WEEDINa. 
It died a natural death, and I do not think the 
originator of it ever returned to Ceylon, to make 
any enquiry as to the practical results of his wonder- 
ful discovery. He was a little sharp man, with close 
cropped grey hair, and, from his charges, must have 
taken away a good deal of money in the exercise 
of his calling, ^ 
What Would the present generation of planters 
think of the old system of weeding? It was no 
system at all. People never thought of w^eeding until 
actual necessity called for it. On a new clearing, 
what was the use of weeding ? There were no weeds. 
By-and-by, patches of weeds appeared here and there, 
they grew, until they came to seed and injured the 
trees ; then batches of coolies were sent out in twos 
and threes to go to wherever these patches appeared, 
in fact to go where they liked. A few men might 
be seen here, there, and everywhere, all over the 
estate wherever green spots mi^ht be seen. These 
spots came to seed, and, of course, spread ; gradually^' 
they enlarged, and, before the planter could well un- 
derstand the reason of it, the estate was a mass of 
white weed and Spanish needle. Then came the 
regular beating down of weeds with mamoties, twenty, 
thirty, or fifty trees per man a day. It was merely 
transplanting them. During the rains, instead of 
growing upright they grew horizontal. Nor was this 
all ; the planter could not look after his weedejs. 
He did not know where they were, after morning 
muster. A few men were ordered to several spots 
all over the estate ; perhaps they went, and perhaps 
not. The knowing hands chose their own spots, per- 
haps went to the lines; in the former case they 
would idle their time, and, when they saw any signs 
of the approach of the master, would commence vigor- 
ously to work ; in the latter case, if detected, they 
were going for their blanket, or what not, or prob- 
ably had been suddenly seized with violent pains in 
the stomach ; then the culprit would press his hands 
on it and pretend violent pain. The kangaiiies 
* Perindorge was hf^re in the exercise of his profes- 
sion as a dentist a couple of years ago, and has arrived in 
the Island once more as these pages are passing through 
the press. As to the estimation in which his compost is 
h^ld, see Brown’s Manual and Grigson’s Essay. We re- 
coTect our good friend Tytler decrying the vegetable ma- 
nure while holding up his own mineral mixture as a “per- 
f ' ct cure. ’’Both are good, but neither is sufficient alone. 
If to two parts of “ Perindorge” one of cow -dung and 
one of sombreorum ” could be added, and the united 
p^'orlncts applied at a moderate cost, we suspect the 
question of manuring would be solved. — E d, 
