THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
It 
July  £,  1896.] 
and  Mr.  Backworth,  is  busily  engaged  in  felling 
and  clearing  an  old  estate  called  Talapotenne,  close 
to  Nikapotn,  and  expects  to  open  and  plant  nearly 
100  acres  of  tea  this  year. 
Mr.  B.  J.  Wyllie,  Superintendent  of  Kalupahana 
estate,  on  behalf  of  Messrs.  Hope  and  Bailey,  is 
opening  a new  estate  called  Horagoune,  close  to 
g aldummulla,  and  intends  planting  200  acres  of  tea 
hortly. 
Mr.  A.  Orchard,  who  bought  some  plots  of  land 
betw  een  Beauvais  estate  and  Blackwood  at  the  recent 
Government  sale,  has  made  a bargain  by  selling 
them  to  Mr.  Hudson,  who  will  open  the  land  for 
tea  aird  reside  on  it. 
The  estate  called  Bandara  Eliya  is  a new  one  ad- 
joining Dambatemre,  and  opened  only  three  years 
ago.  The  property  belongs  to  Mr.  Liptou,  and  is 
under  the  managemeirt  of  Mr.  Maitland.  It  was  the 
tea  from  this  estate  which  was  purchased  for  Her 
Majesty  the  Queen  at  the  recent  sale  reported  in 
your  paper  of  the  13th  inst.— Coj- , local  “Times.” 
mittmm  ■ ■ I ‘ ^ 
KADUCANNAWA  AND  ALAGALLA. 
Taking  a leisurely  stroll  through  Kadugannawa 
aud  Alagalla  last  week,  I was  struck  with  the  slow 
progress  much  of  the  tea  is  making  in  this  very 
fair  soil  and  not  unkindly  climate. 
Tea  is  not  a particularly  fastidious  plant  but  where 
the  surface  soil  has  been  scraped  and  washed  away, 
it  is  apt  to  sulk  for  a few  years  till  at  length  the 
roots  make  a desperate  plunge  into  the  subsoil  and 
the  tree  becomes  established,  not  quite  so  firmly  or 
vigorously  as  in  the  clays  of  some  of  the  upper 
regions  but  flushes  more  in  j)roportion  to  its  size 
and  appearance.  There  are  splendid  exceptions  even 
in  this  locality  and  these  exceptions  chiefly  lie  at 
the  opposite  ends  of  the  district  where  the  plants 
..come  away  in  a manner  so  magical  as  to  astonish 
.nobody  so  much  as  the  lucky  proprietors  who  some- 
.tlmes  remark  that  when  they  tried  tea  they  knew 
as  much  about  it  as  they  did  of  the  apple  which 
.Eve  ate. 
So  much  for  sheer  luck — or  call  it  by  any  other 
name  that  pleases  you,  and  I am  equally  satisfied; 
but  it  rather  amuses  an  onlooker  to  see  London 
correspondents  falling  down  to  worship  the  “ far- 
seeing  intellects”  who  created  those  estates  and 
knew  to  a dead  certainty,  before  planting  them  the 
number  of  lb.  leaf  each  acre  would  produce — the 
men  who  can  now  by  a wave  of  their  magic  hand 
decide  the  fate  of  investors. 
Kadugannawa  has  quite  a unique  history.  Its  plant- 
ing 'record  dates  back  for  fully  70  years — even  to  the 
Ih'st  initiation  of  practical  planting  in  the  island. 
Alas  ! how  much  has  been  lost  and  won,  learned  and 
forgotten,  during  these  three-score-and-ten  years ! 
Some  have  accidentally  as  it  w(re,  stumbled  upon 
fortune  and  had  honours  thrust  upon  them,  while 
many  capable,  careful,  plodding  men  have  died  in 
the  vain  attempt  to  acquire  a competence.  Some 
there  are  who  never  touch  a thing  but  it  turns  into 
gold,  while  others. 
“ Never  loved  a tree  or  plant  but  ’twas  the  first  to 
fade  away.” 
To  ascribe  all  success  to  one’s  own  superior  in- 
telligence is  to  mock  an  inscrutable  Providence. 
Take  first  the  extreme  South  end  of  this  dis- 
trict. Everybody  knows  Manawafta  but  every- 
body does  not  know  the  history  of  }\~ellan- 
i/aii-altc.  We  can  imagine  with  what  eager  hopes 
poor  George  Bird  began  his  experiment  there;  now 
72  years  ago,  how  he  loved  to  look  upon  the  beau- 
tiful young  coffee  plants  ; with  what  delight  ho 
gathered  the  bumper  maiden  crops  ; and  then  as 
years  rolled  on  with  what  anxiety  he  watched  the 
gradual  decay  of  the  once  premising  plants.  Then 
came  the  wise-acres  who  said  “ coffee  growing  is  all 
a fraud  lot  us  turn  to  Dairy  farming,”  and  now 
see  the  plough  at  work,  followed  by  the  grass  plant- 
ing the  luxuriant  meadows,  the  browsing  cattle. 
All  in  turn  to  be  abandoned,  and  then  there  is  a lull. 
Again  arose  the  wise-acro  saying  “the  old  fogeys 
didn’t  know  how  to  plant  coffee,  let  us  plaut  it 
properly  aud  no  fears.”  Again  history  repeated 
itself,  agaiu  there  was  rejoicing  over  the  bumper 
maiden  crop  but  again— sooner  than  before, — came 
the  day  when  all  was  leafless  Shillelahs 
And  novv  came  the  strangest  epoch  in  the  history 
of  this  wonderful  Watte.  Despised  and  abandoned 
once  more,  hope  seemed  to  fly  and  sigh  farewell, 
In  the  midst  rf  the  desolation  stood  the  empty  bun- 
galow, now  gladly  lent  to  shelter  a sub-contractor 
on  the  railway  extension. 
This  sub-contractor  by  the  way  was  once  on  a 
time  a leading  V.A.  an  M.L.C.  and  a planter  of 
long  and  varied  experience.  His  dictum  with  regard 
to  poor  Weyangawatte  was  that  he  had  never  seen 
a more  hopeless  subject ; the  roots  of  the  coffee  tree 
as  he  pointed  out  would  take  no  hold  of  the  soil 
but  running  along  the  surface  soon  exhausted  all  the 
suitable  food  and  died  of  what  R.B.T.  called  'insidious 
defunction.’  Ultimately  the  place  was  sold  for  a few 
hundred  pounds  to  the  Railway  Contractors  who 
though  giants  in  railway  engineering  were  as  yet  in- 
ants -in  agriculture,  and  as  such  were  chosen  to 
teach  the  proud  V.A.  and  conservative  planter  that 
there  were  other  paying  products  beside  coffees. 
“ A tree  of  deeper  root  was  found 
Less  willingly  to  quit  the  ground.” 
Of  the  present  condition  of  Mariawatte  aud  Sin- 
napittiya  it  is  needless  to  say  more  than  that  the 
appearance  could  scarcely  be  improved  upon.  Yet 
some  of  the  adjoining  places  are  backward  to  a 
degree,  while  over  the  ridge  the  comparatively 
rich  Valleys  of  Godadessa  still  hang  fire,  but 
it  can  only  be  a question  of  time.  On  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  Oya  lies  Franklands 
where  in  the  fifties  we  found  Forest  Har- 
per busy  taking  in  a first  rate  crop,  shortly  after 
which  he  went  home  for  some  years  and  when 
he  came  back  the  Watte  was  gone  ! Coffee 
did  well  here  for  many  years,  but  when  it  made  up 
its  mind  to  die  it  didn’t  hesitate  about  it  or  wait 
for  leaf  disease.  Forest  Harper  was  a favourite  spouter 
at  the  P.  A.  meetings  and  immediately  on  his  return 
we  saw  him  at  the  big  yearly  gathering  listening 
eagerly  to  the  appointment  of  district  members,  but 
Kadugannawa  was  never  mentioned.  Indignantly  the 
old  member  rose  and  demanded  to  know  who  struck 
out  Kadugannawa.  “ It  locnt  out  ” was  the  laconic 
reply.  All  along  the  eight  miles  leading  to  Bellon- 
galla  the  district  is  still  in  a semi-abandoned  state, 
but  the  land  after  30  years  rest  ought  to  do  very 
well  in  tea  if  it  gots  a fair  chance.  Bellongalla  it- 
self is  now  looking  very  promising,  but  has  taken  a 
somewhat  unconscionably  lon^  time  about  it.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  line  “ The  Farm  ” has  made 
a good  start  and  will  in  time  become  an  excellent 
estate.  Further  north,  on  the  Nanuoya  there  are 
some  scattered  patches  of  fairish  tea,  but  at  the 
extreme  end  of  the  district  near  to  Bollagalla.  There 
is  an  estate  400  acres,  than  which  there  is  no  better 
tea  in  the  island. 
There  is  plenty  of  room  for  extension,  both  in 
North  and  South  Kadugannawa  and  the  marvel  is, — 
considering  its  proxmity  to  road  and  rail  that  it  has 
been  left  so  long  uncultivated.  The  longer  rest  the 
better  perhaps,  but  better  still  would  it  have  been 
for  this  district  had  the  tine  old  shade  trees  never 
been  cut  down.  A writer  in  the  Oftscrycr  40  years  ago 
remarked  “ In  1840  we  found  Mr.  Northway  busy 
girding  and  taking  down  the  trees  which  had  origin, 
ally  been  left  for  shade,  the  idea  of  the  benefit 
being  about  thaftime  finally  exploded.’  But  alas! 
to  this  idea  we  were  indebted  more  than  to  anything 
else  for  the  rapid  ruin  of  Kadugannawa  as  a coffee 
producing  district, — Cor. 
The  Wyna.ad. — A correspondent  of  the  Madras 
RIail  writes  Tea  planting,  in  the  opinion  of 
many,  is  superseding  coffee  in  the  Wynaad  and 
is  fast  attaining  the  po.sition  of  tlie  staple  in- 
dustry. Mr.  W.  B.  Liddle,  Managing  Proprietor 
of  the  Liddlesdale  Tea  and  Cinchona  Company, 
has  just  brought  out  from  England  a 40  liorse 
power  engine  to  drive  tire  machinery  in  the  tea 
houses  on  the  Pilly-Mullay  estate.  This  line 
property  is  7 miles  from  Gudalur  in  the  Nada- 
uahgny  direction.” 
