-A  MONTHLY. 
Vol.  XVI.]  COLOMBO,  MAY  ist,  1897.  [No.  11. 
“PIONEERS  OF  THE  PLANTING  ENTERPRISE  IN  CEYLON.” 
{Second  Series.) 
JOHN  BROWN, 
ENGINEER  AND  PLANTER. 
HE  late  Mr.  John  Brown  was 
born  at  Udney,  Aberdeen- 
shire, on  17th  October,  1826. 
He  was  educated  as  a Civil 
Engineer  and  served  first  on 
the  staff  of  Mr.  Gibbs  of  the 
Aberdeen  Railway,  and  after- 
wards on  the  Railway  Survey 
and  Construction  staff  of  Mr.  John  Miller  of 
Edinburgh. 
In  the  year  1848  he  sailed  for  the  East  viS. 
the  Cape  to  take  up  an  appointment  on  an  Indian 
Railway  under  Government.  The  vessel  made  a 
fast  voyage,  and  on  reaching  Point-de-Galle,  and 
finding  that  he  had  ample  time,  before  his  due 
date,  Mr.  Brown  determined  to  visit  Colombo  and 
Kandy  and  .see  sometliing  of  the  Ceylon  planting 
districts,  before  proceeding  to  India.  This  was 
probably  very  much  owing  to  the  fact  that  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  R.  B.  Tytler  were  jtassengers  in  the 
same  vessel, — Mr.  Tytler  returning  after  having 
gone  Jiome  to  get  married ; and  all  he  had  to 
say  about  coffee  in  Ceylon  no  doubt  influenced 
the  young  Engineer.  Be  that  as  it  may,  life  and 
prospects  in  Ceylon  proved  so  attractive,  and  there 
was  such  evident  scope  for  the  exercise  of  his  own 
profession  among  the  planters,  that  Mr.  Brown 
determined  to  abandon  his  Indian  engagement  and 
to  remain  in  the  island.  For  some  years  Mr. 
Brown  was  very  busy  over  engineering  work  in 
connection  with  the  coffee  enterprise,  chiefly  in 
Pussellawa.  His  first  engagement  was  to  under- 
take the  planning  and  erection  of  extensive 
works  for  coffee  preparation  on  Rothschild,  the 
property  of  the  Messrs.  Worms,  Avhich  he 
brought  to  a successful  conclusion.  Mr.  Brown’s 
next  and  his  largest  undertaking  was  in  con- 
nection with  the  late  Mr.  R.  B.  Tytler’s  giant 
coffee  irrigation  scheme,  commonly  known  as  the 
Rajawella  Waterworks.  On  this  Mr.  Brown  was 
occupied  for  .six  years,  and  the  large  turbine  and 
pumping  machinery  erected  at  the  side  of  the  Maha- 
weliganga,  in  Dumbara,  were,  finally,  a complete 
engineering  success.  Water  in  l.arge  volume  was 
forced  up  to  the  top  of  the  hill  on  the  property  ; 
but  the  difficulty  in  distributing  it  over  a sufficient 
area  of  the  planted  coffee,  prevented  the  scheme 
from  turning  out  eventually,  the  financial  success 
anticipated  for  it.  As  this  was  one  of  the  most 
notable  engineering  works  ever  undertaken  in 
connection  with  the  coflfee  enterprise  of  Ceylon, 
or  inderd  with'tropical  planting  anywhere  in  the 
world,  we  extract  from  several  issues  of  the  Ceylon 
Observer  of  the  “fifties”  and  “sixties”,  accounts 
of  the  progress  and  opening  of  the  Waterworks  ; 
' IRRIGATION  APPLIED  TO  COFFEE  PLANTING. 
Some  of  our  readers  travelling  by  the  Colombo 
and  Kandy  coach  may  have  observed  lately  sundry 
carts  along  the  road  laden  with  massive  iron  pipes 
about  nine  feet  long  and  of  diameters  varying  from 
six  to  ten  inches.  These  pipes  form  part  of  the 
Machinery  intended  for  raising  water  to  irrigate  the 
portion  of  the  Rajawelle  Estate  belonging  to  Messrs. 
Morton  and  Tytler  ; and  as  considerable  public  in- 
terest and  curiosity  have  been  excited  on  the  subject 
of  these  contemplated  Water-works,  we  proceed  to  give 
some  general  account  of  them. 
