6 S 6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April r, ,895. 
The famous Blue Mountains are merely Central 
Ceylon, with a slight difference. They rise to 7,000 
feet, and are not very inviting to a man who has 
spent the best part of his life in climbing tropical 
mountains. I can see that much that had at one 
time been under cultivation is now abandoned, and 
can guess the rest. Certainly I had no desire to 
climb for climbing's sake. Nor did the sugar estates 
much interest ine here. Sugar-cane, except under 
exceptionally favourable circumstances, is a decayisg 
industry, and the planters I met here were iuvaii- 
ably men with grievances, disappointed with the 
Home Government, abusing the beet, and swearing 
by their rum. Probably, as they say, it was easier 
for Ceylon planters, with less capital locked up in 
expensive plant, to start a new industry ; but, in any 
case, there is little pleasure in meeting men who have 
"tint heart." Their chief grievances are the best 
bounties, and consequent cheap sugar, and the un- 
certain supply of labour. What a change since the 
days of Tom Cringle 1 Quassie, the negro, has also 
got his grievance, though no one to see him could 
suspect that anything in the shape of a skeleton 
could be found in his cupboard. Yet such is the 
case; and I am sorry, for I am sure he is in the 
wrong, and, if he persists in wrong-doing, suffering 
must ensue. Quassie, in short, hates Ramosamy of 
Madras, and would have him expelled from the island, 
not because of any glaring vices, but because his 
virtues, in the shape of superior industry, usefulness, 
and general intelligence, are out of all proportion to 
what he (the negro) has yet to offer; but as the 
negLoes number 40 to 1, it is very necessary to be 
careful in handling them, and assiduous in guiding 
them by example and precept. 
Willi a better organised iaoour supply, there ought 
to be a great future for Jamaica. Its position is im- 
portant, its capabilities great,' and now that planters 
are ceasing to pin their faith exclusively to sugar and 
rum, progress may be very rapid. Already sugar is 
taking a subsidiary place amongst exports. 
Fruit, dyewoods, and spices are coming to the front, 
with coffee, and cocoa also improving their position. 
Fruit growing is a very important industry here, sure 
to develop; the oranges particularly are very hue, 
much superior to the fearful rubbish sold to passing 
ships in the East Indies ; plantains are a speciality ; 
pines and chirimoyas — though not quite equal to the 
product in Peru or Guayaquil — are very abundant, 
and are good enough for the New York market. 
Cocoa is not so decided a success as one would ex- 
pect, while the recuperation of the coffee fields hangs 
fire mysteriously. VV r ith present pi ices one is at a 
loss to know the reason why. The total exports now 
amount to £1,903,000; imports, £2,189,000, of which 
66 per cent is with the United Kingdom. 
Jamaica is peculiarly fortunate m her present 
Governor, Sir Henry Blake, one of the most energetic 
and capable of Colonial administrators. 
Then comes Trinidad — Sir Arthur Havelock's 
old Government — a mere slice from South 
America : — 
The soil, evidently richer than the average of 
Jamaica, and, less liable to hurricanes than any of 
the other islands, is more suited for those very 
remunerative products — cocoa, nutmeg, coconuts\ 
plantains, &c. I say nothing of sugar, as I am -. 
disposed to think that it has been overdone on 
these islands, and that the day will soon come 
when they cannot possibly compete with the Pacific 
coast in the production of this commodity. 
The climate of Port of Spain, the capital, is Co- 
lombo over again. The population of the city 
numbers 35,000, of which about one-half seem 
absolutely idle, but all sleek and fat. Few cities 
present a greater mixture of races. Every nation 
is represented, from the grave but ever-diligent 
Chinaman to the merry but ever-indolent African. 
To the Tamil coolie this is indeed a veritable 
paradise, with " Sam blam " 200 per cent higher 
than in India, easier work, and, for him, a delight- 
ful climate. Nor is Ramosamy slow to take advantage 
of his opportunities. As the savings bank shows 
the Tamils have a much better balance at their 
credit than any other race in the West Indies. 
The pity of it is that the habits and general de- 
poitment of our good friends the Tamil coolies do not 
eeeiu to improve with prosperity. 
Ramosamy here ceases to hide the tobaccu pipe 
when he meets master, and, shocking to say, even 
the beautiful Mootama disfigures bar pretty mouth 
by smoking a dirty clay pipe ! lu vain she dresses 
in her showiest attire, and loads herself with jewel- 
lery more precious than anv C'augauie a daughter 
in Ceylon can boast of. It is simply impossible to 
look comely with a clay pipe in tiie mouth. But 
for these excrescences I might fancy myself on the 
Bund, in Kandy, ley Ion. The surroundings here 
are equally beautiful. 
The Botanical Gardens are the piettieat of all 
the gardens in the West, and second only to that 
paradisiacal spot on the banks of the Mahavilht- 
ganga, Ceylon. Mr. Hart, the superintendent, is the 
very beau ideal of a useful, obliging, and laborious 
director, a born botanist, enthusiastically fond of his 
calling, and a keenly intelligent man generally. A 
visit to the gardens with such a guide is valuable 
object-lesson, in itself worth going thousands of miles 
to enjoy. Mr. Hart is no mere bookish collector 
and dry classifier of ail sort of plants ; his chief 
aim seems to be to find out the most useful of our 
economic plants, and thus, by making himself 
practically useful to planters and sgiicuilur.-ti. to 
advance the best interests of his adopted oolony. 
Trinidad has a number of strings to its tow. »nd 
ample room to extend. Almost any tropical product 
will thrive luxuriantly in such a climate, Cut the 
best thing at present is — and probably tor many 
years to come wiii be — her cacao. 
Tne climate is pecu iarly adapted to this slieiter 
and moi^tuie-loviug tree. The humid heat and 
fairly good soil of Trinidad produce such cacao 
trees as are rarely to be seen even in the upper 
valleys of the Amazon, and never yet in Ceylon. 
Nevertheless, as Mr. Hart very pertinently points 
out, in his annual report for IK'.Mi. it would be most 
unwise for planters to confine their attention to any 
one special product, however profitable it might pro- 
mise to be. 
" We have it in history," says Mr. Hart, " that iu 
Jamaica cacao was once extensively cultivated, but 
that it was deslioyed by a blast. We have it that 
in several other portions of the world cacao has 
been afflicted with various diseases when cultivated 
in large areas. Though far from wishing to be- 
come a prophet of evil, I would ask the question, 
whether such blast (oi whatever character it might 
have been) may not be liable to occur again t 
History teaches that when large areas of a single 
product are continuously cultivated, the balance of 
nature is upset, and when an enemy makes its ap- 
pearance, the field for its growth is so large that it is 
impossible for man to contend against its ravages. 
There are indeed many " subsidiary industries " by 
which the planter might profitably supplement his 
cacao-growing here. 
Coffea Arabiea, for instance, has evidently never 
had a fair trial. The attempts one sees to grow it by 
the wayside, choked by weeds and under the drip of 
jungle trees, is enough to convulse an old Ceylon man. 
Coffea Liberica, however, would probably be found 
much more suitable for this climate, the vegetation 
of which is all of a lowcountry type. " There is," 
says Mr. Hart, " unmistakable evidence that coffee 
can be grown in Trinidad if only properly cultivated, 
but I find a general disinclination to cultivate it in 
anything but a desultory sort of way." 
Amongst the other industries and products he sug- 
gests are : — Cardamoms, pepper, ganibir, tobacco, 
rubber, nutmegs. Ramie, maholtine. Tobago, silk grass, 
Gunjah, plantains, and numerous tropical fruits. 
As to fibres, Mr. Hart does not share the sanguine 
hopes of the Bahamians with regard to sisal. Cir- 
cumstances alter cases. The climate and soil of 
Trinidad is nnsuited for the Agave rigida, not cer- 
tainly for its growth as a plant, but the fibre would 
be inferior to that produced on a poorer soil and in 
a less humid climate. 
