68 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July r, 1889. 
their duty and wish to work estates as cheaply as 
possible consistent with good work. 
You often hear good manure condemned, because 
it was applied where it did more injury than good ; 
take the same manure to another soil where it is 
required and see the result. Lime, as a rule, is 
oondemned in tea, yet there is some soil where 
lime is required even for tea. This I have 
proved on a small scale on Maria and on a 
larger scale on Raxawa ; it is only the other day 
I was told by the present superintendent of 
Raxawa that a planter from Kelani Velley had 
pronounoed that field as fine a one of tea as any 
they had. 
Let theoaptain of the ship (planter on the estate) 
stay at the helm (have the power to act), and the 
ship will be brought safe and sound through breakers 
to a smooth harbour and the estates carefully 
worked will not feel the depression of prices &c.,— 
Yours truly, J. HOLLOWAY. 
(From " Planting Register" 29th August 1872.) 
THE COTTON CATEttPILLAK. 
A weak or two ago it was not uncommon for one 
to ask another in Lahore, " Have you heard the news ?" 
The news being a scrap from Reuter to the effect that 
the "cotton caterpillar had appeared in the Gulf 
States." Those who laughed at the apparent want of 
importance in the telegram were not aware of the whole 
import of the words, for they implied the possibility 
of an utter failure of the American crop and an im- 
mense impulse to Indian trade and, we may, add, to 
local cotton growing. This being the case a few facts 
regarding the destructive pest which wis important 
enough to deserve the. telegram may prove acceptable. 
The entire cotton crop of the United States was 
destroyed by the " Army Worm " (as this caterpillar, 
the larva of a moth, Heliothis Armigera, is called 
in America) in 1788, 1800, 1825 and 1845; it also did 
serious damage in 1806, chiefly in Louisiana, it has 
altogether appeared 23 times in the United States since 
1793, the year of the greatest devastation having been 
1825 when barely enough cotton to afford seed tor the 
ensuing year escaped its ravages. In 1788the.se insects 
destroyed 280 tons of cotton in the Bahamas ; they 
caused the cultivation of oottou to be abandoned in 
many of the West Indian Islands and the case was 
almost the same in Ei;ypt. The Army Worm appears 
often in Guiana and other parts of South America. 
The mischief done by these creatures is fortunately 
not always of the same serious extent; sometimes, 
even the iusects, when they come late as they did in 
1865, thin the seed pods, and produce a positive benefit. 
If it were not so, considering the 23rd recorded 
visitations, the growing of cot on would be too hazar- 
dous to be continued. The most favourable circum- 
stances for the production of the Army Worm are 
heat, moisture, and clouded skies, up to the end of 
June : when such is the case the visitation is regarded 
as certain. The caterpillar cannot suppert great heat 
and continued drought, a torrid summer kills them. 
The caterpillar is yellow with a brown stripe down the 
back. Heliutliis Armigera is also found in England, but 
does not commonly occur. 
COTTON-GROWING IN THE EASTERN DIS- 
TRICTS : HOW IT WAS KILLED OUT. 
Colombo, 4th June 1889. 
Sir, — Now that the attention of the Government 
and the general community has been drawn to 
cotton as an industrj ■> Inch may turn out a pro- 
fitable one, I think it is time something should 
be done to effeot the revival of its cultivation 
amongst the poor half-starved inhabitants of the Bin- 
enna Wedirata. It does not seem to be generally 
known that up to 1876 or 1877 a very consider- 
able quantity of cotton was grown and woven into 
very serviceable material, by the natives of that 
jjart of the country. In Wollassa, the Park country 
round Nilgala, and from thence down to Batticaloa > 
and indeed, I believe, throughout the whole of that 
part of the Wanni, weaving looms for home grown 
cotton were common at that time, though at 
Batticaloa and the immediately adjacent districts 
it had been found both cheaper and more con- 
venient to import cotton yarn for the purpose. 
Between Batticaloa and Trincomalee along the 
coast road it was by no means uncommon to find 
supplies of raw cotton stored up for weaving pur- 
poses, and the clothing — such as it was — of the 
semi-savage people of the interior was of home 
manufacture. Unfortunately for these poor people 
some fifteen years ago, when thp demand for 
Crown land was so great and the Government had 
begun to look about and talk of reserves and so 
on, amongst other matters the regulation of chena 
cultivation was taken in hand. Totally oblivious 
of the vast difference in the conditions under 
which valuable forest land in the hills was 
devastated for the growth of kurakkan, &o. &c, 
and those under which the dry thorny jungles of 
the lowcountry were made to yield a little profit 
to the natives and which was unavailable for 
Europeans, the enactments relating to chena lands 
were made applicable to both alike. The restric- 
tions thus placed upon obtaining land for the 
growth of cotton were so great, and the loss of 
time and money so heavy, with considerable trouble 
in applying first to the Arachchi and then to the 
Ratemahatmaya, and the Assistant Government 
Agent, and the Forester, with the number of 
applications, and reports and replies, and forms, 
and stamps and bribes, which were entailed on the 
endeavour to get leave to cultivate any particular spot 
of ground, all became so burdensome and intricate 
that in a very short time many — nay most — of the na- 
tives gave it up in despair. In this way the industry 
was virtually wiped out, and this the only industry 
— apart from the precarious cultivation of food — 
which was open to the natives of those barren 
thorny wastes from which no European could extract 
even the barest of subsistence. The endeavour to 
preserve for the use of the Crown a few acres of 
jungle in the planting districts was thus the means 
of actually destroying an indigenous industry in 
other distant parts of the island, which had there 
existed from time immemorial. Old Kandyans 30 
years ago told me they well recollected the time 
whea at yearly intervals bands of armed men 
from Kotmale and Dimbula were accustomed to 
go down to the Wanni and purchase the cloth 
woven there, and which was the best they oould 
obtain in the country. 
After traversing that part of the country (in 
1877 I think) and seeing for myself what was 
going on, I not only published in the papers a 
relation of what I had seen, but I pointed out to 
the Government Agents the hardships entailed upon 
the natives by the new measures relating to chena 
cultivation. The authorities quite saw this, but 
they all agreed that unless special regulations were 
made for that part of the country nothing could 
be dene ; and, as far as I oan learn now, nothing has 
been done ; and unless the country has been 
altogether depopulated since my visit, some step 
should be taken to aid th people in reviving the 
old industry, It seems anomalous — to say ti-e 
least — that the Government should be assisting 
both Europeans and natives in the Western 
and Central Provinces in the cultivation of cotton, 
when it has actually destroyed the same industry 
in the Eastern Province, and does nothing towards 
its revivification. Within the last few days I have 
heard of the ootton plants being still existent in 
Butala and Wellassa, — and it would be compara- 
