36 



Statistical Account of the 



price for land is as high here as in districts of which the 

 capabilities have already been ascertained. Capitalists are 

 unwilling to give the price demanded, knowing, as they do, that 

 natives are in the habit of selling equally good land at rates a 

 half or a third lower; and on the other hand, they are deterred 

 from buying the ground from natives, partly on account of 

 the difficulty which they would experience in purchasing large 

 continuous tracts, and partly from a dread least their title to 

 the land might at a future period be disputed by Govern- 

 ment, which would most probably occur in numerous cases. 



The native mill, being a very imperfect apparatus, large 

 quantities of copperah are annually sent out of the District, 

 chiefly to Colombo. It is much to be desired that the oil 

 itself should alone be transported; and this cannot be expected 

 until some better kind of mill has been introduced. Many 

 years ago an Englishman began to construct such an appa- 

 ratus at Kalpentyn; it was made on the plan adopted in Europe., 

 where a heavy vertical wheel is forced to move in a circular 

 path over the substance to be crushed. 



The cultivation of the cocoanut is extending very rapidly; 

 and as the District affords every facility for water traffic, it 

 may be presumed that the number of top'es will be increased 

 year after year. 



The farming system adopted with regard to this plant is 

 that customary in many parts of the East. The land-owner 

 places on the grounds one or more peasant families who take 

 charge of the plants until they are in full bearing (that is, for 

 from four to eight years), at the end of which time the tenant 

 receives one half of the trees as his hire (this gives him, how- 

 ever, no claim to the land itself). Occasionally, instead of making 

 this division, the proprietor dismisses the cultivator after pay- 

 ing him at the rate of a shilling or a dollar for each tree. It is 

 almost unnecessary to add, that during the first three or four 

 years the plants must be watered daily in dry weather. 



I know of no more legitimate source of public revenue, than 

 a small tax on fruit-bearing cocoanut trees. Whenever this 



