June i, iS86,J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



^i'^ 



tho profitable amelioration of the people they might 

 Bs wpU remain in <tr«ain!anil if we are not to have 

 the means of transptirting our proiiiioe. Tlio solf'ohanoo 

 of rejuvenating 1 va in the early future, or at all ia 

 HI a railway not only to Hapntalo hut to Badulla- 

 I'JIla is a myth. If we are sucofsst'ully to introiluct' new 

 proJuets amongst tho natives, there must ho a central 

 marliel to i-eceive them. If eottnn is to he grown in 

 small quantities hy the villagers, it must he purchased, 

 cleaned, perhaps ginned, bulked, prepared and baled 

 in Badulla. The same with tobacco; and if cotton seed 

 be pressed for oil in Badiill.i, the cake will lie avail- 

 able for cattle food on the spot, the same with castor 

 beans, the cake going for manure. .Vs for garden tea 

 it would have to find a market in Badulla, b-; bulked 

 there, sorted and refired and packed for shipment. 

 I am not sure that it would not pay handsomely if 

 soma of the large proprietors in the immediate 

 vicinity of Badulla were to send their green leaf 

 into town and cure and pack it here ; they would 

 find it much easier to manage both in the withering 

 and in the fermentation. At any rate a railway is 

 the first necessity of the day. Just fancy a million 

 holes of cotton being dragged wearily up to Haputale, 

 not to speak of Nannoya I The European planter may 

 very well be left to look after his own interests so 

 far as planting new products are concerned, or where 

 the cultivation of his estate may be concerned ; but 

 if anything for the native is to be done, the Gov- 

 iriiment must step in at once and help, but no help 

 can be of any real use till by a thorough and efficient 

 railway service, we have opened up Uva to the 

 markets of the world, not only for the present pro- 

 dnce of the country, but to develop the latest re- 

 30m-ces of the coimtry. The railway need not be pro- 

 digally costly like the Nannoya line, but wc must 

 have one unbroken gauge. 1 demand for Uva, on 

 the grounds of common humanity, that something 

 be done for the people : in many places they are 

 starving and many are thrown into gaol for ioad-ta.\ 

 and for miuor offences, tho outcrop of poverty, niis- 

 govcrument and starvation. I would suggest that 

 Government at once select suitable gi-ounds for a 

 tea garden which shall be devoted entirely, to the 

 cultivation of the best of jats of acclimated Ceylon 

 tea seed with some select seed from India, the 

 tea, to be grown solely for seed to be distributed 

 amonst the villages and that a cotton plant- 

 ation be established on a suflioiently largo scale 

 to fully test the capabilities of the soil and climate 

 »nd the quality of the cotton grown. The seed to 

 he_ distrilnited amongst the villagers. These plant- 

 ation.s .should be principally cultivated by prison labor. 

 The use of the prisoners in this way will be doubly 

 beneficial, first they will be usefully and remuneiativcly 

 <>inployed, second they will have learned .something 

 new when they return to their villages. A small begin- 

 ning has been',^made in the wuy of an experimental garden 

 bat why the site chosen should have been adopted is 

 moio tb.in I can tell ifirst of all it is the poorest ridge 

 in all the Badnlla paildy fields, the .soil is a hard clay 

 mingled with iron, and the land has been sodilen with 

 water tor centuries till the clay is as hard and poor as 

 a burnt brick, and the iron has oxidized till it is like 

 the Bliukb.md of our Scotch Moorlands, rendering the 

 land barren and worthless ; besides this the field is 

 swept during the north-east mon.soon bya blast of hot 

 ilry wind which blow ontof the gorge of the Badulla Oya 

 with such withering effect that not a green thing is left 

 during tho dry months, and during the south-west mon- 

 soon, the field is equally exposed to the cold winds ami 

 heavy rains blowu down from the hills. A more unpro- 

 mising site could not well have been chosen or found for 

 a garden in all 17va, it will he like the famous experi- 

 mental farm in Colombo on a small scale. That the ridge 

 may be made productive by trenching and abundance 

 of manure and by planting hardy trees for wind- 

 belts and shelter is true, but it will be costly and take 

 years to accomplish. 



As to the traffic of the town of Badulla, I will write 

 yo'l Liter on, i.> as this letter already far too long I think ; 

 howtvuj, the figures you have got from the native ' 

 traders may be coii»idered fairly reliable, — Yours truly. 



FLORIDA: FROST AND FRUIT. 



Yellow Bluff, Fla., Jan. 27th ISSli. 



nniTOR ASIEKIC.\N " OBOCPR." 



Thinking, perhaps, .a letter from Mouth Florida 

 would be ot interest to your readers, I write you 

 what the cold has done for us. The oldest iii- 

 haliilants claim it the cuKhst weather ever seen iu 

 Ftoi'ida. It has not done the injury to orange treea 

 that the cold did in 1835, as the cold days previous 

 to the harvi frost caused the sap to go down iu thw 

 trees. 



My orange trees were full of oranges ami all ap- 

 peared to 1)0 frosted more or less. About one-third 

 have fallen ; those on the trees are sound and I 

 believe will stand two or three months; those that 

 fell are sweet, as good as I ever ate, and do not 

 show many signs of decay. Our people are eating 

 more oranges than they ever did in the same length 

 of time. - As to the frost causing them to be poison- 

 ous, that is all ahoax, as far as our oranges are con- 

 cerned ; I have eaten six at one time without any 

 injurious affect. Most growers are letting the oranges 

 that drop lie on the ground and rot. 1 am housing 

 mine and will see if they will kee]>, and also picking 

 and housing those on the trees ; if I should chance 

 to .seud our Northern friends any 1 will venture to 

 say they never ate better. Lemons, limes, guavas, 

 pineapples, bananas, coconuts, mangoes and fig treea 

 on my place, with a few exceptions, are killed to the 

 ground. Orange trees will oijy lose their leaves, and 

 some have begun to bud ; it is thought we will have 

 du average crop another year. AVe learn that large 

 trees are killed in the counties north of us. 

 Vegetables are being planted more than ever. 

 It is not believed that the cold will depreciate tho 

 value of orange groves in this section, but rather 

 make them more valuable. I know of a sale of an 

 orauge grove that sold for as much as was asked 

 before the frost. 



Orange land is selling here from $10 to §50 per 

 acre, according to location. 



The lowest that the mercury stood iu the most ex- 

 posed place was 23 above at this place, two or three 

 miles hack from the gulf; 18 lowest "heard from. 



W. W FUTEELt. 



\Ye agree with our correspondent that the recent 

 frost in Florida will not iiermaueutly injure the orange- 

 growing interests. As to the healthfulness of frozen 

 fruit, there are two opinions. We incline to Dr. 

 Ed.son's view that oranges so frozen are not fit for 

 public sale without some restriction. 



rif orauge trees can stand a temperature of ISdg. 

 surely they can stand anything. What is the lowest 

 temperature at which the orange grows and ripens 

 fruit in Ceylon ? Nothing lower than 40dg. we 

 should say, — Ed,] 



FIJI AND ITS PRODUCTS. 



The following items are from the Levuka corresponJ- 

 eut ot the .S'. M. fUrnld :— 



I gained the other day, through the courte.«y of the 

 Receiver-General, and of Mr. .T. M. Borron, manager 

 of the Mango Island Company, the following porticularn 

 computed for the year 1885 : — Tlie Colonial .Sugar 

 Refining Company have exported 7/M tons of sugar ; 

 Mango Island Company comes next, with 085 tons ; then 

 Tasmania (on the Navua), with !)H',i ; Deuba estate, -In" 

 tons; and llolmliurst, on Taviuni, 393 tons. The other 

 mills have sent out much less. 



Going into other statistics concerning the country, 

 I find that there are of Fiji. ins and J'elvneBians in 

 the colony about 128,000. There hr..'; ! ■!■ nn inereiise 

 ill the number of Indians in the group „l, iu round 

 numbers., 1,000, but a ileciease of f rom 1 ,000 to 1 ,/JOO 

 Polyuesian f ')ourerfi, these having been returned in 

 numbers to the island of the north-west, whence they 

 came ; and very few compared to what has formerly 

 been the case, have been brought in labour vestels to 

 Fiji. There has been among the Fiji.ins themselves 

 a very saddening decrease duriug the past ye.ar, even 



