THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November t, 1889. 
Taking however the yield at the moderate rate of 50c. 
each vine it would still he a handsome income. I be- 
lievp there is a good future for pepper in suitable 
localities. 
UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 
THE ANONYMOUS LETTER SEASON — A SAD RECORD OF 
FALLEN HUMANITY — A THING WORTH LOOKING INTO 
— CACAO AND BORER — COTTON AND THE NATIVES — 
DETRIMENTAL WEATHER TO TEA AND REDUCED RE- 
TURNS — HORNETS AND DR. WILSON OF BOMBAY — A 
MORAL. 
October 17th. 
When the clip ry tends to ripen on the Coffee 
bush, and a watcher is put on, the anonymous 
letter season begins. You may be as particular as 
you like regarding your choice of watchmen : in- 
stitute inquiries in numerous quarters ; interview 
many applicants, and select the best man that 
oan be had for the 12-50 a month ; but when all 
is done you very soon learn through the medium 
of the anonymous letter that your choice is not 
only a bad one, but could hardly be worse. From 
the date the man enters your service his true 
charaoter is revealed. Without experience one 
could never have anticipated the interest which 
a certain class of the public take in these humble 
appointments. The unselfishness of their repre- 
sentations, when they address you as " Honored 
Sir," and are too modest to sign their names, is 
seldom approached. I have before me at present one 
of these precious documents, and it is quite 
touching to see running all through it a strongly 
expressed desire that I may be saved from the 
folly of keeping my present watcher. " The 
man is u nfit for the watohership, especially on 
an estate as this," is what I am told, " it is 
far better if a cooly be employed !" The villain 
who has imposed on me is a proper one : and 
his life-history, whioh my anonymous correspon- 
dent supplies, is a sad record of fallen humanity. 
He was a Eiscal's peon, but, being found guilty 
of embezzlement, was dismissed and imprisoned. 
When he got out of gaol, he committed theft 
again, and was imprisoned a second time. He is 
a gambler and a drunkard, and a man with 
many an alias. Not content with two wives, and 
two children, he has added to his responsibilities 
by running off with another man's wife. Here 
my correspondent pauses, he has more agony yet 
to pile, but confidently awaits the effect of what 
has already been disclosed : " I think these facts 
are quite sufficient," he says, and I think so too, 
and this is how he ends : — ' ' Therefore I beg 
most humbly and earnestly that it may please 
you to appoint another person and to send away 
this unworthy jail-bird. I hope I shall not be 
forced to write you concerning this trifling thing 
further or to trouble you, and to spend my 
preoious time in regard to this vagabond." Who 
are these people who take such a loving interest 
in our affairs? and how is it that every year 
when the watcher is appointed they should feel 
constrained to write ? Who pays for the paper and 
the stamp, not to speak of "the precious time"? 
This is a subject worth looking into ; but it is 
easier to ask questions than to answer them. 
The Cacao crop is beginning to ripen but the 
ravages of the borer are too manifest in the large 
percentage of damaged pods which the coolies bring in. 
Of course there is always a bad start, at the 
opening of the caoao harvest. But the one this 
year seems to be worse than usual. Still the 
promine is fair, and the trees look well. 
The abnormally wet season has I regret to hear 
ruined the CorioN crop, This is very unfortunate 
as far as the native is concerned, for he has neither 
the pluck nor the energy of his European brother, 
and a new product that starts badly is heavily 
handicapped for the future. The European may 
draw encouragement from a reverse ; but the 
Sinhalese villager is not in the habit of wringing 
fortune from misfortune and not likely to begin 
on cotton. It is strange how different is the opinion 
of men travelling over the same ground in regard 
to the interest which the Sinhalese have taken 
in this new product. One man got quite enthusi- 
astic and hopeful in talking with me about ootton 
taking the place of coffee in the villages, and 
wherever he went in his itinerating life he was 
aiding in the distribution of cotton seed. The 
other who worked the same ground saw in what 
was being done only the headman's influence, and 
that again was derived from the Kachcheri. He had 
little hope of cotton enriching the impoverished 
villager. It is an uphill work getting the Sinhalese 
to leave the beaten pathway of their fathers. 
What has come of the effort to introduce Liberian 
coffee among them, and especially cacao ? This 
latter wanted little trouble or expense to cultivate ; 
and in the sheltered villages where could better 
land be had for its growth ? But spite of all these 
advantages the effort to have it taken up has 
failed. Is cotton ever likely to do better ? A plant 
that gets ruined in the wet, and is devoured by 
insects when the weather is dry, may suit a 
European with surplus energy, but how about the 
villager ? Is the man, who during the hot months 
allows his vegetable plot to go to ruin, rather 
than water it, likely to go poochie-hunting among 
his cotton plants ? or take any trouble whatever ? 
Here, as in other things, we want men of large 
faith to see in the dry bones of the apathetic and 
enervated villager the possibility of a future 
energetic and pushing man. 
The wet and cold has been bothering us all sadly, 
checking the Tea flush, and reducing the returns. 
With fine prices which at present obtain, we could well 
afford to have better weather, and would not 
grumble if it were hot. 
I notice the senior Editor, in his letters " from 
the hills," is interested in Hornets. It is only 
this year that I have seen them in any numbers 
here, and they are such ugly customers that war 
is waged against them. Their nests, which they 
build on the tea, and which grow in no time to 
a considerable size, are destroyed at night, a pro- 
mise of twenty-five cents, cash down, being sufficient 
to effect the service. The ruined nest to be pro- 
duced at morning muster. Dr. Wilson of Bombay 
you will remember was nearly killed by an attack 
of hornets, and he used to say that the painful 
experience threw a wonderful light upon the text' 
" They compassed me about like bees." If the 
science of exegesis demanded from all an education 
of this kind we would have better sermons from 
our pulpits, and fewer theologians out of them, 
Moreover it would have a marked effect in settling 
the unsettled. Creeds would then last for all time. 
Peppercorn. 
HILL COUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 
THE RAILWAY FIRE WOOD SUPPLY AND RE - AFFOREST- 
ATION — WANTED A CHEAP FUEL SUBSTITUTE — WATTLES 
AND BLUE GUMS — OTHER TIMBER TREES — ORNA- 
MENTAL TREES TO BE PLANTED ALONG THE LONG- 
DEN ROAD AND IN NUWARA ELIYA — EFFECT OF THE 
SOUTH-WEST WINDS ON GROWTH OF TREES — FRUIT- 
ING OF AN ENGLISH OAK-TREE IN CEtLON. 
Nanuoya, Oct. 19th. 
I have now ascertained that the juDgle on the 
right-hand side of the Longden Road, between 
Nanuoya and Nuwara Eliya, which is in course 
