4 THE COCONUT BELT 



" Some years later, Messrs. Wilson & Archer 

 started new mills, with a view to taking advantage 

 of an improved process for separating the fat from 

 the oleine of the coconut oil, enabling the oil to be 

 maintained in a liquid state in cold, which had been 

 invented by the father of Mr. David Wilson, the 

 senior partner in the firm. This departure proved a 

 great impetus to the trade, and as a result the area 

 of land under coconut cultivation was rapidly 

 extended. The decade which ended in 1850 was a 

 period of vigorous planting by Europeans in Ceylon, 

 and then, curiously enough, this was succeeded by 

 ten years of inactivity. Thereafter the natives 

 took up the industry, and widely extended their 

 operations, especially in the Western Provinces, 

 where they brought under cultivation large areas 

 of jungle. At this time the native population was 

 enjoying much prosperity, owing largely to the 

 success of coffee-planting from 1850 and onwards, 

 and also to the fact that the Government had 

 opened up to industrial enterprise the reserves of 

 Crown land in the low country. 



" By the year 1860 it is known that there were 

 in Ceylon 250,000 acres of coconut palms in Euro- 

 pean-owned and native- owned plantations. By 

 1893 these figures had grown to 650,000 acres, of 

 which all but some 50,000 acres were owned by 

 natives. Since then there has been, of course, a 

 radical change in the conditions of ownership, 



