March t, 1895.] TUB TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
629 
NOTES FROM THE KELANI VALLEY. 
THE WEATHER AND TEA — THE RAILWAY — NEW STORE AGENCY. 
Yatiyantota, Feb. 26 th. 
After several weeks of the hottest weather it has 
been my lot to experience in this otherwise happy 
and cheerful Valley, with the thermometer register- 
ing about 90° in the shade, the welcome and anxiously 
looked for rain has at last descended iu copious 
showers, cooling the atmosphere, gladdening the hearts 
of the Planters, and impirtiug fresh life and vigour 
to their tea bushes. 
The heat and drought for some weeks past has 
been very trying indeed for ruin and beast, and 
vegetable life, suggesting to one's mind the desirability 
of adopting for the s ike of comfort, primeval cosfum 3, 
after the manner of oar first parents. 
This timely rain will now make the tea bushes 
"hum," and erelong every available machine in our 
Factories which performs a part in the minufacture 
and preparation of tea, will be taxed to its utmost. 
New clearings at this end of the district are neither 
numerous nor extensive, so that the prospective Eailway 
into the valley has not, as vet, influenced proprietors 
in increasing their cultivated acreage to any very great 
extent and this brings me to say a word on a 
subject of such vital importance to the well-being and 
progress of this young and flourishing district, as 
Railway extension into its centre. 
Strange indeed, and diverse are the opinions which 
exist with regard to the good or evil which miy 
accrue from a Railway being constructed into the 
Valley. Correspondents such as " Vril " (whit is 
the meaning of this heathen "nonde giwre"}— 
excuse my ignorance.) " G," and others, put forth 
arguments, wholly differing from each other, and in 
some respeets quite irrelevant to the subject under 
discussion. While one correspondent would have us 
believe tint there is no actual necessity for a rail- 
way, another gives it as his opinion that it would 
only lead to over-development of the Tea industry 
in this part of the island, and so on. Their argu- 
ments and adverse critxism savour very much, in 
my opinion, of the "dog in the minger " style, 
with a good sprinkling of selfishness to boot. 
No need to again go over" the ground of 
argument traversed by Mr. Forsyth, when at the 
Kuily meeting, he, in such a lucid, masterly, 
and convincing manner, stated his case and 
proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there 
<Z ifl.9 exist the need for a railway into the Kelani Valley. 
I don't know if " Vril" or " G." hiil from " over 
the Tweed," but if not perhaps they may have heard 
the adage frequently use 1 by North Britons, that, 
" fits are chiefs tint wiuna ding" — which being 
anglicized, simply means that stubborn facts cannot 
be cotroverted. Well, Mr. Forsythe only stated 
facts, and was ably supported in his enumeration 
of them by his colleague Mr. Kingsford, whose facts 
and figures also ten led towards g lining for the 
resolution, the hsarty support of such men of standing 
as the Hon. Giles F. Walker, the Chairman and 
M --isr-;. Gibbon and Slcrine. 
With regard to gauge, we all hope that a po.verful 
deputition will be formed at an early date to wait 
upon and be received by His Excellency the 
Governor to discuss, and if possible, 9et at rest this 
much-vexed question. 
Toe Darjeeling narrow gauge line has often be :n 
cited as a railway fulfilling all the requirements of 
the country it serves, and mention might also be 
mide of the narrow gauge lines of the Straits 
Settlements which are so cheap and easy of 
construction, and so economically and profitably 
worke 1. Moreover, these light Unas of railway are 
year by year being steadily extended in all direc- 
tions proving that hitherto they hive been agreit 
success. 
Tne heUth of the district at this end is very satis 
factory. Messrs, Milsom A' Co's " Stores and Agency" 
at Eir&wanella supplies a lung-felt want in the 
disln, t, and I hope it will receive the support it 
deserves from planters and residents in the Valley, 
as Messrs. M. ,v Co. intend keeping full stocks of 
everything " from a needle to am anchor"! 
" LANKA, THE RESPLENDENT." 
We have just concluded the compilation of 
sonis five to six thousand words descriptive 
ehielly of the scenery and sights of Ceylon, for 
certain enterprising American editors and pub- 
lishers who are bringing out a grandly illus- 
trated work on the East. It will probably 1)3 
entitled " India and Ceylon illustrated and 
described" with some 600 finely-executed en- 
gravings chiefly from photographs. Such a 
volume prepared in the finest style of the prin- 
ter's and engraver's art — and in America they 
excel in both departments — cannot fail to have a 
very large circulation in America and Europe, and 
to direct the attention of the travelling classes 
more than ever to our shores and to those of the 
opposite Continent. The consideration of this fact 
has led us to remark on the very large amount of 
money even now brought into Ceylon by visi- 
tors and how this is bound to increase year by 
year ; for we never meet a visitor or passenger 
who is disappointed or who does not mean, if 
possible, to repeat the trip and give a little 
more time (a fortnight or a month) to seeing 
the place properly : the Buried Cities from 
Kandy, the climb of Adam's Peak from Hatton, 
or Horton Plains and Badulla from Nuwara 
Eliya and Bxndarawella. But for every unit or 
ten who have ,.90 far enjoyed Ceylon there are 
hundreds and thousands in America and Europe 
who are bound to come before long. Every 
year makes the way easier and there are few 
places so satisfying to the visitor as this little 
island from the concentration of what it has to 
show and give, into a comparatively limited space 
and time. The island in itself is as a botanical 
garden to the European or American visitor ; 
its towns and people are specially interesting ; 
its climates on the plains or hills exceptionally 
novel and varied — suited to every degree of invalid 
or healthful individual — and journeying by a first- 
class railway is made wonderfully easy, seeing 
that about 300 miles cover the whole ground 
as compared with the thousands of miles which 
have to be traversed to see the great sights of 
India. Then Ceylon is a centre to which visitors 
and travellers must converge in the East, whil 
from it they can go anywhere by first-class 
steamers whether to East, West, North or South. 
The traditional as well as authentic history of this 
old and renowned, though tiny, island, shrouds 
it with romance ; and its very names seem 
to justify the grandiose description coined, we 
believe, by an American traveller, as "The Show- 
place of the Universe " ! 
Now all this has, it seems to us, a truly 
practical bearing on the future material pros- 
perity of Ceylon. It may be said that our planting 
and agricultural industries are independent of 
the traveller or visitor ; but it can be re- 
plied that scarcely a visitor or passenger spending 
a day or two ashore, does not come to be a 
customer for Ceylon tea and some other of our 
products ; while again and again have we seen a 
permanent interest started and capital introduced', 
through the chance of a casual visit. Mr. Wal ms- 
ley of Liverpool when he addressed us at Nawala- 
pitiya, merely said what many others have dune 
in more or less complimentary terms: — '■ 1 came 
out to see Ceylon, because of reading your book 
on the island"; and if our little volumes, and 
lectures in the oast, have bellied to make the place 
attractive, mucli more may we anticipate this result 
from the grand American book-venture and 
from Messrs. Cave's publications in " Pictur- 
esque Ceylon." Visitors, we repeat, have 
