CAET COKTEACTOBS, 
of rice was deficient their cattle had died, and the 
time they had gone to purchase others tl^e rice had! 
been stolen ; buo it would be endless to repeat all 
that thf^y did say. They would even sell ttse rice, 
and subsfci;ute another sort of an inferior and cheaper 
quality, so tiiat it b('came necessiiry for tbe Colombo 
agencies to forward by post sealed samples o-f the rice 
despatched, or more frequently the sealed sample was 
in the iiands of t he cart men. This was the better 
" plan as they knew what to expect but it did not 
always answer. They would swear tbe sample was better 
than what was loaded in the carts, that it did not 
correspond, and what could tliey do? They were 
honest uien. The curious ’ookimg bandy with its pair 
of insignificant lookin^j; bullocks has however done j^ood 
service to the planting interest. How could we have 
got on without them-? Tbe success of eoflee in many 
a remote district would ha\e been very doubtful wilbout 
the aid of the bullock bandy. 
I have h'^ard ir said by some old planting authorities, 
that a ca t-road to an es'^ate, or wdthin reasonable 
distance of a district, would eventually pay, rr?: any cost^> 
and, if we go into all the details of labour which are 
saved by a cart-road, it is ve^-y probably true. The 
carriage of rice and coffee up and dow n steep mountain' 
paths is no lit work for a cooly ; it involves un imuiense* 
loss of time and labour to tlie proprietor. He must 
have his coffee despatched, for coffee is money ; he' 
must have rice, for rire is food ; and just at the very 
time when labcur is mo&t in request for crop, or’ 
pruning after crop, the bulk of his labour is constantly 
called off for the di spatch of crop, and transport of 
rice. The cooly excessively dislikes being employed in 
this transport, and as a rule dislikes and avoids tiiose 
plantations w-hicb, from their position, are obliged te 
adopt it. And thus it unfortunately happens that 
those estates which are some distance from a cart- 
road, and therefore require a larger amount of cooly 
labour, are generally least able to acquire it. From; 
short labour supply and heavy cooly transport the 
work gets behind, tbe pruning is not done, it seriously 
affects the next croo, take their results for a series 
of years, results which materially affect the value of 
an estate and its crops, and he, or they, would be 
deficient in sound calculation, w^ho could put them in 
the scale to weigh against any reasonable cost, in 
constructing a cart-road into- a district. But where 
/ iim Cl fh vi-4- c* tts - i- r\v» wa TBn 
