April 1, 1904.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
669 
I am writing of what I suffered from in the 
past, and of what others are suflerinn; from now ; 
and personally I have no interest in it as I have 
not applied for any land and do not intend to do 
so long as I can get equally suitable land to 
lease in the Straits at an annual rent, and where 
I have just taken up 1,000 acres of land — of which 
200 acres are being opened this year. 
No, Sir, I do not intend again to be the victim of 
A PERNICIOUS SYSTEM, 
administered in some cases by men whose 
knowledge of statesmanship is so limited that 
they cannot see the advantage of encourag- 
ing capital to come into the country— and 
who put so much red tape and obstruction in 
one's way that the block one can get in Java, in 
South India or in the Straits in at most a few 
months, takes several years to get in Ceylon, 
KALUTARA IN THE EARLY DAYS. 
Kalutara was first opened in liberian coffee, 
cacao, and Ceara rubber, and the fortunes that were 
made (on paper) were immense. One coffee tree, for 
instance, actually gave over two bushels of clean 
coffee in the early days ! So you will readily under- 
stand that 25 to 50 cents appeared a trifle to 
give for plants to put out in clearings ; so the 
capital account, like the hopes^ was very high. 
But in a very few years it became obvious that 
this Ceara rubber would not yield latex in any 
quantity, that the sea breezes killed the cacao, 
which, like the coffee, was on unsuitable soil, and 
that leaf disease and black bug were too much 
for the coffee. High prices were paid for the land, 
and the largest crop that I knew of being got 
from any coffee field was well under 10 cwt. It 
was also found tbat Liberian cherry only gave 
about half the amount of parchment that coffee 
arabica gave, and that Liberian parchment 
only fetched about half the price that coffee i 
arabica did. So 
WITH HEAVY HEARTS WE TURNED TO TEA. 
There, as in every ca'e of Pioneering, a consider- 
able proportion of the proprietors lost all they 
had invested and their estates changed hands 
just when the tarn of the tide was coming. 
Tea seed of inferior jat was, to a limited extent 
planted; and the proprietors of the gardens, wiiere 
it was used, have paid the penalty all those years. 
THE FIRST FIELDS OF TEA 
were put out in 1879 or 1880 1 think, and I saw 
lately some of the earliest tea looking very fine 
and yielding heavy crops. 
Kalutara Planters were among the first 
to go in lor rubber, to any appreciable extent, and 
A GREAT DEAL OF CREDIT IS DUE TO 
MR. EDWARD GRIGSON 
for the steady extension of the rubber interest in 
its earlier days. But for him the area now under 
rubber plants in Ceylon would be very much less 
than it is. Personally, I was like the foolish 
virgin, and threw away my opportunity inas- 
much as 1 declined an offer just 13 years ago, 
made by a fond relative, to plant up 50 acres for 
my oldest boy. I refused bei>ause I feared the 
money would be lost, and the offer has never been 
repealed. Moral : don't look a gift horse in the 
mouth. 
Here is what we should have had today, but for 
my foolishness:— 50 acres iubberx200 trees = 10,000 
trees, at 2 It', per tree at least, (probably 3 lb.) but 
say 20,000 lb. of rubber, at a profi': of K2 50 per 
or say RSO.OOO per annum. What a source of 
joy that boy would have been to me, instead of 
being a source of anxiety in case he fails in that 
great exam he is working for. Indeed, if he ever 
learns that I was the means of his losing £.*},C00 a 
year, he may never forgive me ; while I pen these 
lines with a heavy heart and try to console myself 
that the profit is only on paper and might never 
have been realised. 
RUBBER IN KALITTARA TODAY. 
Kalutara today has a very large number of 
rubber trees all over the tea and in separate 
clearings, one estate alone having no fewer than 
130,000 trees on it. Unless something occurs, which 
is at present absolutely unforeseen, the proprietors 
there will, in a few years, reap a rich reward. On 
nearly all of the estates 
THE TEA FAIRLY ASTONISHED ME, 
and one little property that used to belong to me 
last year averaged 620 lb. all over, which is about 
200 ib. per acre more than it ever gave me and is 
due to the treatment of the "Josephus" system. 
Some of the estates have gone back, but the great 
majority of them have improved in crops and in 
appearance. 
The coolies are far healthier and look quite happy 
and well. The Planter of today is as good as (net 
better than) the Pioneers of the district. 
There are more ladies than there used to be, and 
the bungalows are very excellent and well ap- 
pointed. I have to thank very kindly hostesses 
and hosts for making my visit as pleasant as it 
could possibly be, and I came away fully satisfied 
that the tea will for long yield excellent results 
and that the rubber industry has found its home 
in Kalutara. 
THE QUESTION OF LAND SALES, 
Since writing these notes I have been dis* 
cussing the question of land sales with M"^ 
Thomas North Christie, and; to my great pleasure- 
found he had laid a scheme before Sir Arthu'" 
Havelock very much on the lines I advocate. 1^ 
they wanted the proceeds of land sales for revenu^ 
then, when the Colony was hard- up, they can wel^ 
afford to start the new system now that the Colony s 
finances are in a solvent state. Mr Christie say^ 
that had his recommendation been adopted, th^ 
income from land rents would have been about 
£60,000 per annum today, or say, one million 
rupees. Would this not be better statemanship than 
selling the Colony's birthright for a mess of pottage? 
L. D. 
TROUT REARING ON THE NILGIKIS 
(To the Editor, "Madras Mail.") 
Sir,— I have been watching during the few 
years that I have been in India with keen 
interest, and some amusement, the various 
efforts made by the Nilgiri Game Association 
to rear trout for the various rivers on these 
Hills. I have noticed two errors which ap- 
pear to me to l7e of the most vital import- 
ance: (1) The feeding of the young fry. (2) The 
age and size at which they are turned out 
into the rivers. I may say that I myself have 
spawned and reared trout most successfully 
for years on my father's river, the Kennett 
in Berkshire, so claim to have a thorough 
practical knowledge of this art. 
Ootacamund. T. E. W. 
