November j, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



355 



the cinchona, cacao, and rubber trees ; but especially are 

 the Sinhalese likely to become extensive growers of the tea 

 plant." 



The Land and the I limate. — " Now is the time 

 to buy land, for we arc on the turn after years 

 of depression, and such laud as you can now buy 

 for IGs an acre, may in a year or two be doubled or 

 trebled in price. Just as was the case in the years be- 

 tween 1868 and 1875, when every one was ' going into 

 coffe< . and forest laud sold for £20 an acre in some districts. 

 Since 1833 some 1,300,000 acres of Crown lands have been 

 sold (to Europeans and natives), at an average price from 

 1S33 to 1S44 of 10s 8d. from 1844 to 1883 the average 

 has been 35s., and the upset price now is 16s. There is no 

 land tax, except within the areas of the towns." " And 

 what about the climate?" " Delightful— for the tropics 

 most healthy, and not much hotter than it has been in 

 London during the past few weeks, even in March and 

 April. Most of the planters and their assistants enjoy the 

 best of health, though of course pioneers and those who 

 have to work through new forest and in the lowcountry, 

 often suffer from malarious fevers. But then have you not 

 the cool mountain station to fly to as a restorer? There 

 is Nuwara Eliya and Bandarawela, on the plateau of Uva 

 Principality, where you get coolness, health-laden breezes — 

 and I have even broken the ice in my water jug, in a 

 Nuwara Eliya cottage. Given a change now and then, good 

 food, care, and temperance, — a European is as well ott' as 

 regards climate (some might say better) than at home 

 here." 



Free Labour. — " One of our greatest advantages is ' Free 

 labour.' Close at our shores are the twelve million coolies 

 of Southern India, whose average earnings are between £3 

 and £4 a year each. Yes, and he is able to live on it, too, 

 and to support a wife and family. From this vast source 

 we draw our supply of labourers, and fine, well-trained, 

 diligent fellows they become. They come over with perhaps 

 a wife and three or tour children ; they are engaged for 

 a period, a month's notice sufficing to terminate the con- 

 tract on either side. There is a hut ready for them, 

 with a bit of ground for a garden, in which they grow 

 vegetables and so ou ; the planter gives them clothes and 

 food until they are able to repay him out of their earn- 

 ings. Their wages average from ninepence to a shilling 

 a day for a man ; a woman can make about 7d., and a 

 child 5d., so they arc well off ; they save money, and 

 when they go back to their own village in a year or 

 two's time they have probably some five or six pounds 

 in their pouch. This the careful coolie invests in a piece 

 of land, which, on his return to the Ceylon plantations, 

 he leaves in charge of a relative or a friend until lie returns 

 again. Our Kandians, or highbinders, are splendid axemen, 

 and it is they who do the Selling of our forests and the 

 clearing of the land ready for planting. Then the South 

 Indian coolies do the digging and planting. The land, 

 by the way, lies generally on timbered slopes. The axe- 

 men begin at the bottom, cut each tree half through, 

 and work up to the top. The highest fringe is cut clean 

 through, and with its weight brings down the rest of the 

 slope in the fall. The Sinhalese themselves refuse to do 

 any agricultural work for Europeans. It is beneath them. 

 They are our carters, employed in taking the tea and 

 coffee, and so on, from the stations to the coast. If I 

 remember rightly there were some 13,000 licensed carts 

 a year or two ago. The Sinhalese are also our boatmen 

 and artisans and domestic servants. Now, many of our Sin- 

 halese and Tamils are wealthy. One, indeed, is the richest 

 man on the island, with an income of some £200,000 a year 

 or more. Some of the coolies. I must confess, are sad 

 thieves. You may of a Sunday meet a man and his wife 

 on the road, one of them carrying a cock, the other a 

 hen. The birds are all their portable property, which they 

 were compelled to take with them while visiting some 

 friends, lest they should be stolen." 



Ceylon .Railways. — " The cost of the Colombo and Kandy 

 Railway, of 74 miles, was £1,740,000. Then an extension 

 to Nawalapitiya from Feradeuiya, 17 miles, was opened in 

 1874; and an extension from Kandy to Matale. 17^ miles, 

 in 1S80. Besides these, a seaside line has been constructed 

 from Colombo to Kalutara, 27^ miles. In August. 1880, 

 the fir t sod was turned of an extension from Nawala- 

 pitiya for 42 miles to Upper Uimbula, whence it was in- 



tended to be carried 25 miles farther to Haputale. Alto- 

 gether about 180 miles of railway, all on the 5£ ft. gauge 

 has been opened or are under consideration. But there 

 is one grievance which I should like to point out concern- 

 ing these railways. The length of forty-two miles from 

 Nawalapitiya to Upper Dimbula will probably be opened 

 in May, having cost £900,000 of money. But then they 

 are going to stop short instead of pushing on, as was pro- 

 posed, to Haputale, the real terminus, with new traffic, 

 which is only twenty-four miles further, which would cost 

 £400,000, and open up a vast amount of splendid country, 

 which at present is compelled to send its produce rouud 

 by road, a distance of 200 miles — a road which is subjected 

 to floods, too, to say nothing of the delay and cost." 



The Planter at "Work. — " Let us suppose that a young 

 man has learned his business, and has a thousand or two of 

 capital. He buys 200 acres at 16s. an acre. He would begin 

 by opening up, say, twenty-five acres his first year, clearing, 

 draining, and planting. Then, in his second year, he would 

 prepare another twenty-five acres. Up to and including the 

 third year his outlay would be about £20 to £25 an acre. In 

 his third year there would be a crop of tea-leaf — a mik.u 

 one. In the fourth and fifth years he might expect, sup- 

 posing that he is lucky, to have a crop of tea of 400 lb. to 

 the acre, which he would lay down in England at HI. a lb.. 

 which would produce in the market from Is. 3d. to Is. lid, 

 a lb., thus leaving a margin of Gd, profit. Then he would ad- 

 vance, not laying out too much capital to start with, but grad- 

 ually feeling his way. All the year round tea requires 

 one man per acre, in crop time a fuller force. It is hard 

 physical work, though there may be no absolute manual 

 labour. At five in the the morning the bugle sounds for 

 all hands, the planter comes down to the muster, the 

 coolies go off to their work, the master has his coffee 

 and follows them, going on foot of course, from point to 

 point, supervising and directing, and at 11 a.m. he returns to 

 his breakfast. Until 3 p.m. he remains indoors, attending 

 to business matters, going out again for another tour of 

 inspection. And so the days pass." " Snakes ?" "The 

 clothing is a great protection against snakes, and during 

 the last sixty years I don't think there has been one case 

 of death among the whites. The natives, of course, have 

 no protection from clothing, and are more careless. In 

 Ceylon our coffee machinery for pulping, for skinning, for 

 drying, has been brought to a state of perfection, and the 

 machines manufactured at Colombo are known through- 

 out the tropics. It is this attention to improvements that 

 has helped us so materially. Our planters are men with 

 ideas, which they are quick to put into force. So it is 

 with the new industries — tea, cinchona, cacao — the machin- 

 ery for their preparation is being improved every day. 

 You see Ceylon is a comparatively small country, and the 

 planters are able to compare notes. A hears how B is 

 doing this, he tells it to O, they have a talk ^fcout it, 

 and so the matter grows. Each district has its little 

 centre (not to mention the health resorts on the hills), 

 where there is a club and other facilities for the inter- 

 communication of ideas." 



The Ways of the Heathen Chinee.— "On my way 

 from Singapore to China I fell in with a Sumatran to- 

 bacco-planter who had imported Chinese coolies at a cost 

 of £7 to £10 a head, on an engagement of a number of 

 years. Smallpox broke out among them. Now a China- 

 man prefers death to disfigurement ; he has no notion 

 of revolving through endless cycles with a pitted face, 

 so they took to suicide, and every morning the over-* 

 seer came in with his report ; ( Another thirty pounds 

 gone, sir. Three more of 'em found hanging to a tree just 

 now. 1 This was a serious difticulty. So at last the planter 

 issued a proclamation to the effect that the body of the 

 next dead Chinaman would be cut into pieces. This device 

 stopped suicide. Another curious fact respecting the pecu- 

 liarities of the Chinese is worth mentioning. When they 

 sign articles on board ship one of them is that if he dies 

 on the passage his body shall be embalmed and sent back 

 to China, In the boat coming home one of our stokers 

 met with an accident. The doctor said the only chance 

 for him was to cut off his leg. ' No, no,' said the stoker 

 and 'No, no,' chorused hie comrades. But in a day or 

 two mortification set in, and the leg was sacrificed. The 

 man died, and his friends were horribly savage at the 

 desecration wrought by the doctor's knife and saw. But 



