52 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. fJuLY i. 1893. 
There is nothing, perhaps, I would more desire at 
the present motDent than to see the aueust Editors 
of the Ceylon Press start fair here : I know which 
horse I would back I 
And then in their turn, let them act as judges 
while we the planters trot out our favourites: — 
There goes •' Tea" — she has of coarse got the bit in 
her mouth and ishopelessly distancing all other com- 
Eetitors we can bring forward today. But will it 
e always so ? There is at present a remarkable 
rebound, in favour of the Chocolate Horse who is 
proving much hardier and less squeamiab as to food 
than at one time he was supposed to be. 
This grand horse was introduced by my friend 
the late B. B, T. and acclimatization has unquestion- 
ably done a great deal for him ; ho looks better aud 
thrives now where 25 years ago he would have died 
of " insidious defunction." At best however, I doubt 
if ever this horse will do more than come in a 
reipeotable third. 
"Cinchona."— Of course there is now no use talk- 
ing of this old screw, yet he did Ceylon a good turn 
in his day, and disappointing as he was I cannot 
help taking a kindly interest in him. I was present 
when he was first trotted out of the stables near 
by — after careful training by Dr. Thwaites and Mr. 
Cameron — and Mr. MacNlcholl. And have since seen 
his sires in their own native home, and though now 
not worth betting upon commercially, his interesting 
and useful life is well worth preserving. 
The coming dark horse however— if I may reveal 
secrets, >nd offer "straight tips" all round — is a 
true descendant of the once prime favourite. The 
sire, an Arab ; the mother a sturdy Libebian ; — herself 
a grand horse, never in my humble opinion suffi- 
ciently appreciated — never indeed, got fair play — for 
it is not a matter of opinion at all, but a mattei- of fact 
that she was on more than one occasion ruthlessly 
pulled up. May it fare better for her hybrid son — Ab.- 
Lib. — for whom I would fain bespeak a kindly welcome. 
And now let us once more take a look around at the 
grand amphitheatre of beautiful and familiar grounds. 
Cloae by, 
THE UNIQUE OAKDENS 
perhapis the prettiest tropical paddock on the globe. 
Whether it was the spot where Adam first delved we 
cannot tell, but this we know, he could not possibly 
have had a lovelier spot in which to spend his honey- 
moon. 
Beyond the gardens lie the lands of the ever retiring 
Babnes. a splendid property (Ganoabuwa) intrinsi- 
cally worth more now than ever it was in the palmiest 
days, but surely the Sinhalese are being allowed to 
encroach upon it ? 
On the opposite side of the river stands PaiMBOse 
Sill— still 2,114 feet above sea level, and about to 
flourish again with a base of cocoa and a crown of tea. 
Due north lies Kandy herself — the sweetest of all 
the long line of Lanka's Capitals. Old Hantane to 
the right is once more stretching out its bare arms — 
soon however to be clothed in the richest verdure, 
but as yet not one-half the property is under culti- 
vation. 
To the N. E, is Mount Pleasant and Hopbwell, 
the real •' ^ninowy J/a^/e " where the elder Bouatead 
accompanied me in the 60'8— declaring as he gasped 
for breath, that the place was " only fit fpr Scotchmen 
and coolies 1" Here also there is a little good culti- 
vation, but the larger and better portion is still to 
re- open. 
Below this are the quartzy ridges where " Sandy 
Brown " wtis wont to reign supreme, and plant coffee 
with more energy than success; but those bare ridges 
are tiaw clothed with quite a respecttible garment and 
I wonder much what rfandy would think of these sur- 
roundings t^day? 
He never really was a planter, in the same sense 
that R. B. T. Peter Moir or even old Dickson 
and Jamid Martin were plantels, because he never 
had the horticultural training to save him from, gr^ ss 
blunders. Sandy was just the man to go in for bad 
j£lt, heedless of how it would affect, posterity. At the 
gametime he had energy,' pluck and diction , enough 
to demolish any dozen planters of his day. 
I have not left ecaee to write of the promiauig 
lands of Mabaoya where a sheet of tea already covers 
the ground ; nor to comment on the great valley 
of undulating land etretchLng from Kawalapiti^a to 
Matale, which, with the exception of an occasional 
thin rid^e might all if need be grow cocoa or tea. 
It is ridiculous to suppose that old Weanoawatte 
or New Pebadeniya have any monopoly of suitable 
soil ! There is one redeeming feature in these medium 
and lowcountry lands. The planter here baa various 
strings to hi^ ' ow, while on the cold damp highlands 
there is nothing to hope for, as far ae we at present 
know, beyond tea- 
I would like to say a word about my immediate 
surroundings. If New Pebadeniya was the property 
of a private owner, I would not dare to cominenl 
but with a "soulless Coy " 1 have not the same 
cciiipanction, and briefly I would say to my fellow 
uhareholders we have here got a tnagnificent property 
though with sD abominably bad jat of tea. Were 
I the V. A., I would insist even nowon throwing out J 
of the trees and replanting. . I would also like tu 
see the waters of the Mahaoya more conserved rather 
than denude the whole country-aide to supply these 
engines with fuel. 
I will return to this subject; meanwhile I lea\e 
these items to be digested by "tbe Boabu." 
UVA PLANTING REPORT. 
Badulla Disteict, Jnne 6th 1893. 
The MoNsoo.N was thought to have burst here on 
the 18th May, since which date we have had dry 
weather with a certain amount of wind, though not 
rearlv a« much as we sometimes get. The past few 
days nowever have been quiet and we have had good 
showers in the af'ernoons which have done good. 
The early part of .May was wet and genial, and 
May, all through the district, has been a capital 
month for tea ; it has been in this neighbourno d 
by far the best we have had for the year. June 
has started well too, bat there is a great deal cf t< a 
to be prune i during the next few months; some estates 
have commenced alrt-ady, and the output of the 
district w^ill fall off very much between this aud 
December. Thi-< haa been a very favourable season 
for tea in Ouvah, and though parts of the district 
were dry in December, and January, most estates got 
rain then and tea has continued flushing pretty 
well without a check the whole year. Yields are 
everywhere fair and I hear of fields giving extra- 
ordinary returns. Our prices too have been good 
and our position in the district averages — second — is 
very satisfactory. Prices just now are discouraging,* 
but Exchange being favourable we are not yet going 
to stop opening. I fancy there will be a very con- 
siderable acreage opened in tea in the coming 
monsoon. 
Coffee is at present looking fairly well, wh*re 
it has been attended to, but no reliance can be 
placed on crop prospects now-a days. I am very 
sorry to say bug has put in a very vigorous ap- 
Eearance, and on the lower estates is already doing 
arm. As we usually do not expect to see bug until 
nearly the end of the dry weather, and as we do not 
expect it to do much harm to crop until November- 
December. I fear this early appearance can only 
mean a bad season for this peat, Spring crops are 
still coming in, but ihey are of course nearly over. 
They will generally prove disappointing. 
Cinchona ie fast disappearing from the district and 
there are now only a very few estates with any 
quantity left. Canaverella still has a good show, but 
it is only in such places where analysis and quality 
of bark are good that proprietors can allow it to 
cumber the ground; for at present prices it can pay few. 
Roads a,re progr'-seing apace, and they will be 
opened for traffic, it is hoped, before the end of the 
present year. 
Labob in the district is fairly plentiful, but I have 
not heard of any fresh arrivals lately. Sinhalese are 
working regularly in the intervals of their paddy - 
fields aud chena works, and are a reliable force for 
clearings and other similar works on most estates in 
the neighbouihood of villages. 
