Oct. 1906.} 



315 



Edible Products. 



brought very near to that of the Cundeamor by good cultivation. The highest 

 valued cacao, by weight, is undoubtedly the large plump beans of Nicaraguan and 

 Caracas, then the Cundeamor, and lowest the Amelonado. Judging from current 

 values, the Nicaraguan, Caracas, Cundeamor, and Amelonado cacao may be stated to 

 have approximate values in the ratio of 70, 65, 60, and 50. The Amelonado variety, 

 though it is easily cultivated and gives a good crop, produces thin, flat, bitter, and 

 deep-purple seeds, and seems to be the least desirable to cultivate. 



Tobacco Cultivation in Jaffna. II. 



By A. Charavanamuttu, 



Diseases op Tobacco Plants.— The plants are sometimes subject to what 

 is known in Jaffna as the 'fence' or excess of heat. It may be due to want of 

 sufficient water to the plants and their exposure to the hot sun or to the particular 

 condition of the soil which becomes at times overheated. The leaves of the diseased 

 plants dry and are immediately cut and removed. There is no means of arresting 

 the progress of it, and there is no danger also of its infection. 



The leaves of tobacco plants are sometimes affected with worms called 

 ' Alukkanavan,' ' Kottiyan,' and ' Eripulu.' They occur in all tobacco gardens in the 

 peninsula. They appear in the early morning dew, and before this goes the culti- 

 vators are busy in searching for and killing them. Every leaf of every suspected plant 

 will be searched in this manner. They, however, appear again and again, and the 

 cultivators are engaged for several days in searching for and killing these worms. 

 If not so done daily, in a fortnight a whole garden would be devastated in 

 the manner in which large extents of paddy fields were devastated the year 

 before last by the ' Arakkoddian ' or caterpillar pest. 



The 'Alukkanavan' and 'Kottiyan,' are commonly called worms by the 

 people, but they appear to me to be merely a fungus or excrescence on the leaf of 

 the plant. The matter is worth investigation. 



Curing of Tobacco.— The leaves are cut each separately with a portion of 

 the stem and are scattered in the garden to wither in the sun. After a few hours' 

 withering before the leaves are dried, they are collected and heaped in a shady 

 place. After three or four days, in which sufficient warmth is caused to the 

 leaves, they are taken out of the heap and tied at the ends — generally five leaves 

 ^ ether -and are hung in the ceiling of a ' kudil ' to be smoked. The term ' kudil ' 

 again is applied to a mud hut with round mud walls, whose top is entirely covered 

 with mud over the ceiling. It is protected from sun and rain by an outer roof 

 thatched with eadjans or palmyra olas. In this hut there is a small aperture, 2x2£ 

 feet or 2x3 feet in some cases, through which the tobacco leaves are taken 

 in and hung under the ceiling. Through this aperture, coconut husks and 

 similar combustibles are thrown in and burnt in order to raise a con- 

 tinuous smoke without creating large flames. After the leaves have been 

 smoked in this manner, they are untied and removed and heaped together. 

 After three or four days again the leaves are hung in the 'kudil' and smoked 

 as before. The smoking is usually done three times, and each time the leaves 

 are subjected to as much smoke as can be raised in a whole day. The leaves 

 are finally hung under shelter to dry in the cool air. This is one process of 

 curing tobacco, and is generally adopted by almost all cultivators in Jaffna. 



A second process consists in merely burying the heap of withered leaves 

 in cowdung or in pits dug for the purpose. Alter three or four days the leaves are 

 removed and hung in the open air to dry. The Chutumalai and Achchelu tobacco 

 leaves cured in this manner are considered the best for smoking . 



