Feb. 14, 1889] 



NATURE 



363 



from photographs, they are defective in character. A 

 glance at the representation of the gorge of the Tamina 

 on p. 48, or that of Monte Cristallo from the Diirrensee 

 (facing p. 86), will indicate the nature of our objection. 

 The rocks might be moulded fro;n plaster or canvas. 

 There is, however, a very clearly printed geological map 

 of the Alps, which appears to us generally accurate, though 

 we doubt the correctness of placing a considerable patch 

 of Silurian and Devonian about the upper part of the 

 Brenner Pass. T. G. Bonney. 



THE PLANTING AND AGRICULTURAL 

 INDUSTRIES OF CEYLON. 

 Revietu of the Planting and Agricultural Industries of 

 Ceylon, and Statistics of the Planting Enterprises in 

 India and the Colonies. By J. Ferguson. Pp. 168. 

 (Colombo : A. M. and J. Ferguson, i883.) 



THIS is a reprint, in the form of a small octavo volume, 

 of mformation contained in Ferguson's " Ceylon 

 Hand-book and Directory," specially relating to the 

 tropica] cultures of Ceylon. It afifords much authentic 

 information in a handy and accessible form, and is a valu- 

 able summary of the results attained in the cultivation of 

 most economic plants suited to a tropical country. Ceylon 

 itself is a singularly interesting island. It is usually 

 described as the largest, most populous, and most import- 

 ant of the Crown Colonies of Great Britain. It has in 

 recent years become the seat of planting industries which 

 have in one or two instances almost monopolized the 

 markets of the world. It is six times the size of Jamaica, 

 and about five-sixths the size of Ireland. Of its sixteen 

 million acres, at present only about three millions are 

 under cultivation, and these support a population of 

 exactly the same number. The value of the imports and 

 exports amounts to about ten millions sterling. The total 

 number of European residents in Ceylon is under five 

 thousand, while the mixed or coloured population called 

 Eurasians or Burghers amounted to about nineteen thou- 

 sand. The bulk of the population, amounting to nearly 

 two million souls, is composed of Sinhalese— a remarkably 

 tractable and inoffensive people— while the remainder is 

 made up of Tamils, Moormen, Malays, and Veddahs. 

 The latter are an aboriginal race, comparatively few in 

 number, inhabiting the forests of the north-east. 



Although the number of the Sinhalese is relatively so 

 large, they contribute very little to the labour supply of 

 the European plantations. Plantation labour is furnished 

 by Tamil coolies from Southern India. According to a 

 Report published by the Government of Madras, out of a 

 population of thirty-five millions of human beings in that 

 Presidency there are sixteen millions whose annual earn- 

 ings do not average more than ^{^3 \2s.,ox a little over 

 i\d. per day. Thus it is that the plantations of Ceylon, 

 paying about 6^. or 9^/. per day, are abundantly supplied 

 with cheap free labour. 



The purely European enterprises consist of tea, coffee 

 -both Arabian and Liberian— cacao, cardamoms, rubber, 

 annatto, vanilla, pepper, fibres, nutmeg, cloves, dye- 

 plants. In these is invested English capital to the 

 amount of about eight millions sterling. The native 

 % industries are associated with the cultivation of the 



\ 



cocoa-nut palm — yielding oil, coir, and copra— ^rice, cinna- 

 mon, palmyra palm, kitul or jaggery palm, areca palm 

 citronella and lemon grass, tobacco, cotton, sugar-cane, 

 dry grains such as kollu, millet, kurakkan, maize, and 

 numerous vegetables and fruits. It is estimated that 

 there are nearly fifty million cocoa-nut palms in Ceylon, 

 and the yearly yield cannot be less than about 500 million 

 nuts. Next to the cocoa-nut palm, the palmyra palm 

 i^Borassus flabclliforinis) is regarded as one of the richest 

 plants known. According to a Tamil proverb, " It lives for 

 a lac of years after planting, and lasts for a lac of years 

 when felled.' Jaggery sugar is made from the sap, and 

 in the dry, arid regions of the north-east of Ceylon more 

 than seventy million nuts are annually produced. The 

 young sprouting nuts are used as a vegetable. The kitul 

 {Caryota urcns) is another sugar-palm, which, in addition, 

 yields a coarse black fibre used in broom-making. Cinna- 

 mon is essentially a native industry. The island has been 

 famous for this spice " from the dawn of historical 

 records." There is a Sinhalese caste of cinnamon 

 peelers, and these, the Chaliyas, hold practically a 

 monopoly in preparing the bark for the market. The dry 

 grain cultivation is associated with that baneful chena 

 practice of recklessly cutting down and burning virgin 

 forests — now, we are glad to notice, in course of being kept 

 within proper bounds. The natives of Ceylon have 

 imitated the Europeans in many industries, but by 

 far the greater number are content to follow in the 

 footsteps of their ancestors, and cultivate only such plants 

 as cocoa-nuts, rice, fruits, and vegetables, necessary to 

 supply their daily wants. 



For many years the chief European industry was that 

 of coffee. From 1825, when Sir Edward Baines started 

 the first upland coffee plantation near Kandy, to 1875,. 

 when Ceylon exported nearly a million hundredweights, 

 "coffee was king." In 1869, a microscopic fungus 

 {Hcmcleis vastatrix) made its appearance on the leaves 

 of the coffee-plant. This spread with such rapidity, and 

 with such destructive effect, that within a few years the 

 Ceylon coffee plantations were doomed. The disease ex- 

 tended also to Southern India, to Sumatra, and Java ; it 

 invaded Mauritius, Madagascar, and Natal, and reached 

 even the young and promising plantations of F"iji. After 

 twenty years' experience of this pest, the Ceylon coffee 

 plantations have so dwindled that the present exports are 

 only one-tenth of what they once were. Fortunately the 

 decline of coffee was accompanied by the extension of 

 cultivation of cinchona, cardamoms, cacao, and tea 

 Ceylon cinchona has been produced in such quantities 

 that the markets have been completely glutted. In conse- 

 quence the price of bark has fallen so low that the cultiva- 

 tion is unremunerative. The attention of Ceylon planters 

 is now being concentrated, with their accustomed energy, 

 on the cultivation of tea. Coffee, cinchona, and everything 

 not immediately remunerative are being uprooted to give 

 place to the new staple. Although the industry is not more 

 than ten or twelve years old, Ceylon tea is already being 

 exported to the value of ;^ 600,000. Tea therefore bids 

 fair to take the place of coffee, and thus the cloud which 

 has overshadowed the prosperity of the island during the 

 last few years is gradually passing away. Ceylon cacao 

 is excellent, but the industry is small and apparently 

 stationary. It is doubtful whether the island possesses 



