May 2, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
743 
PROGRESS IN PLANTING. 
As some of Ihe first fruits of the compilation 
for our Directory we present our readers belo\v, 
with a summary of the area of laud held and culti- 
vated on behalf of the various Companies represented 
in tiie island by Messrs. Finlay, Muir & Co. The 
total includes the present season’s clearing.®, and 
it will be observed that there are 15,792 acres 
of tea and 1,088 acres of cacao ; besides 4,000 acres 
under the coconut palm (on five different planta- 
tions) and 400 acres under Para Rubber. The 
Companies cannot be said therefore to be keeping 
all their eggs in one b.asket or to be neglecting 
new a.s well as old products. The detailed figures 
are as follows 
East India and Ceylon 
TeaCo., Ld, 
Amalgamated Tea Es- 
tates Co., Ld. 
Associated Tea Estates 
of Ceylon, Ld. 
Kanan Devan Hills Pro- 
duce Co., Ld. 
n opewell Tea Co. , Ld , . , 
Mahawala Tea Estate 
Co., Ld. 
Consolidated Tea and 
Lauds, Co„ Ld. 
Total . . 
Total. 
acerage 
Cultivat 
acreage 
0 
<i) 
H 
Cacao ; 
res. 
2,680 
1,554 
1,554 
— 
2,610 
1,532 
1,338 
194 
2,789 
1,979 
1,979 
— 
1,140 
8,172 
840 
3,730 
810 
3,730 
— 
1,042 
622 
622 
— 
11,066 
6,623 
5,729 
894 
29,499 
16,830 
15,792 
1,088 
Rubber [Pai-a) , , 400 
Coconuts . . 4,000 
Cacao , . 1,088 
Total in Cultivation : — Acres : 21,280 
^ 
MUSINGS ON TIIE HILLS: TEA IN 
HIGH DISTRICTS. 
(By Masmos.) 
I never visit Nuwara Eliya without regretting 
that the cultivation of tea should have invaded 
tiie Piain. After an almost endless vista of 
tea all theiourney up, one might have been spared 
the view from most place.® in the Sanitarium of 
long lines of green bushes or brown stretches 
of cleared land. From the top of Pedrotala- 
gala or from Kikilimane, one is scarcely con- 
scious of tea cultivation, because the sense of 
undisturbed nature becomes .so keen ; but from ‘One 
Tree Hill,’ now called ‘ Single Tree Hill,’ it is 
very different. Alas that the walk up this should 
now be entirely through tea, the old jungle 
walk on the top having been cleared. It is a great 
pity that any of the charms of Nuwara Eliya 
should go in this way. How delighted one is 
when one gets a view of nothing but vii'gin forest 
and patana ! Then it is 
“Nature all, and all delight.’’ 
Itisa pity, too, that every approach to Nuwara 
Eliya — from Raniboda, from Kandapola, froin 
Badulla, from Nanuoya — right up to the Plain 
should suffer from this monotonous intrusion of 
the commercial idea. The Colombo merchant and 
the planter are alike robbed of some of the bene- 
fits of a holiday, if it is taken hei’e, by constant 
temptation to talk “shop,” and by reminders and 
suggestions of tiie work-a-day world they are 
supposed to have left behind. And even those 
in other walks of life would be all the better for 
not being disturbed by anything but 
“ A Presence that disturbs — with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts. 
I have been reminded, by certain pathetic bits 
of abandoned land, here and there, of a passage 
in the writings of Jean Ingelow : — 
“ Nature, before it has been touched by man, 
is almost al ways beautiful, strong and cheerful in 
man’s eyes ; but nature, when he has once given 
it bis cnltnre— and then forsaken it, — has usually 
an air of sorrow and lieljilessness. He has made 
it live the more by laying his hand upon it, and 
touching it with bis life. It lia.s come to relish 
bis Imnianity, and it is so llavoured with 
his thoughts, and ordered and permeated by his 
spirit, that if the stimulus of Ids presence is with- 
drawn, it cannot fora long time do without him 
and live for itself a.s fully and as well as it did 
before.” 
A tea estate is not idyllic or poetic, and besides 
its monotony it has a ‘ relish’ and a ‘ flavour’ 
®f man’s life of want and work ; but it has a 
very cheerful look compired with abandoned 
land, and it is a cause of thankfulness, for 
sesthetic as well as for commercial reasons, 
that so much old coffee land lias been put into 
cultivation.'* How cheerful the country looks, 
and how well-ordered and prosperous its life; 
how the “ air of sorrow and helplessness” has 
left it since tea began its reign amongst the 
bills. There is a bio of abandoiie.l land just 
outside Nuw.ara Eliya that is an almost perfect 
illustration of Jean Ingelow’s thought. It gives 
back sadne.ss to him w’lio looks ac it. Its beauty , 
blasted appearance suggests that the vegetable., 
worhl too nmst have its pessimists. Some 
distance farther on, the optimism of nature reigns., 
for a long glance down the ravine ends on a 
glorious bank of forest foliage, variegated to 
perfection. This morning on looking down I was. 
reminded of Dean Farrar’s .®aying : “ Valleys 
are the arsles in the magnificent temple of 
God.” And so worshipping 1 went on my way. 
In spite ot such drawbacks as I have mentioned 
Nuwara Eliya is a grand place in wliicli 
to spend a holiday. It will be better still 
when 
Cr.RTAItf IMPROVEMENTS 
now much talked of by residents, because much is 
the increase of ta.xation, have been efieeted. There 
are splendid roads and many of them, and it is 
no spirit of nnthanktulne.ss that makes one 
wish for an Upper Circulai' Road at tbeRamboda 
end of the Plain, so that old people and luvr-ilids 
might from the heights enjoy a sight of the 
place as a wliole. How visitors to Kandy enjoy 
the view from the roads on the hills almost engirdl- 
ing the town, and what glorious pro.spects would 
open out in a diive round this place if at an 
elevation sufficient to take in its beauties. Tliose 
■* We had just decided to find fault with “ Mas- 
mos” for his apparent unthanktulness to tea — which 
saved Ceylon from comparative “ ruin” — when we 
came on this saving passage. He forgets too the 
“ delicious flavour” of Nuwara Eliya tea above 
all other teas in the island, as the market shows ; 
aud amidst some occasion for grumbling, “ Masmos” 
ought to be specially thankful that tea has 
not yet invaded the grand and wild ex- 
panse of Hortm Plains (which ought always to 
be visited by Nuwara Eliya season residents) ; while 
he must also not overlook the really attractive 
piclui-e presented by the dark green of a matured tea 
field in or about Nuwara Eliva, in contrast with 
the varied forest, the whole being framed by the everlast- 
ing hills. Most thankful above all ought such lovera- 
oE tlie beauties of nature as “ Masmos” to be, for 
the official rule that nowhere can Crown forest above 
5,000 feet be soM for purposes of clearing or cul- 
tivation. — Eo. T.A. 
91 
