t>ECEMUER i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
way material, aud consequently important reductions 
in the yearly working expenses. In fact, as in all 
othor matters pertaining to Permanent-way, tlio best 
is the cheapest in the end. 
I muy add thai soon alter the railway was laid on 
the seashore I saw sleepeis taken up which were 
swarming with white-ants, but for years back I have 
seen no trace of these destructive insects on the line. 
Added to the reverberations from frequent trains, 
gangs of coolies are constantly disturbing and re- 
settling the ballast. So much about soft and hard 
wood railway sleepers, for tho present. 
CEYLON UPCOUiNTRY PLANTING REPORT: 
PLANTERS AND MACHINISTS: TUB NEED 01' PLAIN IN- 
STRUCTIONS — e.g, 1'OB MI!. DAVIDSON'S " SIHOCCo" — 
TI1E SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD — NEW COOLIES AND NEW 
WAYS — TEA SEED WANTED IN UVA— TEA SEED IN HUSK 
— " ALL ABOUT TOBACCO'' MANUAL. 
13th November 1888. 
Some planters like to have tradesmen about, 
and some don't : I fancy there are more of tho 
latter than the former ; for tho worry that carpenters 
and masons give, has, I believe, shortened the lives 
of most of us. How we affect their lives is another 
question, and need not be discussed here, except 
to say, that if they can assimilate and utilize 
half of the energy which is expended on them 
when they have fairly roused us, they should in 
time becomo changed characters, and more of a 
credit than thoy aro at present. If Mr. Davidson 
of the "Sirocco" fame knew how much we have 
to suffer already, I think he would have been 
more careful in the drawings that are sent out 
with the instructions for erecting his Driers. 
These drawings arc a snare and a delusion, and 
tho amount of inconvenience and extra work they 
have caused are a source of considerable com- 
plaint. The drawings of the side view and end 
view do not correspond, and tho figures given for 
tho depth of tho pit are not according to scale. 
When the tigures given and the depth shown are 
taken as a guide for other measurements the 
result is a pit Vvhieh does not suit your " Sirocco," 
but into which you may actually fall and meta- 
phorically do tall. Now for a man to dig a pit, 
und himself fall into it, is a state of things 
which we havo the highest sanction for regarding 
as aggravating in the extreme and leading to no 
good. Tastefully got up handbooks aro all very 
well : but if thu information therein contained is 
inaccurate, and gives a busy man more trouble 
than ho need have, let exactness take the place 
of ornamentation, and lot our way be plain. 
Scholastic advertisements ought to be above sus- 
picion in the matter of grammar. For some time 
back thero has appeared in your columns a notice 
referring to education for Ceylon boys, in which there 
is tho following unhappy sentence: — "Mr. (and 
Mrs.) would superintend their boarders' home 
studies and treat them as hi* own children." 
When tho schoolmaster goes abroad for pupils, 
it were well it ho wore not quite so much abroad 
himself. 
Sumo nrw coolies were introduced to ah estate lately. 
They had formerly been employed in the French 
island of Reunion, and when thoy arrived in Ceylon 
everything was now to them. Why they camo here 
I do not know, (or they had no connections ; 
artless it bo that they had heard that money was 
t<> bt inude on tea estates, and that tho Indian 
Government had prohibited the Indian emigrant 
coolies from proceeding to the Fronoh Bettlraitnts. 
Anyhow thoir advent ul thu Government oooly 
linos caubud quite a commotion ; kaddie-keepcrti, 
kanganies, and others were anxious to get thorn, 
for forty- six coolies, owing nothing, were clearly a 
mine of wealth. A number were enticed away, 
and it is of the remainder that I would write. 
When they reached the estate thoy settled down, 
and in doing so have quite unsettled the conductor. 
Their home is far alield from the usual recruiting 
ground of the Tamil kangani ; their language is 
not Tamil ; and several of them know a little 
French. The men dress in loose trousers, with a 
shirt and coat, while the women have cotton print 
gowns. Old Soodin tho conductor deems it an 
affront that theso labourers should call an alavanga 
by any other name ; all their peculiarities he indeed 
resents ; but tho climax of their audacity he felt 
had bten reached, when he discovered that they 
iite thur rice with spoons ! It was then he came 
to his master, and seeing perhaps an expression 
of incredulity on his face when the spoons were 
mentioned, he emphasized his statement with the 
words 11 1 mw them." 
Those who are selling tea seed have, I am told, 
a good market at present on the Badulla side. 
One estate I krow, which has a name both for its 
tea and for its seed, is booked up for seme time 
to come with Badulla orders. Prices of course are 
not so high as they were a couple of years ago, 
but, even at present rates, seed orders are re- 
munerative. 
An estate in the lowcountry, that is out of the 
way, and has in consequence a considerable 
distanco to be covered ere supplies reach it, was 
a little unfortuna*'. at times with the seed sent 
down, An effort has lately been made to overcome 
this difficulty by having the seed dispatched in 
its natural husk, with I understand the happiest 
of results. The seed arrives almost as fresh as if 
taken from tho trees, and the extra weight carried 
is as nothing compared to the advantages gained. 
Perhaps if Indian seed were sent in this way the 
failures so often deplored, might bo materially 
decreased. 
I am glad to hear that in your new Manual, " All 
About Tobacco," the brochure in A/s. which I men- 
tioned some months ago, as being so full of in- 
formation on that new product, and as likely to be 
published, is to be incorporated in your book. What 
with that, and wrinkles which can be got elsewhere, 
the budding tobacco grower, who at present is 
searching about pretty much for information, will 
feel, when your book is in his hand, as if he had 
got on tho right side of the secrot Society. I have 
no fear whatever, if a few score of intelligent 
Ceylon planters go into tobacco, but that the result 
will bo success, and this success should be more 
easily attainable, when they have the right methods 
of curing explained to them, and experieuce only 
wanting. In that day the tobacco esoteric circle 
will evaporate: tho "cock in their beaver" will 
disappear : indeed, 1 should not be surprised, if, in 
sheer shaniefacedmss, they do not use thei 
"beaver" to extinguish themselves. 
Peppercorn. 
1NTKRESTING ITEMS ABOUT INDIA. 
The following extract from a Calcutta letter, sent 
by one of the correspondents, is interesting, and 
clearly demonstrates thai manufacturers in England 
have great dilliculty in competing with Bombay 
spinners : — " As a matter of curiosity wo send you 
under separate cover a knot ot yam, which is one 
of thirty composing a bundle of a local spinning 
lately brought to us from the bazaar. The III) knots 
made up a bundle ot lb., which was sold as 
' light 30'a." Tho yarn really is 20' s or 21*8, and 
is so short reeled that tho knots, instead ot ecu 
