286 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1887. 
ing salts of lime brought np in the ola baskets 
with the irrigation water. — We trust the inform- 
ation we have thus brought together may be useful 
to pur corrspondant and others, but a regular 
scientific survey of and report on our rocks and 
minerals, is a desideratum still to be supplied. 
For instance, the recived opinion is, founded on 
the fact that there are no lakes amongst the 
mountains of Ceylon that none ever existed. We 
hold strongly, contra, that the Plain of Nuwara 
Eliya is the bed of an ancient lake whence, when 
the barriers were worn away or broken up, the 
waters escaped into Uva on the eastern side ; into 
Dimbula on the western. There are other similar 
localities amidst our mountains, and the valley of 
Maturata is so narrow and its sides so steep that 
it resembles the formations called canyons, down 
which rivers tumble over sheer precipices into the 
Yosemite valley in California. We cannot help 
thinking that captured water, long retained but 
finally breaking the barriers which confined it, has 
had something to do with this formation and 
similar ones in our Ceylon mountain system. 
While we are writing a specimen of rock is 
brought to us taken at a depth of 170 feet, 
from the borings which are going on at Mannar, 
with the hope of finding a perennial supply of 
water at that truly penal station, where, what 
with glare and heat, the paucity of rain and the 
absence of good water, life must be very difficult 
to live. The hard rook to which the borings 
have reached, after passing through much soft 
breccia, is of course the underlying gneiss, whioh 
crops up at Pulaverayenkadu on the Ceylon main- 
land and in the island of Hemesvaram and which 
is conspicuous in the beds of the Kalaru and 
other rivers which enter the sea near Mannar. 
At present the supply of fresh water for the re- 
sidents of Mannar is obtained from a couple of 
wells dug in the sand, about two miles distant, 
the rail water caught in the old Fort reservoir 
being of very small account. A plentiful supply 
of good water would make all the difference in 
the world, and we trust Government will not 
grudge a substantial vote, say 111,000, instead of 
first R250, an d then R120, which have been allowed. 
Many a conviot in our jails has better prospects 
of life and ahealth than persons condemned to 
live at Mann r, and as we are so careful about 
he health and life of our prisoners, we ought to 
xtend at least equal privileges to honest people 
ondemned to II ve at a p'aoe on which nature 
has largely laid her ban in the shape of drought 
and fever. 
+ 
TEA PLANTING IN CEYLON. 
(The Field, August 27th.) 
Noticing an article in the Citizen upon the Tea 
Enterprize in Ceylon, which gives full and detailed 
estimates both of expenditure and returns from a 
block of 300 acres, it may interest your readers 
to lay before them the result of seven years' ex- 
perience of tea-planting in that island. We say 
tea-planting, although it must be owned that the 
experience commenced with coffee. It is often 
the way with the would-be money-making world 
to be willing to rush into any investment so long 
as it be sought after by the crowd The public 
always like to baok the favorite. People tell one 
in a superior way that it never answers to be a 
pioneer, that it is more prudent to wait and see 
the result of other people's investments before 
making the plunge oneself, and that they do not 
likf- to put their money into a sinking ship. All 
this is quite true, but thoy forget that there are 
•'uoh things as ships which cannot sink. They 
may be laden with timber and become water log- 
ged and even abandoned ; these will be tossed 
about for some days or weeks, but in the end 
some steamer will find them and take them into 
the nearest port, where their cargo may fetch its 
full value after all. So it h with many industries 
and countries. They may be down in their luck, 
but, for all that, if they are timber-laden by hav- 
ing a good climate and rainfall, good soil, or 
diligent inhabitants, it is contrary to experience 
that they should remain for ever in this hopeless 
condition. This is exactly the case with the island 
of Ceylon at the present time. 
After forty years of comparative prosperity, and 
after five years of doubt and uncertain i/, , coffee 
has been found a complete failure. Men who have 
never swerved from the belief that they could pull 
it round by generous cultivation have been ruined 
by dozens, and had in many instances to seek the 
protection of the Bankruptcy Court. Private people 
at home, tempted by favorable reports and a high 
rate of interest, advanced thousands of pounds upon 
mortgage, and received for a longish time ten, and 
even twelve, per cent, for their money. 
Then came the bad crops in succepsion, endless 
attacks of leaf disease (Hemileia vastatrix) and 
" bug," followed by the dying-out of the coffee trees 
themselves at last, causing abandonment of the pro- 
perties. Proprietors of estates, who had lived for 
years in England upon the fine profits accruing to 
them from their Ceylon properties, in many cases 
came out to the island themselves, imagining that 
the disasters were owing to the reckless expenditure 
and gross mismanagement. Others, who had with- 
out interruption enjoyed for ten or fifteen years an 
income derived entirely from coffee, began to find 
that, instead of a profit, there was a heavy loss year 
after year, and that the expenditure of the estate 
exceeded the value of the crop by four or five 
thousand pounds. In some instances, these pro- 
prietors became so disgusted as to write out ordering 
all expenditure to be stopped, end that the estate be 
sold at once for whatever it would fetoh. 
A case, the full particulars of which were known 
to all residing in the district, ocourred in Kot- 
malie. One of the oldest and finest properties 
there belonged to a gentleman who had for many 
years resided comfortably in England. About fiva 
years ago the crop failed for the first time to 
cover the expenditure. No doubt he thought that this 
had been occasioned by an abnormal season, and 
that, so far from its occurring agnin, it would 
probably give rise to an unusually heavy crop the 
succeeding year. Judge of his unpleasant sur- 
prize when, instead of this, a far heavier loss was 
announced, followed by reports that the entire as- 
pect of the estate was altering rapidly, that the 
trees had lost their vigorous, "laurely" colour, and 
were becoming sickly, or were denuded of leaves 
by wind and leaf-disease. The year following brought 
a still greater loss, and worse reports, which even 
advised the abandonment of certain fields on the 
estate. This estate, which had been yielding an 
average profit during ten years of over £5,000 per 
aunum, and could have been sold for £45,000, 
was one morning advertised for sale, the price 
being £1,000. For two or three months the pro- 
perty remained abandoned, when one day two 
planters rode over to look at it. Within a week 
they purchased it. 
A month after that an Indian tea planter, happen- 
ing to see the estate, examined well its soil, and 
found out its climate and rainfall from the books. 
He wanted to buy it, but found it was too late. 
Going straight to the present proprietors, he offered 
£1,000 for a half share, and, upon being refused, 
he paid this money and accepted a third share, 
