June I, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
825 
drier zone * and also that we are drawing near to the 
Tamil division of the island ? But bo far as race ie con- 
cernel, we have been noticing a remarkable change in 
the features of most of the people ever since we crossed 
the Maha-oya. la thTe not a tradition of a Tamil 
settlement in one of tbe Sinhalese Korales — but that 
was, if we remember rightly in Alutkoru Korale 
North, while even in Pitigal Korale South, we are 
arrested by what seems to us a 
BLENDING OF TAMIL AND SINHALESE FEATURES, 
the foreheid end eyes teem eepeoially of the Tamil 
order, ani some of the women remind ua of the 
pessant class on tbe East Coast of Italy, between 
Brindisi at^d Ancona. There is a more animated, 
piquant expression in such cases than is eeen 
in South Oejlon. 
Which is tbe more attractive in appearance the 
Coconut or 
PALMYRA PALM ? 
Poaaibly, it ia beciuae of the greater novelty that 
we are specially attracted by the latter. With its 
well-developed, erect stem and oompict as well as 
ornate head, tbe Ptlmyra more than the Cuconnt 
seems to us to justify Miss Jewsbury's line, 
A column and its crown a star ! 
We r^ever see a Palmyra that we are not reminded 
of a venerable and learned Botanist, Dr- Prior (a 
great friend of the late Sir J. F. Dickson) next 
to whom we had the honour of sitting at a 
Lincsean Society 's dinner. The conversation ran on 
palms : he had been in the West, but never in the East 
Indies. We mentioned the Palmyra; Dr. Prior teemed 
puzzled — ho could not recall the name — " Do you 
happen to remember the soientific name ?" he said. 
Fortunately we h»ppened to do so an(i as " Borassns 
flabellilormis " was rolled out, the old gentleman's 
eye brightened — "Oh, I know perfectly ivhat you mean 
now." — It ia a great pity the Palmyra takes bo 
much longer than the Coconut to mature ; there are 
many thousands of acres in the drier parts of tbe 
ialauil that ought to be covered with this most 
useful palm. The late Rev. J. Kiluer, when head 
of the Wcslejan Mission iu the North, — during 
the early " sixties " — hud a splendid idea, whicli 
however, ho tried in vain to got the ilajali, 
Mr. Dyke to take up. It was that every traveller down 
the North TO\d should pay toll by having to carry 
with him a certain number of Palmyra nuts — they 
are comparatively small — to be planted alongside 
the road and marked by slakes, S3 that othera would 
follow on, the result in time being one long avenue 
of Palmyras from Elephaot Pdsa to Anuradhapura, 
The idea was by no means chimerical or impracti- 
cable ; the palmyra feed is very hardy and will hold 
its own when once it germinates and takes root even 
in the mid^t of jungle and that it readily takes root 
on its own account may be eeen by the follow- 
ing experience. Along a good deal of the two 
miles of road between Chilaw town and tbe 
Dedura-oya we obseivod whst seemed to us 
a fairly regular aeries of young Palmyras growing in 
the reserve on each side oi the macadamised portion. 
We were giving the Assistant Agent credit for 
planting an avenue, peihapa with prison labour, os 
an improvement on the avenues of young rain-treea 
(Pithecolobium saman) aadly in need of Inpping, which 
overshadow tome of the Chilaw streets. But Mr. Noyes 
speedily diaabused us of this idea, any palmyras 
growing ae wo deiicribrd, were self-sown — a most 
encouraging fact as sho«iig the euitablonees of 
climate and foil Bnd tho hardy character of the palm. 
An avenue all the way from Madampe tu Puttulam 
miitht readily bu started in tbe mi lst of the ro:id 
* Here too the stately leafy Tamarind atjd the 
useful Margofa tree aa noil ua more th'iu uue species 
of Fii iis become cotnmon. Th>' country is a 8(ilenUid 
oou lor fruit trees: iiiaugu trees are numerous 
and 1< adod with fruit, North of Ne^combo ; «liile< from 
North of tho Utidiiruoya, groat suppliusof pUntaiUH are 
oartit'd uvon to tho (.'olombu luarkot, and this reKii>u 
has joHt the climate and boil in which oranges and limus 
ooald be freely produoed. 
reserve at the mereat trifle of expenditure and far 
enough to the eide not to act as a shade for the 
macadamised thoroughfare, such as praolieal Koad 
OflBcers detest. 
We were just too late to See on the fields before 
harvesting, one of the finest 
CEOP8 OF TOBACCO 
that the Chilaw townsmen have ever harvested. 
The profit is said to average at the rate of 
RljOOO an acre— and therf< is no exciae ! How 
thoroughly the Revenue Officers of eiperienoe 
must feel that in place of dropping the immemorial 
paddy rent (save in granting liberal exemptiona to 
meet hard cases) the principle of such 
LAND EEVENUB 
shonld be gradually but surely extended, nntil ai 
in India, it embraced all crops and superseded other 
unscientific forms of revenue oollection. It will 
oome by-and-bye of course ; but how the rash, 
imprudent action of 1892 will be blessed in that 
day ! " After a good tobacco crop, comes a crop of 
litigation," we found to be the proctor's experience and 
saying in Chilaw : that is money abounds and quarrels 
are revived ! All round the little town and in nearly 
every garden, compound or backyard — in every waste 
field, — nay up to the very steps of the great entrance 
to the Roman Catholic Church, 
TOBACCO 
has this year been cultivated. Chilaw looked like one 
great cabbage garden aa we taw it ; for, while the 
long top leaves of tbe tobacco plants are taken 
off, the stalks and lower leaves are left as they 
stood and we found them with quite a verdant 
appearance. The oadjan drying aheds for the 
harvested crop wera also all over the place, and 
men and women, chiefly Tamils — were busy handling 
and drying their bundles of leaves. The wholesome 
flavour pervaded nearly every street or lane. It 
must have a good sanitary effect in two ways: firat, 
in the care with which the scavenging and 
refuse of the place are used up for manurial purposei ; 
and secondly in the powerfully odoriferous leaves 
(while drying) driving away insect pests inolnding 
possibly mosquitoes. 
Our coast journey terminated at Chilaw : thence 
to the heart of the new coconut district, four to six 
miles North of the Deduruoya, we had to manage aa 
best we could. There was nothicg to hire appa- 
rently in Chilaw. Fortuniitely, Mudaliyar Samarakoon 
wn3 able kindly to phice his epring-cart at the dis- 
posil of the experienced Manager of QoUnapokona 
(coconut and cinnamon plantation in the Negombo 
district) and ourselves. The ferry is, of course, at 
present tho great obstacle, but in another year of 
18 months, the new 
lEON-GIBDER BRIDGB 
may be expected to be available. Four out of 16 
piers are in their places, and Mr. Simmons (who 
has fuooeeded Mr. Qregaon) after one experience of 
the fever, has learned the advantage of sleeping two 
miles off in Chilaw town, while engaged all day 
on the river. 
THE NEW COCONUT DISTRICT. 
We have already described very folly, in our 
editorials, the character of the Deduruoya — or 
Rajakadaluwa — Coconut District. The section of 
plantations we visited has a varied and 
thoroughly representative proprietorship— Sinhalese, 
Moormen, Chetties, as well as Europeans of difterent 
nationalities have their clearings close together and 
buying land and planting is likely to go on nntil from 
the Deduruoya all the way to Puttalam for 30 miles, 
hero will be a continuous lino of coconut palm 
Elautations. A great part of the district must bo the 
ed of ai; old lagoon or backwater filled with aaud 
from the sea and alluvial d6bris brought from the 
hills. In digging for wells, brackish water is en- 
countered and also smooth pebbles as if from a 
river bed. A good deal of ebony and other good 
timber was found in the jungle ; but tho pre- 
dominating tree ia that which bears the wood-apple 
~Fcroma cltplMntum—lho favourite fruit of the ele- 
phaut. The uative uame " I;iaiakadtUaw» " would 
