July 1, 1903.j 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTUKlST. 
more sympathetic, adda, — " Yes, I find there 
are doubts about tlie practical benefit to be 
derived from a Prunins, Essay : a good 
Manager of any standing with many yeais 
behind him, should know how to deal with 
his trees."* Still, there are the younger plan- 
ters to consider and it is always well to 
have the concentrated essence of practical 
experience, science and commonsense, put 
in black and white and in a res,dily acces- 
sible form. We are prepared, therefore, if 
the Judges on the Pruning Essays, find that 
there are three Essays of such superior ex- 
cellence that it is difficult to place theui in 
relative order, or if two are so near each 
other as to be classed " equal for the second 
prize " to be responsible for a similar amount 
to that already promised for the second: that is, 
if the Committee of the Planters' Association 
and the Judges care to have such an offer. 
We hope this will satisfy the proprietor who 
sent us the suggestion. 
From another quarter altogether, though 
in planting circles, we have a suggestion 
which we confess takes our fancy rather 
more closely. It is to the effect that pithy 
condensed accounts of the various industries 
in the Colony are much required in language 
that could be " understanded by the coni- 
mon people " who read English, and which 
in fact could be more or less embodied 
in local school books. Our correspondent 
writes :— 
" It would be very interesting if you could see 
your way to offering a small prize (money or 
books) weekly, for the best account in English 
of the actual work done in connection with each 
industry. Old Knox's account of paddy-growing 
is just the sort of thing one wants, but, of course, 
if we could get folk-lore and folk-songs turned 
into English, so much the better. If the account 
were very intelligent, perliaps the teller might be 
commissioned to collect illustrations foj the 
Colombo Museum, but that is another story. We 
want such an account of the various stages of the 
cultivation or manufacture as an intelligent 
village headman or master workman might give, 
— but it must be in English. Such an account 
might be most interesting reading for your 
Tropical Agriculturist Supplement — don't you 
think? I would suggest topics for chapters ; — 
"1. Coconut growing ; 2, Industries connected 
with coconut produce ; 3. Palmyra giowing ; 
4. Industries connected with palmyra produce ; 
5. Salt; 6. Plumbago mining; 7. t^em hunt- 
ing ; 8. Pearl fishing ; 9. Gold and Silver- 
smith work ; 10. Iron smelting (it it still exists 
in the villages); IJ, Brass work; 12. Lacquer 
work; 13. Basket and niat-raaking ; 14, Rattan 
work ; 15. Wood cutting ; 16. Carpentry ; 17. 
Pottery ; 18. Building ; 19. Kiver fishing ; 20. 
Sea fishing (sear, etc.) ; 21, Chank fishing ; 22. 
Paddy growing ; 23. Dry grain growing ; 24, 
Another fact that makes it difficult for a 
Ceylon writer to bring forth an original essay, is the 
recent appearance of the excellent pamphlet on Tea- 
pruning by Sir Geo, Watt and Mr. IvJann ; while 
there is an elaborate chapter on the " Principles 
of Pruning" accompanied by illustrations, in the 
large and most useful 2nd edition of "The Pests 
and Blights of the Tea Plant " just issued by the 
siame authorities. 
Tea ; 25, Cacao ; 26. Pepper ; 27. Cardamoms ; 
28. Kubber ; 29, Cinchona ; 30. Cinnamon ; 
31. Village Lace-work ; 32. Kandyan Brass- 
work — and so on. 
" If people would take it up, what an interest- 
ing volume you could muke at the end ! Of 
course the last set — the " European " products — 
have lots of literature ; but for your purpose they 
might be just as interesting, And, if you come 
to making a volume, you could make it an 
illustrated one ! Don't you feel tenipted ?"' 
Frankly and distinctly we do ; and we wish we 
could see the scheme realised ; bat to main- 
tain any degree of uniformity and consist 
ent clearness as well as brevity, we fear- 
thac most of the chapters (a case of boiling- 
down from the manuals of reference avail- 
able) must come from one hand. Is there 
any one in our midst with the time and 
competency to take the work up I-' If not, 
we might devolve it on the shoulders of the 
coming Sub-Editor of our "T. A.", as a 
capital way of initiating him into the his- 
tory and practice of the various indus- 
tries of the country. He can t;ikc Knox's 
" Paddy-growing," as a model for expression, 
and for number of words, and try (with our 
aid in revision) to do the same for other 
staples— while calling on specialists, where we 
can find them, for chapters on subjects ;ibout 
which perhaps nothinghas, as yet, been put in 
print, — for example, "river-fishing" (a well- 
known angler in view) ; poultry, &c. Our 
own series of Manuals could, however, first 
be dealt with. 
LABOUR RECRUITING IN SOUTH INDIA. 
We direct attention to further practical 
information elsewhere with regard to the 
recruiting of labour in South India, 
which Mr, Westland has forwarded to 
us (see page 58.) It should be specially 
noticed by the planting authorities that 
the greatest difficulty experienced in 
recruiting in the new districts has been the 
inability to convince the coolies that they 
are not to be sent to Natal. They dread 
this so much that, it is said, the recruiters 
for Natal get R29 to R32 per head for every 
cooly they hand over to the Agents. The 
recruiters for Ceylon at first demanded from 
R4 to K7 per head, but ultimately agreed to 
work for K2 as they would, they thought, 
easily get coolies to go to Ceylon. But when 
the coolies were brought together, these Natal 
recruiters got hold of them and frightened 
them all back to their villages by saying 
they were all to be sent to Natal, It 
is felt to be a certainty that with an 
accredited Agent, with credentials from 
the Ceylon Government to the col- 
lector at Cuddapah, everything would 
change like magic, and any number of 
coolies could be had. The danger of indivi- 
dual superintendents and representatives 
from various companies going over to 
recruit is that they may bid against each 
other for labour. The recruiters would take 
the advantage of this and raise the rates for 
recruiting. In this way Ceylon planters 
would be paying far more for their labour 
