136 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. |August i, 1889 
The faot is quite patent. By increasing the 
commutation suddenly from B.600,000 to K900,000, 
the natural food of the people has been raised 
50 per cent ! What a sensation this would cause, 
if brought before the British Parliament ? 
I am a cultivator, possess lands in this district 
and can from experience state that the figure, 
given in Mr. Elliott's return are considerably 
below the actual rates. For ploughing 7 acres — 
with the improved plough especially— 2 pair of cattle 
will be required : — 
a •s 3 
o S "3 2 °> 
3 7. 2 £i 
H u2 O 4 3 to 
< H W PQ Oi 
Hire, 2 pair cattle 3 — _ 22 14 
Seed 3 — = 22 14 
Consumption paddy a man and 'my 4 15 = 33 21 
Plough and mammotie — 15 = 3 21 
Threshing by night 4 pair cattle ... — 16 = 4 — 
Hire of 2 coolies — 16 = 4 — 
Reaping 1 20 = 12 14 
Pee to V. Vidahana and Adigari... — 6 = 1 12 
13 28 104 14 
Average yield of 7 acres equivalent to 3 ammunams 
extent at 7 fold as shown below : — 
| a 3 
S -S "3 ■! 
» "2 § -S £ 
«< g W pq Hi 
Yield 7 acres 21 — = 157 14 
A. M. B. P. 1 
Expenses 13 28 = 104 14 }■ 16 1 = 120 7 
Tax 2 3 = 15 2l) 
Leaving 1 4 29 37 7 
Landlord's share 2 3 = 15 21 
Cultivators' share, men and boy... 2 26 = 21 14 
In other words, the landlord for all his outlay 
and trouble gets only R15-75 for the cultivation 
of his field — an amount equivalent to the Gov- 
ernment tax ! Where does the boasted 70 per 
cent come from ? The clouds ? or the vivid imagi- 
nation of the writer ?— I am, dear sir, yours faith- 
fully, EDWARD N. ATHERTON. 
OOTTON CULTIVATION IN CEYLON : 
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE. 
3rd July 1889. 
Sir, — It is a little unfortunate that discussion 
about our new industry cotton has so soon resolved 
itself into an exhibition of personalities and smart 
writing. Let us know a little more about the 
climate of cotton-growing countries, and then point 
out which districts in Ceylon are likely to be most 
suitable for its cultivation. We all know now that 
cotton of one kind or another will grow all over 
Ceylon from the seaborde to 4,000 feet in Ram- 
boda, and 5,000 feet in Uva, but we want to know 
where it can be grown with a fair chance of profit, 
in absence of any unusual climatic disturbances, 
that is unusual to that location. 
Many of us have bad experience enough to prove 
the capability of Ceylon growing cotton. I have 
had kidney-cotton growing below Cannavarella. It 
never attained any great size, and very often a 
spell of showery weather spoilt the pods when ripe. 
I have grown the same cotton at the bottom of 
the Pundaluoya valley, hot and wet, say 3,000 feet 
in elevation. There the trees grew to a diameter 
of 3 to 4 inches in the stem, and 10 feet high 
lasting for years. The pods ripened at all times 
of. the year, sometimes spoilt by rain, sometimes 
yielding cotton in good order, and very often with 
the pods full of little beetles of kinds. I should 
think that cotton-growing as an investment would 
not be likely to turn out a success in either of 
these districts ; and from what I know of the climate 
of the Central and Uva provinces I should very 
much doubt if any part of them would be safe for 
such a venture, unless it were Udakinda and at 
the foot of the Haputale aud Namunakulu ranges 
in the lowcountry. 
Many years ago we used to be told that when 
the rainfall in ihe cooly districts of India failed 
to suffice for paddy cultivation, cotton was put in 
the fields instead ; and from all I can learn the 
main characteristic of the climate of Tinneveily 
and the cotton districts of Southern India, as well 
as around Ahmednugger, farther north, is a short 
spell, say three months, of showery weather, followed 
by a rainless period of six or eight months, during 
which the cotton pods ripen and can be harvested 
without fear of damage. If this is what we want 
we must leave the hill-country of Ceylon and go 
down to Dambulla and Kaluwewa, and take up 
the flat rich soil so much talked of in the low- 
country. I don't pretend to have any experience 
of that locality, but from all I have heard the soil 
and climate must be very similar to that around 
Wellawaya and Tissamaharama and Jaela, which I 
have visited in the course of my travels. Again 
below Rakwana, at Maduwanwella and the irrigation 
works to which so much attention has been drawn 
lately, I may mention that Maduwanwella has several 
kinds of cotton growing at the famous wala,wwa. 
I have no wish to make a positive statement, but 
1 think that the cultivation of cotton in the un- 
certain climate of the Central, Uva, and Western 
Provinces would be always very precarious and 
consequently unprofitable. What we want is ex- 
perience on a pretty large scale in the lowcountry, 
north of Matale, at Anuradhapura and Kalawewa. 
How is it that all this time no one has come 
forward with accounts of the results of the cotton 
totam at Chilaw or Puttalam belonging to the late J. 
Home, who used to walk about the Fort in a suit of bi3 
own growth and manufacture ? He imported weavers 
from India and had his cotton woven into cloth. 
Am I wron^ in supposing that Mr. Kemlo was the 
superintendent in charge, and that he is still in 
the island ? Can't he be induced to tell us some- 
thing about it, cost of production, &c, &c. ? 
I may add that the difference in climate between the 
coffee districts of Ceylon and those of Mysore fully 
accounts for the advantage of planting under shade 
in the latter, and the disadvantage in the former. 
In comparing notes lately with a planter from 
Mysore we mutually arrived at this conclusion. In 
Ceylon we cannot fully realize the fact that obtains 
over so great a portion of India. No rain whatever 
for half the year and more. — Yours faithfully, 
EDMUND WOODHOUSE. 
[But Mr. W. A. Tytler, who has had experience 
of both, consideisa great part of Uva to approxi- 
mate very closely to the Mysore coffee districts in 
climate and soil. — Ed. T. ] 
CINCHONA BARK IN INDIA AND CEYLON: 
HOW TO REGULATE THE HARVESTING 
AND EXPORT. 
Sib,— I have no doubt there are still planters in 
Ceylon vitally interested in cinchona. There are 
certainly such in India and Java, and with the 
dresent low unit rain stares them in the face. Nor 
is there any hope of the unit rising unless the 
amount of bark put into the market is greatly 
diminished. 
I believe that this can be done. Not at once 
perhaps, but, by a cordial co-operation of planters, 
in six months' time. And who so ready, who so 
