CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 183 



CHAPTER XIII 



We are, at present, suffering from a perfect 

 plague of common black house flies. They 

 cover everything eatable, and, in common with 

 a much smaller variety, are perpetually flying 

 into one's eyes. This nuisance is in part caused 

 by the cleaning out of a large cattle-shed just 

 below the bungalow, and the flies will, I am 

 told, disappear when the monsoon really bursts. 

 I sincerely hope so. 



The Ceylon cattlesheds are built in such a 

 curious fashion, that I must describe one. In 

 the first place it must be borne in mind that 

 the stock on a cocoa Estate, with the exception 

 of the working bullocks, is kept to provide 

 manure for the enrichment of the crops, there- 

 fore everything is arranged to facilitate the 

 handling of that product. The shed here is a 

 long building with an iron roof, built so to 

 speak, in three terraces, each about eight feet 

 higher than the other. In the top terrace there 

 is room for thirty cattle to stand abreast in a 



