3 82 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1888. 
living out of cinnamon ! It is very evident that th 
financing of a cinnamon estate is a secret that both 
the " old planters " you have consulted had no intention 
of divulging when they supplied you the figures em- 
bodied in the "Planting Moleswovth." They may look 
askance at me if I say that on a well-cutivattd and 
well managed estate tbe yield will be more than a bale 
per acre and the expenditure will be less than the 
figures quoted, while on native gardens the working 
can hardly be dignified by the term cultivation, and is 
done mostly by the family or at cheap rates, while 
chips yield a few rupees the acre. Anyway the profit 
from a cinnamon estate in these days of low prices is 
cut very fine and is hardly discernible. 
— -* 
JAFFNA AND COTTON. 
[AND TOBACCO AND PADDY.] 
The people of Jaffna are not behind the age, as 
some persons would suppose ; they are rather in 
advance of it, at least where money making is 
concerned. Look for instance at the idea of their 
asking for a Railway ; and look at the persistency with 
which they press forward their petition in season and 
out of season. Does it look anything like the tem- 
perament of a people who are not alive to their own 
interests ? Does it not rather prove the reverse ? But 
if we concede anything, we concede this. They are 
a practical people. They look to and calculate upon 
results, and they would not allow themselves to be 
taken in by the efforts of rhetoric and the arts of 
the elocutionist. With tbe same readiness with which 
they rallied round the Chairman of the Railway Meet- 
ing, they have subscribed fur shares in the Cotton Culti- 
vation Company, Limited. 
But the practical character of the work to be ini- 
tiated will better illustrate to our readers that there 
need be no pessimist view taken of the project. The 
Directors do not contemplate to buy 2,000 or 3,U00 
acres of jungle or forest land in the first instance, 
clear it and turn it into a gigantic Estate. Such was 
the colossal scheme proposed by the late Jaffna and 
Battiealoa Commercial and Agricultural Company, 
Limited, whose very tremendous proportions sufficed to 
charm the millionaires of Colombo who would consider 
it rather degrading to count oa a profit of 50 per 
cent. It perished by the colossal nature of the work 
it had proposed to itself. 
The Cotton Company will, at the first start, ac- 
quire small parcels of land in the i'enmaiadchi and 
.f aehchiiaipalli Divisions of the Peninsula, in such 
situations as are suited to cotton-growing, and within 
such easy distance as to admit of periodical in- 
spection by one or other of the Directors. Nurse- 
ries of the several varieties of cotton will be opened, 
large enough to 6iipply applicants from the villages, 
and leave a sufficient balance to plant model estates of" 
tbe company's own with. 
Tobacco-growers and cultivators of other produce 
who have land in reserve adjoining their gardens, will 
it is hoped, avail of the facilities offered by the 
company, to plant such reserve lands with cotton. 
The company will ultimately buy up all cotton, gin it 
here and send it to Colombo. 
Nothing can be more simple, more profitable 
and more safe. It has nothing in it of the 
character of a wild or fantastic speculation, and 
it is hoped that the number of shares allotted to 
Jaffna will be speedily bought up, so that Jaffnaese 
outside lining strengthened by the confidence of their 
countrymen at home may go in for the remaining 
shares! What has to be deplored is the loss of time. 
yotiations are in u forward state of progress for 
the acquisition of the laud, and it would be a thou- 
sand pities, if the tardiness of share holders should 
1c cup the hands of tho Directors idle for another season. 
The iron has to be beaten when it is hot, or this 
splendid scheme concoived and brought forth under 
such exceptionally favourablo auspices will languish and 
die; and the Jaflnaese will have to blame themselves 
for missing so rare an opportunity of raising their 
country to tho level ol other producing countries of 
the world. 
At present their chief, if not only, industry resulting 
in an export of their produce is the Tobacco. But 
the world's requirements for the nasty weed can- 
not go on expanding indefinitely ; and like the 
Coffee Planters, the tobacco-growers may have 
bitter reason to regret the folly of keeping all their 
eggs in one basket. Jf toba n co fails or the demand 
slackens, what is there besides for the cultivator to 
fall back upon ? Absolutely nothing. Few are the 
natives who own coconut estates ; and the coconut 
region within the Peninsula may be said to be fully oc- 
cupied. 
Of paddy culture in Jaffna the less said the better. 
It is in no sense a speculation, except that the work-a- 
day labourer earns his bare bread. Some few who have 
ancestral broad acres have the necessity laid on them 
to cultivate the land, if for no other reason, but to 
keep up the prestige of the family. But every 
year they sink deeper and deeper into debt until 
finally they quietly part, with the property to some 
lucky fellow who has had sudden run of wealth into 
his hands from tobacco or other speculation. This per- 
son takes up the cultivation in right good earnest as 
if he were " to the manner born," and well he may, 
for he has a superabundance of ready cash, which 
he wishes to make a show of, and he suffers besides 
from a craving to rank amongst the landed gentry of 
the country. Excepting these two classes there are few 
wbo engage in paddy cultivation as a means of mak- 
ing-money. 
Cotton therefore comes in the very nick of time 
both for utilizing lands now lying waste and for afford- 
ing remunerative employment of a very respectable 
kind to many hands cow hanging idle. When Coffee 
failed, there would have been a complete smash of all 
European Enterprise, and with it a thorough destitu- 
tion of all native tr.ide, had not some far-seeing Planters 
introduced Tea, Cinchona, Cacao, Cardamoms, which 
now more than serve to uphold the credit of Ceylon in 
the Money Markets of Europe and American. — '■ Ceyloa 
Patriot." 
PLANTING NOTES FROM KEGALLA. 
Tea planting by a few native gentlemen near Kegall a 
has taken a start. Much disappointment was fel 
when the small capitalists found that the so-called 5,000 
acres in tbe Kegalla district advertized for sale consis- 
ted of isolated blocks far away and on the very confines, 
and even beyond the desired Kegalla district ! When 
Sir Hercules Robinson sold over 6,000 acres in Mas- 
keliya, he took care to see that the blocks were not 
only contiguous, but so cut up as to suit both large 
and small purses. 
There is much suitable land lying between Yati- 
deriya estate and Kegalla town owned by the Grown 
and Kandyans under sannases, but it is difficult to 
secure a block without being prepared for two years' 
patient work and worry. There are several very old 
abandoned estates bordering Dolosbage, Kadugannawa 
&c., but proprietors in England prefer to wait till R40 
to R50 per acre is offered, as there is no more Go- 
vernment land available, save small chena blocks in the 
Kegalla, district (proper). Several native gentlemen 
are selecting small blocks of 30 to 50 acres to begin 
with, and to extend gradually by purchasing adjoining 
villagers' lands. The Yatideriya estate, 8 miles from 
Kegalla, is likely to be one of the finest in the island. 
It is a pity the Company is not a large one owning 
a few other places in this district, as there is a great 
future for estates here: planters pronouncing the soil 
more lasting than those in Kelani Valley west. 
The arecanut crop is ripening now, and it is time 
for nurseries. It is a pity that planters do not place 
them closely on boundaries, as they make a good fence 
and give a good return on the spot by sale to natives 
and cost next to nothing to tend. 
There has been not a sunny day since the 18th 
ultimo, and it is still raining ; but the showers are 
lighter and not so heavy and "washy " as before, and 
paddy cultivators have commenced to level their 
ploughed fields and sow, but owing to the lateness 
of the season much inferior varieties will be sown. 
