594 
THP Tropical agriculturist, 
[February 2, 1S91. 
early crop of younj; grass for their cattle ; in fact 
they consider it a duly they owe to themselves and 
their neighbours to burn off the forests as completely 
as possible. Is it likely that this is a habit deve- 
loped of late years, end not rather one as ohi as the 
first settlement of inhabitants in the country ? Then 
that the forest has been much in the same state for 
the last 500 years is proved by the existence of teak 
trees of that age which evidently grew in the same 
conditions from the first as they are doing now. 
The almost invariable wide centre rings two to three 
in the first inch seen in these ancient trees, would 
appear to give direct evidence of the young plant 
having been constantly burnt down every year, every 
time sending up a larger shoot until a shoot is 
produced, large enough and high enough to defy 
the jungle fire. This is the prooes.s to be seen going 
on under our own eyes. A teak plant grown under 
other conditions in the forest, would have six 
or eight rings in the first inch. We may then, I think, 
infer that these deciduous forests were constantly run 
over by fire 500 years ago, and have been ever since, 
and probably were burnt for centuries before that. 
“ Now what is the result on the soil ? In the one case 
we have the virgin ever-green forest of the Ghauts in 
which fire never penetrates, constantly giving back to 
the soil a vast amount of vegetable matter in the shape 
of leaves, wood, and bark. On the other hand high 
deciduous forest, the vegetable matter from which has 
been constantly burnt by jungle fires for centuries. 
According to preconceived notions there would be a 
thick layer of the vegetable mould in the former and 
next to none in the latter. As a matter of fact the 
very opposite is the case. In the Ghaut forests there 
is seldom more than an average of 6 inches of vegetable 
mould — whereas in the deciduous forests there is a 
thickness of from one foot to 28 inches. It mu.st be 
distinctly understood here that I am not speaking of 
scrub jungle but of high and fairly deciduous forest. 
“ In open scrub jungle the formation of vegetable 
moi'li is naturally very much less, and, as might be 
expected, if the- subsoil is examined, it will generally 
be found lo be poor. No doubt there are other 
circumstances conducing to the poverty of the jungle, 
and among.st these chiefly the want of rain, and these 
causes act and re-act on each other. 
“ The difference in the soil of ever-groen forest and 
deciduous forest is very distinctly marked on the lov/er 
western slopes of the Ghauts. Here up to an 
altitude of 800 to 1,000 feet, the slopes are covered 
with semi-deciduous forest of Terminalias and Lager- 
strcemias mixed with the large thorny bamboo, 
the greater portions of which are burnt almost 
annually. In coming down the Ghaut roads the 
difference in the .soil of the road cutting is at once 
noticed ; between the thin greyish layer of the vege- 
table mould of the ever-green, and the thick black 
layer of the fire-devasted deciduous forest, I have 
noticed the same thing on the Carcoor Gbaut from 
Nilgiris to Calicut. A few days ago in going through 
a coffee estate on the Ghauts, I passed a place where 
the soil was a rich deep black re embliug what is 
seen in the Eastern deciduous forests, strongly con- 
trasting with the absence of mould iu surromidiog 
portions of the estate. It had been lately dug, and 
on looking closely, I noticed a number of pieces of 
charcoal mixed with the soil. On remarking on this 
I was told the place was the site of a fodds -drawer’ 
house and garden and the rich black mould was 
evidently partly produced from burnt vegetable matter. 
“ The fine coffi e estate in what is called the ‘ Bamboo ’ 
district in Goorg owe their flourishing condition to 
the rich black vegetable soil of the deciduous forest : 
In the first days of coffee planting, every one thought 
that tho soil of the deiue Gbaut forests must be 
everla'-ling as compared with the deciduouK, but 
tho fallacy of this suppos tion is proved by thousands 
of acres of abandoned coffee estates ou tho Ghauts, 
whereas (states planted fifteen years ago in the 
“ bamboo ’ are as flourishing as ever and show n© 
signs ill decay. Supplies come up as well as when 
first the estate was planted, showing that the soil 
retains its vigour. In the Ghauts it is not so, tho 
exhausted soil refuses to roar tho young plant, so , 
that vacancies cannot be filled up. And it is remark- 
able that this is not only the case ou steep slopes, but 
also ou flat places and hollows where there can be but 
little wash. I trust those observations will bring out 
those of other observers on the tubjict.” 
You put a footnote : — *• On the other hand was it not 
the case that alarge proportion of the bamboo estates 
in Wynaad weiekilled by borer?” Borer came because 
men attempted to grow coffee iu a dry c imate 
without shade; and in a specially dry year terrible 
were the ravages of that worm. But that was no 
fault of the bamboo. You will find it a good rule in 
^ selecting land whether high or low— /offoio the hamboo. 
This applies in Kalutara and Udugama. 
As to the article above quoted the facts are borue 
out in other parts of India, and ere they not borne 
out in Oeylon f Where are the evergreen forests? 
liamboda, Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula, Dikoya, Maskeliya, 
Nitre Cave, Laggala, — in fact all those forests beyond 
tho reach of chenaing, unswept by lorest tires, anl 
deluged with heavy rains. Then you have the deci- 
duous forests of Uva, Dumbara, Matale, and Kuruuc- 
gala, and between those extremes is the border land 
of evergreen forest Imd cunverted into scrub by 
constant chenaing in the past. We have thus 1st 
evergreen virgin ghaut forest (example Liggala;, 
2nd evergreen forest converted into mana grass or 
soru’a by chenaing (nnmberiess example.) 3id — deci- 
duous forest ; 4th — cultivated lands (not paddy). But 
now iu applying this to Ooylou we must take the 
climate of oar ocean island into account and we 
find the surface of most lands stimulated by the 
heat and moisture so that natural osmotic action 
is promoted without the help of a forest covering. 
Much land in Ceylon with its light scrub 
covering would be dried up and gradually rendered 
infertile in a dry climate. 
Then we have other varieties of soils. There is 
Matale East where the whole sjil is of a rich nature 
even iu steep mountain slopes. Here coffee flourished 
and tea is now flourishing. Then you have the Amba- 
gamuwa valleys where coffee was a great failure ou 
account of the cold clayey nature of the soil. Then 
in the lowoountry the three tea distiiots — Kelani, 
Kalutara and Udugama — have to be consiiered. Kelani 
Valley is a long straggling district composed of steep 
valleys running up from the river where the soil 
is not rich, but, along with the steamy forcing heat, 
forms a good ground for the necessary evergreen 
growth of tea. 
Kalutara also lies along a large river, and though 
t'ne soil is of a poor description yet it has a firm 
subsoil which tea likes. Some of the flats in Kalutara 
are very fine. 
Udugama is a district by it«elf literally and figu- 
ratively. 
When you leave Galle you come on fine deciduous 
forests at Kottowe which are the remnants of old 
original lands preserved by the Dutch, and in a way 
also preserved by the British. This laud proves that 
the remarks of the Ooorg writer quoted above do 
not apply to Zoiwcouutry forests, because when once 
the original forest is felled, the fierce heat of the 
Ceylon lowoountry extracts the nitrogen and avail- 
able manurial elements of land whore the soil is 
not rich, and gradually the laud is covered with a poor 
scrub or that poisonous A:eAi7?a fern. As you approach 
Udugama you find all the original forest has many years 
ago hem destroyed except in small pieces here and there. 
Large expanses are covered wi^h the kekilla fern and 
show where a large cultivation was carried on 80 or 
100 years ago by natives who were driven away in the 
first place by fever and elephants and in later days by 
the law prohibiting chenaing. The soil in Udugama 
is poor by reason of the tremendous amount of sand 
with which it is clogged. Theroidsand drains are full 
of white sand. It is also full of what would be considered 
the very thing for tea — namely iron. The streams run red 
with the iron ore. THyxi Tropical Agricultu,rist,\o\. 
It., page 508; — “Soil Poison. — Nearly all soils contain 
iron; it is this ihut gives them their redJish colour. 
But iron has two oxides. One of them, containing 
the leist amount of oxygen, i.s soluble in soil water, 
