May 1, 190-2.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
76i 
them in amount. No giapliiur pclii.^ls lia'3 lieen 
found. Finally, tlie aullior said tlist lie had 
no wish to lay great stress on his ' igneous ' 
theory, and he regarded the descriptive portion 
of his papers as of much more importance than 
the theoretical. 
DEVELOPMENT OF WASTE LANDS 
IN THE NORTH : 
TRAFFIC FOR THE RAILWAY ; 
COTTON— SUGAR— TOBACCO. 
The I'luriourcd poor traffic returns from 
the Jaffna railway section have brought 
•' prophets of evil " once more to the front 
and one of them has l)een saying that the 
man who believes in our great Northern 
Railway being profitable, may be compared 
to the sailor who, hearing that parrots 
lived for a hundred years, bought one in 
order to test the truth of the statement ! - 
For ourselves we shall be much disappointed 
if at least the Jaffna section of the Rail- 
way does not prove profitable, in the face 
of the dense population of the Peninsula. 
But, of course, there has hitherto been no 
experience of how a purely Tamil com- 
munity — "the Scotchman of the East" — 
may care to spend money on railway- 
travelling. In the case of the Sinhalese 
it has been demonstrated that the villagers 
almost too freely patronise the comfortable 
third-class carriages, making this branch 
the most profitable of passenger traffic. It 
is, however, too soon to judge of the Jaffna 
Tamils. 
But in any case, the opening of the first 
section of the Northern Kailway should 
direct more attention to the exploiting 
and utilising of the North-Central country, 
at least along the railway route. No one 
expects that trains will run 'full up " when 
the whole line is open to traffic— not even 
the warmest advocates of the extension 
without refei ence to route or gauge ; and 
Sir West Ridgeway will prove himself a 
far-seeing administrator as well as a vigorous 
and earnest advocate, if he begins to 
encourage cultivation by exceptional in- 
ducements, if he wishes to seethe line be- 
come a financial success within the time of his 
successor. And cotton is one of the products 
to wliich both climate and soil over a great 
part of the route, point as one likely to be 
successful. Let the Revenue Officers along 
the line be instriicted to start experimental 
stations, under the guidance of the Director 
of the Botanical Gardens, and let the best 
seed available be procured ; and that 
promptly ! 
This is neither the first, nor the second, 
- time we have counselled the importance of 
taking time by the forelock, if the North- 
ern Railway is not to prove a burden on 
the revenue for an inconveniently long 
period. We sho\ild be only too glad if the 
event convict us of pessimism in expect- 
ing an initial loss. There are few, we 
imagine, who expect the line to do more 
than pay v^orking expenses for a time ; 
but even assuming that the Railway may 
prove financially satisfactory from the start, 
there would be no harm in the adoption 
of measures calculated to develop traffic 
and to promote the proa|ierity of the 
country. Admittedly, the population of the 
interior parts is both scanty and poor, and 
admittedly the climatic conditions are not 
such as to attract Europeans ; but European 
capital is essential for ojjerations which 
would contribute appreciable traffic to the 
new line. It is in the power of the Govern- 
ment— if not alone, at any rate more 
quickly and n)ore certainly tlian private 
individuals, — to demonstrate the suit- 
ability of the country for remunerative 
cultivation, in order to attract capital. We 
have before now drawn attention to the 
probability that part of the country will be 
found suitable for Sugar, in the opinion of an 
expert of our acquaintance with large 
Eastern experience. More recently still we 
introduced to public notice Mr. MacDougal 
Gibson who is veiy hopeful of a great 
future for the country through Tobacco. 
And now we desire to emphasise the 
absolute need of early and thorough ex- 
periments with Cotton. At the recent 
annual general meeting of the Upper India 
Chamber of Commerce, some facts were 
brought to light which should receive 
earnest attention here, and lead to profit- 
able imitation. It was stated that the ex- 
perimental cultivation of American Cotton 
at the Cawnpore Agricultural Farm proved 
that Cotton catr be acclimatized in a 
few years by a system of cultivation which 
can be adopted by any intelligent ryot, and 
that the results are a yield five times in 
weight of that obtained from the local 
product, and of a fibre suitable for spinning 
up to 60s instead of 2')s. If, as the President 
stated at that meeting, " a mine of wealth 
lies litei'ally at the feet of the cultivator " in 
India, why should it not be so here, too ? 
Let our local Department of Agriculture 
answer. 
CEYLON INVESTMENTS. 
rE.\ .SHARKS AT THK L0W15ST POINT Yf.T TOUCHKD, 
Out of twenty-seven Companies, in the sliare.s of 
which there have been dealings during the quaiter, 
(Hily six have secnreil .a more favourable price, 
whilst in the remaiiiiug twenty one cases the fall 
has, in some cases, been set ions. It must be 
reinembei ed, hmvever, that this, the first quarter 
of the year, wilh Rupee as wiih Sterlinj,' Crni- 
panies, is I he period for dividend jiaying and the 
large d.i op of Hs .552,720 is pai tly to be explained by 
some of the sales having bet-n made after the 
payment of the dividend ; but it is, in any ease, 
decidedly disap]>ointing lint the contiinied favour- 
able state of the tea market has had so little effect 
upon the quotai i'.ms. .Since last reiurn we have 
iiichulfd Ks fi 000 added capital, issued by the 
I'itakande Comp.my, and I!s 25.000 by the Rat- 
watte Company. Counnereials have, largely by 
the increase in the quotation for Galle F. oi; 
shares, recoveied from the set-back they 
experienced last quarter, altliouf,'h " Steams" and 
" Ices" are still on the down-grade. Hotel shtues, 
