March I, 1889. "J TH F. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
609 
PLANTING IN THE LOWCOUNTRY OF 
CEYLON. 
SCENERY FROM THE RAILWAY — NATIVIC WEATHER PRO- 
PHETH— VARIOUS NEW PRODUCTS AND THEIR ENEMIES 
— VALUE OF THE JAK TREE — ORANGE AND OTHER 
FRUIT TREKS — COTTON AND ITS FOES— SIROCCO 
VS. CHULAS— PEPPER — HAL TEA ISOXES. 
That heading to my notice of the shadows of 
the monarch Peak and hiy myrmidon mountain - 
might lead readers to suppose that the sunrise 
and shadow phenomena were witnessed where 
my post-card was deposited. Such was not the 
oase. Starting from the main (Colombo) station 
at 6 a.m. on Friday Inst, the sun was so far up 
the horizon by the time the train reached Hena- 
ratgoda, that only the ordinary terrestrial shadows 
of objeois were possible. It was only a few minutes 
past 0 and whon the train was a ti i lie be- 
yond the Maradana junction that the semi-circle of 
shadows projected on the upper atmosphere was 
witnessed. Like many other things of beauty it was 
an evanescent joy. The ascending sun, to use 
popular language, would soon dissipate the shadows, 
in ordinary course, but the railway, as is the per- 
verse fashion of railways, whisked us away beyond 
view of what we admired 00 much while there 
was only an interval of rosy dawn between the 
mountains and their shadows on the upper haze. 
What increased the beauty andimpressiveness of the 
striking sight was the fact that while the pyramidal 
shadow of the Peak stood up perpendicularly in the 
centre, the shadows of the flanking hills on both sides 
went off, apparently, at descending angles until 
some of them appeared to stretch out almost 
horizontally The idea of a whole system of 
volcanoes in action was due to the resem- 
blance to reflected flame of the red light of 
dawn, while the shadows projected on the haze 
suggested volumes of smoke. "What a picture 
the wonderful scene would make," was our 
reflection, but we mentally added, what would be true 
of a representation of this sky effect as of others, 
"No one would believe the picture; they would 
charge the artist with exaggeration." But truth, 
even in meteorology, is often stranger than fiction. 
The morning was crisply cool, but as the day 
advanced tho temperature became hotter and hotter, 
until, by the time we looked out on the moun- 
tain j '.nil from the red grar.ito rocks of Eilandhu, 
we saw its features of sharp peaks, massive moun- 
tains and rocky ridges only through a veil of 
diffused und shimmering haze. As a contrast to 
the distinctly pencilled dark-blue of the mountains 
against the eky in other conditions of the atmos- 
phere, Friday's misty view, suggestive of mystery in 
the higher regions of tho earth's surface, wa6 interest- 
ing and impressive. After a heavy plump of rain at 
the commenooment of the year a spell of hot, 
dry weather has prevailed, which has raised 
apprehensions of another Beason of drought, 
third in succession if it roally occurs. But 
rain cannot be long delayed, for on Friday 
afternoon tho sky clouded over and tho cobalt 
bluo colour which indicates saturation with mois- 
ture of the atmosphere became apparent. I was 
told that the natives predicted rain in twenty days, 
— one duy short of three weeks. I was irreverent 
enough to ecoQ at this style of prediction as little 
hotter than the reply to a question so often put by 
English employers of native servants : " Appu, do 
you think it will rain to day?" " Sonietimos it 
will j sometimes it won't." I bolicve it will rain 
long before tho threo wooks aro rounded off, al- 
though certainly tho loading characteristic of tho I 
olimalu in this region, from tun to thirty miles 
iuland_ from Colombo, is tho lougth of the periods 1 
during which moisture remains suspended in the 
atmosphere, refusing to visit the thirsty earth. The 
actual rainfall is ample, from 110 to 120 inches, 
but it too often falls in torrents for a we -k, 
between intervals of drought prolonged to we^ks 
and sometimes months. This it is which makes 
planting with supplying and re-supplying so 
much more difficult in the low country than 
in the high, while fever often adds to the troubles 
of the planter and his labourers. The white-ants, 
too, are ubiquitous and sometimes destructive. 
The tea plunts suffer not so much from direct 
attacks on them as from the eating up of the 
ferns used to shade young seedlings and supplies. 
But young coconut plants, or rather the nuts from 
which they spring and, up to a certain stage derive 
their sustenance, aro objects of direct and perti- 
nacious attack. One of the best remedies seems to 
be ashes, and this substance taken from the furnaces 
of the tea factory not only circumvents the ter- 
mites but ha3 a most marked fertilizing effect on 
the coconut plants. Had I known what I now know, 
prudence would have dictated a commencement 
with coconuts instead of putting them in amongst 
the tea after that plant had become a fair success ; 
unlike its predecessors, I.iberian coffee, cacao, 
cassava, and indiarubbcr. But as a publicist I 
recognized the duty of initiating experiments and 
recording the results, which I have faithfully 
done, and, like Beau Brummel and the cravats, 
I can say of the plants named, " These are our 
failures." 
Liberian coffee was a victim to HemiUia 
vastatrix beside giving only the equivalent of a 
pennyworth of bread (beans) to an intolerable 
quantity of sack (external covering) ; cacao was 
blown and eaten out of existence by wind and 
insects (little beetles breeding in the pods) ; 
cassava roots would not sell at a price to pay 
carriage to Colombo ; and indiarubber trees here, 
as elsewhere, did not yield gum enough to 
pay for the gathering.* By the way, some large 
survivors of the rubber groves near the bungalow 
showed in a curious manner the operations of the 
white-ants. At certain seasons these trees, which 
are deciduous, become ragged in the surface bark. 
This rough outer bark the white-ants had disposed 
of, leaving the tree3 with the inner bark showing in 
patches light-coloured and polished. In like manner, 
felled trees of hard wood may be seen on the ground 
occasionally, white and polished like prepared 
specimens of bone, the white ants having eaten away 
all bark and decayed matter. Besides tea, which is an 
assured success now— 300 to 100 lb. per acre in 
the face of failures from drought of plants and 
supplies— pepper has been added to the category 
of tho survival of the fittest, and we hope ul- 
timately tn have our numerous and fantastio 
rock* in " the Necropolis," " the Castle," " the 
Fort," Ac., covered with this product, although 
shade is in the first stages as necessary for pepper 
plants as for tea. Wo have to calculato on the 
dying off from prolonged hot weather of a con- 
siderable proportion of tho cuttings, and tho 
same fate will probably follow Beedlings when we 
have them lit for "planting out." A good 
many seedlings aro up in the nurseries, and I hopo 
they will survive, so as to prove that growing pepper 
from seed, though a slow method of cultivation, 
is a fairly sure ono. 
It is this elemontof slowness in giving returns which 
has deterred so many Europeans especially from enga- 
ging in tho coconut enterprise. The same reason, no 
doubt, acoounta for the abcenao of experiments ingrow- 
ing forest trees for timber and tircwood. But, looking 
" Not old eaoqgh ?— Ed. 
