May I3 1900.] THE TROPICAL AORICULTUKIST. 
769 
AN OLD PROPRIETARY COLONIST : 
MR. W. S. BENNETT RE-VISITING CEYLON AND 
THE STRAITS : — TEA, LIBERIAN COFFEE, 
RUBBER AND COCONUTS. 
It is encouraging,- to see a Ceylon colo- 
nist who can date back to 1858, looking so 
fresh and "up to work" (in travelling and 
inspecting) as does Mr. W. S. Bennett, who, 
althsiugii retired for a good many years to 
a delightful Buckinghamshire home, continues 
to retain a proprietary and directorial 
tea interest in Ceylon, and has added to it 
an interest in Liberian coffee, coconuts and 
rubber in the Straits. Mr. Bennett has just 
returned from a visit thither. He thinks 
Singapore cooler thaii Colombo, with more 
frequent though very partial rains. He was 
much pleased with planting prospects, though 
coffee had suffered from ravaging attacks 
of caterpillars, large gangs of cooUes being 
employed to pick them off, ("If only some 
hundreds of Ceylon Tamil coolies were 
available on each plantation." is the cry— 
and why not, in this year of famine in 
India— even extending to Madras ?) Mr. 
Bennett is right in considering the Straits 
a special home for rubber, considering all 
the indigenous gutta and rubber-yielding 
trees in that region ; and no less true, 
we told him, is it that in the Straits, 
we are nearer the original habitat 
— the great DecandoUe considers it to be 
in Sumatra and the Eastern Archipelago 
—of the coconut palm than in Ceylon. So, 
if only abundant labour could be got, the 
Straits plantations should surely go on and 
prosper (that is, ahem, if all the Managers 
read and profit by the Tropical Agricul- 
hirist !). While travelling on the Perak 
river, Mr. Bennett had a sharp experience 
of what a thunder and rain storm can 
mean in the Straits, reminding him of 
wild monsoon bursts in his eax^ly days in 
Ceylon. 
Mr. Bennett went upcountry to continue 
the inspection of estates which he began 
before going to the Straits. Travelling at 
night some weeks ago in a bullock cart be- 
tween Awissawella and Ratnapura, after in- 
specting plumbago lands, he had an experi- 
ence of what a "chill" in the tropics means, 
which, no doubt, he would have laughed at, 
when we first saw him in i-ude vigorous 
health as a young Colonist and ever-cheer- 
ful Devonian. Mr. Bennett reminded us 
how the Raihvay should really have gone 
up the Kotmalie valley to Pundaluoya and 
Dimbula with a branch to Dikoya, 
and that was certainly Mr, Tottenham's 
route when, in 1872, he offered Government to 
construct a 3.\; feet line from Nawalapitiya to 
Haputale Pass, and we most cordially backed 
him up. There is a new private road planned 
near Oolapane, with a bridge across the 
river, which, we are glad to hear Government 
is to giv'o - a good bargain for the latter to 
get a road made by a private Company if 
the bridge is siipplied.— We hope Mr. Ben- 
nett's short visit has proved enjoyable, and 
that he carried home a good report of the 
old Colony in which he lived and laboured 
so many years. 
SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE IN 
CEYLON : 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND MYCOLOGIST 
ON cmcuiT. 
The Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens 
makes, through the Planteis' Association, 
a very important announcement and one 
that will be welcomed by the planting 
community as by intelligent agriculturists 
all over the island. It is to the eifect that 
he intends the new scientific officers on 
his staff' -more especially the lintomologist 
and Mycologist — should make periodical tours 
in connection with their work throughout 
the countrj', when they can not only 
observe and collect subjects for investigation, 
but also confer with planters and others 
on the spot about local pests of any kind. 
No better mode of operations for a portion 
of their time could possibly be devised, 
and we feel sure that the various 
District Planting Committees will co- 
operate to the utmost of their power in 
studying the convenience, and extending 
all possible aid to their visitors. The 
first tour announced is one for Mr. E. E. 
Green as Entomologist to Batticaloa, the 
great rice and palm growing district of the 
East coast, where he is due on April 15th. 
Such a journey should be fruitful in much 
iniei'esting information and finally in 
practical results of value to both classes of 
cultivators. Travelling by land, Mr. Green 
will pass through the B;idulla and Passara 
districts and he proposes to visit and deal 
with each, as far as he may be able, either 
on his outward or homeward journey. 
Perhaps as the ixotice is so short this time, 
the latter would be preferable, in enabling 
the District Committees to consider the 
" situation " and make all needful arrange- 
ments so as to reap the full benefit of the 
Entomologist's visit. 
COFFEE AND THE CURRENCY 
7'o the Editor " Jladras Mail." 
Sir, — Two da3'3 ago I visited, with the prorsrie'Lori 
an estate near this which I want over witli him 
iu 18G5, and found that it looks better nowth^nit 
did then. T-.i'j coffee, indeed, is so flaurishinp; tiiat, 
though an old piopety, I should say that it will last 
as long as the world chooses to drink coffee. Another 
estate that I went over is in an equally thriving con- 
dition. In Mysore I know on the best authority 
that well managed estates never looked better, or 
more promising for the future. And yet, with these 
facts which ought to attract capital to the industry, 
we find that advances are being refused, mortgages 
foreclrsed, and, the surest sign of all of decadence, 
that wages have been reduced from the North of 
Mysore down to the Shevaroy Hills, and on (he 
Nilgiiis also. All of this, oE course, indicates that 
the saleable value of eaia'es has declined, and in 
the opinion of capitalists may still further decline 
should, as seems very probable, the wants of the 
liovernment induce it stili further to force un the 
ex bange. I need hardly add that witii a decline 
in saleaKle value, and the possibility of a still fur- 
ther decline, the capitalist buttons up his pockets 
as leg a'ds loans on the security of ph.ntations, end 
hastens to try and re; over the money he has al- 
ready sunk iu moriagBges.* * * 
R BERT H. Elliot, 
Cooiioor, 2,5th, March. 
