Nov. 2, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



319 



values are the best arguments in favor of Ceylon 

 as a field for investment, as showing that, 

 although coffee may have succumbed to disease, 

 the resources of the island are far from being at 

 an end. The export of various articles, for 1883-81 

 and the estimated values thereof are as follows : — 

 Tea, ■2,263,000 lb. at 60 cents . . Kl,3.37,800-00 

 Cacao, 9,863 cwt. at EW . . 394,o'20-00 



Cinchona, 11,.500,000 lb. at 22 cents 2,530,000-00 

 Cinnamon and palm tree products 10,000.000'00 

 Mention is made of the capital which had been 

 introduced and the revenue which had been created 

 by coffee, and which had enabled Government to 

 devote large sums to the restoration and construc- 

 tion of irrigation works, and in supplying village 

 sluices and tanks where the people were reaibj to 

 make use of them. During my wanderings in the 

 lowcountry, I came across plenty signs of the 

 coffee planters' money spent on these irrigation 

 ■works, but in no one instance did I come across 

 a native rendij to make use of them. Indeed some 

 splendid fields, handy to those tanks, were lying 

 idle, and felt strongly inclined to apply to Gov- 

 ernment myself for the right to cultivate them, 

 thinking that I could get the work done by the 

 S'nhalese living near by, but, on making emiuiries, I 

 found these lazy fellows much more inclined to 

 sit down and wait for the paternal Government 

 to send them rice to prevent their starving, than 

 to make any attempt to help themselves. That 

 there are paddy fields near these tanks that would 

 pay well for cultivating, I feel quite sure, but the 

 labour question is the difficulty to be solved, as 

 no dependence conld be put on the Sinhalese for 

 help. How differently the two races behave 

 under trying circumstances ; when anything hap- 

 pened to the paddy crop, the natives sat down 

 and waited for assistance ; but, when coffee failed, 

 the Europeans did not look to Government for 

 help, but just set their teeth and worked the 

 harder at the cultivation of new products, with 

 the splendid results we now see. As an old coflee 

 planter I more than ever grudge the money which 

 has been wasted (yes! wasted) on irrigation works 

 which the natives never use ' and in making roads 

 over which scarcely a score of carts roll during 

 twelve months. Had that money been spent in 

 carrying railway communication into Uva and in 

 completing the Colombo harbour works, already 

 a marked difference would have been seen in the 

 welfare of the country, and the revenue would 

 have reaped something more than it has done from 

 such unproductive works as roads radiating that 

 the ruins of Anuradhapura to .i.e various sea- 

 ports of the island. . One cannot help wishing that 

 coffee would hold its sway still tn a certain ex- 

 tent, and who knows but the reduced acrengc 

 new under this shrub may drive tiie fungus back 

 to its original lair. I tni.st that, when 1.^0,00') 

 a.ires are under tea, no bUght will come to drive 

 it away as llemileia vustatrix has done with what 

 was once the staple of the island. To me the 

 finest flush of tea leaf or the heaviest crop of 

 cacao pods can never compare with the perfumed 

 sheet of white which clothed an estate when the 

 coffee blossom burst, or the red whicih flashed 

 from the bushes when a shower of rain brought 

 crop on with a rusli. 



A good deal of the advice given to young 

 immigrants has been dearly bought in the past, 

 and yet even at that time there were those 

 who preached moderation. I remember ask- 



• Uur corre.spond(;nt — an ex-Ceylon planter, now at 

 home, — had not read Mr. Elliott')) papnr, nor heard of 

 the good results from irrigation expenditure in the 

 Batticalos and JIatara di-stricts when he wrote. — Ed, 



ing some of the planters in the young districts 

 why they built large bungalows and stores 

 on their ground, when they did not expect to reap 

 any crop for two or three years. I was in an 

 oliice at that time, and had not yet become a 

 planter, so I was only laughed at when I asked 

 the question. I gave what I considered to be 

 parallel cases in the way the squatters of Australia 

 and New Zealand acted, when they took upcouutry 

 in the back blocks. There, for the first two or 

 three years, they lived in small huts and shore 

 their sheep in temporary sheds — I myself once 

 shore my sheep in a shed made by stretching 

 grey blankets over a frame built of rough bush 

 sapling— sand not until the returns warranted the 

 outlay did the squatters of these days build a good 

 shed or a respectable-looking house. I was laughed 

 at again, squatting and coflee planting were two 

 very different things, more money had been made 

 by sales of estates than sales of crop, and there • 

 was more chance of selling an estate with a good 

 bungalow than one with a house like a set of 

 cooly lines. This was too true, and was one of 

 the reasons why speculating in estates became so 

 fashionable. Young immigrants nowadays have 

 the past experience of planters for nothing, and 

 will know not to spend money in an unproductive 

 way, such as building stores for a crop which is 

 not due for some years, and in erecting bungalows 

 that require considerable capital to keep up. With 

 the splendid climate of the hill districts in Ceylon, 

 one does not require to build a palatial residence 

 and live in the most extravagant manner, on the 

 plea that one's health would suffer otherwise. With 

 all the experience that a past generation has paid 

 for, and which is at the disposal of every one, 

 the immigrant lauding in Ceylon has a much 

 better chance of doing well than he would have 

 had in years gone by, and the thousand and one 

 ways that the planters of today could, if they 

 would, reduce expenditure must be a great saving 

 to those with short funds and no 0. B. C. to 

 give cash credits. For instance, the plan adopted 

 by Mr. Rossiter, who sends his own coolies to pluck 

 on other estates, bringing the leaf to his factory 

 and paying the estate owners by weight. Why this 

 plan is not more commonly adopted, I cannot 

 conceive : a group of estates all taking the tea 

 leaf to the one factory, where the best machinery 

 could be erected, either by one man or by 

 the proprietors of the whole group conjointly. Nor 

 do I see any reason why, when two estates are 

 opened up, one bungalow is not sufficient for the 

 two proprietors, some terms being arranged for 

 the payment of the one upon whose estate the 

 buig.ilow is built, for the use of it by the other. 

 Several clerks in the of'tices in Colombo live together 

 Without quarrelling, and surely two planters might 

 do so. There are many other ways of economiz- 

 ing, which were never dreamt of in the palmy 

 days of the coffee enterprise, but strict economy 

 is the burden of every one's song now, not only 

 Ceylon, but in every part of the world. Cosmopolixk. 



The Aphides, or plant lice have hitherto been sup- 

 posed to be the most prolific of living beings ; and it 

 is disappointing to find a writer iji the Field who 

 has been at the pains to count tlip progeny of a 

 single rose aj^his, declaring that the individuals 

 only number 32,708, 000,000,000. 000,000. He no 

 doubt did not take a fair sample of aphis, and we 

 hope he will try again with a result that will do 

 more justice to this interesting insect. If he would 

 also take the trouble to write the result in words 

 instead of figures, ho would gratify many persons, 

 — Muilras iJail, 



