District of Chilatv and Putlam. 



39 



each peasant must possess a number of separate patches of 

 land, each large enough to give him a sufficient crop for one 

 year, are abundantly evident. I have often travelled for 

 days together through nothing but chena land (so the clear- 

 ings are termed), without seeing more than a very few trees 

 of any value as timber. 



Nothing but the introduction of the use of manures can 

 check the inherent evils of the system. 



These plants then, the cocoanut, paddy, and fine grains, 

 employ the greater portion of the agricultural population; 

 others are, however, cultivated; and of the more important I 

 shall give short notices. 



Tobacco is to be met with all over the District; but more 

 attention is paid to it at and to the south of Chilaw than 

 elsewhere. 



The system of cultivation is as follows. The ground 

 during from six to twelve months, is manured by railing off 

 successively small portions of the field and using those as 

 cattle folds. There are two seasons for sowing tobacco; that 

 for the Maha harvest is sown in December and January, and 

 cut in March and April; that for the Yala harvest is sown in 

 June and July, and cut in September. Throughout the 

 greater portion of the District, the maha harvest alone is 

 looked to. In the extreme south the yala is that to which sole 

 attention is directed. Two months after sowing, the young 

 plants, which have then four or five leaves each, are removed 

 from the nursery and planted in row s three feet apart. At inter- 

 vals during three or four months, the leaves are successively 

 stripped on°, dried partly in the sun and partly in sheds, and 

 ultimately piled up in a small close room where they heat 

 considerably. About ten leaves are obtained from each 

 plant; these are worth from 2|df. to 4:d.; the cost of culti- 

 vation being about one and a half pence. The large profit 

 thus shewn is, however, rather nominal than real, as 

 lengthened droughts frequently ruin the crops; heavy rain 

 occurring before the leaves are ripe proves equally injurious. 



