THE T« 0 !»!CAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1890. 
4S0 
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oharmed with the many beautiful or new vegetable 
and floral treasures arrayed on the parterres and in 
the borders of the open and prettily turfed expanses. 
To children a visit to these Gardens affords great 
enjoyment, and those who aooompanied us had 
such fun ” in running round and round and hither 
and thither over the maze of narrow walks, on the 
sides of the ravine in which the Fernery is situated, 
and were so delighted with all the interesting and 
beautiful objects they saw, that they gave voice to 
the feeling of us ‘‘ children of a larger growth,” when 
they expressed reluctance to leave Hakgala. Mr. 
Nock, as usual, had many plants, new or newly in 
flower, ornamental and useful, to which to direct our 
attention ; and not the least interesting “ exhibit ” 
was a plot of potatoes, wonderfully prolific and 
healthy, although the fourth successive crop was 
being grown in the same ground. I could speak of 
our admiration of roses, camellias, begonias, tree 
daisies and other things of beauty, but the place must 
be visited to get an idea of its beauty, and on a day 
such as we enjoyed, to realize the grandeur of the 
view of the vast spreading valley of Uva, with 
its rice fields, its patana hills and forested moun- 
tains and the majesty of the precipitous face of 
sheer rock which rises over the Gardens. We saw 
interesting photographs of the views from some 
points, but not of a size to do justice to the 
massiveness of the mountain or the extent of the 
prospects. The sight of the enormous proportion 
of grassy prairies in Uva cannot but raise ques- 
tions as to the possibility of improving the 
pasturage in some cases, of culture of useful food 
or fibrous products in others, and of considerable 
afiorestment in suitable situations. We cannot 
doubt that much of this is in the future, progress 
— material, intelluctual and spiritual — being in- 
definitely furthered by the railway over which 
trains laden with passengers and the exchanges of 
a profitable commerce will soon be entering the 
ancient Principality of Uva and awakening its 
echoes to the sounds of a new dispensation. 
This morning here is no exception to the sunny 
brightness and perfect calm of the openings of 
previous days, and but for a mass of moist looking 
haze up towards the table-land between Totapala and 
Pidurutalagala, we should feel inclined to predict 
a continuance of the present brilliant weather. Mr. 
Nock on the Uva side, like others on this side 
who are putting out plants, would be glad of a 
little rain. Our thermometer went down to 52° 
in the very early hours of this morning, but all 
the signs point to a sun heat today represented 
by not far from three times that figure. 
SUPPLY BASKETS AND THEIE VALUE IN TEANSPOETING — 
SUCCESS OP EUCALYPTS &C . — PEPPEE IN CEYLON — 
THE WEAIHEE. 
Nanuoya, Nov. 12th. 
Yesterday, when cn route to Nuwara Eliya, we 
came upon a gang of coolies, eight in number, carry- 
ing loads, each made up of several hundreds of 
funnel-shaped supply baskets, packed one into the 
other in long rolls. The baskets had probably come 
from Kalutara to Nanuoya by train, and we naturally 
specu’ated on their destination. With a good deal 
of probability, considering the extensive failure in 
planting after the ordinary fashion in the partially 
cleared forests below Nuwara Eliya, we credited the 
consignment to the local forest officers. In any 
case it would seem that it would be better for 
foresters and planters to incur the cost of such 
babkofs, where sections of bamboo, or other 
subslitu'.es, are not available, than to lose, as is so 
frequently the case, plants put out. which have 
cost so much in the shape of purchase of ssed and 
labour expended on nurseries. Plants differ very 
much in sensitiYoncss to the clleot of transplanting. 
Tea does well whan put out at an early stage of 
growth and I believe better when of an age which 
renders “stumping” necessary. Frenelas, on the 
other hand, succeed as seedlings, but “ insidious 
defunction ” is the rule with plants above half a 
foot in height. Many of the Australian euoalypts, 
too, die from the effects of transplanting. No 
wonder though the grevilleas are such favourites : 
not only are they amongst the most free-growing 
and beautiful of trees, but the plants put out in 
anything like decent weather practically all succeed. 
That is in the hill and mountain regions, for of 
white toons and grevilleas recently sent to a low- 
country estate the report is that fully 80 per cent of 
the toons have succeeded, while 95 per cent of the 
grevilleas perished. The fact is probably significant 
of the zones in which each will best fiourish, 
although 1 have seen some fine specimens of 
grevillea and also of Norfolk Island pine at Colombo. 
The mention of the lowcountry estate in which I 
am interested reminds me of “ Pepperoorn’a” recent 
allusion to the comparative failure of the plant from 
the fruit of which that clever writer has derived his 
nom de jdume. Our climate in the south-west of 
Ceylon bears so much of general resemblance to 
that of Malabar, where some of the beat pepper 
in the world is grown, that many of us thought 
that the vine ought to grow well and be fruit- 
ful of its special spice with us. In my own case 
I had encouragement in the shape of groves of 
jak trees in native gardens near my land, which 
were certainly not grown merely as ornamental 
creepers. I have, therefore, grown the vines to 
some extent on trees and on rocks, and in both 
cases, there has been no failure in luxuriant 
growth. But fruit has not been in proportion, and 
of the small quantities of peppercorns yielded, my 
native neighbours have for two successive years 
helped themselves pretty liberally. The effect of 
turning the tops of the plants downwards, of 
pruning and of watching will be tried before the 
experiment is abandoned ; but I have a considerable 
degree of fear that pepper must be added to 
Liberian coffee, cacao, indiarubber trees and 
manioea as cultivation of a non-paying nature, in 
the locality where k i and coconuts flourish. 
November 13th. 
The fine weather remains unbroken, although 
the sky clouded over and there was an attempt 
to rain yesterday. The light, cool breeze we get 
is steadily from the north-east ; and this clear, cold 
but sunny morning does not certainly indicate the 
proximity of rain. All we knew of your great rain- 
storm up here was the appearance of a mass of 
darkness far in the west and far below us, which 
led to the exclamation, “ They are having heavy 
rain at Colombo.” This being the last working day 
before the Tivali, extra pluckers have been crowded 
on to save the abundant tea flush. Another will 
be well on before steady work is resumed, we fetr. 
AFFORESTATION — AUSTEALI.AN TIMBER TREES— USEFUL 
JAPAN TIMBERS— RICE CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 
Nanuoya, Nov. 12th. 
lu writing this morning about our yesterday’s 
delightful trip to Hakgala and of the vast expanses 
of patana visible in Uva I mentioned the affores- 
tation of portions of those patanas as desirable. 
Amongst the most barren portions of our patanas 
are those thi soil of which consists mainly of 
ironstone. Now it is in soil of this nature in 
Western Australia that two of the best of the 
euoalypts flourish and bear timber of tho best 
quality. I refer to the Jarbau ( E . marginata ) 
and the Karri (E. diversicolor). Those trees and 
others ought, therefore, to be tried on such soils, 
