July i, 1S84.I 



THt TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



IRRIGATION IN CEYLON. ANCIENT 

 AND MODERN. 



On page 25 we give the valuable paper by Mr. Mos se > 

 with a notice .if remarks on it by Sir Win. Gregory, 

 Sir John Douglas, Mr. O.Bruce, C.M.G., and Mr John 

 Ferguson. There is not much occasion for any com- 

 ments of our own. We would simply restate our doubts 

 whether Ceylon ever supported a greater population 

 than now resides within its borders. When the con- 

 querors from Northern India landed, the aborigines must 

 have been few and their condition wretched, for the 

 "Yakkbani" Queen had to feed her visitors on rice ob- 

 tained from a wrecked ship. In after ages, and largely 

 under the influence of Buddhism, many great and some 

 splendid irrigation works were constructed. Rut invari- 

 ably such construction took place in centres of popul- 

 ation and in contiguity to the then seat of Governm ent. 

 As the court shifted its residence, tanks were either 

 well attended to or neglected, and many of them fell 

 into dissufc from desolating wars. When a large popul- 

 ation existed in and around Anuradhapura, there is no 

 evidence that the south-west of Ceylon, which owes its 

 real prosperity to the introduction and cultivation of 

 the coconut palm and other fruit trees and roots, bad 

 anything more than a scanty sprinkiug of population. 

 The mistake even in regard to the eastern, northern 

 and north central portions of the island, is the supposi- 

 tion that all the great tanks were operative and simul 

 taneously giving out water for irrigation. Of course 

 our confrere, while dwelling on the importance of fruit 

 and root cultivation to the people of Ceylon, did not 

 mean to question the importance of irrigation to the 

 dry and arid districts of the island where stored water 

 is necessary even for fruit and root cultivation and for 

 sanitary purposes. By all means let rice be grown where 

 that is the most profitable cultivation, but let not 

 other products be neglected. The North-Central Province 

 is not suited for the coconut palrn, but it is eminently 

 so for the palmyra palm, which on the rising grounds 

 should be interspersed with the rice fiells. We believe 

 it to be no extravagant anticipation that surplus rice 

 from the North-Central Province will yet add profitable 

 traffic to the Matale railway. 



CULTIVATION OF CACAO IN THE 

 EASTERN PROVINCE. 



We received from Mr. Fielder of Batticaloa a large 

 packet of chocolate pods with the following note : — 

 Batticaloa, 28th May 1884. 



Dear Sir. — By today's parcel post I am sending you 

 three packets, each of which coutain two cacao pods picked 

 from my young clearing at Mahaoya,* planted December 

 1880 and January 1881, and I would feel very much obliged 

 if you would get some V. A. to give his opinion whether 

 the pods are will-grown and matured. I may say it has 

 been the dryest season I have known siuce I came to 

 reside in the Eastern Province. — Yours truly, 



S. FlELPEK. 



The pods were submitted for the experienced judgment 

 of Mr. Wm. Jardine of Udapolla estate, and we con- 

 gratulate not only Mr. Fielder but the colony on the 

 highly favourable report, which is as follows : — 



" The six cacao pods sent by Mr. Fielder are of our 

 common red variety, are fully ripe and well-grown ; they 

 are very tine, and I have seldom seen better; the 

 bean looks plump and full, and. judging from the appear- 

 ance of the pods. I should say that the soil and climate 

 seem well -adapted to the growth of the cacao tree. 1 

 am curing the beans, and will send them to you in the 

 course of a week." 



' : miles from Batticaloa. 



We imagine there are tens of thousands of acres of 

 laud inland from Batticaloa and in the east of the 

 island generally, as also in the North-Central and 

 Northern Provinces, well suited for this cultivation. 

 If Mr. Fielder would supply some figures for cost 

 of laud, seed, culture, wages of labour, &c, they would 

 be interesting and useful. It would be well to state if 

 the necessity of resorting to irrigation was at all ex 

 perienced ? 



COCONUT CULTIVATION. 



The Reason for Writing. — As my opinions on coeonutcult- 

 ivation are still in advance of the common practice, I 

 propose, in a series ot short papers, to do justice to my own 

 views, in the faith, that, so far as they are consistent with 

 sound principles, they will gradually be accepted by the 

 growing intelligence of those interested in this product, 

 which, so far as the native industries of the Southern and 

 Western Provinces are concerned, holds the first place. I 

 have already opened the subject by a slight sketch of the 

 commencement and progress of coconut estate cultivation, 

 and I now proceed to treat the subject from the beginning. 



Soils. — There are two kinds of soil on which coconuts 

 refuse to grow to any profitable purpose, namely, thin 

 washed gravels overlaying solid cabook and stiff clays, 

 both of which should be avoided ; they will never pay for 

 the labour ; otherwise they are uot particular. The richer 

 the soil, they will grow the quicker and bear the earlier ; 

 and the heavier and as a rule the longer it takes to bear, 

 the smaller will the crops be. The best of all soils for 

 coconuts are deep alluvial loams, on the banks of rivers, 

 subject to floods that overflow on the neighbouring lands : 

 in such situations, the crops are enormous ; indeed, a few 

 acres of such land is a fortune to its owner, and, as the 

 soil is particularly inexhaustible, it may go on for a century 

 bringing in annually an income of K300 or more. 8uch 

 pieces of land are generally small in exteut, and widely 

 apart. The next quality of soil is the brown loams, and 

 tbey are only found in certain districts, and seldom extend 

 into the higher uplands, where cabook gravel with vary- 

 ing proportions of loam prevails, and this is now almost 

 the only description of land to he obtained. A loamy 

 sand is a good coconut soil, ami, with scientific cultiv- 

 ation, is only inferior to the alluvial and brown loams. 



Lay. — The lay of the surface is an important factor in 

 successful coconut cultivation ; other things being equal, 

 the nearer the approach \a the level the better. iSteep 

 hill-sides are always poorer than neighbouring tlats. and 

 they become poorer from the base upwards, while a fiat 

 hill-top is always better than the steep sides. Darwin's 

 work on earthworms describes the cause of this scientific- 

 ally, and I need not bring my rushlight into the pre- 

 sence of a flambeau. 



Nurseries. — Eight months before the plants are wonted 

 for the field, a nursery should he put dmvn with 50 pep 

 cent more seed-nuts than the number of plants Deeded, 

 because there are always a greater or less number of the 

 nuts that do not germinate, and all that have not germin- 

 ated within five months should be rejected, as likely to 

 carry the same slowness of growth into the field, and to 

 this cause, chiefly, may be ascribed the inequality of the 

 trees years afterwards, wben there has been no difference 

 of soil or treatment to account for it. The selection of 

 the seed-nuts is an important affair, and should be done 

 with great care. The best way is to select the trees from 

 which the seed nuts are to be taken, and the rules to go 

 by, are a mature healthy tree in heavy bearing, the nuts 

 should be medium size, with thin husks, and should be 

 ripe but not dry, as feeble plants alike result from in- 

 sufficiently ripe and from over-ripe nuts. The coconut 

 does not come true to seed; indeed, it would be difficult to 

 find, in any field, two trees bearing nuts that are exactly 

 alike, in colour, size and thickness of husk, but there is a 

 better chance of getting a good type from a good tree 

 than from taking seed indiscriminatiugly. The ground for 

 the nursery should -be dug six inches deep, and formed 

 into beds four feet wide, by removing three inches of the 

 soil and laying it on the intervening spaces ; then pack 

 the nuts, as close as possible, in the beds, with the stalk- 

 end up, and return the earth dug out, to fill the spaces 



