November l, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
321 
COCONUT PLANTING IN THE WESTERN 
PROVINCE. 
AN UNPRECEDENTED DROUGHT— RIGUT AND WRONG COCO- 
NUT CULTIVATION—CONDITION CF ROADS— THE PKO- 
VOPED AMENDMENT OF THE LAllOK LAW — THE PliK- 
SENT NAWALAPITIYA REALLY KARA II AN DUG A LA — 
REMINISCENCES OF THE " DAYS Or OLD." 
Hapitkiam Kohale, September 1888. 
Thrco und-a-half months of dry w( ather in the 
Boutb-west monsoon is unprecedented in the expe- 
rience of Che oldest inhabitant. We bad a few light 
.showers on the 2(itb and 27th, alter which the sun 
shone and tho wind blew in a way to lick up the 
scanty supply of moisture in a few hours. Tho wind 
is still steady in the eouth-west, and the battle of the 
monsoons has not yet opened. It is too soon to reckon 
up tho hill cf costs till wo have hud u good satura- 
ting downpour, but it is clear that it will be a 
heavy one. 
Tho drought has been specially trying to last 
yoar's planting, a large percentage of which bas 
already perished, and there are still many doubtful 
plains. The two and three year plants have a smaller 
number of green loaves thai) they bad at the same 
date last year, and a crop of nuts for next year 
greatly under the average is alri ady a settled affair. 
Nothing is bo detrimental to young coconut plants 
as rank grass, whatever the character of the soil or 
the changes of tho weather may be. The practicp 
of lain years has been to plant in large holes, and if 
the field be gone over twice a year, filling in two or 
three inches of loose soil, and thoroughly weeding 
and keeping bare a circle six feet in diameter ; the 
cost is very trilling, and tho advantage to the plants 
most decided, as may he readily ascertained by com- 
paring two fields of the same age where this work 
hap been done on one and omitted on the other. 
During the months of April and May last I turned 
over the soil one mamotie deep of a portion of a 
four year old lield. Tho difference of the plants on 
the dug and ondug parts of the same lield is now 
^questionable, ana fully justifies the expenditure of 
Jt6'60 per acre that the work cost. 
Ill planting up failures this year I put half a 
ballast basketful of cattle-shed manure into each 
hole. Where this was done there has been hardly 
any failim s, and after all this drought the young 
plants are looking fresh and vigorous. 
Our roads are, of course, in good order, and the 
1). EL U. are now replacing tbo wretched structures 
that huvo disgraced the Kotudoniyu-Mtigiirugam- 
pola road since its opening by first-class bridges. 
I belibvo the planters will bo generally content with 
tho proposed amendment of tLo Labour Law com- 
municated by (jovornmeht to the P. A., aud that 
the soundest thinkers deprecate any furtlier tinker- 
ing, unless iudcod the prepayment of wagos for 
work to be done should bo made legally binding on 
tho rocopeo. That is to say, the cooly who made the 
first condition of his engagement a certain amount 
of prepayment, should he bound under a penal sanc- 
tion to remain in the service till he earned his advance. 
Tho law uives the cooly a primary claim on tho fee 
simplo of his employer's property as security for his 
wages; to my simplicity, it seems only gill- guff, that 
tho cooly should bo legally bound to work bis ad- 
vances. Tho cooly's status by Supreme Court law is 
that of a day bihourer, who can come and go at 
bis pleasure, and for the debt he owes, his creditor 
in r< ferred to his legal remedy, namely, a costly suit 
•gainst u man whoso only visible property is an 
earthen pot and a mat bag. The legal maxim that 
• wrong has a remedy hardly holds good in 
thiH cane. Tho advance system has been forced on 
the planter against his will by pressure from tho 
side of the cooly with only tho cooly's /<"'/' 
•a security. The Tamil cooly has many good qualities, 
but pecuniary honesty is not in tho list ; be will 
IgTM to any terms, however bard, to got hold of 
money, and when ho succeeds, all tho resources of 
his mind uro thenceforth employed in considering 
mcauo of avoiding the fulfilment of hii contract. 
The J roposal to make monthly settlements com- 
pulsory bad better be omitted iu tho amendment of 
the law ; tho cooly's wages are already better se- 
cured than the planter's advances in having a solvent 
dobtor in most cases ; moreover, be has already tho 
legal right to a monthly settlemei t, if it pleases 
him to enforce it ; besides, no law can reach a 
debtor and creditor, who, for their mutual convenience, 
agree to defor a settlement. Such a clause would 
bo a mero excrescence on the ordinance, remedyiug 
no old wrong and establishing no new right. 
Your Nawalapitiya correspondent suema not to bo 
aware that tho present town is not the original 
Nawalapitiya, which is lower down the river. 
Karahandugala was the name of the land where 
tho towu stands, which continued to be the post- 
mark for > oars after the office was established, but, 
i he public persisting in addressing their letters to 
Nawalapitiya, the stamp was changed. Sandy Gray, 
a very remarkable specimen of tho Aberdouiau that 
some tew of the old h-nds will still remember, was 
tho first postmaster. My first visit to tho spot took 
place on the 1st March 1811. The only inhabitant 
in those days was an old tavalamkaran who bad a 
hut on tho ridge between the road and the river, 
situate at the junction of tbo paths leading into 
the valleys of three large branches of the Mahu- 
weli. It very soon supeiseded Ambagamuwa as tbe 
capital of Uda Bulatgama, and it grew in importance 
up to the timo when the Nauuoya extension waa 
opened; after which, some of the element of its pros- 
perity must have failed. Among the hills and 
vallejs of UdaLuIatgama and Kotmale, welluigh one 
hundred Europeans lived aud laboured forty years 
ago, and many a meiry meeting they held in Junga 
Appu's hotel or Catborn's store. Some half-dozen 
of them still survive in their nativo laud, and only 
ono of the early pioneers of the district awaits Lis 
call in Ceylon. 
Nr. 2. (By anothur hand.) 
FAILURE OF TUE SOUTH-WEST MONSOON AND ITS EESULTS 
ON COCONUTS AND CINNAMON— NATURAL DECAY VS. 
11UHNINC!— CHARACTERISTICS 01'" SOILS — VALUE OF COCO- 
NUT FIBRE AND SAWDUST. 
Siyane Koeale, Sept. 21th, 1888. 
The time that elapses between the date of my 
communications and their publication very often ren- 
ders ridiculous my remarks on the wcath'-r aud its effect 
on agriculture. I shall therefore endeavour as far as 
possible to writo on general rather than on local topics. 
Tbe south-west monsoon is on all sides admitted to 
have been a huge failure. The effect on agriculture 
generally of the paucity of raiu is and will be disastrous. 
As far as the lowcountry is concerned, I thiuk I may 
safely say that all planting operations havo already 
proved to bo a total failure. The loss consequent on 
the death of all the plants put out during a season is 
not to be gauged simply by the cost of tho plants. 
There is the labour employed at tho work, very often 
drawn away from a very important aud urgent work 
which hus to be postponed for auothcr season, and what 
is . f the highest importance tho loss of an entire year 
before tho plautiug work can bo undertaken again, 
for mind you 1 am speaking of tbo lowcountry on the 
western coast where no prudent man will undertake 
planting during the N.-K. monsoon, with its 3 or 4 
moil' lis of drought following the raius at the beginning 
of the year. Sneaking for myself all the pluuting I 
did has proved u total failure. 
Except ou a few well-favored fields with abundance 
of Mater during all seasons of tbo year, the i/iita sowing 
will not yield a good crop, while as for tho mufm sowing, 
it is indeed a pitiful sight to see tho young plants scorched 
in lii Ids gaping with fissures. The result of the 
drought on cocouut crops all the country over both as 
regards number aud weight will be marked. The 
cinnamon bush Is perhaps the hardiest of all tropical 
products and will stand with equanimity, nay wiui 
jovialnefs, neglect and ill-usage BuMicicnt t<> kill out- 
right any other product. When the effect of the drought 
we an passing through is seen on all uddS in drooping 
