March 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



675 



where he will have the work-house to fall back upon."* 



Well, the advice which will now be given is this : 

 Bring no capital in your hand, for the in- 

 experienced man with money will be a prey 

 for the unprincipled merchant or planter. Far 

 better will it be for the intending invstor to make 

 sure of a supply of money when his experience shall 

 have taught him the right moment to invest and a 

 good opportunity occurs. 



Under all circumstances experience should be gained 

 and a good knowledge of the business in which it 

 is intended to embark. It is a dreadful mistake to 

 suppose that anyone can farm, anyone can plant. 

 Look again at the answer Sir Charles Clifford — 

 Chairman of the Colonial Institute meeting— gave Lord 

 Denbigh. Sir Charles Clifford's servants began at the 

 beginning and learnt what they had to do, and in 

 course of time they knew how to apply the kuowledg J : 

 the result was success. How very different was the 

 care of the capitalist who plunged doubtless in 

 median res. He had no experience to teach him why 

 one estate or farm or run was better than another. 

 He had to trust to agents and bailiffa ; he had no 

 experience of seasons : in tine, no technical knowledge; 

 and he failed miserably and his great capital en- 

 riched everyone but himself. And if such instances 

 occur in New Zealand of the fickleness of fortune, it 

 is certainly not peculiar to that country. Ceylon, on 

 the contrary, will compete favourably with any colony 

 under British rule for instances of the vicissitudes 

 of fortune-seekers. It has Buffered severely at differ- 

 ent times from financial panics. 



The Calcutta Review for March 1857 cites instances. 

 A property costing £10,000 sold for £350, and an- 

 other of equal cost for £500. Supposing therefore 

 that a man with capital had arrived a short time before 

 such a crisie and invested without experience, what 

 would have that inexperience cost him ? 



The same man learning and gaining experience 

 would in course of time have made a fortune. At 

 the present time history repeats itself, and there is a 

 terrible reaction after the inflated prosperity of the 

 decade of which 1874 was the summit level. 



I have had some years' experience of the colony, 

 and arrived in it at a time when everyone was quite 

 mad with excitement as to their prospects. There 

 was a coffee "loom," and the scene was not one 

 to forget in a hurry. "In all they undertake they 

 feel the anxiety of a gambler, and not the calmness 

 of a labouring man." This was the state of the 

 Ceylon planter in those days, and nothing can be 

 more hostile to successful agriculture. There seemed 

 a prevalent idea that nothing could be done except 

 at railway speed : acres and acres were planted with- 

 out any regard being paid to soil, climate, or aspect. 

 All was feverish haBte and intense anxiety to be 

 rioh all at once. 



In Caird's Agriculture, page 531, the reader may 

 find a note on leases, and it is stated that in the 

 108th Olympiad 345 B. c, the ^Enonians used to lease 

 land for 40 years. The terms of the leaBe are given. 

 In 1874 a planter in Ceylon would have expected to 

 retire on a fortune made from the lease of a coffee 

 estate for 40 months. 



Too much could not be adduced to illustrate the utter 

 folly of rash speculation in tropical agriculture. In 

 the Spectator of May the 10th, 1884, there is an 

 able article on the Oriental Bank in which the habits 

 of planters are comments d upou: — "When a planter has 

 made money, he goes ' home ' to spend it, leaving his 



* The rule applies more strongly in Ceylon than in New 

 Zealand, where, as the case of Sir Oharles Clifford's servants 

 Bbows, men having only labour as their capital can get on. 

 But in Ceylon, as in all tropical countries, the openings for 

 tho ] rofitable employment of European labour are few and 

 iu between — Ec. 



successor, be it partner, agent, or assignee, to meet all 

 the requirements for wages, new machinery and 

 cultivation, the best way he can, that is, in fact, by 

 borrowing." Supposing the typical English farmer (the 

 gentleman farmer is not iucluded) were to be oil' to 

 Paris every time he made a good speculation in sheep 

 or got 10 quarters of Rivett's wheat per acre al 50s 

 per quarter (a fact in 1868), would one ever have heird 

 of a farmer making a fortune? or a farm remaining the 

 same for half a century in point of condition ? True it 

 is that change is necessary for the European who 

 settles in the East ; but the change is not required to 

 that degree iu the island of Ceylon that it may be on 

 the larger portion of the Continent of In ia, or Hindu- 

 stan. Hence that mania for going home (or for leaving 

 home to speak more correctly) should not exist it the 

 Planter who wishes to prove " that the lind be worry 

 honest, whatever you do put into it, you shall get back 

 again." Many, if the truth weie known, could date their 

 misfortunes from the evil day when love of their c >un- 

 try — sudden and spasmod c ! — induced them to break 

 up and scatter their Lares and Penates and visit their 

 friends in the old country who p rhaps would have 

 preferred their room to their company ! 



What is the best investment in Ceylon at the pres. nt 

 time? 



Tea undoubtedly, but it is a product whi;h h-is only 

 ately come iuto notice. In 1867 there were 10 acres 

 in the island, and in 1S77 the acreage had risen to 

 2,720. In 1883 there were 32,000 1 And now there is 

 a rush and tea is being planted everywhere. It is a 

 wonderful success in many places, and it can be 

 extended still farther. Land can be obtained at the 

 upset price of K10 per acre. Survey and other fees 

 added in some cases as much as 30 per cent. Old 

 coffee estates — abandoned wholly or partly — can be 

 bought very cheaply and planted up. The yield of 

 some of the best bearing estates is verj large — as much 

 as 1 000 lb. of prepared tea per acre. Elevation seems 

 to make but little difference, for estates at sea-hvel 

 and estates at 6,000 feet nbove it have made equally 

 high prices for prepared tea. The labour quest on at 

 present gives no anxiety, and tea estates are sought after 

 on account of the regularity of the work. There is an 

 abundauce of seed of fair j.it in the island which can be 

 obtaiued at im derate prices. 



There has not yet been any speculation in tea estates, 

 but the time may come, and the hnppy possessor of 

 an esiate may find a good sale. The whole of the 

 Central Province or mountain zone is suitable in 

 climate for tea and the insular climate is a great 

 advantage. Again at a time when the frnit-grnwer 

 is crying out at the cessation of his trees from 

 bearing, a product is introduoed which is cultivated 

 for the leaf only. Post-lact wiseacies have remarked 

 that tea was the proper product for 'eylon and not 

 coffee. The b-st known estate, it muet be home in 

 mind, has peculiar advantages It is close to a rail- 

 way station, close to a town, and has a cait-road 

 (Government) right through it Compare these ad 

 vantages with the disadvantages of an estate iu a 

 more remote part of the island— say the Btdulla, district 

 —where there is no railway, labour not too plentiful, 

 and 125 miles of road to be traversed to Colonib ■. 

 Nevertheless, if a yield of 800 to 1,000 lb. per acre can 

 be obtained saleable at Is sterling per lb., a fair profit 



| can be looked for even r.uder considerable dis- 



l advantages. 



The plan'ing of a tea estate can be done by a coffee 

 planter ot experience, and the art of tea manufacture 



i ing is now well understood by many, and has been 

 brought in some instances to approximate perfection. 



J If therefore the intending investor were very anxious 



j to coirmence operations at once, he could live on au 

 estate whilst the planting operations were going on 



] and learn this work, and afterwards whilst the tea 



