July i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



47 



in cultivation only being counted ; anfl no allowance 

 whatever made fur available land, wore it ever so good 

 or bo cxt''U3)ve. 



"No. 11, in the same dietrict and about the same 

 period, an estate all in cultivation but neglected, — sold 

 for £250; the root on the store was worth all the 

 money latt such was the prevailin;^ distnibt auti imp;- 

 ouniosity that few cared to attend such sales ; bub those 

 who did so t'requenlly came iu for bargains. This was 

 a case in point, ll- was purchased by a native of small 

 means then, but who afterwards (datiug his rise from 

 that pmchase) became in his own panioular spiiei'e a 

 star of the first magnitude — became owner of many aud 

 varied properties ; but who becoming infected with 

 a speculative mania bought at every sale on chance 

 lauilis of which lie knew nothing, till one day he bought 

 too much; and his decadence wiis then more rapid than 

 his a cent, Thisestiite after mauy years of good bearing 

 and remunerative crops was sold last year for .i;7,000. 

 "No. 14, situated in the once despised district before 

 alluded to, contained about 800 acrts of land, of which 

 250 or tlieieabouts had )>een planied with coffee and 

 on which the proprietors, both resident but inex- 

 perienced, had expended of tlieir own monay £8,000, and 

 as much more as tliey could draw from their agents, 

 before the crash of 1848 put drawing beyond their 

 reach. The estaies adjoined and were within 6 miles 

 of a great trunk road. The soil was excellent aud the 

 coffee grew remarkably well. Most of the remaining 

 forest was available. Sold by auction at the above panic 

 period they realized £220. They have since been worked 

 up — have yielded good crops — and are now worth pro- 

 bably from £10,OOU to £12,000. 



"No. IS. — Disaster followed disaster in cofFee-planting 

 from 1847 to '51. And when the atmosphere cleared 

 up, mauy a timid holder sacrificed, at the first bid, a 

 valuable property. It was then that a native offered 

 a random sum of £250 for an estate of 300 acres forest, 

 and 120 acres coHee, which had been cnltivateil and 

 abandoned, resuscitated and re-abandoned, for the pre- 

 vious 20 years. The offer took, and the property 

 changed hands. £450 were immediately given the 

 lucky buyer for the forest land. The coffee he worked 

 up a little, aud in a few mouths sold for £2,400." 

 How many examples to add to our list are to be 

 produced by the present period of depression ? 



The strict, we suppose unprecedented, economy exer- 

 cised in respect of all items of estate expenditure is 

 a most encouraging fact to the capitalist and mortgagee 

 of the present day. We do not refer to the compara- 

 tive absence of outlay on manures, for that is rather a 

 matter of regret ; but we have been gi-eatly pleased to 

 note the determination manifested upoountry both 

 by individual proprietors and superintendents, to keep 

 down anything approaching to unnecessary expenditure, 

 to secure good work for the money paid, and to do 

 all in their power with new products to supplement 

 the present deficiency in coffee. In many cases we are 

 glad to leam how cinchona bark will prevent a collapse 

 of credit and failure of ways and means. In such a 

 season as this, the harvesting of from tliree thousand 

 to five thousand rupees' worth of bark, on average-sized 

 plantations, more especially from the mere sha^ong of 

 trees, will be the salvation of the coffee planter. There 

 are other cases where the cultivation of large plantations 

 will be fully provided for this year by cinchona, as much 

 as R50,000 being netted for cinchona alone. The pro- 

 prietor of some thousands of promising trees is said for 

 the second time to be making an income of K,5,000, 

 by shaving his bark. In other cases tea has come to 

 the rescue, aud in a few, cardamoms have done 



wonders. The activity, self-denial and ingenuity dis- 

 played on all sides by the majority of our planters have 

 never been surpassed in the experience of any agri- 

 cultm-al community, however much tried, and while 

 we earnestly hope and believe tliat Ceylon coffee fields 

 will yet reward the patient industry of tlieir cultiv- 

 ators, we cannot but warmly applaud tlie spirit of 

 scores and hundreds of men now anxiously supple- 

 menting the old, by the new, products with all the skill 

 and means at theii- command. Many of them have 

 given up not only their luxuries, but absolute " com- 

 forts," almost necessities of their daily lives— in order 

 the more fully to put in practice the ad\-ice of the 

 poet : — 



To catch Dame Fortune's golden smile. 



Assiduous wait upon her. 

 And gather gear by every wile 



That's justified by lionour. 

 Not for to hide it in a hedge. 



Not for a train attendant. 

 But for the glorious privilege 

 Of being independent. 

 May the ambition of the ' ' poor but industrious " 

 planter of the present day, who takes these words for 

 his motto, be more than realized ! 



WEIGHTSON'S AGRICULTURAL TEXT BOOK.* 



This book was intenrled to meet the requirements 

 of the Science and Art Department in science sub- 

 ject, XXIV, Principles of Agriculture. This im- 

 portant subject was first encouraged by payments from 

 the Science and Art Department in 1876, and we 

 hope the time may soon be when this subject shall 

 be one of the extra subjects for grants in Ceylon 

 This text book of over 200 pages is divided into 

 four parts. The first of these treats of the soil, its 

 origin and formation as well as its diversified chemical 

 composition, and tells us how soils may be improved 

 when their vigour runs down— how their physical 

 condition may lie best improved by proper drainage 

 aud tillage. Ceylon is at a very low ebb in this 

 matter us in many other things ; they have the art 

 of producing certain things, but they lack the science 

 It also tells us how the dormant or inactive con- 

 stituents of a soil may be brought into a state of 

 inactivity. 



Part II discusses the ordinary manures in General 

 use for maintaining or bringing up soils to a'proper 

 chemical strength and how and at what times such 

 manures aie best applied. Many of these remarks 

 are applicable to Ceylon, hut a tireat many require 

 modification to ad^pc them to different cireumetanees 

 of a tropical cultivation. Lime (not really a manure, 

 but strictly .■.peaking a corrective and a liberator of 

 inert matter) occupies several pges. This substance- 

 is very much needed in our Ceylon s ils. Other 

 manures are also discussed, and, wh'ile w riling of this 

 the Ceylonese idea of burning tlieir lantana, scrub, &c.' 

 and so clearing their ground for planting, but before 

 doing S) sell the gathered up ashes to planters, re- 

 veals a wonderful ignorance. The best and most 

 useful of all manu'es is cattle, when it can be obtained 



The next part takes into consideration the i-otali'oii 

 of crops. This, however, on the hill districts of Ceylon, 

 is not applicable, save on many places where the 

 bad coffee is giving place to cinchona, &c. In the 

 low districts many useful and p.aying crops might be 

 grown aud a system of rotation could easily be adopted 



The list pirt is devoted to the oonsideia ion of the 



* A^'rightson's Agricultural Te.'.t Book. (Collins: Element- 

 ary Science Series.) 



