January i, 1889.] Th£ TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
449 
NEW INDUSTRIES AND DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE ISLAND. 
AN ECHO FltOM THIS NOBTH. 
Your recent editorial utterances, in the widely read 
columns of the Observer, will, I hope, go ft groat way to 
wake up many a Jaffueso from their long lethargy of 
indifference. Among the many industries and works, 
which you have called upon the Jatfnese to undertake, 
those of palmyruh planting development of inland 
steam navigation, and the manufacture of cement, 
must before all receive their early attention. It is a 
lamentable truth, that tho first industry does not at all 
receive any attention from the people, and if this state 
of things continue, it is to be feared that the race of 
palmyras might become extinct, whole gardens of 
waving palmyras aro annually emptied for the sake 
of timber obtainable from them, and uo effort is over 
made to plant others in the place of those that are 
dislodged. The great demand in India for this timber 
is the cause of this annual wholesale slaughter. It is 
a very shortsighted policy indeed to look lor a present 
immediate gain and to be blind to the great and con- 
tinued good that would result hereafter. 
1 r was a good custom of old, in the villages and the 
many islands that lie scattered about .Jaffna forming a 
veritable archipelago, tint no sooner a daughtor was 
born in a family, than the parents of the child made it 
their first businoss before anything else, to buy some 
acres of waste or Grown land and plant them with pal- 
myra seeds; so that when the child arrived at woman's 
estate and was to he married, this piece of land was 
given to her as hor dowry. By tho time the daughter 
was of age to be married, the palmyras would be in 
full bearing, and the new family lived ou the produce. 
It was by such good and wholesome practice as this, 
that lands which would havo otherwise been overgrown 
with jungle, were converted into gardeus of waviug 
palmyra.-.: but it must he mentioued to the shame of 
the present gouoration that tho practice has altogether 
fallen into disuse, and no effort is mado to revive such 
a useful custom. 
Your suggestion ahuut insisting on every traveller by 
the Jatriia-Kandy road to plant two or three palmyrah 
seisls along tho sides of the road, by way of toll, is au 
admirable one indeed; but whether this is practicable, 
is a doubtful question. The region of palmyra at 
present extends from the very north of the Jaffna pen- 
insula to Elephant l'ass, but there are stray ones here 
and there farther down on the east coast. There are 
upwards of twenty ooach stations botwoou Elephant 
Pass and Anuradhapora, and ifpeisons i". charge of 
each station be asked to plant 200 or 300 seeds about 
their houses, this number alone will amount to -1,000 or 
(5,000 plants ; and, as the distance between two stitious 
is at the most 5 miles, this gap can be slowly filled up 
by travellers according to your suggestion. Hut for 
the prosent, I believe, this suggestion of mine will 
work admirably well, if the coach contractor can bo 
mado to take somu trouble with it, and tho plan can 
bo carried about at little or no cost. 
Abont your second suggestion, viz. the devi-h-p- 
ment of inland steam navigation, I think you have 
briotly put forward fn« several advantages which 
would accrue from this movemont. Suffice it to say, 
that this will be a move in tho right direction, and 
one worthy of the attention of all intelligent Jaffneae, 
both at homo and abroad. With regard to your 
doubt, wh th.^r thoro exists a largo trade to justify 
tho introduction of steam launches, I may s>y there 
exists enough of trade to cover all tho expenses "f 
keeping up steam launches and to leavo a fair margin 
of profit. I'n. -ro is a large trade carried ou between 
Kavts oil the one end and Elcphnit I'.' on tlw other, 
a distance of about 10 union- Most of the paddy mid 
rjc imported into tho peninsula is brought down from 
Kayts— a harbour where native vessels anchor, as the 
lagoon is not deep enough for this purpose. There in 
agi\tu n long uninterrupted lino of coc'init estates from 
t'hiivakarheheri to Elephant l'a., a distance nl about 
25 miles, and cartloads of coconuts and copporn.li hlO 
daily brought into tho town. Now transport is vory 
expensive, and this will be conferring a ival boon 
57 
to coconut planters. Besides this extensive trade 
there is an annual transport of tobacco, paddy, and 
other things from those places, and above nil there 
is timber to bo transported all the year round, and if 
every other thing fail, any Company can safely rely 
on the last mentioued trade. The lagoon is deep enough 
to admit of steam launches of light draught. As the 
steam-launches can bring boats in tow, and as they 
can ply about the lako all tho year round, their intro- 
duciiou will not prove detrimental to the interests 
of boat owners, but on tho other hand, trade will be 
kept up uninterrupted with < very place in spite of the 
changes of monsoon which at present put a stop to 
trade with many places. On - of these can be used 
to carry mails and pausengera to Mannar from Jaffna, 
another can go round to Kankesanturai and Point 
Podro to bring down in tow boat , laden with paddy 
and other articles ; one more can constantly ply be- 
tween Jaffna and Kayts, in view of the large trade 
between tho two places, carrying mails and passen- 
gers in addition, another still between Jaffna and Ele- 
phant Pass. Thus there is work enough for four or 
five moderate sized steam launches of light draught, 
and these being available all the year round, will be 
doing a world of good to tho Jatfnese. But it is 
easy to say things like this and thousands more, 
and it i is for the Jatfnese to take vigorous steps in 
this direction, especially at this time when there is 
the Agent of the Province well versed in these things, 
and not to sit folding their bauds and clamour for 
railway, as frogs in a pond. The fact is that enter- 
prises like this require large capital, anil, as this is 
solely in the hands of the ignorant few, it is next 
to impossibility to persuade them to undertake things 
like this. As this is hopeless, wc look for our rich 
and iutolligont brethren in Colombo and elsewhere 
to initiate this movement, and make their names 
over romembored by the people of Jaii.na. 
♦ 
DRUG TRADE REPORT. 
London, November 15th. 
Annaiio. — Several parcels of Brazilian Poll 
annatto were again offered. Most of these are now 
rather hard and off colour, and holders appear rather 
anxious to dispose of them. They accopted 1 Ud per 
lb. toilay for 50 baskets. For seven cases Ceylon Seed 
mixed with dust and stones and quite discoloured Jd 
per lb, was offerod. 
Cardamoms. — The quantity offerod at auction today 
was again a very small one, viz., 55 cases ouly, mostly 
of Mysore variety. By far the greater part of the 
supply was sold with excellent competition at an ad- 
vance of from .'Id to 5d per \h. all round. Mysore, good 
long pale 2s 5d to 2s G 1 (2s 7d beiug refused tor a 
slightly better lot); medium to small pale Is lid; 
yellow and rather dull medium long Is yd ; medium 
to bold mouldy grey Is 3d to la lOd ; small to medium 
brown and specky Is 7d ; very small loug pale Is s)d; 
Ceylon-Malabar, yellow mixed round warty Is od; small 
and dark Is ; Aleppy, fair brown Is 4d to Is 7d ; 
Tellicherry, dark and husky 6.^1 ; Seeds Is 7d to Is 
93 per lb. Tho exports from eoylon between October 
1st and ISth have been :— lSStj, 6,720 lb. ; 1667, 1,036 
lb. ; 1886, 6,01.') lb. 
CINCHONA. — A rather lii-avj quantity of .■•outh Aroeri- 
cau barks offered at today's auciuus brought extremely 
high prices, especially for Loxa and llua. oco b.irk", 
which were weli represented, and sold in many in- 
stances at 3d to 11 per lb. advancr. Loxe bnrk in 
good bright broken qudl hi ought 2s 3d peril).; broken, 
dull, and damaged dmo from Is lid down to Is pur 
lb., while a very badly damaged lot (tola at -In per 
lb. Huauoco, tine DIOMV 2s 13 ; bright turn 
bioken quills Is 7d to Is -Id; rusty dull and split 
qui N Is to 7'.d per lb. ; a lot ol common damaged 
Guayaquil at 2d per lb. Seventeen bales common 
hard P.tiyo are held at l.Jd per lb., while 3 bales 
coaritu and bully damaged Mtirac.-tibo sold at pvr 
lb. Of fUt l ilisaya bark 2 serous very line bright 
hard bold orange fold at I per lb. ; other les« 
de-arable 1'jta being bought in at 2a to I* per lb. 
nominally. Ordinary broken quill sold at 8d lo 53 prr 
