April r, 1885.] 



THE THOPTCAL AGRICULTURIST. 



787 



PLANTING TOPICS IN CEYLON AND S. INDIA 



THE REIGN OF TEA IN PLACE OF COFFEE— A FULFILLED 

 PROPHECY — A GLOWING PICTURE — DIFFERENCES BETWEEN 

 CEYLON AND INDIA — ADVANTAGES OF INDIA — TRUF. HAPPI- 

 NESS— CARDAMOMS— CEVLON IN NEED OF ANNEXATION TO 

 INDIA! — CACAO— CONCENTRATING ONE'S ENERGIES— THE 

 P. A - . MEETING — TUE OLD BADULLA MEETINGS —SCIENTISTS 

 IN CEYLON'. 



A hearty greeting to the "Old Rag" aud my old 

 Ceylou fiiends for 1885. This year's first morning tun 

 beams ou a brighter scene than has been the ease in 

 Ceylon for many a year. It sees something like the 

 old musters again ; something like the old stir and 

 bustle in the erst abandoned buildings ; and a new 

 odour emanates from the stores, —it is not the sugary 

 scent of cherry-skins, nor the tan-pit smell of those 

 skins after they have lain for some time, but it is 

 the malty rich perfume of tea-leaf as it is crushed, 

 fermented and fired by new-fangled machinery. And 

 this 1S85 sun looks down and sees the day brighter, 

 and the doings of men develop into full energy ou 

 those mountain gardens in Ceylon. Each well-known : 

 portly form in easy tweed and Ellwood hat treads 

 with a lighter step because his heart has begun to I 

 beat with hope instead of being crushed with dark 

 despair. He lias a hard tough plant that seems to [ 

 suit the climate, so that the old struggles will not | 

 likely be repeated. Coffee is but exotic, so is cinchona ; 

 but in tea, as tint old Sinhalese in a late Observer 

 is described as saying to the peripatetic V. A. pros- 

 pecting for tea iu Harper's olel abandoned place, 

 " Tea is just the same as a jungle plant, and holds 

 its own even when abandoned with the native weeds and 

 thorns." As Mr. Elliot of Mysore said many years 

 ago in your office: "It seems to me that Ceylon is 

 eminently favourable for the growth of leaf." Why, 

 old "Cattle-plague" laid down the law to R B. T. 

 that his favourite coffee would have its nose put 

 out of joint by tea. I heard him. That was ou a 

 moonlight night iu Dumbara in 1874. You have a 

 very far-seeing man iu Dimbula. I won't teli his name; 

 but he prophesied and the prophecy has been wonder- 

 fully fulfilled. 



Well, go on aud prosper I Let chest upon chest of 

 balmy fragrant leaf cross the swelling deep and 

 scatter over hearths and homes cf merrie Englanel ; let 

 the name thereof become known among the merchants 

 of the West ; let it rill with despair the Celestial 

 conservatives ; let it start the silent wheels, rub 

 bright the powerful shafts and re-kindle the furnaces 

 of the noble mills of Colombo* ; let it brighten the 

 dull eye, whether of the hardworked Colombo agent, 

 the estate proprietor, the salaried manager ; let it 

 draw like a magnet those sods that have left the 

 island's shores in sore depres?ion, and attract new 

 blood, new energy, as well as restore animation in 

 the old blood, the old energy. 



I think Ceylon has done right. Men here ask why 

 new seed was not tried, but these men have not 

 themselves been gradually led into a quicksand and 

 slowly realized their position. Planters iu India are 

 proud men if they can get 3 or 4 cwt. per acre, 

 and spend R40 to R60 per acre. They use up a 

 large proportion of their resources aud energy in com- 

 batting a sun like fire aud a heaven like brass, in 

 enduring months of cloudless heat, and cold blight- 

 ing winds, in lapsing into the opposite extreme and 

 getting mildewed by continued steady monsoon rains. 

 Well, you see Nature keeps them in prescribeel limits 

 aud they can't help themselves. " Hitherto shalt 

 thou come and no farther," is the law in Mysore. 



* Unfortunately this cau only pass as poetry : tea does 



not benefit the poor Colombo millowners a cent 



En. 



In Ceylon, the climate, the soil, the latitude in many 

 senses admits of urgent enterprise being pushed to 

 undue limits, and then comes the terrible recoil. 

 There was an outrage committed on nature heie to 

 start with. The native said, coffee wanted a screen 

 (not an umbrella), a light veuetian-blind (I don't mean 

 that the native really mentioned these- blinds but their 

 equivalent in Canarese), to break the solid mass of 

 sun-rays and weather aud distribute their power. 

 English planters pointed to Ceylon, and down went 

 the forest giants. The coffee throve grandly and 

 great was the joy in the land. Well, Nature's 'a»eut 

 in Mysore was more honest though more abrupt 

 than her agent in Ceylon. She tripped up the 

 transgressors at once. The borer simply left them 

 with bare soil— bare of coffee as well as of trees. Stun- 

 ned by this sudden aud severe lesson the planters 

 here have struggled on, and now find the prices reach 

 that low limit where confidence becomes very shaky 

 and hopes are dull. Now there is enougli to keep 

 a man yet ; crops have not disappeared, and labour 

 costs just half what it does in Ceylon, so that prices 

 have not the same effect at the same range. But the out- 

 look, what is it? Is coffee to be a favourite European 

 enterpnze? or will it gradually die with the present cultiv- 

 ators ? The merits of the bean are but scantily known, 

 and the way to develop them is difficult. That is not 

 the case with tea aud cocoa, and beer is always bandy 

 to the working man. I believe that coffee is going 

 out of fashion and the market has reached its normal 

 state after the ferment of the Ceylon excitement. It 

 won't go lower, and if men can make their estates 

 crop fairly they have a cheap enough labour market 

 here. Not so in Ceylon, so let coffee die, and long 

 may tea fill your stores and purses. Good luck to 

 Ceylon for 1886 ! 



But a word for these coffee planters here. Ceylon 

 men can't equal the extreme care aud pains they 

 take on many places here. 4 Ceylon man is struck 

 with this. The cheapness of labor and the absence 

 of competition, leaf-disease, V. A.'s, Colombo 

 agents and the telegraph wire, as well as the fatherly 

 attentions of a British Governor and his satellites 

 being conspicuous it seems possible for a man to fulfil 

 his calling and live a pleasant life without his dreams 

 being disturbed by "bumper crops." "Give me 

 neither poverty nor riches," is the true happy desire. 

 When tea has run its course and we are all removed from 

 the scenes of toil and trouble, some enteiprizing men 

 may again start coffee in Ceylon, but it will not bo 

 till the world has got a long way into the 20th 

 century. In the meantime, I need not discuss coffee 

 more in your columns. It is dangerous to refer to 

 the old love when the charms of the new are blush- 

 ing fresh and fondly. 1 thus drop a tear and heave 

 a sigh for the memory of many a happy day in 

 years gone by. 



You are making terrible progress with Cardamoms. 

 These Ceylon fellows are at it again spoiling every 

 market they touch. They have done harm enough 

 with coffee and cinchona, and here they are with 

 cardamoms. I suppose they will finish up by doing 

 the same for Northern India as they have for Southern 

 India. Dufferin should " annex " it, or hand it over 

 to the Germans who want colonies. Bismarek would 

 make a grand V. A. Any amount of sacking aud 

 blood and thunder. The worst of it is that the more 

 Ceylon is b?aten, the better she comes up to the 

 scratch ; so we Indian fellows soon won't have a 

 chance left save to struggle o U with a ruined market 

 as the coffee planters have to do. That big drou ght 

 on the top of the cardamoms in Ceylon laised our 

 spirits a bit. You seem to have it all y. ur own 

 way with Cacao as far as the East is concerned : 

 but I have in. doubt the circulation of the '/', ij 

 hai increased in (ho West Indies as these a fell •■■ 



