CHAPTEE Xn. 



CULTIVATION m CEYLON. 



The great rival of Java in the East is Ceylon. The Dutch 

 appear to have introduced the plant into the island, then one of 

 their colonies, late in the seventeenth century. In the year 1721 

 about sixteen pounds of the Ceylon product were sold in the 

 Amsterdam market, commanding a higher price than either 

 Mocha or Java. The quantity exported was small imtil 1741, 

 when 370,192 (U. S.) pounds were sold in Holland. The low 

 prices ruling at this period, taken in connection with fuU supplies 

 from Java, discouraged planting in Ceylon. Between 1751 and 1794 

 there were 1,600,806 (U. S.) pounds disposed of in Amsterdam. 

 In 1795 the island passed under British control, but the culture did 

 not make any notable progress until 1824, when coffee-planting on 

 a large scale was commenced by Sir Edward Barnes and Sir 

 George Bird. The great development of the industry dates from 

 1832 to 1836. Coffee estates sprung up on all sides, and, with 

 the exception of a short pause from 1849 to 1850, owing to com- 

 mercial depression, they have continued to increase ever since. 

 There were, in 1877, in Ceylon, 1,357 coffee plantations owned by 

 Europeans, and the area of coffee lands actually under cultivation 

 is stated to have been 272,243 acres, to which must be added an 

 estimated area of 50,000 to 70,000 acres worked by the natives. 



As far back as 1806 we find the record of the export of 846 

 cwts. (94,752 lbs.). The author of a work published in 1817, en- 

 titled, " A View of the Agricultural, Commercial, and Financial 

 Interests of Ceylon," reported the export in 1810 to be 217,500 

 lbs. ; 1813, 216,500 lbs. According to Martin's "History of the 

 Colonies of the British Empire," the yield from 1830 to 1836 

 inclusive was as follows : 



