October i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
217 
CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 
REASONS FOR GOING IN 1'OE TEA CULTIVATION — OOFFE13 
STEALING— I!UG ON COFFEE— CARDAMOM PBTJNING- 
THE S.-W. MONSOON — CACAO PROSPECTS— JALAP. 
12th Sept. 1887. 
If all the tea planters in Ceylon were to give 
the reasons why they have gone in for that cult- 
ivation, I fancy some of them would be amusing 
enough. It would however take a very funny one 
to beat the following, which I quote from the letter 
of a Burgher youth : — " Mr. of intends 
taking me into his factory about the 15th of this 
month, and I am very anxious of doing this 
work because my father died in such occupation" ! 
Coffee stealing has begun, now that the crop 
is ripening, and green strippings, are worth the 
risk. This style of open plunder is not the 
worst type we have to deal with, a good look- 
out and active watchmen can keerj that sort 
of thing within bounds ; but the rogue who is 
hardest to combat is the man who sells 
toddy, and who encourages your own coolies to 
bring a little coffee now and a little again, in 
exchange for his beverage. When 75 cents can be got 
for a measure of coffee, the temptation to take 
a handful from time to time is very great, and 
if a taste has been acquired for either toddy or 
arrack it strengthens that temptation very con- 
siderably. Although on heavy bearing trees there 
has been a good deal of blackening of the tips 
of the branches, yet the coffee got therefrom is 
not so empty as that of former years- I heard 
one place which sold what was first gathered — 
generally worthless stuff — and R4 a cut Govern- 
ment bushel was the price paid. Old trees that 
are bearing well are rather bare of leaves, but 
tho rain we have been having for more than a 
week now will do a lot of good, and help very 
considerably to carry the crop through. I fancy by 
the end of October most of the coffee on the 
Kandy side will be gathered ; as it is, half-bushel 
pickings and more are common. 
Bug is still about, and its presence quite paralyzes 
all kind of enterprise in regard to high cultivation. 
You foar to spend money on anything except 
picking, for then you can tell at once whether 
it will pay or not, but to prune or manure and 
then run tho risks of several months, is in these 
days, spite of the high prices, a flight too long 
sustained for any but the venturesome. If we 
could insure ourselves against attacks of bug, 
leaf disease in its present mitigated form could, I 
think, be successfnlly combated by a return to 
high cultivation. 
Cardamom pruning, in the sense of cutting 
them all down where they have ceased to bear 
and allowing new shoots to come up again, is, I 
am told, a success, and brings about a renewal of 
fruitfulness. I heard of two men who had lields of 
cardamoms to clear out. They met and compared 
notes: — "What did the work cost you," asked tho one 
of the other, " did n't you find it shockingly dear?" 
"Well no," was the reply, "about R3 an acre." "Three 
rupees I You mean thirty?" "Not a bit of it." 
Then he explained how ho did it : cut ofi the 
tops, and made the weeders break oil every shoot 
that appeared, and ere long the bulbs rotted. 
I hi RW-an-acro man had dug them up and 
carried them away. 
I he S.-YV. monsoon is bent on making up its 
lc i lime and redeeming its character for boistcr- 
ousness. For some days the wind has been very 
high, with more or less rain, and the thermo- 
meter has fallen considerably. As to tea flushing 
it has ceased and what leaf was in, it was im- 
possible to wither woll or get a good fermentation. 
1 muting and supplying go uu whore they have yet 
-3 
to be done, and for these more favourable weather 
could hardly be, except perhaps in regard to the 
wind. 
Cacao is full of blossom, and the prospects of a 
spring crop are good. The good results of shade are 
manifest everywhere, and cacao property should 
rise in value, and be a much more easily 
saleable article than it has ever been before. It 
is becoming very clear that with shade regular 
crops may be expected, and the various enemies 
which threatened at one time to all but extin- 
guish cacao culture in Ceylon may be successfully 
kept at bay. Cacao under shade will not however 
bear so well as in the open, but then the risks 
are reduced to a minimum. The hardier varieties, 
which the Royal Botanic Gardens imported, seem 
to do perhaps better without shade at all, and 
those that have attained to six or eight years 
are noble specimens of trees. 
Jalap (Exogonium purga) I hear is being tried 
in some places and is growing well. Whether this 
cultivation will result in having a commercial 
value remains to be seen. Some years ago it 
was cultivated in Ootacamund, with much success, 
indeed too much, for the tubers were so big, and 
so unlike the article known in the home market, 
that buyers fought shy of the Indian variety, and 
it failed to obtain a place. 
In the Mexican Andes it grows from an elevation 
of 5,000 to 8,000 feet above sea-level. In Jamaica 
it was grown among the cinchona, but this had 
to be given up, as it exhausted the soil very 
quickly. It is said to want shade and a deep rich 
soil. An article of this kind would be very easily 
overdone, as the average imports into Great Brit- 
ain are only 180,000 lb. Peppercoen. 
THE CEYLON TEA PLANTING ENTERPRISE. 
In offering to our readers the following reliable precis 
and figures connected with embarking upon the tea- 
planting enterprise in Ceylon, it will be as well to 
say, at the outset, that it is done with no object of 
foisting an estate upon them. We are in no way 
connected or interested directly or iudirectly, with any 
property in that island. Knowing how many of the 
investing public have not only a few thousand pouuds, 
but also a pair of willing hands lying idle, it may 
be as well to put before thera the draft of a plan 
by which they may not only find a remunerative use 
for their modest capital, but also a healthy life and 
pleasant work. Many tired-out city men would give 
a great deal to be able to change their present un- 
healthy or unsuitable mode of life for one at once 
hard, outdoor and bracing. England is not always 
the best climate in which to live, especially for dyspept- 
ics, or those suffering from chronic pulmonary com- 
plaints. Ceylon has been brought to a very low financial 
ebb, as the failure after failure of good firms attests, 
culminating perhaps, in tho suspension of payment 
by the Old Oriental Bank Corporation, in May, 
1884. Foreclosure after foreclosure of mortgages — 
at one time deemed as safo as colonial loans — 
followed, or rather in many cases was found use- 
less, in that an estate which had borrowed £10,000 
could not readily fiud a buyor at £2,000. Tea 
at this time was rapidly establishing itself as the 
staple product of the islnud, and tho hauks were 
regaining sufficient confidence to make advances to 
promising young tea gardens. Still, the acreage in 
coll'ec, ten years ago, was immense, and all or nearly 
all that acreage will grow tea if the land be suitably 
treated. Moru than this, an immense tract of land 
in the low country, never before made use of by 
Europeans has of late years been found to give pro- 
fitable tea crops and has been in deruaud. The 
iluablo estates in the Kalutara district can speak for 
themselves as to the low elevation at which tine leaf 
crops can be gathered. The forest and ''chona" 
laud arouud Awisawella is rapidly _ bocouiiug a Que 
