November i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



403 



crystals in the rook. Many of the weathered 

 boulders are quite red to the eye on the surface. 

 Hand specimens do not show the red quite so vividly, 

 but I believe polished blocks would bear a consider- 

 able resemblance to red Aberdeen granite. The colours 

 vary from those of porphyry to I he tints of sienitc. 

 The estate stands about the centre of a rocky ridge, 

 which is very conspicuous on the right going up, 

 between Mahara and Henaratgoda. I have not the 

 slightest doubt that far back in the geologic ages 

 this ridge, which runs northwards beyond " the 

 tropical gardens " at Henaratgoda, was an important 

 range of the mountain system of Ceylon, the mountains 

 being gradually disintegrated and degraded by the 

 action of sun, wind and rain, before which the fel- 

 spathic portions especially gave way. The result is 

 a soil not particularly rich but fairly good, where 

 the metamorphic process has not ended in a more or 

 less solid eabook (laterite) subsoil. There is a con- 

 siderable portion of cabook gravel mixed with the 

 light-coloured soil, and but for the evidence of my 

 senses, to which the metamorphic process is apparent, 

 I should feel the greatest difficulty in believing that 

 the dull dirty-looking laterite pebbles owed their 

 origin to the beautiful glancing crystals of felspar and 

 mica, which shine so beautifully in a fractured piece 

 of the solid rock. Looking at the large proportion 

 of felt-par in the rocks from whiclt the soil is derived, 

 there can be no lack of potash, but probably here, as 

 in most other parts of Ceylon, phosphates are not 

 superabundant. With railway carriage so close at hand, 

 these can be added if, as I feel convinced, tea is to be 

 in this neighbourhood, a groat success. Wk measured a 

 plant which at eighteen months in the field had attained 

 a height of 5 feet, 9 inches and after a copious shower 

 of rain during the night the well-established tea plants 

 of a year to a year and a half old looked quite 

 luxuriant. A companion familiar with the growth 

 of tea at an altitude of more than five thousand feet 

 higher up was amazed as well as pleased at 

 what he eaw, and the conclusion was that 

 no time was to be lost in making preparations for 

 gathering and preparing the "flushes" which will be 

 rapidly succeeding each other some six months hence 



on the bushes which will be then two years old, 



or two-and-a-half as our Indian friends calculate, 

 counting from germination in the nursery. I ought 

 to mention that an experiment by a neighbour had 

 previously proved that tea, as far as ready and lux- 

 uriant growth is concerned, would bo a success in 

 this corner of theSiyaue Korale. But my neighbour 

 holds his hand from further extensions from the not 

 unreasonable apprehension that tea will be overdone. 

 No doubt there is danger of such a result, and we 

 have the " dreadful example " of cinchona bark before 

 our eyes. But tea is a beverage daily advancing in 

 favour and consumption ; and, if it comeB to a question 

 of competition with not only China and Japan but 

 India, all the probabilities are that the Ceylon leaf, 

 with its fair amount of strength and its peculiarly 

 delicate aroma, will assert a good position for itself 

 against all comers. So I mean to go ahead with tea 

 at 100 feet to 400 above sea-level as well as at 

 4,650 to 6,000 feet above sea-level, hopiug to be able, 

 in due time, to announce success in each case 

 varying only in degree. Unfortunately there is no 

 water-power for a wheel in the loweountry place, 

 so that, when we have 100 acres in full bearing and 

 get beyond the stage of hand-pulpers and choolas 

 (furnaces), steam-power will have to be resorted to. 

 The interval will not be long in this forcing 

 climate, for, notwithstanding the unfavourable plant- 

 ing weather which has prevailed for a couple of years 

 back, fully 100,000 plants are already established, 

 and this number we hope to double, perhaps treble 

 on the 100 acres available, excluding rock and other i 



products. Those other products include india- 

 rubber trees and the bamboo. In tho former we have 

 largely lost faith, as far as our locality is con- 

 cerned, while Bambusa arwndinacea, although it grows 

 readily and forms excellent tall and close shelter belts, 

 is comparable to the Turk who 



" Bears no brother near the throne." 

 Nothing seems able to grow within a certain distance 

 of the bamboo monopolizers. Pineapples grow readily 

 and would be valuable for fibre as well as food, 

 could the fruits be preserved from thieves, aud could 

 the long leaves be cheaply converted into fibre. But 

 our Sinhalese neighbours as well as their cattle are 

 given to Btray beyond their own precincts, regardless 

 of the laws of meum et tuum. In opening a bit of 

 land in the lowcountiy, I cherished the hop- of 

 giving employment to the poorer Sinhalese around. 

 But we found, as a matter of experience, that, while 

 our richer native neighbours were speculating on an 

 early transference of our laud to them, the labouring 

 classes were so exorbitant in their demands that Tamil 

 labourers had to be employed. This is certainly a 

 most unexpected result, and one neither anticipated 

 nor desired by ns. We travelled 74 miles from the 

 Henaratgoda railway station in two very .-mall 

 bullock-hackeries, drawn by very small Sinhalese 

 bullocks. The animal which drew the hackery in 

 which my companion aud I deposited ourselves (our 

 effects being in another hackery) was so diminutive, 

 that we hesitated to trust ourselves to his strength 

 for the journey. But we were carried on and back 

 next day at the rate of four miles an houf, steadily 

 and well. Our driver was a bright intelligent Sinhalese 

 lad, who conversed fluently with my companion in 

 Tamil. He volunteered the opinion that my land 

 was good and that any success would be certain if 

 I only grew coconuts. I objected that they were 

 overdone aud liable to be stolen. He said two 

 watchers at 1110 per mensem each would obvi- 

 ate this objection. He flattered us by saying he 

 would like to take an employment under us. A 

 cart-load of sweet Bmelling leafy twigs passing 

 us, we learned from him that the plant was 

 keppetiya and that it was useel as a special shade 

 and manure for betel-vines. The detached rocks of 

 the ridge were scattered all along our road, and we 

 noticed a good many rock-pineapples growing where 

 there was some soil on the rocks and euphorbias where 

 there was scarcely any. 



The Noi.tiiekn Territory ok South Australia 

 seems to be by no means an earthly paradise, judging 

 from the accounts of murders by natives which have 

 recently taken place there and details of which are given 

 in the latest Australian papers to hand. One of these 

 outrages, we see, took place near Bum Jungle, Poctl's 

 land, where a former murder was also committed 

 Mr. Poett may therefore congratulate himself, that, 

 though his planting company has had to be wound 

 up, he has not lost his life at the hands of the blacks. 



Coffee in Java. — In Mid Java many coffee es- 

 tates within the province of Surakartu, owing to 

 the ravages of leaf disease, will haroly yie'd a tinth 

 part of the crop secured last year, there being every 

 prospect of the coffee export frDtn Java this year 

 Bhowing a considerable falling off in consequence. Mr. 

 Van Deldeu Laerne's report on coffee-growing in Brazil 

 is expected to take up about 500 pages of print 

 divided into 12 chapters. To the report there will 

 be appended two large maps of the coffee area ill Brazil, 

 namely, a geological one prepared at Mr. Laerne's 

 request by Professor Derby, a yeologist at Rio, and a. 

 physical one showing the coffee-growing districts and 

 railway lines open for traffic therein on the 1st January 

 1884.— Smite Times, Oct. 2nd. 



