CiiAP. IV.] COCO-NUT PLANTATIONS. 457 



themselves in a dense colony at this favourite spot. 

 The success of the cultivation, the remarkable luxu- 

 riance of the trees, and the unusual Aveight and rich- 

 ness of the fruit, attracted the attention of European 

 speculators, and the entire line of coast for sixteen 

 miles north of Batticaloa, and for twenty-seven miles 

 to the south, is now one continuous garden of palms, 

 pre-eminent for beauty and luxuriance. One unripe 

 nut was brought to me weighing fifteen pounds, and 

 of tliese a tree in full bearing produces annually from 

 one hundred and twenty to one himdred and fifty, equal 

 to a ton of fruit from a single coco-palm in the course of 

 a year. Such is their excellence that the nuts of tliis 

 district are sold for 3/. a thousand, whilst those on the 

 south-western side of the island do not brino; more than 

 two-thirds of this price. 



The natives ascribe this superiority to the combination 

 of advantages to be found at Batticaloa, — a soil sandy 

 and pervious, a profusion of water from the fresh lake on 

 the one side, and the sea on the other ; a saline atmo- 

 sphere caused by the constant tossing of the spray on the 

 adjacent shore, a warm and genial sun and timely rains 

 during both monsoons ; as the proximity of this district 

 to the Kandyan mountains secures for it an equable and 

 plenteous supply. 



The peninsula of Jaffna competes with Batticaloa in 

 this species of cultivation. Each locahty lias fecihties 

 peculiar to itself, but whilst Jaffna has the advantage 

 in population and labour, I am disposed to believe that 

 Batticaloa enjoys pecuharities of climate and position, 

 that entitle it to the preference ; but the experiment 

 now in progress at both is so recent as to render it 

 premature to hazard an opinion as to comparative 

 results. 



In the meantime the energy with whicli the enterprise 

 has been urged forward at Batticaloa, lias given a 

 remarkable impulse to tlie activity and ]:>rosperity of 

 the district; — the tonnage of the port doubled within 



