No. 4. — 1848.] SINHALESE RURAL ECONOMY. 



43 



to its fall growth ; the leaves are then cat and cared by the 

 simple process of drying them on lines in the house. The 

 quality of tobacco grown in this country is very inferior ; it is 

 mostly used for chewing with betel by the natives. One would 

 readily suppose, that every native in the rural districts would 

 prodace in the neighbourhood of his dwelling sufficient tobacco 

 for his own consumption, but such is not the case. On the 

 contrary, it is one of those articles which the more enterprising 

 inhabitants. of the low- country carry up to the interior to barter 

 for coffee, arekanuts and other produce ; this is grown in 

 Jaffna, Chilaw, and a few other places. 



Until within the last few years a quantity of tobacco was 

 grown in the elevated districts of Uva in the fine soil of virgin 

 forests. This cultivation has now almost entirely disappeared 

 since the natives have been prevented from encroaching upon 

 the Crown lands. The quality of the Uva tobacco is finer 

 than any other native kinds produced in the country; it is very 

 rich and fall-flavored, and from such that cigars and cheroots, 

 equal to the most celebrated sorts, could be made from it. Large 

 quantities were formerly brought down by the tavalams to 

 Ratnapura, and bartered for salt, fish, and cocoanuts ; but the 

 trade in this article has almost entirely ceased. Dumbara is 

 also celebrated for the quality of its tobacco, a circumstance 

 doubtless attributable to the limestone formation on which 

 rests a large portion of the soil of that fertile valley. 



Tobacco being a lime plant and therefore a crop of the most 

 exhaasting nature to the soil, it is not surprising that its culti- 

 vation is not persevered with, in a country where the resusci- 

 tation of the soil by artificial means is so little understood. 

 The quality of the article produced not only suffers by neglect 

 in this respect, but by the total ignorance of the cultivators 

 how to prepare the green leaf so as to improve and retain its 

 narcotic qualities and those properties for which the article 

 cultivated in the Spanish settlements is so justly celebrated. 



