THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUniST, [Apeil 2 1900. 
"A FARMER'S EVERY DAY LIFE." 
"A Farmer's Every Day Life"— 
is the title of " Cosmopolite's " latest con- 
tribution to our columns, given below. 
It is written at our special reqviest 
and we know few men so able to do 
justice to the theme owing to a very wide 
experience, keenness of observation, and 
facility of expression, not to speak of the 
saving grace of humour which is so often 
visible. As a former Australian and New 
Zealand pioneer and bushnian, an ex-Colombo 
merchant and still more,as an ex-Rangala plan- 
ter, before taking to farming in Aberdeenshire, 
it must be seen that "Cosmopolite" has 
travelled over a wide field and that the conclu- 
sions he now lays before us cannot have been 
formed in haste, but are the mature results of 
much experience and observation. Practi- 
cally the question discussed is that of a 
country versus a town life, and it is one that 
must come home very closely to planters in 
Ceylon, who may be intending shortly to 
seek retirement in the United Kingdom, or 
may be looking forward to such a consum- 
mation at no distant date. It must be 
extremely difficult after an active plan- 
ter's life out here to settle down in 
town or suburbs with nothing, but a few 
hundred square yards of garden of one's 
own to traverse or overlook. " Login " 
(Sir Graeme Elphinstone) felt it so badly, 
albeit his residence was in the country, that 
he returned once more to "planting" and 
is now in the Malayan peninsula. Others 
Wbo have gone "home" to settle down, have 
been very glad to get back to Ceylon on any 
terms, tliat is to secure a charge if possible ; 
and if not to make a home on their own 
account. Now " Cosmopolite " comes for- 
ward and preaches that the proper course 
for the retired planter is to follow his ex- 
ample and liecome a farmer. Of the health- 
fulness of the life thei'e can be no denial, 
and really that ought to count for an im- 
mense deal if there be children and a full 
household to think of. But, in our experi- 
ence, gentlemen farmers— practical and hard- 
working as any Ceylon planters let us say 
—in Ross-shire and Morayshire, always 
grumble unless they can show a handsome 
percentage of profit on capital laid aside every 
year, without making proper allowance for the 
extremely healthful life enjoyed, or even 
{or the economy in education and other 
items experienced, as compared with the 
colonist who has to see his family broken 
up and separated. Still, it cannot be denied 
that there are cases where even practical 
farmers have Jiot been able to make both 
ends meet; where, indeed, they have had 
to dispose of their farming interest to prevent 
the disappearance of their capital altogether. 
We have two or three ex-Oeylon planters 
—hard-headed Scots even — who have come 
within this category, -men who like "Cos- 
mopolite " would any day prefer 
To hear the lark sinj; 
To the moui-e cheep, 
— to live and work in the country, rather 
than be shutup in town or suburb and dawdle 
between theircity brokers or agents and their 
dub— an extremely disagreeable lifesurely toa 
man in the full vigour of life and who is 
willing to be useful in his day and gener- 
ation. But how are such men to be 
recommended to take to "farming" if it 
cannot be shown to "pay" — not in the sense 
of the 8-or-10-pei'-cent. -profit-sharers ; but 
to the extent of covering actual annual outlay 
and household expenses? Now, we trust 
"Cosmopolite" is going on in the further 
instalments of his Paper, with practical 
advice calculated to help Ceylon planters 
who may wish to follow his footsteps, to 
enable them to chcoso the right sort of farm 
to stock it projjerly and lo choose suitable 
suboi^dinates and to shew, generally, how Lo 
make "a fair start." Perhaps, too, we may 
have successful "farmers" in England, Wales, 
the South of Scotland and even Ireland (all 
e -Ceylon planters we mean) who may 
supplement " Cosmopolite '"s letters witn 
specimens of their own experience and then, 
to finish up, we must endeavour to get 
contributions from a jilanter-settler in Tas- 
mania, New Zealand, New South Wales or 
Victoria, the L^nited States or Canada, and 
why not in South Africa ? In this way " Cos- 
mopolite," who is capable of criticising all 
such productions, will have started us on 
the way to much information of a varied 
and useful if not valuable character, A 
" Tea-farmer " 's life in Ceylon can scarcely 
be considered a permanency in the vast 
majority of districts, and especially if there 
be a family. " What should come next" is 
therefore a matter of much practical interest 
at all times, and we trust " Co.smopolite " 
and other retired Ceylon men will help us 
to answer it. 
A FARMER'S EVERY DAY LIFE. 
IN NORTH BRITAIN:— No. I. 
(By Cosmopolite.) 
Surprise has often been expressed that so 
many retired planters, merchants and civil 
servants from the East take, on their return 
to the mother country, to the glorious, most 
ancient but (by the British Government) 
most neglected profession of farming. With 
regard to planters one can see some reason 
in this choice : because having been accus- 
tomed to an out-of door existence, they pine 
for a contin\iance of that same ; but in the 
case of the others, it surely must be a matter 
of heredity — derived by them fx'ora the blood 
of their great ancestor, the original fanner 
Adam. 
As a rule these amateur farmers, tran- 
sported from the palm-fringed isle of the 
Eastern wave, or the banks of the Ganges, 
do not prove exceptionally successful iu their 
new walk of life ; but to a certain extent 
they seem satisfied with the healthy occupa- 
tion they have undertaken, and do not 
complain more grievously than do profes- 
sional farmers who have from infancy up- 
wards grimibled as only a British farmer is 
entitled to grumble. 
But having met many i>f these late-in-life 
agriculturists, I have been much distressed to 
find that they fail to see the hmugurs of a 
farmer's life which blend with the numerous 
troubles and trials which beset these labourers 
in the corn field ; and I have often felt in- 
clined to draw attention to some of those 
amusing incidents which I, for one, cannot 
aLVoid seeing in my every day life, and which 
