CEYLON COFFEES. 125 



have attained at the present day in Ceylon results from 

 the correction of the errors then committed ; and it is 

 no exaggeration to state that there is not a single well- 

 established principle now governing the management 

 of the plantations and the conduct of the proprietors 

 that was not preceded by a directly opposite policy 

 in 1845. 



Since the explosion of this second edition of the 

 " South-sea bubble " in Ceylon, the island has made 

 rapid strides in coffee growing, the mountain forests 

 have been replaced by extensive plantations, of which 

 there are at the present day no less than 1,000 

 under cultivation, yielding an average annual crop of 

 nearly 80,000,000 pounds exclusive of that raised by the 

 natives. Observation has also since discerned the true 

 tests of soil, climate and aspect, former delusions as to 

 high altitudes have been exploded, unprofitable districts 

 avoided and unproductive localities abandoned. And in 

 lieu of the belief that the coffee tree, once rooted, would 

 continue ever after to bear crops without further atten- 

 tion or manure, and flourish perennially in defiance of 

 weeds and neglect, every plantation is now tended like 

 a garden, and the soil enriched artificially in proportion 

 to the produce it bears, expenditures also being reduced 

 within the bounds of discretion. An acre of forest land 

 can now be purchased for one-tenth of what it cost in 

 1844, and though the extravagant prices and the still 

 more extravagant expectations of that period have been 

 entirely dissipated, coffee planting at the present day in 

 Ceylon under careful supervision, promises as sound an 

 investment as moderate enterprise can hope for. Sys- 

 tematic coffee cultivation is almost exclusively con- 

 fined to the hill region, which embraces the districts of 

 Kandy, Pusilawa^ Doombera,, Kotmalie and Ambogama, 



