July l, 1898.] 
THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
41 
PLANTATION PROPERTY AND VARIED 
PRODUCTS IN CEYLON: 
ENCOURAGEMENT TO YOUNG PLANTERS. 
Thete is "uich tiutli in one remark made in 
the record of Rajawella estate wi.icli we pub- 
lished es the introduction to our June numbei. 
It is to the cifect thai no owner should 
ever despair about plantation property in 
Cevlon Even when threatened with abandon- 
ment on account of the failure of a ;miticular 
product, nil dcspcmndum should be liis moao. 
If his be a fair average estate with no excep- 
tional drawbacks, he .nay comfortably adopt Mr. 
Mtcawber'.i philosophy and feel sure ''«o'ne 'nng 
will turn up." Such is the moral road from t e 
iiory of uos and downs on the Rajawella 
e.tate^n the Valley of Dumbara. 
far more striking vicissitudes i". ^be lusDoiy ot 
old cofiee estates than any experienced in Dum- 
bara where the rich soil has always given an 
advantage in trying one product after auot hei. 
In the early "eighties" the most miserable man 
in Ceylon was said to be he who ''owned a 
coffee estate" and who could not get rid of it 
and its mortgage burdens. And yet those who 
considered themselves fortunate enougli to get 
clear by transferring their property for com- 
paratively, "a mere song," were no doubt ten 
vears later, envying their aforesaid miserable 
neitrhbours who having had, perforce, to worry 
alone, found their land advance amazingly in 
value in the " tea era. ' Now again, we have a 
check-a swing of the pendulum. So it has ever 
been in " the planting history" of Ceylon. Every 
ten or eleven years, (as if in correspondence, with 
the sun-spot cycles), there has come round a 
terra of depression, sometimes serious and pro- 
lonaed ; at other times less severe and temporary. 
Let us hope that to the latter belongs the present 
check to the Tea Enterprise. 
But our subject today is the consideration of 
certain products which ought to be more and 
more tried in certain suitable districts as supple- 
mentary to tea. In connection with the review 
of our great industries for our "Handbook and 
Directory," we have been applying to certain 
representative planters, Visiting Agents and Man- 
agers, for their experience and opinions of alter- 
native products and a good deal of valuable in- 
formation has been the result. We have already 
dealt with "Para Rubber," which, by many, is 
considered the most important of coming products, 
but which is limited by an altitude of oOO feet, 
for clearings, as only under exceptional circum- 
stances should planting be tried up to 1,OUO or 
1 20U feet above sea level. It is therefore a low- 
countrv product. Still it is satisfactory to know 
that apart from the extensive plantings in K^lu- 
tara and other maritime districts, in Kelani Valley 
and especially in Kurunegala not a little has 
been done in Matale and Dumbara and still 
more in divisions of Uva. An interesting and 
successful experiment is that found on one of the 
Monaragala estates, from which no doubt neigh- 
bouring planters will take courage. On ualan- 
goda cdearings a great deal of Para Rubbei has 
been put m and we hope it will succeed in 
suite of the elevation in some instances, being 
above that recommended. It is well to remember 
that experiments, a good many years ago, were 
not coulined to one or two estates or even one 
or two districts, and although unnoticed because 
in most cases the trees have been utilised tor 
seed onlv, our district returns for Directory seeni 
fo shew that there is the e(,uivalent ot over 1,000 
6 
acres covered with rubber on private plantations, 
apart from the plantings of the^Forest Depait- 
nient and the Botanic Gaidens ; but then this 
includes clearings or plantings of the now dis- 
carded Ceara Rubber which, in Dunibara, is 
proving by no meai.s an unpioiitable tree. V/ith 
the Manila trade di;Tori.'ani.se!l, something ought 
to be done in "Fibres" and we see the New 
Zealand liax trade is likely to revive and extend. 
This same New Zealand flax (PJiorniiuni tcnax) 
grows well in Tva, and a clearing might not 
come amiss : but at present the more valuabe 
"Ramie" claims attention ; and while the low- 
country again would seem to be lavourlte, thei'e 
is no reason why it should not be tried higher 
up— only it wants good soil. We legJid to bnd 
a consensus of opinion and experience unfavour- 
able to any revival of codec, even of the Liberian 
variety in Ceylon. The extremely plucky and 
in cresting experiment with 12G' acres of Liberian 
in the Kelani Valley cannot be pionouneed a 
success ; the trees which blossom and get the same 
set as v/eil as carry crop till it ri])ens, are few 
and far between and leaf disease is often ram- 
pant ; so that the jiroprietors have had to pro- 
tect themselves by planting tea (3 by 3^ ft.) 
between the cofl'ee. So, from Matale and else- 
where, we have unfavourable accounts of Libe- 
rian coffee : when planted with cacao, the latter 
is almost invariably the successful inoduct. Here 
is one report from a practical quarter ; — 
"We tried Liberian coffee with cacao— planted at the 
same time. A rich piece o£ soil with_ situation and 
everything favourable bat no good, it is now 3 to 
4 year3 old, and is nearly killed out every now 
and then by leaf disease an3 green bug." 
On the other hand it is cheering to have such 
good accounts of our old staple this year from 
most of the divisions of Uva: crops up to o, 000 
or 6,000 bushels on individual estates, are spoken 
of, if the season continues favourable ; and it is 
hard to say whether it the lady-bird experiment 
in Coorg and Mysore prove successful, the same 
might not save and perpetuate coffee in Uva, 
where even now there are some 7,500 to 8,000 
acres out of 12,000 acres of Coffeca Ambica re- 
maining in the island. One of the oldest bits of 
coffee in Ceylon must be that on "the rocky 
tield" of Asgeria between Vicarton Gorge in Matale 
West — which we visited in 1869 with Abercromby 
Swan and Charles Forbes. It is planted up with 
cacao ; but continues to give occasional good 
crops. The interesting experiment begun in Dum- 
bara some years ago of planting coffee for 
catch "crops" with cacao is still, we find, 
continu3d. Coorg seed was used on Kondesalle 
estate as supposed to be disease- proof — a vain 
delusion — but good crops were got for a few 
years, till in the fourth year or so, the Cacao 
began to overpower the Coffee and the crop 
from the latter became a straggling one and 
rapidly fell off. Heie is a report from Dumbara 
on the subject, of some interest : — 
" /I'e coffee plaate'3 in lfe92 from Coorg seed 
the coffee is not doing much now as the cacao 
which was planted along with it has taken up all 
the ground. Suckers were left, on the trees some 
two or three years ago, and the lateral braTiches 
began to die back owing to ca^ao. They are uow 
vei-y healtliy, but of course dou't give much crop 
as the whadc is too dense for it. I>iolhiiig is now 
done to the trees, and they are leit to ;;ro\v like 
native coffee. It gave last year only about :{ cwt 
per aero. The coffee, as yon Unow, was only planted 
ua "catch" crop. In lbyi-95 another field was 
planted vuth coffee, cacao and coconuts. Cacao and 
coconuts are doing well. The coffee looks very 
