July i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
in 
is possible, however, ihe Government should give as- 
sistance to the dev lopment of industry in a legi- 
timate manner and without interfering with the free 
action of tlie general trading community, it being re- 
cognised that every new opening thus created attracts 
labor which would otherwise be employed to com- 
parative y little purpose on the land, and thus sets 
up a new bulwark against the total prostration of the 
labor market, which in the present condition of the 
population, follows on every severe drought." 
This paper was communic.ited by the Madras Govern- 
ment for remarks to the Board of Revenue, the Direc- 
tor of Public Instruction, the Chief Engineer, Public 
Works Department, the Commissary-General (through 
the Military Department), and the Superintendent of 
he School of Arts. 
KALOTARA AS A LIBER 1 AN COFFEE DISTRICT. 
(Contributed.) 
A few years ago, Kalutara was not even thought 
of by European capitalist- as a place affording a fair 
field for investment in lands for coffee cultivation. 
But ho sooner had ' leaf disease ' laid low the once 
flourishing estates in the Central Province, than atten- 
tion was turned to the cultivation of new products. 
Thus, the hitherto bidden resources of unimport nit 
districts wen- developed, contributing to the material 
wealth of the country. The construction of the Kalu- 
[ u a Rail" ay offered no small inducement to local 
capitalists to open out lands in the Kalutara district, 
the soil as well as climate having been previously as- 
certained to be eminently suited for Liberiau coffee. 
Messrs. Leechinsn and Aitken, Speuce & Co. seem 
to have been the pioneers of this coffee iu Kalutara, 
Culloden and Pnttupaula estates are reputed to be 
two of the most nourishing and lucrative Liberian coffee 
estates in the island. Almost every year finds two 
or more estates opened up. This is due, in the 
main, to the encouragement offered to enterprising 
men by the unqualified success which has attended the 
cultivation of Liberian coffee in the district. But what has 
the Government done t > render the burden and risk 
Ot the planters light? Where are the roads ?— without 
which, the most obtuse official must perceive, the 
hazard attending the openiug of an esta'e is consider- 
able. Even the existing roads are so badly kept that 
they would shame a barbarous country ; but strange 
to say, with the except on of the effort only noiu put 
forward by the Planters' Association at Kalutara, no 
▼oice was . itherto raised by 'he planters there to 
have uew roads opened up. If Vlr. Ware, the Assistant 
Government Agent at Kalutara, has the true interest 
of his di-t'ict at heart, he should not rest until the , 
roads and bridges in Pasdun Korale -are put in 
thorough repair, and new roads, rendered necessary j 
hy the clearing o> new crown lands, are opened up. 
The minor ro«d which runs along the Kalu ganga, | 
leading to Udapit'-ya^oda, is in am-st disreputable state; i 
ami the bridges along the road are rotting. Nobody 
Minrn* to take the slightest notice of this road. Want of 
funds, it was ft'.l g d, was the roson why the work 
ot" lep'iirirg rould not be taken in hand by the road 
officer. 0 course he is not to blame. But somebody 
w:ll be haule over the coals in case of a carriage 
or horse accident, if it happen on that road. I 
sincerely hope Mr. Leecliinin will male out a 
strong case in favour of the Kalutara Planters' As- 
sociation, who, l sec, have moved iu the matter, aud 
shame Qov rument into opening out more roads lead- 
in- w the coffee estates in the ■ istriot. 
There can be no gainsaying that Kalutara will, iu 
• abort time more, draw a considerable number of capit- 
alists who w ill lay bare the ri- h i ■ -oiu vis of the lands 
fcarround'Ug it. The soil in some of the new clearings 
has been pronounced by cou p tent authorities to be ' 
very rich and capable of comparison with any in the 
sland. The surface soil, about two feet in depth, is 
a sort of loo>e loam, and the atmosphere surround- 
ing tbe lands is so humid that there is no chance of 
a season of drought- telling severely on the plants during 
their early stage. Planting in baskets is a capital idea; 
and the only safe way in which a large proportion of 
the plants c mid be grown successfully. The system of 
shading the plants with the ordinary fern to be found 
in marshy grounds is very judicious indeed. But in 
continual wet weather the covering should be re- 
moved, as I found in the plants which had the shad- 
ing on (while the rain continued for a few days) that 
some of the leavps rotted off, owing to the incessant 
dripping of water from the fern. 
The only enemy that seem 1 ' to attack the young 
plants is the bloodsucker, which appears to take a 
malicious delight in gnawing away the plant about the 
middle of the stem. 
The tea plants in the Kalutara district are, I lean., 
doing remarkably well. The easy distance from Colombo 
to Kalutara ought very soon to bring more enter- 
prising ram there. 
NETHERLANDS INDIAN NEWS. 
Coffee— Silk— Tramways. 
(Straits Times.) 
Tigers it is said, have caused u falling off in coffee 
cultivation and silk culture in the Southern districts 
of Acheen Proper judging from the lollowiug state- 
ments in a report on a tour of inspection recently 
made there by Mr. Van Wyck. a controller: — 
" On the 19th February, I went with the head- 
men to the coffee plantations which the Kejuruan [a local 
chief] had laid out with the a d of 10,000 guilders' 
advanced to him by Government. The state of t hese 
plantations left very much to be desired. The re- 
cently planted portion, especially, looked miserable 
and badly cared for. In m ny plac s the young 
plants had been choked by lathing and weeds and 
had died off, so that traces of cultivation could 
only be found with difficulty. The headmen told 
me that the little care taken of the planta- 
tions was attributable to the great number of 
tigers appearing in them of late. Fifteen men had 
already been killed by tigers, and inauy of the per- 
sons who lived on the plantations had abandoned them 
from dread of sharing th' same fate. Within the last 
few months, however, less had been heard of tiger-, 
so that there was a prospect of the cultivation o: 
the plantations being resumed. 
•'Silk culture is failing off. I was assured this 
was in consequence of the difficulty of finding the 
necessary food for the worms. The-e insects feed on 
the leaves of a plant named JJ.nm kerta, which grows 
in the jungle on the neighbouring mountains Owing 
to the great number of tigers which have appeared 
of late iu these districts, the inhabitants no longer 
dare to go out looking for the said leaves, so that 
this industry is retrogressing. Some cocoons where .shown 
me at my request They have wholly the appearance 
of the silk-worms grown iu Knropc. These cocoons 
were boiled in water, the silk being afterward- sp 
off or reeled." 
During his tour through ihe-e districts — Lohoiig, 
Ivpoug aud Kluang— which had suffered least from 
the war, Mr Van Wyck \v.< hospitably and cordi- 
ally received by both headn eu and people, and met 
with cveryA attention and regard fn m them. He 
states the cechinesc there are far advanced in agricu.- 
ture, the ri fields being irrigated by well constructed 
canals, and kept free from weed-. Besides coffee aud 
paddy, pepper, sugar enne and tobacco are grown. 
The cultivation of pepper had, however, decrees 
owing to the blockade. Cattle rearing was unim- 
