2O Coffee Planting. 



Gangaroowa, which was first planted about the 

 year 1825, is still under cultivation, and up to 

 the time the writer bade adieu to the island was 

 being carried on by his son. It is situated within 

 about four miles of Kandy, on the banks of the 

 Mahavilla Ganga river, and faces the Botanical 

 Gardens of Peradenia a drive to which forms one 

 of the earliest and most agreeable excursions of 

 the visitor to the mountain capital. There are 

 some other very old estates, planted probably about 

 the same time, in the neighbourhood of Kandy, 

 among which may be named Koondasalla. 1 



Such facts as these are encouraging to the in- 

 tending cultivator, as tending to prove the dura- 

 bility of coffee property a branch of the subject 

 upon which I shall have more to say in another 

 place. 



While upon planting in Ceylon, I cannot do 

 better than furnish the reader with some particulars 

 as to the present position of the enterprise in that 

 island. These are principally culled from that 

 valuable compendium of information, " Ferguson's 

 Ceylon Directory" (1875). 



There are now 37 districts in Ceylon in which 



1 I believe I am correct in saying that Mr. George Bird, 

 whom I had the pleasure of knowing for a short time before 

 his death, in Kandy, in 1855 or 1856, was the first practical 

 European planter in the island. 



