January 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
489 
PLANTING REPORTS FROM THE HILL- 
COUNTRY OF CEYLON: 
ABSENCE OF FOSSIL FUEL IN CEYLON — COAL AND WOOL 
I'OIl TEA ESTATES— Till! WEAT11EU. 
Nanuoya, 20th Deo. 1887. 
The entire absence of fossil fuel (for the peat 
formations of Muturajawela and other localities can 
scarcely rank as such) places Ceylon, in regard 
to its railways and tea estates as well as other 
enterprises, at a great disadvantage compared with 
many parts of India and especially with Assam, 
where coal of very good quality is abundant, in 
addition to vast tracts of forest. Although much 
of the coal which reaches Colombo from Britain 
(only a small portion comes from the Australian 
mines) is carried almost as ballast, yet the cost 
price and the inland carriage have made it so 
expensive that even on our railways it is used 
only in exceptional cases, as on steep inclines, and 
merely, we believe, as an aid to the staple wood 
fuel of the engine furnaces. On many old coffee 
estates converted into tea plantations there arc no 
fuel reserves either in the shape of felled or stand- 
ing forest, and what with the demands of tea 
estates for buildings, boxes and furnace fuel, and 
those of t ho railway, timber is disappearing at a 
rate which is calculated to create concern. Close 
to the railway terminus here, for instance, an 
estate which some time ago showed a largo extent 
of line unbroken forest is being rapidly denuded, 
not merely for store timber and shingles, but from 
the operation of a contract to supply the railway. 
Of course it is immediately advantageous to be 
able, while clearing for ultimate cultivation, to turn 
timber into money, but lookers-on cannot but re- 
member that while trees left to decay on the 
ground yield fertilizing matter for tea as they did 
for coffeo, wood has, in the case of tea cultivation, 
additional value for fuel purposes, as well as for 
buildings and tea boxes. No doubt the proprietors 
of the estate in question have well weighed all 
tho pros and cons of the matter. They know that 
our clayey soil up here is rich in potash and 
iron, elements in which tea delights, and that 
phosphoric acid is in fair proportion. With such 
a soil and with our moderato climate the con- 
tingency of exhaustion of fertility may be re- 
garded as a very distant one, but the question of 
wood fuel is a serious one, unless importance is 
attached to the recent reduction in the rate of 
carriage of coal, or that my neighbours are as 
sanguine as I am that science will ere long pro- 
vide an artificial fuel, which will enable railways 
and tea estates alike to dispense with the fearful 
waste of wood which now takes place, and justify the 
(iovernment in unlocking for cultivation forests which 
they now reservo as stores of fuel for tho railway 
engines. As the retention of forest on the sides of 
mountains which rise to (i.000 and even over 7,000 
feet above sea-level, as rain-compellers, is wholly 
unnecessary, tho question of lands fitted for tea 
cultivation being disposed of along large portions 
of the railway line from Nanuoya to Haputale 
depends on a cheap supply of coal, or what would 
be still better, the discovery of an artificial fuel in 
which the maximum of caloric would be compressed 
into tho minimum of bulk. If, as seems possible, 
Grade* kerosino or like substance can be deodorized, 
•ay by being intimately mixed with charcoal or 
ooko, and compressed into bricks, the want might 
In' supplied. Meantime 1 should like to know how 
the reduction in the price of coal is likely to increase 
the use of that fuel, either alone or mixed with 
wood, — many estates having no wood with which 
to mix conl or coke. Some time ago, I met Mr. 
Rutherford in the train, and felt much diseourngod 
to leu i n from him that the result of experiments 
02 
he had tried was that coal fuel for tea factories 
was twice as expensive as wood. No doubt Mr. 
Rutherford referred to cases where reserves of wood 
fuel existed : ho said nothing about a mixture of 
coal with wood, and I presume the coal he used 
was charged a much higher price for carriage on 
the railway than the rate which has now been 
conceded. If the concession, added to the condition 
of a large number of estates with reference to timber 
fuel, leads to a largely increased use of coal in tea- 
house furnaces, I need not dwell on the extent to 
which this fact will add to the already great 
proportion of up trallic to down on the railways. 
Not in the carriage of coal any more than in that of 
ricc-can carts possibly compete with Ihe engine-drawn 
trains of goods vans. To meet cases where coal will 
have to be carried appreciable distances from railway 
stations, I have no doubt that special modes of 
packing will be resorted to. It seems likely that 
pounding and pressure of the article will be re- 
sorted to? Then with reference to the cheaper 
rates of carriage now offered, the question may 
arise whether coal inferior to that used for marine 
and land steam engines, and therefore consider- 
ably cheaper in first cost, may not suffice for the 
furnaces of tea driers ? Of course, estates which 
use steam instead of water for motive power will 
always require a supply of good steam coal. As 
the time has already arrived or is fast approach- 
ing, when timber will be absolutely absent or scarce 
and dear, whether in logs or as charcoal, this 
question of coal is a very interesting and import- 
ant one, and I trust that what I have written may 
elicit valuable information on the subject ot its use 
as fuel on tea estates, either alone or mixed with 
blocks of wood. 
RAINFALL — POOU PEATV SOU. OF NUWAIIA KM VA PLAINS 
— Mil. WHITE'S RHUBARB PLANTS-- FOREST AKOUNO 
NUWARA ELI YA • 
Nanuoya, 23rd Dec. 
It looks as if tho north-east monsoon of 1887 
would be memorable for abundant rainfall all over 
Ceylon. Yesterday, up to 4 p.m., we had nothing 
worse than drizzle, but from the hour mentioned 
it has ncvor ceased raining steadily, with an 
occasional gust of wind, and the atmosphere seems 
still charged with moisture. The rain gauge this 
morning indicates a fall of 1*19 inch in the 24 
hours. I wrote recently that up here we were 
largely exempt from rain storms, and in support 
of that statement, I may mention that in the 
records of this year 2 inches of rainfall in 21 
hours were never exceeded or even reached, except 
once and that was on the 17lh-l8th of this month 
when 2*18 were measured. Our even distribution 
of rain deprives us, of course, of a certain amount 
of sunshine, but the small amount of wash and 
land slips is much in our favour. I spoke of our 
soil as tenacious although fertile, and on my recent 
visit to Nuwara Eliya I was struck with the 
contrast of the black but poor soil of the Plain. 
Of course I am speaking of the grass land, bare 
or dotted over with rhododendrons and a few 
similar growths. Mr. Whyte in showing us over 
his extensive rlower and vegetable gardens, had 
the same tale to tell which we have often heard 
from other cultivators of tho black, peaty soil. 
It had to be repeatedly trenched and manured 
before anything would grow in it and for a long 
lime every green thing which got abovegrour.d 
became a prey to black grubs. Even now Mr. 
Whyte has to protect his rhubarb plants in 
their young stugo by coverings of wire gauze over 
tho propagating boxes. When the leaves get 
beyond the tender succulent stage they are safe 
from the attacks of the fly which at an earlier 
