Fifty Years Ago. 305 



had yet to be discovered ; and we are told that the 

 earliest planters commenced operations, in the first 

 instance, near the coast at Galle, where, it is now 

 known, the plant could not be cultivated with 

 advantage. Thus it ever is with a new enterprise ; 

 the pioneer plods on, feeling his way amid darkness 

 and difficulty, seldom himself reaching much be- 

 yond the dawn of information, before he is com- 

 pelled to abandon his researches into younger 

 hands. 



Then even when some clear ideas had begun to 

 be formed, and the plant was found to flourish best 

 under given conditions, it was evidently thought to 

 require but little further care or culture, and was 

 left pretty much to itself. Proprietors, agents, and 

 managers, one and all, were in general very different 

 from those of the present day, even up to within 

 the last five-and-twenty years. To lead a jovial, 

 easy-going life, with plenty of conviviality and field 

 sports, was often the first object of the superin- 

 tendent ; while to get through as much capital as 

 possible in the form of estate outlay, without much 

 inquiry as to how it had been expended, was as 

 often the main idea of the agent. As for pro- 

 prietors, they were either absentees, like the Irish 

 landlords, or, if residing in the island, they them- 

 selves shared in the general recklessness, and con- 

 tributed to the general mismanagement. Stories 



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