d^AN. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
UVA DISTRICT REVISITED. 
AFTER AN INTERVAL OF TWENTY YEARS. 
(Bii an old Planting Correspondent.) 
There is a pleasant and a very unpleasant 
way of travellinj? thrciUKh some ot the tea 
districts of the Central Province, especially 
when fcwentv nules or more inn-it l)e traversed 
on a dark uiglit and there is no resthouse 
or shelter. Any '■ stranger' who wants to 
to Nuwara Eliya via Gampola and Pus- 
sellawa should be armed with a letter of 
introduction or he will most certainly come 
to grief, there being now 
NO RESTHOUSE IN PUSSELLAWA. 
If we had known this and that, after 
travelling ten miles to Pussellawa, we should 
be obliged to push on another ten miles 
to Ramboda when very tired and hungry 
and the little bullocks of the hackery com- 
pletely played out, we should most certainly 
have let Pussellawa slide and quietly stepped 
into the upcouutry train at Gampola station 
for Nanuoya, and So avoided making a mis- 
calculation and spending a miserable n'ght 
on the road and going to bed without any 
dinner. Under such circumstances it is not 
to be expected that a very cheerful ac- 
count of 
PUSSELLAWA DISTRICT 
can be written. The brampola resthouse (or 
rather hotel) appoo tried very hard to get 
two coolies to carry baggage and, after a 
long seaich round the town, broujiht iwo 
men who asked for one rupee and fifty cents 
each, very reasonal>le certainly, but they did 
not get it all the same. Then a hackery 
was sent for and the bullocks were a failure ; 
we made very slow progress even where 
the road was easy. At the bridge toll the 
fat kine was exchanged for the lean kine 
and two miles an hour was about the rate 
of progress. However, we wanted to look at 
the tea on some of the estates including 
Orwell, Sanquhar and Sogamawattie. So far 
we felt "sogam" because we had daylight 
and it was the first tine day for a long 
time ! The scene is changed since we knew 
Ryan, Innman and Mason on the three 
above estates. The places have grown out 
of knowledge, particularly the two laf^er 
estates with over one thousand acres of tea 
between them and large factories. The tea 
is not as good as may be seen in Assam and 
seems to require manure in an old district 
like Pussellawa.— Rothschild we could not 
see at 7 p.m. We caught a glimpse of some of 
the fields next morning, 
" And distance lent enchantment to the 
view, 
And clothed the hills in all their verdant 
hue," 
We should always associate Pussellawa with 
abig miscalculation we made of spending a 
happy day" And going to bed withouc any 
dinner at 12-30 a.m. 
We had also promised ourselves a great 
treat— to see the Ramboda Falls fall in their 
ja^f^stic glor/i btit the Fates denied eVen this 
and we could only hear them thundering 
above and below as the miserable hackery 
wended its way in the dark over bridges 
and culverts. We should uever have fetched 
Ramboda wich the two Gampola bullocks. 
An old piaater was good enough to lend us 
a white coast bull who had to pull the Gam- 
pola iHilloek as well cis the hackery. We 
paid tea rupees for twenty miles, according 
to agreement to the hackery man in addaum 
to paying for two tolls and other small 
charges including one rupee to the driver of 
the white l)ull (bemg night work.) We regret 
very much parsing through a large district 
like Pussellawa containing as it does over 
twenty thousand acres of tea and seeing so 
little of it. It is a contrast to the good old 
days of coffee when we often spent CJhristmas 
week up chere and saw all the estates and 
all the planters of the district tind had a 
Go vernDient Resthouse to rest our weary 
bones if unfortunate enough to be benighted. 
Ramboda was the first halting place from 
Gampola and here we enjoyed the hospitality 
of the oldest planter in the district, xMr. de 
Lemos who is still strong and hearty and 
walked to the top of the Gondegalla Pass 
with me by the short cuts. Ramboda, includ- 
ing Bluelields, Gondegalla and Labookelle 
all look ill good order with nearly two 
thousand acres of tea between them and large 
factories. Westwanl Ho is a series of tea fields 
near the cart-road to Nuwara Eliya, the 
property of Mr. G W Wnite. 
We much preferred the old forest shade of 
Nuwara Eliya to the present innovation of 
much over produced tea; and as we entered 
the Town of iNuwara Eliya we thought the 
ridges— planted with tea— no improvement 
whatever, but on the contrary robbing the 
Sanatarium of its original picturesqueness 
and pleasant resorts for family pic-nics, 
NUWARA ELIYA 
is very greatly improved as regards new 
buildings and the business appearance of the 
town, but we did not feel happy until out 
of civilisation and on the borders of the 
Lake where we found shelter for the ni'^ht 
through the kindness of t.ie [.'ropi ietor of one 
of the snug cottages situated to the left of 
the Lake. We started at daylight for Uva 
and called in at the Hakgalla Gardens, but 
saw too httle of them to make any com- 
ments, good, bad, or indififerent ; we just went 
m at the grand entrance and out at another 
gate on to the Patana taking a short cut 
down to the cart-road from whence we came. 
Mr. Nock was engaged with a visitor and we 
much regret not seeing more of Hakgalla 
There are many good vegetable market 
gardens between Nuwara Eliya ami Wilson s 
Bungalow and great quantities of vegetables 
packed and labelled for Colombo. CaOb.i.'es 
carrots, beet, o.iions and parsley sed.ned 
flourishing. We quite agreewith your corre- 
spondent " Progre:,s " that the Ceylon Gov- 
eminent shoidd construct a lake' or laro-e 
dam to hold the waters running to waste 7n 
one of the healthiest climates of the island. 
It would certainly attract settlers to that 
part of Uva between Nuwara Eliya and New 
Gal way to Wilaon's Bungalow and the deso, 
late patanas vtqwX^ cooie under eultivatiotj^ 
