Mav I, 1894.] THE TRQPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
723 
the experiment has hitherto been defeated by the 
impoBsibility of finding skilled labour to dry and 
manipulate the leaves. Should it ever be thought 
expedient to cultivate tea in addition to coffee in 
Ceylon, the adaptation of the soil and climate has 
thus been established, and it only remains to 
introduce artisans from China to conduct the sub- 
sequent processes. 
" It will readily be inferred that if the life of a 
successful, planter in these mountains be fraught 
with anxieties, it has also a share of compensat- 
ing enjoyments. One can imagine the satisfaction 
with which he must contemplate the rich prospects 
that his Of/a energies have created, peopling the 
solitudes with industry, and teaching the desert 
to blossom like the rose. 
•' Pusilawa and the surrounding valleys and forests 
have furnished large collections of objects, illustrative 
of the zoology of the island ; but this is a source of 
enjoyme-it of which the successors of the present 
generation will be deprived by the felling of the 
forests and the destruction of the jungle, which now 
afford protection to multitudes of animals, birds, 
reptiles aud insects. Their numbers are already de- 
clining in this particular spot ; but still, such is 
their profusion in the forests aud thioughout the re- 
gion surrounding the coffee estates, that opportuni- 
lies exist for tofeserving their mslincts under mos' 
inviting circumstances, and even the apathetic be- 
come interested in watching their liabits. These are 
so striking that they impress themsefves on every 
sense, and stand out clear anj illustrative in our 
recollections of the day and its progress. It is not 
alone that their crowded associations almost over- 
power the memory, it is not that tuey form at all 
limes the incidents and life of the landscape — im- 
partiug Vivacity tu the foliage, and rendering the air 
harrajuious with their motion and their music ; but 
there is a degree of order in their arrangements 
and aluio.^t of system in their times of appearing 
aud retiring, that serves, when experience has ren- 
dered tnem familiar, to identity eaoii period of the 
day with its accustomed visitants, aud assigns to 
morning, noon, aud twilight their peculiar symbols." 
By attached estate and store employees, domestic 
servants, liic. — all of whom were handsomely remem- 
bered — the return home of the Messrs. Worms was 
much regretted. Here is a record uf gifts made by 
them, and the farewell notice which appeared in 
the Ubscroer of August 1865 :— 
'• MliStlKS. G. & M. B. WOUMS. 
We understand that Messrs Worms favoured the 
Colombo i\ieud-iu-Need Society with the generous 
farewell coutribution of i20 in aid of its funds ; and 
a similar amount to the Colombo Ragged Schools 
under tbe care of the iiev. S Nicholas." 
■• Speedily we shall have to say farewell to two men 
whoso names, ajd lUo uauie of their great property, 
luivo beon aa household words iu Ceylon for the 
p. I a (-luarlor of a contiiry, whordvcr and whenever 
the coffee enterprise was discussed. We allude to 
the Messrs. Worms, owuers ot Kothschild Kstatu— 
owners now no longer, for their interest in this 
splendid Estate and some 8,000 acres of land, culti- 
vated and uncultivated, has now been transferred to 
the Ceylon Company (Limited). Cousins of the 
London Rothschilds, the Messrs. Worms were never 
stinted in means — their own ideas of Estate manage- 
ment were of the most liberal nature — and the 
thousand or so of acres of unbroken coffee which 
constitute the Estate of Rothschild, have always 
been models of high cultivation. To keep weeds 
out and put fertilizing manure, in, neither labour 
nor expense was ever spared ; and amongst tbe 
coffee bushes which lately passed from the care of 
Mr. Worms to that of Mr. Corbet were many which 
at the age of twenty-five years are as vigorous and 
as fruitful, as they were in their hey-day youth of 
eight. The Black Foreat which General Hodgson, 
and far younger men can remember an unbroken 
jungle, has long been felled, and the plantation and 
residence which occupy its place, have long been 
famed, the one for its beauty ; and the otner for 
its liberal hospitalities. Mr. Maurice Worms will 
be as much missed from Pussellawa, as Mr. Gabriel 
Worms will be from Colombo, where besides attend- 
ing to his own large business, he always took an 
active, a shrewd and a useful part in the discussion 
of public affairs. He once occupied a seat iu our 
Legislative Council, and we well recollect him aa 
a Jew taking the oaths (with his head covered, as 
is the custom of his people,) and a seat in our 
Council, before the British Parliament had admitted 
his cousin Baron Rothschild or any other Jew to 
its ranks. The Home Government did not disallow 
the appointment on the ground of religion, but 
because only British-born subjects are eligible to 
seats in our Legislature. The Naturalization Bills 
which enabled the Messrs. Worms to hold land iu 
the Colony, it was then found, did not give them 
the full status of British-born subjects. The Messrs. 
Worms, though Jews by race and religion, made no 
distinctions of religion or race in their large and 
generous charities. Besides hosts of necessitous in- 
dividuals, the Friend-in-Need Society, the Ragged 
Schools, the Bible aud Tract Societies, and the 
various Christian Missionary Societies will miss 
tucir contributions. To parties who have been long 
in their service, the Messrs. Worms have extended 
most generous treatment ; and both iu the circle 
of their more immediate acquaintances and amongst 
tile general community, there will be a coiimiou 
feeling of loss and regret when the first steamer of 
beptemljer carries the well-known G. Ac M. B • 
WoruiS from the shores of Ceylon. Our personal 
regret is the greater from the feeling that, as ouo 
aud another of the oldei residents quit the scene, 
we are fast qualifying for the position of " the oldest 
inhabitant' or 'last man.' Ail honour aud ail eu- 
joyment to those who, having done their work aud 
done It well, seek well-carued repose, while we aud 
others must still 
" Learu to labour audio wait." 
It ouly lomatns now to refer very briefly to the 
English lite ol the iUeitsK. Worms;— Mr. Al»uc<. 
