Miscellaneous. 



352 



[October, 1910. 



then just been provided by the opening 

 of the great military road from Colombo 

 the port of Ceylon, through the moun- 

 tainous districts of the centre of the 

 island, passing Peradeniya on the way. 



The Peradeniya estate was opened at 

 first with sugar and other things known 

 to succeed in India, These failed in the 

 damper climate of Ceylon, but before 

 long it was discovered that coffee would 

 succeed in the hill country of Ceylon, 

 where this estate lay. The time was 

 favourable, the duty on coffee in 

 Englard had just been reduced, and its 

 consumption in Europe generally was 

 increasing, while the West Indies tvere 

 hampered with difficulties with the 

 slaves. By 1838 the success of the indus- 

 try was assured, and in that year 10,401 

 acres of crown land were sold to plan- 

 ters, while in 1841, when the rush was 

 at its height, no less than 78,685 acres 

 were disposed of. To quote Teuuent, 

 " the coffee mania was at its climax in 

 1845. The Governor and the Council, 

 the Military, the Judges, the Clergy, 

 and one half the Civil Servants pene- 

 trated the hills, and became purchasers 

 of crown lands capital- 

 ists from England arrived by every 



packet so dazzling was 



the prospect that expenditure was un- 

 limited ; and its profusion was only 

 equalled by the ignorance and inexpe- 

 rience of those to whom it was en- 

 trusted. The rush for land was only 

 paralleled by the movement towards 

 the mines of California and Australia, 

 but with this painful difference, that 

 the enthusiasts in Ceylon, instead of 

 thronging to disinter, were hurrying to 

 bury their gold." 



The inevitable collapse soon followed, 

 and for some years the coffee industry 

 was almost paralysed, but by 1855 it had 

 more than recovered its lost ground, 

 and was conducted on more practical 

 and economical lines. From that date 

 to about 1882 it was the staple export 

 industry of the colony, reaching its 

 maximum in 1875, when almost a million 

 hundredweights of coffee were exported. 

 About 1870 the plants began to be 

 noticeably attacked by a fungus blight 

 — Hemileia vastatrix, the coffee leaf 

 disease — which spread steadily and 

 irresistibly over the vast sheet of coffee 

 plantation in the mountains, and was 

 disregarded until too late, if indeed any 

 practicable measures could have been 

 adopted against it at any time in its 

 history. By 1880 the industry was in a 

 parlous condition, and the planters in 

 great distress, but they set themselves 

 with the most commendable pluck to 



remedy the desperate condition of 

 things, and with the aid of cinchona 

 and tea the gap was bridged, and now 

 with tea, rubber, coconuts, cacao, and 

 other things the island of Ceylon is in the 

 most prosperous position it has ever 

 known. 



As the success of planting under 

 European management in Ceylon be- 

 came known, other countries followed 

 suit, always of course in places where 

 transport and labour were available. 

 Thus Assam, with the great Brahma- 

 putra river running through it, Java, a 

 comparatively small island, the Wynaad, 

 near to the Indian coast, and other 

 similar places, became taken up by 

 planters, whereas equally available areas 

 in Africa or in other tropical countries, 

 were left untouched. The reason simply 

 was that in the latter there was no 

 large supply of labour available, as 

 there is in the Indo-Malayan countries. 



India took up tea, coffee, and other ' 

 industries, Java sugar, cinchona, spices 

 and others. Always, of course, the indus- 

 tries were those which had a ready 

 market for their products in Europe. 



The same process goes on to the 

 present day. Just now there is a great 

 " boom" going on in planting rubber 

 in nearly all tropical countries, while in 

 the last twenty years great plantations 

 of sugar have been made in Hawaii, of 

 cacao in West Africa, of fruit and 

 cotton in the West Indies, and so on, 



If now we analyse the conditions of 

 the planting industry, and endeavour 

 to discover the reasons for its success, 

 it is fairly evident that while much must 

 be allowed for the superior energy and 

 enterprise of the white and Chinese 

 planters, it is possible for them to suc- 

 ceed, while very hard for the peasantry 

 to progress, because the preliminary 

 conditions which we have been following 

 throughout this lecture are fulfilled in 

 their case and not in that of the pea- 

 santry. More particularly is this the 

 case with regard to capital, the most 

 important ' of all at the present stage 

 of agricultural progress. Given capital, 

 the agriculturist can select his country, 

 and will take that which bost suifs the 

 crop he intends to grow, and where the 

 conditions of land, labour and trans- 

 port are most suitable. It is thus evi- 

 dent that this stage of agriculture can- 

 not be reached in a country till the 

 population has become dense, either 

 naturally or by the importation of 

 labour. This density of population would 



