February 2, 1885.J THE TROPICAL AGRTCTTtTURIST. 



609 



"CEYLON AS A FIELD FOR THE INVESTMENT 



OF CAPITAL AND ENERGY." 



Tea Cultivation. 



We dow give Ihe second and concluding letter of 

 admirable counsel, written by a Ceylon plnnter of varied 

 experience, to his young friend at In me meditating 

 settlement in this island as a tea planter : — 



My dear ,— I am glad to hear you have re- 

 solved to cast your lot in wiih us, and "do" I'ta in 

 Oylon. As promised then I now proceed to give you 

 a few hints founded on observation and experience, 

 that you may begin where I leave off. and that, if 

 my successes have led to little, my failures at hast 

 may be of service toothers : 



1. Stick to your last. If a merchant, merchandize; 

 if a lawyer, study your bu c 'ness ; if a doctor, at- 

 tend to your practice. But if you determine to own 

 estates, then change all that : first become a planter, 

 learn your work and all about if, and then invest. 



2. While not trusting altogether to one string to 

 your bow, doo't at the same time have too many irons 

 iu the fire. Find out what pruducts suit you and 

 your land best, then go in thoroughly for them and 

 not fritter away time and money in every new 

 thing. 



3. Concentrate your investments. In coffee all 

 depends on the chance weather of a few weeks, 

 and so it was well to distribute risk, when, whether 

 the season was wet or dry, some property would do 

 well. But in tea, 6elect the best locality you can, 

 and then confine yourself to it, to the saving of much 

 labor and time iu inspection. 



4. Seek an investment with capacities for large 

 expansion. Begin as small as you like, progress as 

 slowly as you choose, but let the land be there for 

 future b g things. In the ultimate struggle for the 

 market, other things being equal, the largest estate 

 will have the advantage. If means compel, rather buy 

 a small ehare in a large property than entire poss- 

 ession of a small lot. 



5. Be neither the first nor the last to open in 

 a new district, or to cultivate a new product. Pioneer- 

 ing is expensive, laborious, risky work ; but wl m all 

 is plain-sailing profits are small. 



6. In making your selection, other things being 

 equal, give the preference to abundauce of fuel ; still 

 more to a plentiful supply of wat»r-power : hand work 

 will never maintain itself against machine. 



7. Avoid block loans. Never expect tranquility, 

 independence, or success, unless you carry your title- 

 deeds iu your pocket. The nominal value of the land 

 itself, the ri-k and uncertainty of all tropical cultiv- 

 ation, and the high rate of. the interest, only render 

 prudent, advances for working expenses and against 

 produce. 



8. Buy for cash. The discounts by the end of the 

 year far outstrip the interest, making a linndtome profit. 



9. Realize when you can to advantage, and so turn 

 over your money. Mure fortunes have been made by 

 sales of estates than by sales of crops. 



10. Bright as the prorpects of tea are, seemingly 

 certain as its success, still keep a weather eye open 

 for all natural pests and blights. With c.jffee leaf- 

 disease as a terrible warning, never forget that little 

 beginnings sometimes make groat dudings, 



11. Cultivate for utility and not for appearance. 

 In former days that continual tit vation to make 

 things look nice often led to much profitless expend- 

 iture of money that could be ill-spared. Estates are 

 kept up not for show but profit, and the first question 

 to be always a^ked is : Will it pay? 



12. According to your purse have good substantial 

 buildings when such become desirable, but don't he 

 I d astray bj that ignis Jatum— permanency. " Sutiiei- 



77 



ent unto the day," and in making buildings to out- 

 last estates, capital is but wasted. 



13. Work out the profit and lo98 of estate-made 

 cattle manure at the expense of your neighbour rather 

 than of yourself. It could never be proved to me 

 that this most extravagant of manures paid when 

 applied to coffee, and, if so, it is still less likely to 

 pay when put to tea. 



14. Fix your private income, and keep wilhin the 

 figure. This needs no comment. 



15. Leain to know your coolies. A word in season 

 is generally better than a blow or a checked name. 



l(i. Give and take all the information you can. A 

 stick-at-home is always behind the age, and if you 

 wish to partake of the common stock, you must 

 add to it. 



17. Avoid quarrels. As a matter of policy enmity 

 between neighbours and unpleasantness with officials 

 do not pay; and the more you are in the right, 

 the more you have been wronged, the more 

 charitable, as St. Paul teaches, must you be. The 

 injured may forgi-e, the injurer will never. At the 

 same time, tliat ie violent and the mal gnant may 

 not have everythi g their own way, with the harm- 

 lessness of the dive combine a little of the wisdom 

 of the serpent. 



18. Take all reasonable care of your health, for 

 without that there will.be neither pleasure nor profit. 



19. Lastly, do not altogether overlook as the world 

 too of ten does, that old scriptural precept: " Haste not 

 to be rich " There^are things more valuable than riches, 

 and self-respect is better than gold. — I remain, &o., 



After past experience, even within the leaf-disease 

 epoch, of the "great expectations" (by no means 

 realized) based on planting operations in Ceylon, we 

 are aware how distrustful home critics are apt to 

 be of a series of papers apparently all on one side. 

 It cannot be said that the above writer, however, 

 does not fairly put his case and hold the scales 

 evenly. But we are really obliged to th» planter 

 who sends us the following letter, which, of course, 

 was written without reference to what has app-ared 

 on the subject within the past few days. No one 

 can say after readiDg " Moderation " 's letter that 

 there has been no adverse criticism of tea in our 

 coiumns : — 



To the Editor, "Ceylon Observer." 



Dear Sir, — I do not wish, and I am sure you will not 

 credit me with any desire to throw cold water on the tea 

 enterprize in Ceylon, but the tendency of the planter to 

 exaggerate all that is favourable and to conceal that which 

 is unfavourable is a feature in his character which he appears 

 to take some trouble to develope. 



If my opinion of the present position of the tea industry 

 aud of the prospects before us were based eutirely on what 

 one reads in the local papers, I should arrive at the 

 following conclusions : — 



(1) That tea is an • absolute unqualified success in 

 Ceylon. 



(2) That the area adapted for further cultivation is pract- 

 ically unlimited. 



(3) That we have no difficulty in combining quality with 

 quantity. 



Now tea is not an unqualified success in Ceylon : nor 

 anything like it. What is the yield per acre from the 

 gardens in the immediate neighbourhood of Nuwara Eliya ? 

 I refer particularly to Oliphant, Mr. Rossiter's estates and 

 Tommagong. 



What is the return per acre from the Ceylon Company's 

 places : the Hope, Labookelle and Vellaioya ? 



What are results from the district of Medamahanuwara? 

 Hasan average of 3001b. of made-tea per acre been secured 

 from any estate in Kalutara or its neighbourhood? 



Is it not true that in the district of Ambagamuwa a 

 garden not a hundred miles from Strathellie has never yet 



