CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 201 



tea, tennis, croquet and golf. These little breaks 

 in the usual monotony are much appreciated, 

 and although of necessity the same people meet 

 over and over again, we are all good friends, 

 we do not see enough of each other to get 

 wearied, and an occasional visitor from Kandy 

 gives the sauce of novelty. 



November 9th. — The store becomes more and 

 more interesting. It is at present full to over- 

 flowing with 2000 bushels of coffee from P , 



and quantities of cocoa. Last week the coffee 

 cherry came in so fast that the coolies had to 

 work night and day, in relays, to get it pulped 

 sufficiently quickly, to prevent its losing the 

 beautiful light colour from which the best grade 

 take its name of parchment coffee. It is 

 really a wonderful sight to see four large rooms 

 heaped with piles of coffee only waiting to be 

 put into sacks and despatched. Such a crop 

 has not been known on this group of Estates for 

 twenty years. It will go far to make up for any 

 deficiency that may be caused by the late out- 

 break of disease amongst the cocoa. 



November 25th. — Since I last wrote Teevali 

 has come and gone. The Tamils have two 

 great Festivals Thai Pongal in January and 

 Teevali in November, the date of both varies 

 slightly as it depends upon astronomical data. 

 But this year Teevali was kept on November 

 1 2th and 13th, which with Sunday 14th gave a 



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