No. 6. — 1853.] DISTRICT OF CHI<LAW AND PUTTALAM. 



43 



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 paying 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 

 has been proposed, the natives have made a great outcry ; but 

 it is quite notorious, and is indeed freely acknowledged by 

 themselves, that no sooner is a man in possession of a small 

 cocoanut tope, than he is independent for the rest of his life ; 

 he has absolutely nothing to do but to pluck the fruit, eat one 

 portion, and sell the remainder. The paddy cultivator has to 

 labour during several months to obtain one crop, and even this 

 he may lose from unfavourable weather ; — he is taxed. On the 

 contrary, the cocoanut cultivator has merely to water his trees 

 for two or three years, and then he may safely reckon on a 

 continuous crop for forty or fifty years, and this without any 

 further labour on his part ; — he is not taxed. 



In the interior, where the cocoanut does not thrive so well 

 &s along the coast, the natives turn their attention to the culti- 

 vation of various grains— in an especial manner to that of paddy. 

 Of this plant, a great many varieties are known, which how- 

 ever, so far as this District is concerned, may be divided into 

 two great classes, according to whether they ripen in four 

 or in three months. The former being sown from July to 

 December, yields the Maha harvest ((stoedc^deo®) in January, 

 February, and March. The latter, placed in the ground between 



