CH. VI] CAPITALIST OR ESTATE AGRICULTURE 181 



carry out expensive public works that must, but for planting, 

 have been left untouched. 



The history of European planting in Ceylon is a wonderful 

 story of brilliant successes chequered by dismal failures, which 

 again have been retrieved by indomitable pluck and energy. 

 With the conquest of the Kandyan kingdom the mountainous 

 region of the centre of the island and the opening of the road 

 to its capital, the country was thrown open to "English enter- 

 prise. Conspicuous among the first pioneers of planting was 

 Sir Edward Barnes, the then Governor, who in 1825 opened 

 the estate of Gangaruwa near Peradeniya, now the site of a 

 Government Experiment Station. Much money was vainly 

 expended at first in trying sugar, indigo, and other Indian 

 crops, but presently it was discovered that the cleared forest 

 land was eminently suited to the growth of coffee. The time 

 was favourable, the duty on coffee in England had just been 

 reduced, its consumption was increasing in Europe, and the 

 West Indies were hampered by difficulties with the slaves. 

 By 1838 the success of the industry was assured, and in that 

 year 10,401 acres of crown land were sold to planters, while in 

 1841, when the rush was at its height, no less than 78,685 

 acres were disposed of. " The coffee mania was at its climax in 

 1845. The Governor and the Council, the Military, the Judges, 

 the Clergy, and one half the Civil Servants penetrated the 

 hills, and became purchasers of crown lands... capitalists from 

 England arrived by every packet... so dazzling was the prospect 

 that expenditure was unlimited; and its profusion was only 

 equalled by the ignorance and inexperience of those to whom 

 it was entrusted. The rush for land was only paralleled by the 

 movement towards the mines of California and Australia, but 

 with this painful difference, that the enthusiasts in Ceylon, 

 instead of thronging to disinter, were hurrying to bury their 

 gold " (Tennent). 



The inevitable collapse soon followed, and for some years 

 the coffee industry was almost paralysed, but by 1855 it had 

 more than recovered its lost ground, and was conducted on 

 more practical and economical lines. From that date to about 

 1882 it was the staple export industry of the colony, reaching 



