April t, 1898 . 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
673 
another periya doray and that our fortunate friend 
found his way to Donside without any undue 
delay. Never did a retired Indian more enjoy his 
ottum cum cliff and never did a district more ap- 
preciate good tea. Now the moral of this ab- 
solutely true story is, — never forget the smallest 
promise, and let each plaining proprietor be as 
much as possible his own dispenser. W ere it pos- 
sible to approach and convince the august “ Thirty 
Committee of Ceylon,” one year of the funds 
wasted on comic advertising, would enable every 
planter in the island to send boxes of tea to 
friends in every part of the world ! 
[What a lame conclusion to a romantic tale 
all the better for being true. Whoever heard 
of money being toasted on Advertising — comic 
or otherwise ? Planters no doubt send plenty of 
boxes of tea as it is ; but there are no more lairds 
swithering over wills to receive them like the one 
on Donside !— E d. T.A.] 
AN OLD CRY: 
WANTED A SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURAL 
DEPARTMENT. 
It is no new cry tor us to take up, that of the 
need of a Scientific Agricultural Department ; 
and that we are again referring to it, is for the 
object of bringing prominently before the Gov- 
ernment what has been done elsewhere in the 
same line, and the happy results which have accrued 
therefrom. The failure of the sugar industry in the 
West Indies has been so widespread and so serious 
that after the report of a specially appointed 
Commission to inquire into the causes, the Im- 
perial Government has decided to grant some 
relief, but in what form has not yet been specified. 
The bounties on beet sugar have all along been 
credited with the West Indian disaster, and it 
has been regarded as another instance of the 
few suffering for the benefit of the many. The 
masses have been able to get their sugar cheap, 
at the expense of the bounty-paying Govern- 
ments. It is said, of course, that British planters 
have had to go to the wall ; but the balance of 
advantage to the nation at large far outweighs 
the loss to the West Indian growers. We find 
that a journal so literary and metropolitan as the 
London Spectator has been discussing “ Mr. 
Chamberlain and the West Indies,” in an article 
which we reproduce on our seventh page. On the 
causes of the West Indian collapse, our contempor- 
ary lets in considerable light, and it is rather start- 
ling to find him saying “ We very much doubt, 
however, if the West Indian planters really 
know their business.’’ Tropical Agriculturists 
will, pevliaps, open their eyes to find that the 
Spectator ■ the organ of the leisured and cul- 
tured classes at liome — is coining out as an 
authoriiy on sugar growing, but so it is ! 
The M'est Indian planters are old-fashioned, 
and stick to their ancient methods of extracting 
the cane juice ; and while nature has blessed 
them with the finest soil for sugar growth, they 
are now on their beam ends simply tiom want 
of scientific knowledge. While it takes 16 tons 
of cane to make 1 ton of sugar in St. Kitts, 
Egypt can do as well from 10 "tons, Queensland 
from 9 tons and Hawaii from 8 tons, and 
the Egyptian and Queensland sugars are 
worth £3 a ton more in the world’s markets ! 
Java, too, has been able to hold its own. The 
writer of the article under review, quotes from The 
Suffar Cane as follows The Java planters, 
though heavily weighed by the low prices lately 
current, and by the occurrence of a new disease 
which has done extensive damage, continue to 
hold their own, being greatly assisted by the 
capital chemical control of their factories, and 
the valuable information supplied by their ex- 
perimental stations. Every possible advantage is 
secured to them in this manner, and their envi- 
able position is mainly due to their intclliffent 
utilisation oj- all the hints that affncultural and 
chemical science are continually affordiny them." 
The lines we put in italics contain the key 
to the success of the Dutch planters of Java. 
They have been handicapped in the same manner 
and to the same extent as the West Indian 
planter has been; but they have stood the strain, 
whereas the others have broken down. It is 
presumable that what Java could do, should be 
accomplished in Barbadoes which is “perhaps natu- 
rally the finest island under the sun for the 
growth of sugar”; but simply for want of agri- 
cultural and chemical science locally applied, 
is all but bankrupt. It is to be presumed that 
in time British colonists and tropical planters 
will wak(> up to the need of having the b’est 
scientific advice available for all kinds of tropi- 
cal agriculture and in ail tropical colonies, but 
necessary reforms of this kind are slowly evolved. 
Our home authorities have the courage to run 
a railway through a sparsely-populated and a lean, 
unhealthy land ; although when approached fora 
specialist for such a thing as the cacao disease, 
they fail at first to find one. A thoroughly 
equipped Scientific Department, ready for every 
kind of agricultural investigation, would pay the 
country and the whole body of agriculturists 
(native as well as European) a great deal better 
than broad-gauge lines to the North, and the 
thing must come, if Ceylon is to keep in the 
forefront, and not to get into the same lament- 
able position as the Wek Indian islands named. 
W have just been recording an American opin- 
ion in regard to the better quality in appear- 
ance and liquor of Java pekoes; and although, 
of course, we maintain that our island can match 
anything going in the way of teas, still a rival 
in the race may creep upon ns, and our place 
may become second by-and-bye. Certainly the 
Dutch planters with their Experimental Gardens 
and Scientific Experts have a decided advantage 
over the Ceylon tea-giower, tvho has to find out 
pretty much for himself and often cannot find 
out, simply fn in want of scientific training. In 
every branch of tropical agriculture, there is al- 
ways cropping up some surprises. To have at 
hard a reliable Department wdlling and able to 
investigate any agiicuUnral question, would be 
the natural state ot things in a colony whose 
whole property is bound up with the land ; but 
we have got so used to do without it, and to 
w’ait until untow’ard events have become serious, 
instead of stamping them out to begin with’ 
that this haphazard way is not only ‘ tolerated 
but regarded as the pathway of true wisdom. 
How far it is, how ever, from holding any such 
advanced position, let the present lesson from 
Java and the West Indies illustrate, and let it 
so come home to our rulers, that it may be as a 
word to the wise — to be acted on before it is too lato 
COCONUT PLANTING IN KURUMJCVLA 
DISTRICT. 
Kukunegala, Feb. 23.— The w eather is season- 
able for this time of the year : hot and dry, and 
reaping and thrashing of 'paddy are in full swing. 
The outturn of crops w'ill be fair. Rain would be 
