July i, 1884,) 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* 



63 



was all that was anticipated and will pay well; but 

 it is clear that if the 7Jd tea could have been sold 

 locally for 6d, it would have puid better ami the 

 London average for the estate would have been higher. 

 We might urge an association of tea planters, pledged 

 to sell all their inferior teas at low prices for local 

 consumption, but we have the example of the cinnamon 

 chips case before us, and then if all agreed, how could 

 a purchaser be prevented from exporting instead of 

 retailing locally ? 



CULTURE BY IRRIGATION AND OTHER- 

 WISE IN CEYLON. 



Sir John Coode, in connection with this subject (p. 33), 

 showed that Ceylon was liable to floods as well as deficien- 

 cies of water, but his reference to the number of 

 houses destroyed requires much the same sort of 

 correction which Mr. John Ferguson supplied in re- 

 gard to the popular impression of native laziness be- 

 cause agriculturists, who may have spent a night in 

 work on their fields, are seen resting or sleeping in 

 the daytime. The "houses" destroyed by Hoods 

 are mainly wattle and daub huts, the earth of which 

 melts away as the water saturates it. Such huts 

 are rapidly, and at a small expenditure of labour, 

 restored. Sir John Douglas's characteristic story of 

 his being reduced to the painful necessity of perform- 

 ing his ablutions in soda water, is calculated to re- 

 mind one of the Princess who, when she heard her 

 father's subjects were dying for want of bread, asked 

 why they did not eat pie-crust. It is of import- 

 ance to remember however, that, in conducting the 

 pure water of the Ma'ale mountain ranges to such 

 a place as Anuradhapura, we are supplying, not 

 only means of irrigating corn-land but pure 

 drinking fluid on which health and life so much depend. 

 It is new to us that any of our engineers erred 

 in the direction of attempting to make water run 

 uphill, but we know of such large works as Kan- 

 talay tank at Trincomalee and the Tissamaharama 

 near Hambantota being restored on the most correct 

 principles of hydraulic engineering and yet unsuccessful, 

 because they failed in attracting population as was 

 expected. It is highly scientific hydraulic engineers 

 like Mr. Henry Parker, too, who have vindicated the 

 wonderful skill of the Sinhalese engineers against the 

 impeachment recorded by Tennent. Mr. Parker and 

 others like him, who are doing good work " far in 

 the wilds, unknown to public fame," will appreciate 

 the cordial testimony to their merits and usefulness 

 borne by Mr. Bruce. Mr. John Ferguson's very able 

 summing-up of the whole question of the varied 

 agriculture of Ceylon, we leave to speak for itself. 

 We would only repeat what we previously remarked — 

 that, even if we must eontiuue (as we believe we 

 must) to depeud on continental India for a large 

 portion of our grain-supply, the duty is none the 

 less urgent of enabling a place remote from the sea- 

 borde like the North-Central Province to grow sup- 

 plies of food for the consumption of the inhabitants. 

 No imported paddy could be sold at 50 cents or 

 three times that price per hushel, and it certainly looks 

 as if the North-Central Province were destined to 

 become an exporter of rice to a considerable extent. 

 We consider it the duty of Government to give all 

 legitimate encouragement to rice-gro»ing, and we did 

 not complain when Sir William Gregory, to save the 

 parangi-sinitteo people of the North-Central Province, 

 gave them great irrigation works out of revenue avow- 

 edly derived from European planters. But we cannot 

 possibly agree with the angry philanthropist of the local 



" Times" who wouldgive grain-growers laud for nothing 

 and supply them with irrigation water at the expense of 

 others. Whether in money where money is avail- 

 able, or labour where money is scarce, those who 

 profit by rice culture should pay a fair price for 

 land and also for water which Government provides, 

 giving them sluices and engineering skill gratis. The 

 taxes on grain and salt are about the only taxes 

 which a large proportion of the natives pay, and 

 Government is savagely denounced tor not giving up 

 revenue which can be used for the general good but 

 which could not possibly be replaced. We consider 

 the Government policy towards the grain-growers of 

 Ceylon as erring rather in liberality than the reverse. 



Iron and Steel Rails. — The almost complete extinc- 

 tion of the iron rail trade is shown by the enormous 

 fall in the exports of that class of rails. A few years 

 ago the bulk of rail exports were declared as iron 

 rails, but the special return issued by the Board of 

 Trade shows that they now form a very small per- 

 centage of the total. In 1876, the iron rails exceeded 

 in quantity the steel rails, but since that time the 

 proportion of the latter has been rapidly increasing ; 

 aud by the official return to which reference has been 

 made, it is shown that while in the first four months 

 of last year the quantity of iron rails exported was 

 11,087 tons, for the same period of the present year 

 the exports amounted to only 4, 149 tons — a Bmall part 

 only of the total of rails. The steel rail trade has in 

 the same period showed a falling-off, but in the four 

 months of the present year as much as 171,355 tons 

 of steel rails were exported. During the same period 

 of last year the exports were 246,536 tons. The chief 

 falling-off this year is in the exports to Italy, Mexico, 

 the United States, the Argentine Republic, and the 

 East Indies. It is also noticeable that Russia, Germany, 

 and Holland have for the present almost ceased to buy 

 rails of either kind from us, if the experience of the 

 first four mouths of the year is a test. — London Tones. 



Monkeys Trained to Pluck Ripe Coconuts. — In- 

 quiry was made through your columns, some time 

 back, about the truth of the piece of information from 

 the Straits respecting the service* of trained monkeys 

 employed in plucking ripe coconuts. The following 

 extract from Carl Bock's "Head Hunters of 

 Borneo," confirms the truth of the story: — "On my 

 inquiry whether the monkey was trained to 'perform,' 

 and promising a few cents for the entertainment, the 

 man spoke a few words in Malay to the animal, which 

 immediately began to climb a tall coconut palm close 

 by, which I roughly estimated to be from forty to 

 fifty feet high. When about one-third the distance 

 up the tree, he stopped aod looked down at his master, 

 who as a signal pulled the rope, when again master 

 Jackie nimbly climbed a few feet higher, again stopping 

 to rest and indulge in playful trieks. At last he 

 reached the crown of the tree, felt at several nuts 

 one after the other till he, came to a ripe one, which 

 he pulled off and threw down to the ground. Still 

 carefully testing the fruit, he pulled several ripe ones 

 tossing them down in a quiet business-like manner 

 till a nod from his master told him he had enough, 

 when he quietly came down. I was told the Malay 

 weut from village to village, and made his living hy 

 employing the monkey's cleverness to collect the coco- 

 nuts in the plantations as a regular business. He wanted 

 twelve florins for his pet, a low price for so clever 

 an animal. I afterwards found that monkeys so trained 

 were not at all uncommon." See pp. 266-67. — Cor. 



WELLS' "ROUGH ON CORNS." 

 Ask for Wells' "Rough on Corns.". Quick relief, com- 

 plete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions. B, S. 

 Madon Si Co., Bombay, General Agent*. 



