112 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1887 
" These prices, I should think, would be apt to 
make the mouths of some of our lowcountry thrifty 
housewives water. 
"But another view of the question is, why on 
earth do not the natives, who are being educated 
to such an extent, and who ought now to be wide- 
awake to their own interests, go in for poultry- 
farming; the outlay for a good cross-breed of fowls 
is small and the paddy is reared on their little 
farms. Not one single specimen of fowl, duck, turkey 
or even a goose, was exhibited by a native at the 
late Kandy Show ! 
"This industry alone would be an enormous source 
of wealth to the native ; but the subject wants an 
abler pen than mine to work it out, and I think it is 
well worth your own attention, as an expounder 
ofi he public weal. Poultry in India, I see by 
bazaar prices, average about one-fifth the rate 
paid here !" 
As regards fresh butter, it was very striking 
when depression through the failure of coffee was 
at its lowest, to find so many good housewives, 
and for that matter practical bachelors on up- 
country estates ready to supply the Colombo market 
or households ! Butter could be got from nearly 
every planting district within reach of the rail- 
way. But witli the rise and progress of tea, a 
change has come : time, attention and labour are 
required in another and more profitable direction. 
Were it so with the native also, of course there 
could be no good ground for complaint. But it 
is not the case that New Products — save to the 
most limited extent — can be said to interfere with 
native industry in the direction we refer to. 
Our very great dependence on Iudia for supplies 
of not only cattle, sheep and goats ; but of 
poultry and vegetables — and our large and increas- 
ing importation of tinned milk and butter — con- 
stitute a grave reflection on the rural Sinhalese and 
Tamils in Ceylon, and to some extent this must 
be said to reflect on the headmen and European 
public servants placed over them. Nowhere in this 
island, outside the towns, has the " earth hunger " 
grown to an extent to interfere with the means of 
each householder having a vegetable garden orpoultry 
range. For the latter, the roadside and the field 
are freely open, and for eggs and fowls there is 
ever a ready profitable market. Why should Uva 
villagers be hard up with Nuwara Eliya and the 
Nanuoya station within reach for all the poultry, 
cabbages, &c, they can produce. Nothing but 
active travelling Agents and the establishment of 
rural Agricultural Shows with prize-lists can 
waken the people in these distant valleys from 
their torpidity and ignorance. 'J. he Kandy Show 
carries its own lessons on the very face of the 
list of exhibits. We need scarcely apply them. 
But one thing is evident, namely, that to 
improve and increase native exhibits at the " head 
centre, " special efforts must be made in and 
around the villages. Each town or division ought 
to have its own Agri-Horticultural Show, and pleased 
we are to see that already Mr. Burrows is up and 
doing in Malale. As we have often said, at least 
every revenue station in the island ought to have 
tis " Show," and there is room for Mr. Sharpe's 
and Mr. King's assistants to devise native gather- 
ing and displays at such stations as Gampola, 
Nawalapitiya, Ilaldummulla, Passara, Wilson's Bun- 
galow, <Vc, apart from the big A»ri-Horticultural 
Show at the provincial capitals. 
Brick Tea. — A tea estate proprietor asks if 
anyone in Ceylon has got a sample of "brick-tea" ? 
If not, surely some of our brokers can readily get 
a few samples for the enlightenment of their cus- 
tomers who want to see how the Bussian tea marke 
is served 
Coitee.— Finley Acker, of Philadelphia, in 
his admirable little magazine, Table Talk, referring 
to the coffee speculation, says : " Perhaps, in a 
later generation, one of our eminent statesmen 
may have sufficient moral courage and intellectual 
ability to solve the problem of how gambling in 
food products may be prevented, and yet our legitim- 
ate freedom in merchandising be maintained. 
The statesman who accomplishes this task will be 
more deserving of our thanks than if he discovered 
the North Pole, or completed the Nicaraguan Canal." 
— American Grocer, June 8th. 
Tea in Haputale.— Until quite recently Haputale 
had always been regarded as perhaps less generally 
suited for the successful cultivation of tea than any 
other whilom coffee districts in the island, if we except 
Dumbera. But there does not seem to be any limit 
to the ubiquity of tea throughout the coffee districts, 
for we have just seen a few extracts from a report 
of Mr. C. S. Armstrong on the Gonamatawa estate, 
in which he spoke very favorably of its prospects as 
a producer of tea. He says ; — " Tea here is an un- 
doubted success ; both at the very top and at the 
bottom of the estate it is doing equally well." The 
Haputale estates with their fine soil ought certainly 
to grow tea luxuriantly, and from enquiries we have 
made there seems to be no ill effect from the long 
drought generally experienced in June and July; and 
he growth of the young tea is not apparently checked: 
n the slightest by it. We never entertained any:) 
doubt as to the success of tea in the Haldumulla, 
Koslande, and Kaudapolla divisions of this district, 
seeing that the rainfall is abundant and fairly well 
distributed, whilst the soil is good. But the same 
may now be said of the whole district, and in this 
firm conviction tea is being- rapidly extended, though 
planters do not care to substitute it for their fine 
coffee, so long as there is any prospect of good prices 
ruling for the latter. It will interest Uva men to 
know that a sample of Gonamatawa tea was within 
the last fortnight valued at 1/8 to 1/9 for Broken 
Pekoe, and lid. for Pekoe Souchong— very fair prices 
as things go now-a-days. — Local " Times." 
Sunflower Seed.— We have been kindly furnished 
with the following particulars regarding the results of 
the experiment at Hangurauketa, to which Mr. Le 
Mesurier refers in his Administration Reports, from 
which it will be seen that the cultivation of the Sun- 
flower, however ornamental, is not sufficiently profit- 
ably useful to tempt capitalists :—" A shipment of 1-1 
bags was forwarded in July of last year— the first 
time I believe that this seed was ever sent from Ceylon 
to London— and our agents wrote back that the seed 
was not at all well known, though some of it was from 
time to time offered from Bombay and Calcutta. This 
parcel was sold at £6 per ton ; and this rate was obtained 
through there having been another lot of 644 bags 
from Calcutta in the same broker's hands, who got the 
buyer to take the 14 bags at the same rate. The Ceylon 
Sunflower seed was inferior in quality to Calcutta. The 
latter was of a better colour and more free from husk 
than ours. The freight per steamer was 40s. per ton 
of 16 cwts., and the net proceeds amounted to £1. Is. 
lid. for a parcel of cwt. 13. 1. 22. showing a result 
of £0. ls.Gid. per cwt. A second parcel of 33 bags 
was sent iu December last and this sold at £5 per 
ton. Freight was st 30s., *nd the net proceed* amount- 
ed to £3- lis. 0J. or £0. 2s. 2^d. per cwt. The value 
in London may be taken at £5 per ton. The seed 
must be nearly white, round and oleaginous. The 
dried flower is thrown away after the seed is removed. 
This accounts for the flower and tb& seed; the stem is 
allowed to remain in the earth and it blossoms again. 
In my opinion, it is not worth cultivating fur export. 
There is a good deal of trouble, and *U for about 2s 
per cwt. result '."—Local " Ex*min«r " 
