420 
TH£ TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [December t, 1888. 
consumed by a prooess that required such tremen- 
dous tanks, it would be a great boon to this country 
to have a kind of rice that would grow on mountain 
sides and dry places where water was not accessible. 
At any rate I draw no conclusion, and I should 
Consider a hypothesis built upon such evidence as 
hot worth very much. I would draw my conclu- 
sion in some proportion to the facts, and the hypo- 
thesis I put forward is necessary in my opinion to 
the whole narrative. Not only must you discard all 
the details bilt you must discard the whole thing 
Unless to make it consistent you invest the island with 
a previous history to that of the time of Wijayo, 
it will hereafter be my endeavor to show 
that that tank was the first tank of the 
kind. I may say, in anticipation of what is to 
follow, if these great works had been the work of 
Tamils, I appeal to this audience to consider whether 
the Tamil monarch Panduwo would have allowed 
them to go out of his possession, or whether it would 
not have been maintained with the same regard that 
a British Government would regard the vast sum of 
money that it had expended on any public works, 
and whether, if we erected those tanks, we would 
quietly have allowed the people to claim them, 
and taken no further notice. Now, these monarchs, 
Panduwo and others, were close neighbours, and I 
look upon the part that these neighbouring monarchs 
played as the most incontestible proof of the indepen- 
dent action of this country. As I said, the problem 
aB to who the then Sinhalese were is a problem 
which does not concern my inquiry, and is probably 
beyond my powers to solve. I see certain broad 
facts which meet me at every turn; and I may say 
that I have read Tennent's book over and over again, 
the Mahawanso and other books, and endeavored 
to harmonize the old and accepted doctrines, 
and it defies all my power. When I see 
such a small list of exports and such a prodigious 
lists of imports, it calls upon me to believe that this 
country was so poor that it could not feed itself, but 
was yet so rich that it could import all the luxur- 
ies of the world ! It appears to me, my lord, 
that the groundwork was at fault, that the hypothesis, 
that this country was inhabited by a few aborigines 
and that Wijayo commenced the history of civili- 
zation, is a mistake, and that it is impossible 
to harmonize facts which required these tremen- 
dous — these stupendous — conclusions from those 
very slender premises. With regard to the 
remark of Mr. Ferguson, I must reply that 
I have not had the advantage of reading much poetry 
(laughter) — that is not in my line quite — but in my 
reading I may have been singularly fortunate for the 
only poems that I have ever found it worth my 
while to read or had the means of reading, because 
they were translated into English, were the most 
beautiful expressions of womanly devotion and virtue 
that I could have addressed to my own 
daughter. (Applause.) I do not doubt for one 
moment that, along with these, there were 
others of a very different character which co- 
existed, but those ideas prove that there was 
a high culture, that there was refinement. There 
may have boon along with it that which was very 
debasing— so there is amongst ourselves, alas and alas 
-but you do not therefore disparage the poet because 
there are some who have disgraced the language. I 
am sorry it did not occur to me, my lord, to bring a 
copy which I made of one of these poems, intending 
to read it, but, fearful of taking up more time than 
was meet, I have curtailed my paper and did not 
bring forward more than was necessary. 
Mr. Ferguson : — Would you kindly mention 
where wo can find thoso verses V 
Mr. Wall : — In the SidatSangarawa I believe that 
the poems I allude to must have been translated by 
Mr. Skeen, because I find that they were signed 
W. S., but my attention — 
Mr. Thomas Berwick ; — What is the date of those 
verses ? 
Mr. Wall : I cannot give you the dates. I have 
not introduced the subject further than that there 
was refinement, and the dates will be given when the 
paper is printed. I think Mr. Ferguson did not 
mention the date of his specimen. (Laughter.) I think, 
if the system of tank cultivation had been as well 
known in India as it was here, the King of Cashmere 
would not have sent through and passed his own 
neighbours to find engineers in the eighth century 
of this era to carry out works of a similar nature. 
The fact that our works and those of South India 
are in many respects similar, I think, does not prove 
that the Indian necessarily preceded these. I think 
they may have been originated here for any argu- 
ment that has been adduced to the contrary. Further 
than this, we shall see more hereafter. In regard to 
what has fallen from his lordship, as I say 
I gleaned my hypothesis from a general consider- 
ation of the narrative and not from its details only. 
With regard to Asoka, of whom, it would appear 
from his lordship's statements, that hiatory would 
be more reliable, he, in sending his present to Ceylon 
spoke of this island as a splendid country 
and exclaimed, after he was given the presents 
from Ceylon, that there were no treasures to 
oompare with them in those parts. I am 
sorry, my lord, to have taken up so much time, 
but the subject is one of some interest, and I hope 
I may be pardoned for having done so. 

CACAO PLANTING IN CEYLON : 
A BEVIEW.* 
(Communicated.) 
The general public have a fair ground of complaint 
against you for consigning the able and exhaustive 
lecture of Blackstone Barber, teeming as it is with 
matter of deep interest socially, politically, scientifically 
and agriculturally, to the comparative obscurity of the 
Tropical Agriculturist. Do not tell me that tr.is use- 
ful publication has a wido circulation and is filled for 
reference in every Kachcheri. I know that, but as 
general circulation is less locally than that of the 
Observer, and it is consulted only by those who are 
directly interested in agriculture, and even then to a 
limed extent comparatively. [This is a reflection ou 
the community: we take it that no intelligent mau 
interested in the planting industries of the country 
fails to glance through each monthly T. A. If so, so 
much the worse for him ! — Ed.] 
The planting community, European chiefly, is more 
beholden to Mr. Barber than perhaps to any other 
single planter in the island, while to his countrymen of 
the younger generation he is a shining light, a bright 
example to be followed by all who wish to carve for them- 
selves a name and reputation. Blessrs. Wright and 
Barber are examples of what the Oeylonese are capable 
of when engaged on their own account in the cultivation 
of products which engage the attention chiefly of Euro- 
peans, and in competition with them. 
Though Mr. Barber's paper professes to deal with 
cacao, it wanders incidentally to all the products that ' 
are and can be cultivated in the lower spurs of our 
mountain ranges. Matale is specially favoured with 
a very deep friable soil interspersed largely with 
dolomite. One drawback there is however, and that is 
its dry climate. Given facilities for irrigation and there 
is no limit to the agricultural capabilities of Matale. 
* Oacao Planting in Ceylon; with Hints as to the Best 
Varieties to be Cultivated: A Lecture Delivered at Matale 
on the 30th June 18S8 by Mr. J. H. Barber; with 
Additional Hints on the Best Varieties and Useful Be- 
ferouces iu Appendixes. Colombo; Ceylon Observer Press, 
1888. 
