase in the value of Ceylon teal "Jack 

 Tyndall" could never resist the chance of poking 

 fun,— Ei>.] 



^ 



COiTEE, CINCHONA, TEA, ETC, IN 

 BADULLA. 



[Extracts from BaduUa Flanters' Association Annual 

 Report.) 



CoKFEE. — Your Committee are still able to state that 

 notwithstanding the reports that coffee has more or 

 less, in other districts, succumbed to the effects of 

 leaf disease, bug and climatic influences, in many parts 

 of Uva coffee is not only still vigorous and healthy, 

 but during the current season is bearing a good crop 

 with every promise of bearing a fairly good crop in 

 the succeeding year. It is also a matter to be noted 

 with regard to this product, that hitherto, coffee 

 from this part of tho island fetched a much lower 

 price tbau that from other dietriotf, bot Utterly tb* 



