THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1889. 
258 
that they could at any time bring this to bear 
upon the crop taking and export, — I say this fact 
and the knowledge of it amoDg manufacturers and 
purchasers at home would, I think, be sufficient 
to right the market and make it elastic. 
AN APPEAL TO CINNAMON PLANTERS 
AGAINST ADVANCES. 
10th August. 
Dear Sm,— Mr. William Jardine is to be congra- 
tulated on the success which has so far attended his 
efforts to suppress the trade in Chips. This success 
of his shows that Cinnamon Planters are willing to 
follow his lead. I therefore beg to peu this appeal to 
him, in the hope that it will be favourably entertained 
and that he will take it up with as much zeal and 
whole-heartedness as the anti-chips movement. The 
first movement appeals to our purse : this to our 
higher nature. 
A pernicious practice has grown up amongst Cinna- 
mon Planters of giving advances to their peelers, a 
practice which is indefensible and is therefore not 
on the same footing as coolie advances, which at 
the present day find their way into the hands of 
Chetties and not to the Coast of India. I say the 
practice is indefensible because there is no neces- 
sity for it, as our peelers are drawn from villages 
at our very doors so to speak. There is an ex- 
ception, however, in the case of peelers drawn from 
the Southern Province, to whom a moderate advance 
to meet the cost of the journey and to be left with 
their families cannot be objected to. The Natives 
of thig country, owing to the ease with which an 
existence can be eked out, are as a rule notoriously 
thriftless. No man who is both able and willing to 
work need starve for a single day, and to this is attribut- 
able toja great extent the non-provision made for times of 
sickness or for occasions when more money than suffices 
for their daily wants is necessary. All employers of 
labour have a solemn responsibility. They ought both by 
precept and example to make known to their employes 
those moral and social lessons which it is their high pri- 
vilege to have had inculcated on them from their early 
yonth. Not the least of these lessons is thrift. How do 
we encourage thrift? By pandering to the lower instincts 
of our peelers — for it is only of these that I am just now 
writing. Their earnings are very fair, but their employ- 
ment is not continuous. It is confined only to the peel- 
ing season. In the intervals they are usually idle, and 
fall into those vices which are begotten of idleness. We 
encourage these by issuing advances to them, and at a 
time when the propensity to indulge in gambling and 
drink is at its highest during the Sinhalese New-Year. 
The necessity for advances will vanish if we encourage 
our peelers to engage in other works on our Estates dur- 
ing the intervals of peeling. They will then have con- 
tinuous and remunerative employment all the year 
through, and will be able to avoid the Scylla of debt and 
the Oharybdis of vice. That unity is strength is seldom 
more realized than in movements for the social and moral 
welfare of our fellowmen. Let all Cinnamon Planters 
unite to do away with the pernicious and immoral sys- 
tem of giving advances which are seldom or never put to 
right uses, and we will have taken one step — and an im- 
portant one too — towards weaning our peelers from hab- 
its of idleness, vice and thriftlessness. 
The subject has another and as serious an aspect. 
When peelers receive advances they usually euter into a 
contract to serve the Estates issuing them for a period 
not exceeding three years. They are, in fact, in a state of 
semi-slavery till the debt is liquidated. Those who have 
unfortunately been in debt know how depressing and de- 
moralising it is. When once a man receives advances, his 
labour seems objectless. He receives nothing more for 
it than weekly advances, at least till his accounts are 
squared up a year hence. Many are the subterfuges re- 
Gi rted to obtain advances. Kanganies bring up bogus 
men for a consideration, who for the time being person 
a'epeelers, receive advances ami «i(?n the usual agree 
tnent, This ia onu of the moral effects of the system 
Another and more serious one is that a class of criminals 
is created by the system, and Heaven knows we have too 
many already ! A great moral responsibility rests on 
those, be they Magistrates or Planters, who lightly send 
men to jail to herd with hardened criminals. It must 
not be forgotten that the evil ways of a man do not 
begin or end with him. His bad example is followed 
by his children, and he possibly influences a friend or 
two to cast their lot with him. Their example is fol- 
lowed by others, and so on til), like the ever-increasing 
circles formed by a stone dropped in a sheet of water, 
the one life we condemn to a life of crime is the means 
of influencing ever-increasing circles of those having a 
like tendency. We who lightly give advances caring or 
thinking little of the immense harm they do, may 
well stand appalled at what they had lead to. When the 
season of the Sinhalese New-Year festivities draws 
nigh, peelersrush heedlessly to every estate that gives 
advances, and thoughtlessly and regardless of con- 
sequences secure as much as each man could get. 
The bulk of it is spent in gambling and drinking, 
and after the excitement of both has passed away 
they realize for the first time that they are virtually 
slaves and have sold their liberty for the amount of 
the advances each has taken. Some determine to 
work themselves free, others to swindle the estate 
by not turning up for work. These lead a vagabond 
life till at last they are brought up before the Court 
on warrant, and for the breach of a civil contract 
undergo a criminal penalty. They go to jail, and if 
there be any good traits in their character they are 
none the worse for contract with criminals ; but very 
often incarceration has a blighting influence on some 
and they lose all sense of shame. Anyway, whatever 
be the effect on a man of imprisonment, one who 
has once been in jail has forfeited what little char- 
acter he had. 
I appeal earnestly to my brother Planters, and 
more pointedly to Mr. Jardine, who has by his action 
in connection with. Chips assumed their lead, to seri- 
ously consider the demoralising effects of giving ad- 
vances to a body of our employes who do not need 
them, but with the object of benefiting ourselves by 
pandering to their weaknesses- Will he not take steps 
to suppress the practice ? — Truly yours, B. 
FIG CULTURE. 
13th Aug. 1889. 
Sir, — The interesting letter over the signature 
of " Arborator," dated the 28th of June last, gave 
the public two important facts about fig trees grow- 
ing in Ceylon: 1st, that the finest variety of fig 
was imported many years ago from Italy, and 2nd, 
that the true stock is still to be found in Uda- 
pussellawa. Will the gentleman who owns them 
be so good as to take up the subject and let us 
know whether they bore fruit, the quality and 
quantity ? 
Judging from the numerous wild figs growing 
around me in this locality, bearing heavily and 
ripening well, one would think the finest edible 
kinds would be successful, and yet, who has ever 
seen a dish of freshly gathered figs in Ceylon? 
I have not.— Yours faithfully, OLD PLANTER. 
ORANGE WINE. 
15th August. 
Dear Mr. Editor, — Will any of your readers 
kindly give mo their experience in the makiDg of 
orange wine. Where oranges are plentiful it seems 
a sin to let them fall, and I find thej go a long 
way in the making of marmalade though we are 
a family rather partial to that conserve. 
I have twice attempted oraDge wine, but with 
disappointing results, although mine is an old family 
receipt from which a sparkling wine of excellent 
quality should result. Perhaps something special 
has to be done in a tropical climate as regards 
the fermentation in wood and the period of bring- 
ing down, for wine seemed to fail from some such 
