172 
THE TROPICAL 
AaRICULTURIST. [Sept. 1, 1899. 
is about the former age, cannot be taken as 
a fair test, through a large part being too 
closely planted and most of it being 
neglected; at any rate there has been 
an absence of proper cultivation for 
the past eight or nine years. Still, it is 
wonderful how, ia spite of little being done 
for the palms, they go on cropping on this 
place and the story of their dying out, 
except it be when young from beetles, is 
not correct. 
We do not 'say that crops on Toynbee are 
to go on increasing after the rate of recent 
years per tree ; but if present appearances 
continue, there is no reason, we suppose, 
why the proprietors should not count on a 
crop of .550,000 nvits by 1004, and perhaps 
of 750,000 nuts when every one of the 10,000 
palms is in full bearing. How long should such 
crops continue ? TlvAt will depend on caref\il 
cultivation and judicious manuring. Mean- 
time, the little place along with its neighbours 
has been 
A BLES8ING TO THE PEOPLE 
of the district and of many immigrant 
coolies. The money spent during the past fif- 
teen and especially the past six, years has en- 
abled the Sinhalese to live far more com- 
fortably than ever before. The 
MESSRS. DE MEL 
have three fine, young and extensive coconut 
plantations — one on each side of Toynbee— and 
all promising exceedingly well. On a young 
place, Karukkuliya (Mr. iVIanuelde Mel's) which 
we inspected, the planting has been most 
carefully attended to, and the plantain cultiva- 
tion confined to a square in the centre 
space where it could not possibly injure the 
young palms. Wilpotha plantation (belonging 
to Mr. Jacob de Mel and his son-in-law, Mr. 
Barrister Pieris) under the skilful manage- 
ment of Mr. Edward MacCarthy, is older than 
Karukkuliya (two or three years younger than 
Toynbee) and promises exceedingly \ye\l, 
having 300 acres planted with 100 more to 
go in this year. It is a very valuable pro- 
perty. Mr. Baur has some 400 to 500 acres 
planted at 
PALUGASWEWA, 
the oldest field a year younger than Toynbee 
and which must prove a very valuable pro- 
perty. Still further inland, Messrs. Pinlay, 
Muir & Co. are covering some 600 acres with 
the palm on Nellunkulia, under the ex- 
perienced direction of Mr. Jardine as In- 
spector and Visiting Agent. Then there are 
the properties of Messrs. Mason and Manchip 
(being much improved under the lattei''s 
care), of Mr. H. J. Pieris, of Mr. Muttiah, 
of Mr. de Soyza, of Dr. Hallock, etc. 
Altogether there are 25 estaes, employing 
1,200 coolies and covering 5,000 acres, perhaps, 
and the district altogether promises well. 
The feverish time of the year in the older pro- 
perties is confined to November-December 
when the malaria-laden land-wind makes it 
very trying for coolies and Superintendents. 
The proprietors have been anxious this year 
to get the Government to open a JJispensary ; 
but Dr. Perry thinks Battuluoya — naif -way 
between Chilaw and Puttalam— the proper 
site. Rajakadaluwa, however, should have a 
DISPENSARY 
of its own to serve 1,200 to 1,500 of a cooly 
population and some 3,000 villagers. A few 
of the leading proprietors could readily erect 
a residence and dispensary and guarantee a 
salary, provided the supply of medicines 
was got free ; but then comes the question 
whether coconut plantations so far north — 
even when employing immigrant coolies — 
come under the piivileges granted in the 
tea and cacao planting districts ? This must 
be inquired into. Here is an estimate done up 
by a resident planter : — 
The undermentioned are the estates wliich 
would be directly benefited by a Dispensary at 
Rajakadaluwa 
Coolies. Coolies. 
Toynbee 50 Adv. Chitty's 10 
.Jacob De Mel's (Wil- Samarfikoon Muda- 
potlia) 70 liyar's 25 
Miller's 40 Jacob De Mel's (Pani- 
adikulam) 40 
Manuel De Mel's C. P. Silva's (Johana- 
(Karukkuliya) 15 watte) 20 
A. Baur's (Palugas- Messrs. Finlay, Muir 
wewa) 150 & Co.'s (Nelun- 
kuUia) 200 
Muttiah's 50 Messrs. Mason and 
Manchip (Sita- 
madama) 30 
U. D. S. Gunase- 
kara's 30 Dr. Hallock's 50 
H. J. Pieris's 100 Seena Moona Shagoo 
Varusay's 50 
S. G. Perera's 25 AnaKanaModelali's 25 
P. Feruando's 25 Varusay Modelali's 15 
J. J. Lorage's 5 Goonoo Saiboo's 10 
C. De Soysa's 40 Don Juan Appu 
Rendarala's 30 
Manuel De Mel's .50 
The time, too, has come when there ought 
to bean extension of Tamil Cooly and Sinha- 
lese Itinerating Missions to the district and 
schools opened for the children. There is 
one Sinhalese grant-in-nid school at Karuk- 
kuliya, close to Rajakadaluwa, but no Tamil 
school yet. 
Turning back to Toynbee, we should give 
a word to the convenient 
COPRA DRYING HOUSE AND BARBECUE 
— capable of holding the copra of 25,000 nuts, 
or 24 candies — a model erection for the rest 
of the district — the fuel being coconut shells 
(heat without smoke) ; copra store and dry- 
ing ground. When the last is extended, the 
hope is that all the drying of copra can be 
done in the sun, so saving any discolouration. 
Hitherto, the nuts have been sold about 
equally to the Agents of the Horrekelly 
Desiccating Mills, and for the manufacture 
of copra, in both cases, the purchaser, after 
carefully checking, and rejecting perhaps, 
five per cent of a pmcking of nuts as too small, 
light, empty or otherwise deficient — dries his 
copra or removes the nuts to the nulls, leav- 
ing the husks on the estate. These latter are 
being utilised freely as surroundings for plants 
as also for filling up trenches. 
The boundaries are generally marked by a 
SAPANWOOD 
fence which, perhaps, grows too freely, inter- 
fering sometimes with the first line of coco- 
nuts. We intended in the early days getting 
Mr Miller to make a substantial experiment 
with American cotton and ?ent him some fine 
