Sept. 1, 1899.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 16& 
A VISIT TO THE EAJAKADALUWA 
COCONUT PLANTING DISTRICT. 
THE YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF 
COCONUTS. 
Chilaw Resthouse is placed in an excep- 
tionally healthy situation, on a rising bank 
facing the sea, and it is neatly and substan- 
tially built; but with an entire disregard of 
ventilation in respect of the bedrooms. 
Either window or door must be left open at the 
risk of thieves, or closed with a lack of 
fresh air. The Malay resthouse-keeper, who 
has had eight years' experience, is one of 
the best managers in the country, second 
only, perhaps, to the veteran atNegombo who 
has had 23 years' service, but is still the active, 
bright, intelligent Sinhalese he has always 
been from Sir Charles Layard's day onwards 
and yet only an Arachchi when he ought 
long ago to have been made a Muhandiram ! 
Mr. Ellis, however, cannot overlook so faithful 
a servant — since he has known him since 
he (Mr. Ellis) was a young Police Magistrate 
at Negombo. 
On the long creeper-covered, sandy, back- 
water bank in front of the gaol, resthouse 
and other buildings at Chilaw, an interesting 
experiment is being made in growing coco- 
nuts, shelter being provided. This shelter 
is indispensable in the South- West monsoon, 
as the difference between trees in front and 
behind the resthouse will show ; but I am 
surprised the experiment does not extend to 
palmyras which would probably suit the soil 
and climate better, judging by the splendid 
clump of mature trees in one corner. Has 
any European planter in Ceylon ever gone 
in for 
A CLEARING OF PALMYRAS? 
I suppose not; the greater number of years than 
in coconuts, required to arrive at maturity, be- 
ing a detei'rent. But certainly the experiment 
ought to be made around and North of Chilaw. 
Mr. Martin, the leading Proctor (and son of 
honest John Martin, who with Carry and 
Lamont was long the best known of Ne- 
gombo and Chilaw planters), has a good 
opportunity of making a fine avenue of 
palmyras on his plantation property stretch- 
ing from the t»wn to the Deduruoya. 
Very delightful is the early morning — be- 
tween 5-30 and 7-30 — for a drive along a good 
road in this comparatively dry coast region of 
the island with the South- West breeze blowing. 
In 1895 I found Mr. Ingles, of the Survey 
Department, busy with his celebrated trian- 
gulation tower in front of Chilaw, and it 
was a coincidence that we should meet here 
again, Mr. Ingles meditating the erection 
of another tower after a permanent form 
to serve for observations, the top of the 
lofty and widely-known Chilaw R.C. Church 
(which Capt. Donnan and other mariners 
utilise) being now I'endered unfit for trian- 
gxilation purposes. Mr. Ingles was always one 
of the most active, and he has now become 
one of the more experienced, officers of his 
Department ; and it was a pleasure to note 
his enthusiasm over the work going on in 
the triangulation, as well as in cadastral and 
topographical departments. His colleague, 
Mr. T. Hampton — son of an old friend, the 
late Mr. J. L. Hampton, so long proprietor 
of Penrhos and Hentleys estates — is busy 
with *' boundaries and applications," the dis- 
tracting work for which the Surveyor-Gene- 
ral thinks a separate staff ought to be pro- 
vided, so as to have his trained men free 
to go on iminterruptedly with the respon- 
sible imdertakings now entrusted to them. 
Eai'ly as was our start northwards to Raja- 
kadaluwa, it was not too early for indus- 
trious Tamils to be out attending to herds 
of cattle dotted over their 
TOBACCO GROUNDS 
for manuring purposes. All is fallow or in 
the rough at present ; but to the extent to 
which manure can be got, this tobacco 
is cultivated freely, and is one of the 
most paying of industries. Why does 
not an artificial manure maker try an 
experiment on a Chilaw tobacco field— an 
acre would not involve much risk, and the 
object lesson that would show an artificial 
mixture to give better results than cattle 
manure, womd attract universal attention. 
Nor would an experimentalist require to go 
so far afield as Chilaw : there is quite a 
large number of tobacco fields cultivated by 
Sinhalese North of the Mahaoya near Nya- 
madenai. 
The road to the 
DEDURUOYA 
and beyond, is in much better order than in 
days of old. Mr. Simmonds, who built the 
bridge in 1894-.5, is, I understand, still in 
charge of the district — left here, I am told, 
because he is supposed to be fever-proof! 
Be that as it may, he has made many im- 
provements in the numerous small bridges 
or culverts and in general attention to his 
roads. His big river bridge is ready for a 
feet gauge light railway, and we had full evid- 
ence in a succession of crowded passenger 
coaches starting thus early for Puttalam, of 
plenty of traffic being available. The Deduru- 
oya is a strange river ; you never know 
Avhere to find it ! It has shifted its course 
greatly in the four years and so concentrated 
its fviU force against one end of the bridge 
that a series of wooden breakwaters had to 
be formed with piles to check the rush of 
floodwater in washing out the bank and 
perhaps the foundation ! Between Chilaw 
and Rajakadaluwa, over six miles, there is 
far more evidence of life and cultivation 
than we can recall on our first visit ten 
years ago. There is an almost continuous 
line of gardens or plantations, frequent bou- 
tiques or bazaars, where all was loneliness 
in the "eighties," and where a cheetah 
quietly crossing the road in front of one's 
bullock cart was an ordinary afternoon's ex- 
perience a decade back. 
Plantain and coconuts are the favourite 
products, and I ain told the whole roadside 
xiau Battuluoya to Puttalam is now fairly 
well occupied. 
But I have to do with 
RAJAKADALUWA 
district and its 25 coconut plantations and gar- 
dens covering some 3,500 to 5,000 acres of 
planted land from the new clearing to fields 
14: to 15 years old — from Amalgamated Tea 
Estates Co.'s (Messrs. Pinlay, Muir & Co., 
Agents) Nellunkuliya of lOO to 500 acres with 
regular work for 200 labourers down to the 
