tP.t TROPICAL AG.RICULTURIST. [September x, 1888. 
178 
Sir Alexander Johnston asks me if I have any of the 
Bengal potatoes left, with the idea of sending you for 
seed. I am sorry if it was your wish, but ior some 
time I have not bad a potato in my house. When the 
ships from England arrive, if they have any, particu- 
larly from the Cape, I will secure you a few. 
I have the have the honour to be, Sir, 
Your obedient, humble servant, 
(Signed) Sophia Bhownrigu. 
(From the Madras Government Gazette.) 
Colombo, 30th September, 1812. 
At a moment when the distress of the inhabitants for 
waDt of grain is a subject of deep concern to tvery 
feeling heart, it must afford general satisfaction to hear 
that in the very district where scarcity chiefly prevails, 
the efforts of a gentleman have, at last, succeeded in 
raising potatoes of a quality superior to those usually 
imported from the Continent of India, being more dry 
and farinaceous. "We, therefore, are most happy, in 
this public manner, to express our well-deserved thanks 
to Mr. Lorenz, Sitting Magistrate of Morowa Korale, 
for his very laudable and useful exertions, in bringing 
the culture of so inestimable a vegetable to such per- 
fection. 
It cannot be uninteresting to give a detail of the 
first crop. Ten cuttings were planted on the first of 
July. The apearance of the plaot was for some time 
not promising, the stem haviDg grown too luxuriantly; 
but on the 21st instant, being dug up were found to 
have produced abundantly. One of the plants yielded 
70, another 56, and one 52 potatoes of tolerably large 
size. A few of these Mr. Lorenz has been so good as 
to send, as a specimen of the produce of Morowa 
Korale, to Colombo ; and being boiled were found to 
have an excellent flavour, and to be, in every respect 
of the best qualit}'. This being a vegetable eaten by 
every caste of Natives, it is earnestly to be hoped 
that many persons will follow the patriotic example of 
Mr Lorenz. General and repeated trials ought in fact 
to be made to rear this article of food, the culture of 
which, requiring a dry soil, seems to be of all others 
the best adapted to avert the possibility of famine in 
these eastern countries, where excessive drought is so 
frequently the cause of such calamity. 
We had long known that Mr. J. F. Lorenz, senior, 
was a Prussian Colonist who had been the first to 
grow Potatoes successfully in the Island when sit- 
ting Magistrate of Morowa Korale, but we were not 
aware that he had interested himself much in other 
products, or that his agricultural tastes had secured 
him any official status. A letter from the Matura 
Kutcherri, bearing the signature of William Gran- 
ville, Collector — there were no Government Agents 
in those days, and the new spelling had not given 
an unfamiliar appearnce to well known town — 
and dated the 17th December 1813, informs Mr. 
Lorenz that the Governor has been pleased to 
appoint him " Superintendent of Cultivation in the 
Morawa Korale," in recognition of the interest he had 
shown in agriculture. The office was evidently 
honarary, for we find no mention of any remune- 
ration ; but the very elaborate and precise instructions 
in the latter of appointment show that the accep- 
tance of the office involved the discharge of im- 
portant duties. The Magistrate was, in fact, to be 
an Assistant to the Collector in matters agricultural 
and botanical. We hope to publish the lengthy letter 
on some future occasion, but note meanwhile the 
very great interest which the Government at that 
early date exhibited in Native agriculture. Mr. Green 
will be interested to hear that the advantage of 
transplanting paddy were not unknown then ; and 75 
years ago the Collector of Matura had no suspicion 
that Coffee would prove such a disastrous fuilureas 
it did on the Morawa Korale hills; for he presses on 
the new Superintendent the need of making ex- 
periments with Coffee. It would be interesting to 
ascertain the results of those early experiments. A 
special interest attaches to the inquiry in view of 
the recent Agri-Horticultural Show and the Southern 
tour of Sir Noel Walker ; and Mr. Baunigartner's 
industry, if he should huut through old records, 
might be rewarded with success, which we should be 
glad to chronicle. Curiously enough, Cotton too was 
then pressed on the attention of the people, and it 
may be that, with the new Spiuing and Weaving 
Company just started, the future for Cotton is 
brighter in the South than the outlook for Coffee 
ever was. We have, however, now to do with a 
letter written four years later, in which some of 
the inquiries of Mr. Granville's successor are answered 
by the agricultural Magistrate, whose Germanisms do 
not make his answers the less intelligible or interest- 
ing. The letter runs »s follows : — 
Berlepanatera, 8th August, 1817. 
Sir, — I have to apologise for not answering earlier 
your letter of the 10th ultimo ; illness prevented my 
doing so. I now beg leave to lay before you my 
answers to your questions. 
1. In the short period during which I held the 
situation in the Morowa Korale, namely from October 
1813 till June 1814, I have obtained only a circum- 
scribed knowledge of the nature and extent of all the 
arable land in the district. However, I ascertained 
that the extent of Government land appearing iu the 
Kutchcri books does not come much short of the 
truth, at last Mr. Granville thought so. I began a 
special Registry of Berlepanatera, Ginilye, TJrobokke, 
and Dampahah, which was not only to include all the 
Deewel and Malapala lands, but also the other Paraweny 
lands with their extent and their present possessions ; 
but was removed from hence before I could complete 
it. If it be required of me I shall continue with 
the undertaking. 
2. Since my return hither I have not been able 
to do much ; my arrival fell in sowing time ; as usual, 
the general complaint was want of seed grain. The 
last harvest had fallen out so unpropitious that 
hardly one person out of ten had any grain at all, 
and that which there was, was of the worst grain. 
The consequence was that those who wanted seed 
grain were obliged to borrow fvom other people who 
had any, to be repaid at the ensuing harvest with 
fifty per cent. Much ground lies therefore waste this 
year — nor do the fields that have been sown promise 
fair on account of the bad grain sown. This District 
lies so far distant from Matura, and is separated from 
it by mountains almost impassable for passengers, 
that it is with difficulty the people can obtain relief 
from the Desave or the Modliar of the District, for 
no person to whom the distressed cultivators can 
apply lives in the District ; even the Veberkle Mohandiam 
who resides at one end of the District, nameiy at 
Morawakke, through age and infirmity, seldom stirs 
this way. Such of the headmen as are able to 
assist the needy do it, but not without the reward 
of 50 per cent; this bears exceedingly hard upon 
the poor cultivator here, and I believe there is hardly 
any other part of the Matura District to be pointed 
out where the generality of the people are so 
extremely neee'y as here. I shall take the liberty of 
suggesting to you in the sequel what I think an 
effectual remedy for this evil. 
As to myself, in the short space of time I had 
before me, 1 followed up my first plan. I sowed a 
small plot of Government ground with the best seed 
I could get, and at the proper season transplaneel it, 
I have now the satisfaction to see (and every person 
passing by observes it) that my little field produces 
the tallest and thickest crop iu the village. I have 
taken pnins to draw the attention of the people to 
ray plaus. I have shown and demonstrated to them, 
that instead of throwing on the ground four bags 
of seed grain in order to fill an ammunam's extent, I 
make use of even less than ore bag, and that in this 
way I obtain a larger crop and better grain than 
they. I have this time actually convinced them 
that they are in a wrong opinion that the transplanting 
of the paddy is so difficult, or would require a 
greater number of people to work for a number of 
days which would put them to a great expense in 
