EANBY IN EARLY PLANTINa DAYS. 
D, Gerrard, who came through many ups and downs 
in planting life. The mention of this name will re^ 
call to the memory of some old planters, in a sort of 
dreamy haze, some stories of the light of other days.’* 
Close at the Peradeniya Bridge on the banks of the 
river, or rather extending from the river on a flat, is 
l^oas, — Er> C. O.] the Peradeniya Sugar PJantation 
Mr Watt was manager, and then sometime in the 
Fifties, Mr Vallance. This latter gentleman was well 
on in life, and had some experience of sugar cultiva- 
tion in the West Indies ; he spent many years in 
Ceylon, and had once the resident charge of the Ram- 
boda coffee estate, ^ and was held in general respect 
and esteem by all who knew him. He died a year 
or two ago on the west coast of Scotland, having 
eventually retired to Helensburgh, where he spent the 
last of his life. There are very few sugar plantations 
in Ceylon. The cultivation of “the cane” do^s not 
seem to pay, or to pay so as to induce extensive 
cultivation, and yet it groWs very well and yields very 
good sugar. We hear the cultivation of sugar in any 
British Colony is not a money-making concern, and 
we certainly have never heard or met with any one 
retired from any of our Colonies with a fortune or 
independence realized from sugar ; the reason for 
which we cannot tell, having no knowledge at all of 
any particular specialties attending the cultivation of 
the cane. The Peradeniya sugar estate always looked 
a very fine property, but we have frequently heard it 
was but a poor pecuniary investment, at all events as 
compared with coffee. Coolies dislike sugar estates ; 
they say the work is very hard ; the trenching of the 
ground and cutting of the cane is much more difficult 
work than the usual routine of weeding, pruning, and 
picking on a coffee estate. Coolies don’t like hard 
work, and they as a matter of course don’t like sugar 
estates, at least so they have told us. We need not 
describe the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens ; most 
Botanical Gardens are the same. A good deal has been 
attempted here, and with some degree of success, in 
introducing foreign plants and trees from other countries 
on experiment. The cinchona tree was introduced 
here, and given out to planters, at suitable climates 
*How well we remember our visit to “Old YaL 
lance ” on Kirklees Estate in November, 1859, and his 
telling us of the grief expressed by bis mother and 
his sister Jean that he so seldom was able to go to 
Kirk. Mr. Vallance’s punctuation was peculiar, notes 
of exclamation doing duty for commas. The effect 
was sometimes startling. A thoroughly honest man was 
Alexander Vallance. — Ed, C. 0. 
