742 



tHE TROPICAL AGRiCyLTURiSf. 



CMay I, ime. 



THE PLANTING EEVIVAL OF CEYLON. 



Some two years ago we called attention in rather 

 a forcible manner to the state of distress in 

 Ceylon, consequent on the deuPAlenc(i of the coflee 

 planting industry. But Ceylon has since then taken 

 a new lease of life. Coffee has gone from bad to 

 worse, but its place in the island has with almost 

 magical rapidity been occupied by tea. i'or the 

 first time the editors of that really wonderful volume, 

 Ferguson's Ci'ijlmi Ihiiulbouh, say that they cannot 

 any longer loolt upon coffee as the most important 

 branch of the agriculture of Ceylon. The tale they 

 have to tell about the history of coffee planting 

 in Ceylon is botli interesting and instructive. The 

 first upland plantation was formed in iWo by Sir 

 Edward Barnes. Between 1833 and 184i the 

 mountain ranges on all sides of Kandy became 

 rapidly covered with plantations, and in lHli-184;") 

 the cofl'ce mania was at its height. Five millions 

 sterling were sunk in less than as many years. 

 The rush for land was only paralleled by the rush 

 towards the Australian gold mines. " TKe Governor 

 in Council," says Sir Emerson Tennent, " the 

 military, the judges, the clergy, and one-half the 

 civil servants penetrated the hills, and became 

 purchasers of Crown lands. The East India Com- 

 pany's officers crowded to Ceylon to invest their 

 savnigs, and capitalists from England arrived by 

 every packet. As a class, the body of emigrants 

 was more than ordinarily aristocratic, and if not 

 already opulent, were in haste to be rich. So 

 dazaling was the prosj^ect that expenditure was 

 unlimited ; and its profusion was only equalled by 

 the ignorance and inexperience of those to whom 

 it was entrusted." Then in 184.5-184(; came the 

 crash, partly dependent on the financial explosion 

 of 1810 in England, partly on the withdrawal of 

 the protective duties, and partly on over-production : 

 — " The consternation thus produced in Ceylon 

 was proportionate to the extravagance of the hopes 

 that were blasted ; estates were forced into the 

 market, and madly sold off for a twentieth part 

 of the outlay incurred in forming them, others 

 that could not even be sacrificed were deserted 

 and allowed to return to jungle." For nearly 

 three years the enteriirise appeared paralysed : 

 the ruined disappeared, and ' the timid re- 

 treated. But the enterprise slowly and surely re- 

 covered until in 18('i!l leaf disease made its 

 first appearance, and this fatal disease combined 

 with the enormous outturn of coffee from the Brazils 

 and other new fields rjudcred a Ceylon coffee jilan- 

 ter's life uncertain in the present and perilous in 

 the future. But troubles as is their wont came 

 not "as single spies but in battalions." The fail- 

 ure of the City of Glasgow Bank i-eacted disas- 

 trously through the Oriental Bank on the Ceylon 

 planting enterprize, and led to a great withdrawal 

 of capital, until in the season 1882-83 with 200,000 

 acres in cultivation the export, say the Messrs. 

 Ferguson, "was only 2(i0,000 cwt. or less thau was 

 shipped forty years earlier from less than one-fourth 

 the area 1" This terrible falling-off in coffee crops 

 reacted on nearly every branch of local trade and 

 industry. To make matters worse the Oriental 

 Bank itself failed, and the colony would, it is 

 generally believed, have been irretrievably ruined 

 had not Governor Gordon taken on his own re- 

 sponsibility the courageous step of guaranteeing the 

 Oriental Bank currency notes. It was at this try- 

 ing period that we printed the article to which we 

 have already referred. We sliowcd thai coffee was 

 doomed in Ceylon, and that Ceylon would bs?' 

 •loomed too, unless the planters realized this fact 

 and turned their attention to other produclo suiteil 

 to the climate oi their marvellously fruitful iblaud, 



Our remarks were as was natural, warmly discussed 

 and criticised at the time. 



To critics either in or out of Ceylon, the future . 

 seemed almost gloomier than the past. The plant- 

 ers were cither leaving the island as rats leave a 

 sinking ship, or living in sorry circumstances on 

 the produce of their estates. Colombo was crowded 

 with starving assistants out of employ, some of 

 whom actually shipped themselves as coolies to 

 Queensland. But tlie story of the twelve years de- 

 cadence may best be told with a few figures, and 

 we give the returns for every pair of years since 

 1871-75 when a maximum may be said to have 

 been attained : — 



Seasons. Coffee Exports 



Uwt. 



1871-70... ... ],H7«,7H2 



187U-78... ... 1.654,33!) 



1878-80... ... 1,478.275 



1880.82.. ... 1.015,5;:0 



I8S2-84... ... .574,272 



1884-Sti (ubtnuated) 5UUJ22 



But owing to competition in the Brazil and other 

 coffee fields not yet affected by leaf disease, 'the 

 price of Ceylon coffee had fallen too. Tlic highest 

 price touched was 13>") shillings per cwt. in 1873; 

 the lowest 01 shillings in 188.5. As the first result 

 of this extraordinary depression the total luimbcr 

 of superintendents of coffee estates has fallen off 

 from 1,38'J in February 1881 and 1,108 at the end 

 of 1883 to 1,081 in December 188.5, the latter 

 iorrespoiiding to 1,4-18 estates now in cultivation 

 cut of a total 1,1123 pi'operties. "It is probable, 

 indeed," say Messrs. Ferguson, "that more than 

 300 European planters have left Ceylon in the four 

 years, because their places in some cases may be 

 filled by Ceylonese, whose names would swell the 

 present number of superintendents. I'erhaps we may 

 fairly say that our planting community diminished 

 at the rate of a hundred superintendents or proprie- 

 tor-superintendents a year, between isso and 1885. 

 A serious loss, now we trust gradually to be made 

 up as tea-planting extends." Here we have the key 

 to tlie revival of Ceylon. For those planters who 

 had pluck enough to stay on, looked to tea and al- 

 most solely to tea to recoup them for their losses 

 in coffee. Many other things were tried, Liberian 

 coffee (which has on the whole proved a failure), 

 cinchona, cacao, cardamoms, rubber, and so on. 

 But tea has succeeded beyond all expectation. 

 Messrs. Ferguson are bold enough to think that 

 before Sir Arthur Gordon hands over the reins of 

 Government, Ceylon will have gained most of that 

 planting prosperity which has been lost through 

 the dire effects of the cofl'ee leaf. " And," they add, 

 "we further see the promise in our tea, cacao and 

 other new industries, together with the continued 

 extension of palm as well as grain cultivation, of 

 a degree of stable comfort and even wealth for 

 the people such as could not be imagined when 

 Ceylon was at the very height of its ancient glory 

 in the days of the groat King I'arakrama, the creator 

 of 'the Inland Sea.' " 



We have looked at one picture. We will look 

 at the other; and seldom has English pluck been 

 better illustrated than in this sudden substitution 

 of tea for coffee. Tea and coffee are greatly inter- 

 mixed on the different estates with each other, 

 and with cinchona and cacao and rubber. But 

 after a great deal of trouble Messrs. Fergnson have 

 succeeded in approximately dividing the acreage 

 devoted to each. The tot.al area of the 1.'.I23 

 plantations in Ceylon embraces (')52,355 acres, and 

 1,1111 of these with an acreage of 308,018 are still 

 in cultivation under 1,08^ superiuteudeuts. The 



