230 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[April i, 1904. 



which swarmed half clad men and women, and nude children — 

 meeting Tamils, Singalese, Chinese, Moors — indeed, all types 

 of black and yellow men, turning out for carriages of all sorts, 

 jinrikishas, bullock hackeries, and huge two wheeled thatched- 

 roof wains ; getting a glimpse of a rare tropical garden, then of 



a squalid Tamil hut ; by 

 Chinese graveyards, 

 European villas, cocoa- 

 nut plantations, banana 

 patches — all over a road 

 of good hard "chabook," 

 until we drew up at the 

 little hotel — c rowned 

 height of Mt. Lavinia. 

 Here we had tiffin, with 

 coffee, out on the lawn 

 under an umbrella like 

 tent, where we lay in 

 reclining chairs and 

 watched the sapphire 

 sea studded with native 

 fishing boats, their huge 

 brown sails swelling 

 with the breath of the 

 northeast monsoon. It 

 was scorching hot in 

 the sun, so we waited 

 native method of tree climbing. until late in the after- 



noon, and drove slowly back to the hotel. 



I was awakened early next morning by my black Tamil bed- 

 room man, who brought coffee and bread and fruit, and in- 

 formed me that " Master's " bath was ready. As I pulled the 

 mosquito curtains aside, and got slowly out of bed, I was 

 startled by a flapping of wings, and a very black and impudent 

 crow alighted on the window sill, his eye on the tray of food, 

 and waited impatiently for me to go to the bathroom. On the 

 tiled roof opposite were half a hundred more, awaiting the re- 

 sults of his investigation, so I took my coffee then and there. 

 On my return not a crumb of food remained, much to the dis- 

 gust of a couple of sparrows who were investigating my belong- 

 ings with all sorts of profane comments. They left, however, 

 when the lizard began to sing, and I didn't blame them, for 

 however common and useful the house lizard is in Ceylon, and 

 even if it can catch more flies and mosquitoes than anything 

 else, its song is not real music, and if you try to stop it, by 

 throwing a boot, the tail drops off, greatly injuring its looks. 



Very early in the day I was introduced by my request to the 

 dhoby man, who is the washerwoman of the East. He takes 

 one's clothing out to the nearest stream, wades into the water, 

 and pounds the dirt out on the rocks, then partially dries and 

 irons them. He also has a habit of infesting them with a para- 

 site which results in the " dhobies' itch." I had a mixture of 

 starch, boric acid, and powdered zinc, which I desired to try on 

 this parasite, and although I told him when he took the con- 

 tract to be sure to give me my money's worth of germs, I 

 didn't get one, and I am sure he had some, for he was always 

 scratching. I fancy he delivered mine to the chap who had 

 the room next to me, for I used to hear him scratching and 

 " saying things " when night had fallen, and the " spicy breezes 

 blew soft o'er Ceylon's isle." 



The next morning I called on Mr. Ferguson, of the Tropical 

 Agriculturist, who for many years has been a high authority on 

 tropical planting. To my regret he was absent, being then in 

 the United States, and, his nephew informed me, likely to call 

 at my New York office at any time. I learned, however, that 



Director J. C. Willis, F. L. S., of the Royal Botanical Gardens, 

 Peredeniya, was then in town, and at the hotel familiarly 

 known as the " G. O. H.," meaning the Grand Oriental Hotel, 

 where I found him, and was able to secure his assistance in 

 planning my visit to the typical Htvea plantations. 



Prior to my visits to the plantations, in talking to those who 

 were supposed to know about rubber plantations, there was a 

 great unanimity of opinion as to the profits shown. One man, 

 not an optimist either, said that in two cases he knew of, the 

 first year's tapping had paid for the whole of the original in- 

 vestment, and that the second year's production had shown a 

 profit of 120 per cent. He was not quite sure of the age of the 

 trees when first tapped, but said they were certainly not ten 

 years old. 



He said that when the planters had in view any new product 

 that looked pretty good, the natives always planted a little of it, 

 so that when harvest time came, they could secure a little from 

 their own plantation, which, added to what they were able to 

 steal from the white planters, often made a very good showing. 

 That they were already planting the Hevea in a small way, 

 and would doubtless later do more or less night tapping on the 

 plantations of the white men. Of course once they have the 

 rubber, it is impossible to prove title to it. 



In chatting with Director Willis, it was easy to see that he 

 was enormously interested in the success of the Hevea experi- 

 ments in Ceylon, and indeed in the whole of the East and do- 

 ing much to further them. That the whole of the tropical 

 world in the East was fully alive to the opportunity that rub- 

 ber offers, he acknowledged. The botanic gardens at Perede- 

 niya, and the plantations as well, are constantly receiving vis- 

 itors from Java, Sumatra, French Indo China, Siam, and similar 

 countries, who are investigating the subject, and often trying 

 to contract for seed on the spot. 



As the oldest planting of Hevea rubber in the island is at 

 Heneratgoda gardens, which is one of the government gar- 

 dens, under the direct charge of Mr. Willis, he thought that 

 my plan to go there first was a good one, and at once gave me 

 a letter to the contractor in charge, Mr. William Perira. 



ONE OF THE ABORIGINES, CEYLON. 



On the following morning I therefore had coffee at 4.30, and 

 took a " rickshaw " to the railway station, and ere long was 

 speeding along the seacoast toward my destination. The ris- 

 ing sun disclosed long stretches of swamp and jungle, stretches 

 of sandy shore crowded with cocoanut palms, native villages 

 just awakening, fishing villages where the whole population 

 were engaged in pulling in the nets that had been filling up all 

 night, and in time we reached the railway station at Henerat- 

 goda. Here as I could get neither gharri nor rickshaw, I was 

 obliged to charter a bullock " hackery." 



