Wakcjj i, iSS6.} 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



6ii 



the childien of iubtruulion are very great, and in- 

 directly the parents benefit. It is inspiriting to see 

 and hear tlie children marching home from school, 

 with the schoolmaster at their head, singing Tamil 

 IjTics, (Christian poetry) as they go. Two (Jovernors 

 of Ceylon, Sir Wm. Gregory and Sir Arthur Gordon, 

 visited this school and were much interested in what 

 they witnessed. 



Nk.u; View or Cooly lines. — The bnilding on the 

 left, the walls and partitions of wattle and daub, 

 roofed with shingles, is a fair sam])le of the ordinary 

 abodes provided for the Tamil coolies who work the 

 Ceylon estates. In some cases brick buildings, tiled, 

 have been erected, but as a general rule the coolies 

 prefer the more primitive structures which, at their 

 worst, are greatly superior to the miserable hovels 

 they have been accustomed to in India, and to the 

 level of which, if permitted, they would speedily 

 reduce their " lines." These, as originally built 

 consist of ten rooms in a block, five on each side with 

 a partition between, and a good airy verandah on 

 each side. The process of closing up these veran- 

 dahs, to which coolies are inveterately addicted, is 

 indicated in this illustration, but instead of boarding, 

 as here shown, earthen walls are generally thrown 

 up. Fowls, and if this is permitted, pigs, are kept 

 in the verandah compartments. The Houth-of-India 

 Tamil has many good qualities as a labourer, but 

 regard for the elements of sanitary science is not 

 amongst his virtues. He does not appreciate ventil- 

 ation and as for cleanliness, it may be enough to 

 remark, that a cooly is told off on this estate for 

 each of the three sets of lines, whose work it is 

 to keep the paths clear of offensive matter and to 

 prevent the stream or pond on the side of which 

 lines are invariably built, from being contaminated 

 with the one great cause of fever, dysentery, and 

 cholera. The coolies will not even whitewash their 

 own abodes : they must be paid for this work when 

 performed. The round building in this picture is a 

 shed for the cow of the head kangani (native over- 

 seer), and there are bits of garden ground in which 

 plaintains and vegetables are cultivated by the 

 cooUes. But many owners of estates have ceased to 

 grant such indulgences. Cattle are very expensive 

 to keep and the coolies are such inveterate thieves, 

 that if a man has any valuable fruits or vegetables in 

 his plot, he must stay away from estate work to cult- 

 ivate and protect them. These people so distrust 

 one another that when a coo man and his wile go 

 to visit friends on a neighbouring estate, the husband 

 carries away the cock and the wife the hen, to pre- 

 vent the killing and eating of the poultry in their 

 absence. Sometimes estate coolies do not scruple to 

 appropriate fruits and vegetables grown in " the 

 bungalow " garden, and a case is on record of their 

 attacking a plot of potatoes during the night and 

 carrying away the tubers, but carefully replacing the 

 plants in the ground, to the great temporary mysti- 

 fication of the superintendent, 



MoiiMN'J MroXEii .it lilt ConEE Sioni;.--It will 

 be observed that the ra.yt) of the morning sun are 

 lighting up the young coffee bushes and felled timber 

 on the knoll behind the iron-roofed store. The 

 labourers, with the Europeans and the kanganies 

 in front, aie mustered on the scarcely completed 

 •■barbecues" or platforms on which the "parchment" 

 coffee. di\ested of the "cherry" husk or pulp. anJ 

 washed ill ci-.lerHS, is jiartially dried before being 

 dispatched to tbe Colombo preparing and packing 

 stores. The coolies arc awakened between i and .5 

 a. m. by the beating of a tomtom or the blow- 

 ing of a horn, bells being few and far between. 

 Food is prepared, of which the labourers partake, 

 carrying their midday meal to the field. JIustcred 

 at bis, tbe fcirce ought to be at work by half-patt 



<) or 7, and they then continue to labour until 1 

 p. m. The coollea themselves prefer this system 

 to being allowed an interval of rest at mid-day 

 i and then working to a later hour in the evening, 

 i "Knocking off work" at 4 o'clock gives them a 

 \ long evening for their amusements and the cooking 

 of the evening meal. Each gang of coolies has its 

 kangani and there is generally a head kangani, 

 but frecjuent visits from the European super- 

 intendent are essential to securing good work. In- 

 deed the main duty of a " einna durai" or young 

 master (assistant superintendent) is to remain 

 with the working gangs in the held. Where the 

 Tamil cooly excels the Chinese and negroes, is 

 in his steady adherence to one scene of employ- 

 ment and his amenability to discipline and com- 

 mand. Turbulence and bloodshed in riots, and 

 gang robberies are very rare occurrences amongst 

 Tamil coolies, even after reckoning some exceptional 

 cases since the bad times, produced by the collapse 

 of the once prosperous coffee enterprise, set in. 



PoKCH AND VEU.U."D.iH OF THE " NeW BuN(i.\L0W." 



— In building this bungalow in 1878-79, the error, 

 if any, committed was in the opposite direction 

 to that in regard to the temporary erection of 

 1«72. For the new bungalow a hill top 5,800 feet 

 above the sea, was levelled, and the whole structure 

 is of solid stone and brick, with good, well-Bea- 

 soned timber. The result, if somewhat costly, is 

 excellent ; the house being safe from every wind 

 that blows, well fitted and furnished, standing 

 amidst equisitely beautiful mountain scenery and with 

 a climate which for a large portion of the year, is 

 about perfect. The exceptions are for a couple of 

 months in each of the monsoons, when rain and 

 mist are somewhat copious. But such meteorologi- 

 cal conditions, while not generally adverse to human 

 health are most favourable for the luxuriant growth 

 of tea. In Ceylon, — on this property up to 6,000 

 feet and on estates on the eastern side of the moun- 

 tain zone to nearly 1,000 feet higher,— we have 

 thoroughly disproved Colonel Money's rash dictum 

 that a climate good for human health cannot be 

 good for tea. We now know we can calculate on at 

 least, 500 lb. of tea per acre, per annum ; while the 

 estate is one of the healthiest in the world for the 

 Tamil laborers as well as for their European masters. 

 " The new bungalow," like the old, is now surrounded 

 by a fine grove of exotic trees, and the picture shews 

 how the indigenous tree ferns Hourish at this alti- 

 tude. Hoses, lillies, violets honeysuckle, Bougain- 

 villea and furze seem equally at home here as is the 

 tea plant. 



The Beginnings oe a Tea Faciobv. — This build- 

 ing, with a portion of the massive Great Western 

 mountain and the extensive Dimbula valley for 

 a background, stands close to " to the new bung- 

 alow " at 5,800 feet above sea-level, and distant 

 less than two miles from the N'anuoya railway station 

 which is 12!) milesfrom Colombo and about five to 

 the entrance to Nuwara Eliya Plain, This tea house, 

 as yet one of the loftiest in situation in Ceylon, is, 

 with a very large addition now approaching comple- 

 tion, conspicuous from the railway line which runs 

 along the side of Great Western, and from the upper 

 windows of the building magnificent views are com- 

 manded. A tea store, from the enormous horizon- 

 tal space required for " withering " the green leaf, 

 must be twice or more the size of a coffee store, 

 and the machinery employed, — rollers, sifters, 

 driers, cutters, Ac, — cast the modest coffee pulper 

 into the shade, both as to complicated appliances 

 and cost. Tea machinery unquestionably saves a 

 great deal of human labour for field work, but 

 the first cost of stores and machinery on a tea estate 

 of any bi;se, is, we can answer for it, very heavy, even 



