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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[May 1, 1900. 
good planter, but his great delight was to dine the 
district, and his one after-dinner song, " Eobie 
Tamson's Smiddy" was always ready and well- 
rendered. Poor Paul and Poor Bob ! both came 
rather to grief in the end ; good useful men, but 
had not the moral stamina to stand an attack 
of Hemileia. 
Over the ridge on Dangkan Je swaggered, though 
more economically, our friend Christie, while 
John Gray on Cattaratenne remained a Buclian 
loon, pure and simple to the end of liis days. 
Kabroosa had just given its record crop, and its 
condition, in the words of Billy Rudd, was one of 
" Veeds, Vips and Valking Sticks." I did my best to 
renovate the totum. True, I let light into the mat- 
ted bushes, and when expostulated with, remarked 
with a certain air of native conceit, that I did 
not to go to Mataleor even come to Ceylon to learn 
pruning. 
" Never cut a primary," said the orthodox 
coffee planter. " Till it requires it," I added. 
Nevertheless, thougli dead branches no longer 
bear, they do give a certain amount of shelter to 
young shoots, and had 1 known the full force of the 
monsoon on these hills, I might have used the 
knife more sparingly. 
Here 1 remained about 18 months, meanwhile 
opening and planting Oivellc, one of the first of 
the Lower Matale estates and still flourishing in 
tne list of that most prosperous of Companies, 
The Ceylon Land and Produce, Limited. 
It was while planting Iiere, that drovned out of 
my talipot hut, I rode for shelter to Suduganga, 
and thereby first made the acquaintance of Hugh 
Blacklaw, which led to a f rienrtship of now 40 years, 
which stood the test too of seven years of official 
visiting I When Mr. Martin went home, I returned 
to Rangalla to manage Galleboda and Lovegrove 
estates ; and it was while here I awoke one morn- 
ing to find myself famous, or infamous, as the 
suspected writer of the notorious " Young Scots- 
man letters:" otherwise this period passed away 
without any striking incident. 
WM. FERGUSON, F.L.S. 
By the time Mr. Martin was ready to return, I had 
accepted a situation in Sabaragamuwa. In passing 
through Colombo I first met that genial soul, JVm, 
Ferguson. Who in the "fifties," "sixties," or 
"seventies," could visit Colombo without meeting 
and making the acquaintance of "W,P ?" 
And who that once enjoyed with him a ride 
round the gravets in his well-known and well-worn 
trap, could ever forget it ? Kept more for use 
than ornament, his equipage was ever at the 
service of visitors, and to hear him talk of the 
trees and flowers by the wayside was a lesson in 
botany, while few professors could impart informa- 
tion with such success or delight to his listeners. 
Less of a litterateur tlian his gifted brother, he was 
in his own deparoment unique in Ceylon. Let one 
but ask the name of the meanest little creeper in 
the hedgerow, and at once the trap was stopped, 
the horsekeeper sent for a handful, and " now let 
me tell you a story about this plant " he would 
begin ; and for 10 minutes or more the story would 
flow in such idiomatic English with just a slight 
ddsh of highland accent. After such an object 
lesson, that IroMEA would be for ever familiar to 
you. Or let any luckless native be found hacking 
a branch from a favourite tree and then listen to 
the castigation of the Vandal. "W. F." would nob 
swear, he would not strike, but in fluency of 
gutting hard words, O'^Connell would have "been 
nowhere ! The poor Yahoo trembling from top to 
toe would slink away. Meanwhile, we also 
wouli be moving on, and the intercepted story 
would begin again where it was left off. Altogether 
a more interesting and lovable man than Wm. 
Ferjjuson never lived in Ceylon. All who loved 
plants loved " W. V.," and the love of plants and 
flowers is the secret of success in Ceylon. " I 
never met but one man who hated flowers," said 
t.ie late Editor of the Spectator, and this poor 
prejudiced creature was a Plymouth Brother, who 
believed that flowers were cursed with the ground, 
owing to the disobedience of Adam and Eve ! 
EN ROUTE FOR EAKWANA. 
The journey through the ancient Province of 
Sabaragamuwa was not so easily accomplished forty 
years ago as it now is. No Rakwana Defiance with 
spanking horses went up and down the Madampe 
hill at eight miles an hour. Only the weary hired 
and unwilling hack, upon which it was a feat to 
ride in three days, over the 90 miles of rough 
roads, portions of which were frequently flooded ; 
indeed Chas. Shand .was reported to have 
said he "once walked 10 miles under water." 
The Resthouses were poor. Awissawella might be 
looked upon as the ultima thule of civilisation, 
and even it did not strike me as very cheerful, 
the first thing pointed out ueing a spot at the 
end of the verandah where lay the bones of a 
predecessor. 
At Ratnapura I found old " T. P." * busy with a 
gang of jail-birds digging for cat's-eyes, without 
much apparent success, judging from his looks. 
The natural beauty of tbe Gem City greatly 
charmed me, though verily, beyond the planting 
of a few Crotons, Poinseltia, Hibiscus, Datura, 
and a couple of Nutmeg trees, man had done but 
little to beautify the scene with exotics. 
At Pelniadulla the sorry screw and I arrived 
wet and weary enough. •' Do you know anything 
about an estate called Everton " ? I asked of the 
old appu who stood in the door of his inhospitable- 
looking shed. "No, sir, only that all gentlemen 
who go there get sick and die" was the grim 
reply, the fact being that my three immediate 
predecessors got ill, of whom two died on the 
way to Colombo. No doctor nearer than 90 miles, 
and yet the poor Durais died ! 
IMPRESSIONS, AND NEW FRIENDS. 
Hoping for better things I hastened onward and 
mpward, finding Everton — the " Kabragalla " of 
the Sinlialese — for a wonder, bathed in sunshine. 
Here I pitched my camp and remained for five 
years, enjoying the ample elbow-room. I visited 
within a few months every hill top in tha district, 
and carefully taking my bearings, got to know 
the locality better than most natives. 
Rakwana had long been somewhat stagnant! 
"tlie first planted coftee," as Sir Henry Ward 
said, " was thin and bare;" but there were sheltered 
pockets of good soil which, judiciously opened, paid 
the planter well, I selected about 1,000 acres, 
and opened three estates, all of which ultimately 
did well. It was a lonely scattered district. At 
that time we were only 'five Europeans all told, 
David Mitchell, Joe Bennison, M. Moss, Eeid and 
myself. 
David, the father of the district, was one of the 
gentlest of men, albeit clothed in a somewhat 
rough exterior, hospitable to a fault, scrupulously 
* Tom Power. c,c,s, 
