April 1, 1903.] THE TROPICAL A.GRICULTUPJST. 
695 
MATALE AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 
A MODEL COUNTRY TOWN. 
" What a charming country station is Matale " — 
pays a recent visitor — " and how great the improve- 
ments since L firsh saw it in 1864 (!) or even since 
my last visit in 1891. I should scarcely know the 
place save that the Rest-house and Residency are 
in the same situations and that the mile-of -street- 
and-boiaticiues (like the lang toon o' Kirkaldy) 
along the North Road, shows as busy a scene as in 
the most prosperous of 
COFFEE DAY.S. 
Alas! how are the mighty fallen — since the 
day when Ettapolla, The Borders, The Glen, 
Asgeriya and even Hampshire and Wiltshire were 
among the "crack" plantations of the island — all 
in their pristine rigour as I saw them in the early 
sixties ; after which;! rode across to Sylvakande 
(E d Young), Dambulagalla (D Watson), and on 
to " The Valley " {par excellence) 
OF KELLEBOKKA 
to see D Webster on Greenwood, and by Goomera 
to the centre of Rangalla at Battalgaila— now 
Duckwari. Some years later, a start from Matale 
led to Rattota, Opalgalla and Gammadua and 
back to join W U Gibbon and C Catto (who long 
ago passed tlie last bourne) in an expedition from 
Hoolankande across the Knuckles range to new 
clearings on the Eastern spur; and later still, 
Matale was the starting-point of a memorable ex- 
pedition I made with poor A G K Borron right over 
LAGALLA 
and down on the other side tiirough the region 
where Wingate, Hope, Mackie and a host besides 
buried many British sovereigns, bright antici- 
pations and much labour and health in the vain 
hope that coffee crops would mature where the soil 
was rich and the rainfall good, even though for 
three months every leaf was blown off the bush by 
the swirling South west winds rushing over and 
down from the high mountain range into the hot 
low-country of Bintenne. Our expedition was, 
however, for a goal much farther on — to inspect an 
arnatto clearing on one of the blocks at the back 
of the Knuckles which, when originally surveyed 
by Mr Vetch, of the Survey Department, he 
thought so much of that he induced his own brother 
to invest and settle, with disastrous results 
Neither did the arnatto prove a success, When 
ever " new products," without over-production 
warrant attention to outlying forestland there are 
many lots privately owned, on the Eastern slopes 
between Lagalla North and Nitre Cave, available 
for the exploiter. 
But my theme is " Matale " as a centre and 
starting-point and I have yet to refer to ex- 
peditions to North Matale towards Nalande, over 
land newly developed by Messrs. Koss, Milne, 
Taylor, Davidson and others, and where so much 
rich cultivation in cacao, tea and coconuts now 
prevails. The way in which the 
COCONUT PALM 
has flourished in response to extensive planting all 
along the Matale valley is quite surprising and 
the total crop must now supply no inconsiderable 
part of the annual food requireuients of the town 
and surrounding country ; for, we suppose, none 
of the nuts are, as yet, turned into oil or used for 
export 1 We visited only one plantation on the 
present occasion : the young extensive and promis- 
ing property of 
CLODAGH 
where we were not only gratified at the evidence on 
every hand of careful substantial work but truly 
surprised at tlie extent and magnitude of the 
operations of the enterprising proprietor, who has 
as much at heart the good of the people in 
his employ as well as ol the surrounding villagers, 
as the jucce^is of the plantation in whicii he has 
invested so much capital. Clodagh is made up 
of many lots of forest and waste ch ena land 
bought from Government and the natives to a total 
extent of quite 1,000 acres, and of this over 400 
are planted with flourishing cacao, and over 300 
with tea, very fine in parts— all equal, healthy 
fine jab from Norwood seed — the oldest field giving 
probably 500 lb an acre — while in some clearings, 
the work of " supply" has been a heavy, con- 
tinuous one. We should be afraid the country 
was too dry here ; but the record shews a fairly 
gQod, well-distributed rainfall, and certainly at 
our visit, everything looked vigorous — not the 
least, the really splendid coconut-palms (grov/n 
from Goluapokuna seed nuts), of which Mr. 
Malcomson has (or is to have) some 20,000 
distributed, at wide planting distance apart, 
through his property. Nevertheless, if they all suc- 
ceed,— as with such large holes and careful planting 
and attention they certainly should, — he should 
have the equivalent of an ordinary coconut estate 
of over 25 acres fully planted ! 
WHITE ANTS 
have been a great trouble hitherto ; and to get rid 
of them, Mr, Malcomson began bj' paying 25 cents 
for each "queen-ant" brought in; but he soon 
found this was extravagant and gradually 
came down until now the rate is as low as 3 cents ; 
and yet from first to last, 1,000 queens have been 
disposed of and still they come from the latest 
clearings ! aII liie works on Clodagh — roads, 
drains and especially buildings — have been executea 
after, the "pucka" fashion that would have 
delighted the late Messrs. Worms and Sabonadiere 
of Pussellawa. Bungalow and Factory are ex- 
ceptionally well-finished, the proprietor being his 
own architect and very much his own engineer. 
The steam engine and boiler (a "Shanks") we 
were interested to learn was that imported by 
the ill-fated European Gemming Company to 
Uakwana ; while Jackson's mosD improved tea 
machines are in use. We found a Cacao-drying 
Barbacue and Store in course of construction 
as also substantial " caddies " where the 
coolies can be supplied with good curry- 
stufFs, «&;c., at fair prices or rice-barter, without 
having to rush into Matale, or to viikiges 
en route. Not the least conspicuous, or coiumo- 
dious building on the property is the School-house 
where also services are held under the auspices of 
the "Friends' Mission" of which Mr. and Mrs. 
Malcomson are honoured m embers ; while they 
have now got colleagues set apart entirely for 
Mission work in Matale and elsewiiere, in Mr. Long 
(an experienced Missionary with many years of 
work among the Tamils in Coinibatore district, S. 
India, behind him), and Mr. Artleii and Miss 
Chealc. It was certainly a fortunate day for 
Ceylon — and especially for much of the AlaiiUe 
district — when Mi. Malcomson decided to remove 
from his Irish ancestral home on the pleisant 
banks of the Clodagh in County Waterford, to 
establish liimself and family iu old Lanka. 
