)68 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1888 
April 17th. 
The short but heavy thunder-shower of yesterday, 
resulted in only CO cents of rain here, but there 
must have been quite a rain-storm on the Nuwara 
Eliya rarjges, for the rivers came down in full 
flood and the waters were loaded with earthy parti- 
cles. Today rises beautifully fine and fresh, but 
the atmosphere indicates saturation with moisture. 
As yet " the little monsoon " has been distin- 
guished by the mildness of the winds, even when 
they have blown markedly from the South West. 
UDUGAMA IN 1847 AND 1888. 
COFFEE Vs. TEA. 
I visited Udagama in 1847, ia order to see the 
abandoned estate of Oodellamatta, and to report upon 
the land thereabout. The estate paths having grown 
over with jungle, interlaced with the vines of the 
pitcher plant, the last two or three miles of the 
journey cost me a very severe struggle, and the es- 
tate itself, when I emerged, was a ghastly sight. The 
remains of the bungalow, from which the doors and 
windows had been taken, skeleton-like, a symbol of 
death dominated over a desolation which seemed 
irredeemable. Even the indigenous vegetation seemed 
to be scared from the spot, where only a reddish 
yellow surface of baked clay was visible,' with here 
and there a vain attempt of some undergrowth to 
establish itself. A glance was enough to satisfy 
anyone that the estate had been wisely abandoned, 
for there was not a single coffee plant remsining. 
Eve y one had succumbed, and all trace of there 
having been any coffee there had been obliterated by 
white-ants or decay. The forest around was heavy, 
but all the best timber had been stolen and floated 
down the river. I therefore quitted the spot with the 
conviction that the land was practically worthless, I 
never expected to see it again". 
When I heard, some years ago, of the new enter- 
prize of the Udagama Company, and tbat it was un- 
dertaken by men of such experience and skill as the 
Directors undoubtedly are, I presumed I had seen 
only the worst of the land, and that the new Company 
had discovered some of much better quality. Still, 
failure seemed to me to be, even in their hands, more 
probable than success in such a locality. From time 
to time, in passing through Galle since the Company 
commenced its operations, I have often intended to 
revisit the district, but have never been able till now 
to carry out the intention. 
This time I was able to drive into the very heart 
of the district, and, in doing so, had the opportunity 
of noticing, by the cuttings in the road-sides, the 
nature and depth of the soils. But now these soils, 
which in the old days of Ambegamuwa we planters 
associated with the terrible failure of coffee, have' 
assumed anew character for tea. My first impression, 
therefore, as I entered the district , was that of the 
incalculable change the introduction of tea has made 
upon the condition and prospects of the country. It 
sesmed as if the failure of coffee had proved a bless- 
ing, in turning a'teution from a product wbich at 
least was cultivable only within a circumscribed range 
of elevation and Oi virgin lands, to one suitable to 
a much larger area and to an infinitely wider 
range of soil including much that would not grow 
coffee. Syrapatly for the prodigious losses and 
heart-breaking disappointments the Ceylon coffee 
planters have suffered, must erelong give place 
to congratulations on their having at length hit upon 
the true staple of the island, an enterprize which will 
reward the toil of the cultivator at all elevations, for 
which there exists an almost inexhaustible supply of 
land. It seemed, when the decline of coffee com- 
menced, that we had already exceeded the limits of 
profitable area; but for tea cultivation there still re- 
mains am|fle scope for extension in many direction?. 
Udugama under the new conditions has come to the 
front. The district which was so hopeless for coffee is 
dow flourishing in tea.. The pioneers, it seeme, did not 
at first recognize the true policy, but wasted their skill 
and energies on new products, which failed and forced 
them, nolens volens, to acknowledge their best friend. 
Already a fair start has b?en made in the right direction, 
and there are flourishing fieldsof tea yielding good results 
and giving excellent promise. It is a pity the pioneers 
were so hard to convince, but tbey are now making 
amends for past loss of time. Some of their tea is the 
finest jat I have ever seen. 
There is in many parts of the district a good depth 
of every suitable soil, far better in every point of 
view than that I first saw at Oodelamatta, though of 
a character which iu those remote byegone times, 
would have been discarded as hopeless for the staple, 
and only staple, of that period. There remains but 
little trace of any of the new products, which there- 
fore have left a clear field for our grand and new 
staple tea. There are, however, a number of thriving 
belts of areka palms, and also some fairly good sap- 
pan, which, except as a fence, were better discarded. 
There is a good time coming for old Udugama, and 
ere long it will outlive the curse of a bad name 
which is probably one of the most enduriug and oppres- 
sive of all curses. — G. W. 
— ♦ 
A Railway through a Plantation of Palms 
A railway through a Palm grove is a novelty to 
most gardeners, we therefore avail ourselves of Mr. 
0. B. Clarke's kindness by giving an illustration 
tikcn from a photograph made by that botanist, 
who also kindly furnishes the following particulars: — 
This view is from a photograph of the railway 
near Theria Ghat, in the Ehasi Terai, in East 
Bengal. Tbe Palm is Areca Catechu, which is 
largely cultivated at the foot of the Khasi Hills, 
where it grows as luxuriantly as in the islands at 
the mouth of the Megna, and attains 80 feet in 
height. It is the Palm which supplies the Betel-nut 
chewed throughout Sou ih-East Asia and Malaya; and 
from its exact erectness is likened by the Sanskrit 
writers to an arrow shot down from heaven. The 
railway depicted is worked, at the foot of the hill, 
by a locomotive ; it ascends the face of the Khasi 
Hills 3000 feet at an angle varyiug from 3° to 43°, 
and is there worked by a wire rope. This route 
through Theria Ghat has always been the chief ap- 
proach from the plains to Khasia ; and it was this 
route which Sir J. D. Hooker traversed and described 
in the second volume of his Himalayan Journal. — 
Gardeners' Chronicle 
Cinchona. — The usual assortment of South Ameri- 
can barks was offered fnr sale today, and a few lots 
here and there were disposed of, Lima at a fresh 
decline; 2d. to 2|d. for broken slightly mossy quill. 
The limit of 2d per lb. for the remainder of the 
parcel seemed unobtainable. A parcel of cultivated 
Bolivian Calisaya bark, thick, flat and unsightly pieces, 
stated to contain 4'70 per cent, qunine sulphate and 2 12 
per cent, other alkaloids, was shown, but not sold. 
Some other lots sold, fair but thin sound, Is 9d.; 
damaged, Is 2d to Is 3d.; ordinary broken quill Is per 
lb. Maracaibo sold at from 2Jd to 7Jd. per lb.; and 
5 cases Ledgeriana (Java) damaged quills, at 7Jd. per 
lb. The exports from British India (Chiefly Madrts) 
have been as follows :— Season 1886-7, 1,286,900 lb.; 
1885 6, 857,040 lb.; 1884-5, 745,730 lb.; 1883-4, 306,419 lb. 
The exports of cinchona from Java in the periods 
between July 1st (commencement of the season) and 
January 31st have been as follows: — 
Private PI. Govt. PI. Total. 
5 kilos. h kilos. § kilos. 
1887-8 1,808,880 467,511 2,276,391 
1886-7 1,063,221 399,3c»l 1,4(12,612 
1885-6 567,516 297,082 864,598 
1884-5 618,672 261,172 879,844 
1883-4 393,082 359,027 752,109 
Coca Leaves. — Only a few parcels were offered at 
today's auctions; one of these, of five cases, together 
about 1401b., small and dark-coloured leaves, was 
bought in at Is. per lb. nominally, from Id. to 2£d. 
per lb. being offered. These cases were imported per 
Eistlndian steamer, and bear a mark which would 
seem to indicate that they were shipped from Java. 
Three cwts. gool green but slightly stalky Truxillo 
leaves sold at Is 3d per lb,— Qhemist and Druggist, 
March 24th. 
