48 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. [July 1, 1901. 
The cardamoms at Hormusjee are a great 
success and looking remarkably well, some 
seventy acres, thirty of which are in bearing, 
extending to the source of the Doteloya river ; 
and cardamom cultivation continues on the 
Doteloya estate in the shade of forest in the 
deep gorge or valley of the Doteloya river. 
Hormusjee tea looks very well and we had 
pleasure in meeting one of the sons of an 
old Dolosbage planter. Thirty two years ago 
the son of Archdeacon Glenie was Super- 
intendent of Barnagalla. Mrs. Glenie is now in 
Travancore with her son on a tea plantation. 
Doteloya Estate or Nona Totum is now 
incorporated in the Tea Corporation, Limited. 
There are some 700 acres cultivated and 6io 
acres of tea. I believe thare are 30 acres of 
cacao and 30 acres of cardamoms besides nut- 
megs, cinnamon, annatto and other products 
noticed near the bungalow. The writer ob- 
tained permission from the late Mr. Blackett 
to visit some cotton planted on the site of 
Jak-tree Hill. Mr. B., senior, was quite a 
pioneer in new products and was a very 
successful planter. Doteloya tea looks well 
as does all tea in'Dolosbage ; the district com- 
pares favourably with other districts accord- 
ing to the opinion of experts. We met the 
Superintendent on the road and continued 
through the jungle with the intention of 
hunting up another old landmark of Dolos- 
bage, one of the pioneers of tea and cacao 
planting in the district, Mr. JohnDrummond. 
The weather has been severe in this quarter 
and we got a very good ducking on this 
journey through the bush and down the hill, 
coming to some slippery places in transit. 
The box cooly said "AppaSami" and helped 
me over some queer places during the storm, 
but we reached Oonankande and met Mr. 
Gidlow who soon made us feel comfortable. 
Mr. John Drummond turned up in the even- 
ing and we had a talk of old times. 
Oonankande is quite a new estate, the tea 
looks well and there is a eood view of the low- 
country from the bungalow, looking out on 
the Kelani Valley. There is a fine estate under 
tea called Yataderiya, Kegalla; it stands 
out in bold relief in the forests of the low- 
CDuntry. We got a bird's-eye view of this 
property from the vantage ground of Oonan- 
kande. Poor Mr.Gidlow has just lost his sister 
who was killed by lightning at Gangwarily 
estate just below Oonankande ; the lightning 
split up two verandah posts and entered the 
bungalow under the ground, killing and in- 
juring all the occupants of the room, then 
escaping and splitting a rock on the other side. 
Taking advantage of a fine morning we came 
down through Gangwarily, visiting the scene 
of the lightning accident and passing the 
bungalow of Mr. Kellow, the present Superin- 
tendent of Gangwarily, who had gone down 
to his factory by the river side ; we crossed 
a bridge leading to the factory of Dedugalla 
and St. Blane, from where we could see the 
Gangwarily factory with its water-wheel 
working. Cacao is plentiful on Gangwarily 
and looking well and the tea is flourishing; 
there are twenty acres, givingfourteenhundred 
pounds to the acre. The new Company, called 
the Gangwiuily Estates Company of Ceylon, 
Limited, includes Havilland, 340 acres of tea, 
on the opposite side of the river. There are 
370 acres of land in cultivation on Gang- 
warily estate. The climb from the bridge to 
the Dedugalla bungalow was good manual 
exercise before breakfast and the Superin- 
tendent received us kindly, on our mentioning 
that we had once been in charge of Dedu- 
galla and St. Blane ; the teas made here were 
of very good flavour and the turbine drives 
the machinery. There is also a turbine on 
Havilland, doing excellent work. Around 
the Dedugalla bungalow we found 
some loquat trees and other plants 
of our own planting in 1876, twenty- 
five years ago. We opened up St. Blane 
in 1874 and found it a steep and hard 
working phice ; the ageritum and other fancy 
weeds, such as the Spanish Needle, were very 
plentiful, but now ihe properties lookcleanaud 
in good order, and the tea made of very 
good flavour. We had not visited Havilland 
since we took a very, prominent part in a 
tragedy in 1874, but we will let bygones be 
bygones and pass that over. Havilland uses 
wire-shoots for transporting leaf and wood ; 
a gradient of one in ten is considered safe for 
both wood and leaf, the runners travel very 
well and the coolies enjoy seeing the bags 
flying through the air. Liberian coffee looks 
healthy, and in bearing there are about 
twenty acres of Liberian coffee and about 
five of cacao. The old seed-bearers on both 
sides of the bridle path are fine bushes and 
their stems quite ten inches in diameter. Mr. 
Kellow came up to dinner and gave us much 
information about South Africa aod his 
personal adventures as one of the Ceylon 
Contingent, but somehow the authorities 
have forgotten to send him his service 
medal and balance of pay. 
We walked down to the factory of Havil- 
land yesterday ' and saw the machinery 
working, driven by the turbine. The tea 
packer is an interesting machine and does 
good work ; when it's in motion one can insert 
one's hand into the tea, but as soon as the 
machine is stopped it is impossible to put your 
hand into the centre of the chest. The fer- 
menting drawers or trays, set up like a huge 
chest of drawers, attracted my attention. In 
visiting different tea factories there are 
many different ways of manufacture, and one 
learns a good deal. Returning from the 
factory your correspondent was treated to a 
ride instead of walking and managed to 
reach the bungalow of Havilland before the 
tea leaf was shot down the wire-shoot. 
Before dinner (7"30) we were sitting in the 
front verandah and suddenly caught sight 
of the comet to the West and to the left of 
the constellation Orion. We hope to see it 
again tonight as the weather is fine. —.Yours 
faithfully, HENRY COTTAM. 
[Can Mr. Cottam tell us about " Doolgala' 
block of land entered in the Directory for 
many years as belonging to the heirs of the 
late John Gordon.— Ed. T.^.] 
The Midland Tea Plantations Company. 
— The report which we publish on page 52 con- 
tains a repetition of the tale, to which we have 
now become accustomed, of serious loss on the 
past season's working. We trust, however, 
that the finer system of plucking which has 
been adopted will have a beneficial result. 
