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TEA 



AND OTHER 



PLANTING INDUSTRIES 



IN CEYLON, 



IN I3S5. 



A GOOD FIELD FOR INVESTMENT. 



C0l0ntlt0: 



A. M, & J. FERGUSON. 



LONDON 



Truhner & Co. 
Gko. Street & Co. 



John Haddon & Co. 

W. B. Whittinuham & C'o. 



1885. 



Price in Ceylon Rl; in London 2s. 



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1 



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•♦ 



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FeTQ^u %o h J ^^ yi ^ . 



CEYLON & HER PLANTING ENTERPRIZE: 



IN 



TEA, OAOAO, CARDAMOMS, 
OINOHONA, COCONUT, AND ARECA 



PALMS. 43c^^i 



A FIELD FOR THE INVESTMENT OF BRITISH 
CAPITAL AND ENERGY- 



GIVING THE OPINIONS OF A NUMBEK OF 

PLANTERS OF DIVERSIl'^IED EXPEDIENCE 

IN THE COLONY; 

ALSO 

ESTIMATES OF THE OUTLAY ON, AND RETURN 
FROM, A VARIETY OF PRODUCTS. 



A, M. & J. FERGUSON. 

1885, 



PaiNTED AT THE " CEYLON OBSEHVEtt" PRESS. 



i 



1^ 



I 



PREFACE. 



*0 

^ 1R3) ^^ ^®^ words of •explanation are needed in issuing 

'^ "^ this little compilation from the press. Its object 

^ is not to treat exhaustively any of the topics discussed, 

*^ "but to lay such a view before those who are unacquainted 

with the past history, present condition, and future pros- 
pects of the planting enterprize in Ceylon, as shall lead 
them to make further enquiries, obtain publications with 
fuller information, and if so inclined, visit the Colony t<> 
see and learn for themselves; This little work is pre- 
eminently one to place in the hands of young men in 
the mother country with capital and energy to back them. 
on the look-out for a field in which to obtain the best 
training in tropical agriculture. 

At first it was only intended to publish the series of letters 
specially written by several Ceylon planters of more or less 
experience which will be found between pages 1 and 67 ; but 
arising out of those letters, discussions took place which it 
was thought best to notice. It was also considered wise to 
add in an appendix (pages 68 to 76) a selection of estimates 
of needful outlay and probable return in connection with 
the principal products referred to. 

It was finally thought desirable, to include by way of 
introduction, a letter written by the Compiler for the 



PKEFAC5K. 

London Times, and the report of an interview with a repre- 
sentative of the Pall Mall Gazette, in September 1S84, 
as the best means of affording a brief resume (pages i to 
xiii) of the recent history of the Planting Enterprize of 
(Jeyloii. 

If these pages serve to interest even a few young men 
of the right sort, in the industries of Ceylon, it will amply 
repay any trouble it may have eost 

THE COMPILER. 

Colombo, 21st March, ISSi. 



\ 



CONTENTS 



PAGK. 

Ceylon and its Flantiog Industries (Letter to London 

The Prospects of England's Chief Tropical Colony (<' Pall 
Mall Gazette" Interview) vi to xiii 

** Ceylon as a Fibld fob the Invbstmbnt of Cap- 
ital AND Eneboy: — " 

Chapteb I. — The PeriodofPlanting Depression in Ceylon 
drawing to an End — Over-speculation inTea Deprecated 
— Salubrity of Ceylon Tea Districts — Prospects before 
Investors: two Courses — Forest-land vs. Old Estates — 
Capital Re(]^uired — Prdbable Outlay and Betnro — 
Under Judicious Investment, 20 per cent on Capital... 4 

Chaptbb II. — Twenty Years' Experience of Ceylon — 
New and Old Products — Sindbad's "Man of the 
Mountain" — ^Worse Places than Ceylon 8 

Chapteb III. — Tea Cultivation : Rules for the Guidance 

of a Young Tea Planter 12 

A Word of "Warning from "Moderation" 18 

Results of the Mariawatte Estate up to end of 1884 19 

Tea and Rainfall in the Haputale, Matale, and 
Badulla Districts 21-23-25 

Tea at high and medium elevations ; Coffee which 
still Yields Paying Crops —Cinchona Bark Keep- 
ing up Old Coffee 26 

Assam-hybrid Tea 6,000 feet above Sea-level Yield- 
ing 500 lb. and Upwards, per acre on Abbotsford 30 
Yield of Tea at a High Altitude in Ceylon ... 84 

Chapteb IV. — Ceylon and the Position and Prospects of 
its Planting Enterprise 40 

Chapteb V. — ^Boyhood the Happiest Time of Life — 
Ceylon in Old "Days: its Conquest by the British — The 
BoAd to Kandy: How it was Made and its Effect on 
the Revenue of the Island — The Rise and Fall of the 
Coffee Industry — The Ruin Caused by Leaf -disease not 
Confined to the European Community — ^New Products 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

— The New Kiug, Tea : its Ubiquity of Growth — Dan- 
gers of Hurry — Advantages Enjoyed by Oeylon Tea 
Planters — Likelihood of a Fall in Prices — Cost of Pro- 
iluction — The best Tea Soil — ^Ohoice of Plants— Hy- 
brids — ^New and Old Land — Elevation and Rainfall — 
Cost of Opening a Tea Estate of 100 acres — ^Profits — 
A Healthy Climate — The Ceylon Planters— IHstrict 
.Vssociations ••• ... ... ... ... 59 

<^HAPTEB VI. — How a Coffee Plantation has Paid its Way 
iu a Poor Part of a High District, in Ceylon, in spite 
of Leaf -disease, Poor Prices and General Depression... 66 

New and Old Products ix Ceylon : Estimates of Cost 
and Yield from Plantations of Tea, Cacao, Cardamoms, 
Cinchona, Coconut Palms, Areca Palms, &c. ... 09 

'Currency and further information 77 

Advertisements •• ..-. At (mck 



i 



INDEX. 



PAOE. 

Abbotsford Tea PlantatioD, Yield of, &c. ... 18, 34, 3S 

Advertisements ... ... ... ... 7^ 

Arecanut Oultivation ... ... ... 76 

Do. Estimates of Outlay and Yield ... 76-76a 

Badolla District, Rainfall and Prospects of Tea in ... 25 
Bug on Coffee ... ... ... .». 9 

Cacao Cnltivation ... ... ... iv, vi. 

Do. Estimate of Outlay and Yield ... ... 69 

Do. Statistics of ... ... ... ... vi 

Capital Introduced into Ceylon ... ... ... 1 

Do. Required for Tea ... ... 7,42,51,65 

Cardamom Cultivation ... ... ... 72 

Do. Estimate of Outlay and Yield ... ... 71 

"Ceylon in 1884" ... ... ... ... 40 

Do. Observer and its Correspondents -. ... vii 

Do. Past History of, as a British Planting Colony ... 60. 

Chinese, The, as Workmen ... ... ... xi 

Cinchona Bark, Statistics of ... ... ... vi 

Do. Cultivalaon ... ... vi, 4&. 

Do. Estimate of Outlay and Yield ... 74-74» 

Cinnamon, Statistics of ... ... ... vi 

Climate of Ceylon ... ... ... ix, 6, 10, 11 

Coconut^plantmg — Estimate of Outlay and Yield ... 7^ 
Coffee, Cmchona and Tea on the one Plantation Cultiv- 
ated profitably ... ... ... 06 

Do. Estates Converted into Tea Gardens 7, 47, 64 

Do. do. How to Make Pay ... 57,66-67 

Do. Statistics of ... ... ... ... v 

Colonists, Young, Hints to ... ... *•* l^i 

Coolies, EamingR of, in Southern India and Ceylon ... ix 

Cost of Forming a Plantation ... ... ... 6 

Criticism of the Tea Enterprise ... ... ... 15 

Currency of Ceylon ... ... ••• 7T 

Depression in Ceylon ... ... ... 4f 

English Girls, an Opening for, with their Brothers ... xi' 



INDEX. 

PAQB. 

Ferguson, J., Letters to London Times and Interview 

with Fall Mall Gazette ... ... ...i-xiii 

Fibres in Ceylon ... ... ... ... iv 

Free Labour in Ceylon ... ... ... ix 

Haputale District, Rainfall and Prospects of Tea in ... 21 

Hints to Investors ... ... ... ... 5 

Do. to Young Colonists and Planters ... 12,40 

Information, detailed, about Planting ... ~. 77 

Kew Gardens and Ceylon Planters .. ... xiii 

Land for Tea in Ceylon .«. ... ... ix, 6 

Leaf -disease in Coffee ... ... iii, vii, 56 

Letters to Young Enquirers in the Old Country ... 4-68 

life in Ceylon ... ... ... ... 58 

London Tivnes, Letter to, on Ceylon Planting Enterprise i-vi 

Maria watte Tea Plantation, Yield of ... ... 18 

Matale District, Rainfall and Prospects of Tea in ... 23 

North Borneo, Prospects of ... ... ... xiii 

Nuwara Eliya Distnct f or Tea ... ... 80 

Do. Yield of Plantations ... ... 32 

Outfit for a Young Planter ... ... ... 42 

Pall Mall Gazette, Report of Interview on Ceylon vi-xiii 

Palm Trees, Statistics of ... ... ... \'\ 

Plantations in the Old Districts with Different Products 28 

Planters, Ceylon, in Other Lands ... ... 67 

Do. Young, Practical Hints to ... 12,40 

Planting Enterprize, Review of ... ... vi, 1-4 

Do. How it Won't Pay ... ... 45,53 

Railways in Ceylon ... ... ... ... x 

Rubber in Ceylon ... ... ... ....iv» 7 

Speculation in Ceylon ... ... ...5,44 

Statistics of Planted Area, Crops, and of Exports ... v 

Tea Cultivation in CeyUm ... ... viii, 46, 62, 68 

Do. Growing in other Countries... ... ... iv 

Do. Estimates of Outlay and Yield - ... 68-68a 

Do. in Ceylon, the Other Side of the Picture ... 15 

Do.-planter, The, at Work in Ceylon ... ... x 

Do., Statistics of ... ... ... ... vi 

Towns in Ceylon ... ... ... ... 68 

Tropical Ayricu/turist and its Correspondents ... vii 

Vicissitudes of Property in Ceylon ... ... 44 

Voyage to C^ lou ttom England ... ... 41 

Western Dolosbage for Tea ... ... ... 27 

Young Men Wanted... ... ... ... vii 



(From the London " Times," Augu$t 24, 1884.) 
CEYLON AND ITS PLANTING INDUSTRIES. 



TO THE EDITOR OF •* THE TIMES.* 

SiB,— Ceylon and its planters have been several timea 
referred to in the discussion in The Times on the prospects 
of sugar cultivation in the West Indies, and perhaps a 
brief resume of the experience gained in the Eastern colony 
during a series of trying years may be of some interest 
and of service to planters elsewhere. 

It is pretty well known how in the course of 40 years 
from 1837 onwards, Ceylon rose from being a mere military 
dependency (involving a considerable annual burden to the 
mother country) to the position of the first and wealthiest 
of British Crown Colonies. During that period its popul- 
ation, revenue, and trade so steadily advanced that they 
well-nigh excelled those of all the West Indian colonies 
put together. The change was due almost entirely to the 
development of coffee-planting, which sent in the heyday 
of prosperity m Ceylon as much in one year as £5,000,000 
sterling worth of the fragrant bean into the markets of the 
world, chiefly through London. Other branches of agricuU 
ture prospered and advanced during those 40 years, such 
as palm tree, cinnamon, and rice cultivation in the low 
country — coffee being grown on, the hills— in the hands of 
the Sinhalese and Tamils. But it was through the capital 
introduced and the revenue created by coffee that the 
natives were enabled to extend their groves of coconut 
and palmyra palms, and that the Crovernment could 
devote large sums to the restoration and construction of 
irrigation works, more particularly in supplying village 
sluices and tanks where the people were ready to make 
use of them. 

So faras ISuropean colonists were concerned, coffee-planting 
almost exclusively claimed their attention, and many 



u 

*«f the Sinhalese also embarked in this enterprize. While 
'«offee continued profitable, the counsels of those who advo- 
cated the cultivation of other products was treated as so much 
idle breath. Theoretically it was shown many years ago 
that the climate and much of the soil of Ceylon were 
1)etter suited for tea than coffee ; but still the felling and 
clearing of the most beautiful and varied tropical forests 
in the world went on until from 400 to 500 square miles 
of country were covered with the one shrub, Cqffea Aralica, 
carefully planted, and scientifically pruned— topped at the 
height of an average gooseberry bush. Nature was, how 
ever, preparing the punishment of a gross violation of 
her laws— a violation paralleled by the would-be depend- 
<mce of the Irish 10 years ago on potatoes, or by the cultiv- 
ation in other countries of too wide and unbroken an area 
of wheat, or of the vine. The penalty in Ceylon was 
first manifested in 1869, through a minute fungus on the 
leaf, very similar to the o%dium in the vine, rust in 
wheat, and the potato disease. For some seven or eight 
years not much was thought of it, save as an induce- 
ment to more liberal, careful cultivation; but the scientistj* 
called in to investigate, showed that little or no practical 
check could be offered, and within 15 years,— to make a 
long story short, — the minute, despised fungus had swept 
100,000 acres of coffee cultivation out of existence — the 
poorly cultivated native gardens and neglected plantations 
being naturally the first to be abandoned. At the same time 
the export of the coffee bean fell last year to one-fourth 
xhe maximum of 1,000,000 cwt. 

Here was certainly % grave misfortune overtaking 
a body of industrious men who had been the main- 
stay of a country's prosperity, and, moreover, their 
difficulties were aggravated by an extraordinary develop- 
ment of coffee production in Brazil. This was due to 
the interior of that South American Empire being 
rapidly opened up by railways made out of borrowed 
money; the labour, at the same time, used in cultivation 
fresh coffee plantations being slave. Such competition 
might be deemed unfair— more particularly as it has takph 
ten years' agitation in Ceylon— to secure an extension of 



Ill 

less than 70 miles of railway from the Oolonial Office; 
bat, in place of looking to the Qovemment for factitions 
aid, the Oeylon planters ten years ago turned their attention 
to new products with all the energy and intelligence for 
which they are famous beyoad any other tropical cultivators. 

In many cases, of course, the new products, such as 
cinchona, tea, cacao (chocolate), and rubber, were experi- 
mented with as supplementary to the 175,000 acres of 
select coffee still maintained in cultivation, and let it be 
noted that in interspersing his coffee fields with cinchona 
and rubber trees, in planting belts or boundaries of such 
or areas of reserve in tea, the Oeylon planter was using 
one of the best means of checking the free dissemination 
of the fungus (hemileia vastatrix). As a consequence) 
possibly, or perhaps because the virulence of this pest is 
abating, during the current season Oeylon' is giving an 
improved crop of coffee, and the export will be in excess 
of last year's.* 

At the same time, the plantings of tea and cinchona 
bark have become established and important industries. 
The export of the latter this year will probably be equal 
to 10,000,000 Ibf., against a beginning in 1869 with only 
28 oz. Vor is it expected that South America can ever 
again compete with the East — Oeylon, India, and 
Java— in the production of the invaluable febrifuge. 

Again, it is acknowledged on all hands now that Oeylon 
is better adapted to become a great tea-producing coun- 
try than ever it was to lead with coffee. Situated in 
the pathway of the two monsoons, with an ample and 
well-distributed raanfaJl, in a most forcing climate, Oeylon 
is a perfect paradise for leaf crops. Fruit is more un- 
certain, and even in the best days of coffee great 
uncertainty often prevailed during the six weeks or two 
months of blossoming season, when too much or too 
little rain often destroyed the chance of a due return 
for a whole year's labour. Ooffee, too, could only be cultiv- 

* It was 324,000 cwt. against 200,000 cwt the previous year, 
t It was 11,492,000 lb. 



IT 

ated within a certain limited belt, from 2,500 up 
to 5000 feet above sea level, whereas tea flourishes almost 
from sea-level to 6,000 feet and over. The tea shrub, in fact, 
is one of the hardiest of plants, growing in the open* 
air at Washington, United States, in New Zealand, 
&c. But the great advantage possessed by Ceylon and 
India for tea planting, is in cheap, suitable labour for the work 
of cultivation, leaf plucking, and preparing. The little 
island of Ceylon, as now opened up by railways and 
splendid roads, offers great advantages over most Indian 
districts for tea production. IVom both countries the 
tea supplied is of a pure, high quality. China teat 
have, in many cases, deteriorated of recent years, while 
the Japanese "greens," chiefly sent to America, are nearly 
all adulterated. I may, in passing, say that should the 
war now begun between France and China interrupt 
the tea trade or production in the Far East, there 
is no place whence a return can be so expeditiously 
got for the investment of capital in tea as from Ceylon. 
There i« a wide extent of land available for tea, at 
an upset price of 10 rupees (16s.) per acre freehold, 
and a good crop of leaf can be had within three yeara 
of the planting. Assam planters who visit Ceylon are 
loud in their praise of what they see in the growth 
of our tea, our fine climate, unequalled roads, guod 
■upply of labour, &c. The progress already made in 
the tea industry may be seen from the figures appended. 

The Cacao, or chocolate-yielding fruit tree, is anotiier 
new article of cultivation which has been successfully 
established in several districts in the island ; the Ceylon 
product from this plant being pronounced in Mincing-lane to 
be equal to th» very finest received from Trinidad or 
South America. 

Indiarubber-yielding trees of various descriptions have» 
during the past few years, been extensively planted in 
Oeylon; but the industry is still purely experimental,, 
although good samples have been seen in the London 
market. 

In Fibres, there ought by-and-bye, to be a great devel- 
opment of industry and trade in Ceylon, and, indeed. 



\ 



about 265,000 cwt. while 1884 is expecteci 
*' capital" is the only element wanted to \ 
progress in all the branches referred to. \ 
the Oriental Bank has reacted disastrousR 
money very scarce for the poor but industri 
while, again, the credit of the colony has be _ ^ 

in many places through the non-success for many years 
and the final collapse of the Oeylon (but more properly 
Mauritius) Company, Limited. It is at this time, and 
in view of the absolute scarcity of capital and depression 
of credit, that many planters in Oeylon think their 
industries in *<new products", should receive some official 
support; but they have no idea of interfering with the 
great principles of free trade or of making a grievance 
out of the advantage possessed by the slave-owning 
planters of Brazil. 

It is a matter for congratulation that from the very 
beginning, the Oeylon planting enterprize has been based 
on a system of free . labour, and that its products are 
80 umiversally appreciated and beneficial as coffee, tea 
quinine, chocolate, cinnamon, palm oils, &c. There if every 
reason to feel assured of a profitable return for money 
Judiciously mvested in these ♦'new products " in Oeylon, 
and the much-tried sugar-planters of the West Indies 
cannot do better than make experiments in the same 
direction, although, I am free to admit, that the com- 
parative scarcity and deamess of their labour, places them 
at a heavy disadvantage. 

J. FERGUSON, of the Ceylon Observer and 
Tropical Agriculturist. 
Royal Oolonial Institute : 15, Strand, Aug, 23, 1884. 

The following are Statistics of some %f the Hanting 
Industries in Oeyion: — 

Co/eg.— 1837 :— 2,500 acres cultivated; exported about 
10,000 cwt 1847 :— 45,000 acres cultivated ; exported about 
300,000 cwt; 1857 :— 85,000 acres cultivated ; exported about 
450,000 cwt. 1867 :— 168,000 acres cultivated;:exported about 
868,000 cwt. 1877 :— 272,000 acres cultivated; exported 
about 976,000 cwt. 1883:-174,000 acres cultivated; exported 



VI 

export of over 350,000 cwt. of coffee — a welcome revival.*' 

Tea. — The export began with 4821b. in season 1875-0; 
the export rose to 81,5951b. in season 1878-9; and 
the export rose to 1,522,8821b. in season 1882-3. The 
current season will probably show an export in excesa 
of two million pounds,t and when the 35,000 acres of 
tea now planted are in full bearing, in 1887-8, the 
season's shipments ought to be equal to 10 million 
pounds. Eventually it is estimated Oeylon should have 
150,000 acres under tea, and an annual export of 60 
million pounds and upwards. It depends on home 
capitalists very much how soon this result may be 
realized. 

Cacao, — The export of cacao for cocoa as it is called in the 
market) began with 10 cwt. in 1878, and last year it 
was 4,000 cwt., while for the current year it is likely 
to reach 10,000 cwt.J 

Cinchona hark began with an export of 28 ounces in 
1869; rose to 507,000 lb. in 1879; and was last season 
equal to seven million pounds; while for 1883-4 the 
return wUl exceed 10 millions. § 

Palm Trees and Cinnamon, — Of the products of palm 
trees and cinnamon bushes, cultivated chiefly by native 
owners, Oeylon now sends an annual value of from 
£800,000 to a million sterling into the markets of the 
world, against less than one-fifth of this value 30 years 
ago. 



THE PROSPECTS OF ENGLAND'S CHIEF 
TROPICAL COLONY. 



AN INTEaVIEW WITH A CEYLON JOUBNALIST (mB. JOHN 

FEBGUSON). 

{Fr<m the **Pall Mall Gazette," August 29th; and '^Budget," 

Sept, 5th, 1884.) 
"We have not now *all our eggfs in one basket.' At 
present the. city will not look at Ceylon as a field for 
mvestment. Money is scarce owing to the fall of the Oriental 

* The actual export of coffee for season 1883-4 was cwt. 
324,000. 
t Do. do. of tea for do. 2,268,000 lb. 

i The actual export of cocoa was cwt. 9,863. 
§ The export of bark equalled 11| million lb. 



VII 

Bank, and our credit has been greatly damaged by the 
collapse of the Oeylon (more properly the Maoritias) Com- 
pany. It should be known, however, that in our climate, 
roads, railways, cheap free labour, we have every encourage- 
ment for tropical agriculture in Oeylon. Our natives are 
being so rapidly educated that by 1900 a.d. English will 
practiicaUy be the language of the majority of the people. 
Colombo is the shipping centre of the Eastern world, thanks 
to Sir John Ooode's new harbour; and capital judiciously 
invested in tea and cacao culture especially, is as likely to 
bring a good return as any agricultural enterprize I know 
of anywhere.'' Such is Mr. Ferguson's summing-u^ of 
England's principal tropical colony. He is inclined, tt will be 
seen, to take an optimistic view of Oeylon and its future, but 
he speaks with the accumulated experiences of twenty- three 
years' residence in the colony. Then he has the numerous 
correspondents of his papers, the Ceylon Observer and 
the Tropical Agrictdturist, scattered all over the tropical 
world where English planters are at work ; some reporting 
on tea in Assam ; on planting prospects in Java and Fiji ; 
on the Liberian coffee in West Africa; and on planting 
in Brazil ; while he himself has just been making the all- 
round the world trip, visiting California and Florida en, route. 
*' Nowhere is tropical agriculture so thoroughly studied and 
experimented on as in Ceylon." 

Young Men wanted. — ** We now ask for young fellows 
of the right sort — even public schoolmen, university men — 
any one with pluck ana energy who comes determined to 
fight his way against idl odds. Do not mistake me. We 
do not want to be flooded out by thriftless never-do-weels, 
who have failed at everything they have turned their hands 
to, but resolute chaps with a little capital to invest, 
though they must first serve an arduous apprenticeship, 
for there is no royal road to tea-planting. No young fellow 
should come out without some money and letters of in- 
troduction to planters or merchants. A tropical country 
is very different in its conditions from Australia and New 
Zealand, where a man can turn to at once. Let us sup- 
pose our model young man landed at Colombo and dis- 
patched to a station to serve his novitiate. In some cases 
he might have to pay from £50 to £100 a year for his 
board and training, but if he shows any aptitude for his 
work and is a willing horse, he would well repay his cost 
for food and shelter." 

The Fungus Scoubgb.— " The story of the coffee blight 
is soon told. A few years ago, coffee alone was seen over 
hundreds of square miles of hillside and valley, eastward, 
south, and north of Adam's Peak. Then in 1869 the fun- 
gus appeared, and year after year it did its deadly work, 
and half ruined us. Here are some figures which put the 



via 

matter in a nutshell. Take the coffee prodaotton from 
1847 to 1883 now. Ton have in 1847 an acreage of 45,000, 
with an en)ort of 200,000 hundredweight ; in 1857<-85,000 
acres, and 450,000 hundredweight; in 1867— 168/)00 acres 
and 868,000 hundredweight; in 1877—272,000 acrei, and 
926,000 hundredweight; in 1883— 174,000 acres, and 265,000 
hundredweight'; whilst 1884 is ez|9ected to give from 800,000 
to 360,000 nundredweight. I think we ma^ fairly sa^r that 
the point of depression has heen turned, if the esnmate 
proves anything like correct." 

Tea will Satb us. — <*What happened after the ooffee 
blight became serious?" ^ Why, naturally enough, many of 
the plantations were deserted, the capitalists took fright, 
superintendents weie thrown out of employment, and set 
On to other countries. There was a regular migration to 
Northern Australia, Fiji, Borneo, the Straits, California, 
Florida, Burmah, and elsewhere. I should say that out 
of our 1,700 planters we lost at least 400 in this way. 
In Northern Australia, at Port Darwin, three or four of 
our Ceylon planters have planted coffee and cinchona; in 
California some are busy with vines and oranges. Some 
have 'gone to Florida among the orange groves; but a 
Floridan orange grove requires twenty years to come to 
full maturity, though the trees begin to bear long before that,, 
say in six years. There is a ready market in America for the 
fruit, but a man requires to work hard there and to know 
his business before his speculation is likely to prove re- 
munerative. But in Ceylon our indomitable planters, who 
stuck to their posts, began to turn their attention to other 
products — tea, cinchona, rubber, cacao; some 175,000 acres 
of coffee being still under cultivation. Many of the coffee 

Elanters ran belts of rubber trees uid cinchona between 
is coffee bushes, thus helping to check the spread of 
the dread coffee fungus. I think the statistics show that 
the scourge is abating; but whatever comes of coffee, 
Ceylon will become a great tea-growing country within the 
next few years. When the 35,000 acres of land now under 
tea come into full bearing, in three or four years we ex- 
pect to export ten million pounds. Some day Ceylon will 
Dtave 160,000 acres under tea, and an annual export of 
sixty million pounds and upwards. Home capitalists have 
only to say the word. From 482 pounds of tea exported 
in 1875-6, the amount in 1882-3 reached a million and 
a half pounds. The yield of cacao for this year is likely 
to reach 10,000 cwt. Last season we exported 7,000,000 
pounds of cinchona bark, this year it will be 11,000,000; 
while of cinnamon and palm tree products (grown chiefly 
V7 natives) we ship nearly a million sterling's worth. 
The Sinhalese and Tamils are quite ready to follow the 
European planters in reference to the new products of late 



IX 

years being introdaced ioto Ceylon. They have planted 
the cinchona, cacao, and rubber trees; bat specially are 
the Sinhalese likely to become extensive growers of the tea 
plant." 

Thb Land and the Climate. — *' Now is the time to buy 
land, for we are on the torn after years of depression, 
and such land as you can now buy for 16s an acre, may 
in a year or two be doubled or trebled in price. Just as 
was me case in tie years between 1868 and 1875, when 
every one was 'going into coffee,' and forest land sold 
for £20 an acre in some districts. Since 1833 some 
1,800,000 acres of Crown lands have been sold (to European 
and natives), at an average price from 1833 to 1844 of 10& 
8d., from 1844 to 1883 the average has been 858., and the 
upset price now is 168. There is no land tax, except 
within the areas of the towns." ^ And what about the 
climate ?" ** Delightful — for the tropics most healthy, and 
not much hotter than it has been in London during the 
4>ast few weeks, even at our hottest on the hills. Most of the 
planters and their assistants enjoy the best of health, 
though of course pioneers and those who have to work 
through new forest and in the lowoountry, often suffer 
from malarious fevers. But then have you not the cool 
mountain station to fly to as a restorer? There isNuwara 
Eliya and Bandarawela, on the plateau of Uva Prind^K 

ruty, where you get coolness, with health-laden breezes — and 
have even broken the ice in my water jug, in a Nuwara 
Eliya cottage. Given a change now and then, good food, 
care, and temperance — a European is as well off as regards 
climate (some might say better) than at home here." 

Fbbe Labour. — ^*<One of our greatest advantages is 
'Free labour.' Close at our shores are the twelve million 
coolies of Southern India, whose average earnings are be^ 
tween £3 and £4 a year each. Tes, and he is able to 
live on it, too, and to support a wife and family. From 
this vast source we draw our supply of labourers, and fine,, 
well-trained, diligent fellows they become. They come over 
with perhaps a wife and three or four children ; the yare 
engaged for a period, a month's notice sufficing to terminate 
the contract on either side. There is a hut r^idy for them,, 
with a bit of ground for a garden, in which they grow 
vegetables and so on ; the planter gives them a blanket and 
food until they are able to repay him out of their earn- 
ings. Their wages average from ninepence to a shilling 
a day for a man; a woman can make about 7d., and & 
child 5d., so thev are well off; they save money, and 
when they go back to their own village in a year or 
two's time, they have probably some five or six pounds 
in their pouch. This the careful coolie invests in a piece 
of land, which, on his return to the Ceylon plantations, hfr 



leaves in charge of a relative or a friend until he goes home 
again. Our Kandians, or highlanders, are splendia axemen, 
and it is they who do the felling of our forests and the 
clearing of the land ready for planting. Then the South 
Indian coolies do the digging and pumting. Tlie land, 
by the way, lies generally on timbered slopes. The axe* 
men begin at the bottom, cut each tree half through, 
and work up to the top. The highest fringe is cut clean 
through, and with its weight brings down the rest of the 
slope in the fall. The Sinhalese tiiemselves refuse to do 
any agricultural work for Europeans. It is beneath them. 
They are our carters, employed in taking the tea and 
coffee, and so on, from the stations to the coast. If I 
remember rightly tiiere were some 13,000 licensed carts 
a year or two ago. The Sinhalese are also our boatmen 
and artisans and domestic servants. Now, many of our Sin- 
halese and Tamils are wealthy. One, indeed, is the richest 
man on tiie island, with an income of some £20,000 a year 
or more. Some of the coolies, I must confess, are s&d 
thieves. You may of a Sunday meet a man and his wife 
on the road, one of them carrying a cock the other a 
hen. The birds are all their portable property, which they 
are compelled to take with them while visiting some friends, 
lest they should be stolen." 

Oeylok Railways. — ** The cost of the Colombo and Eandy 
Railway, of 74 miles, was £1,740,000. Then an extension 
to Nawalapitiya from Peradeniyi^ 17 miles, was opened in 
1874 ; and an extension from Kandy to Matale, 17| miles, 
in 1880. Besides these, a seaside line has been constructed 
from Oolombo to Elalutara, 27| miles. In August, 1880, 
the first sod was turned of an extension from Nawala- 
pitiya for 42 miles to Upper Dimbula, whence it was 
mtended to be carried 25 miles farther to Haputale. Alto- 
gether about 180 miles of railway, all on the 5| ft. gauge 
have been opened or are under construction. JBut there 
is one grievance which I should like to point out concern- 
ing these railways. The length of forty-two miles from 
Nawalapitiya to Upper Dimbula will probably be opened 
in May, having cost £900,000 of money. But then they 
are going to stop short instead of pushing on as was pro- 
posed to Haputale, the real terminus, with new trcdE&c, 
which is only twenty-four mUes farther, and would cost 
£400,000, and open up a vast amount of splendid country, 
which at present is compelled to send its produce rouna 
by road, a distance of 200 miles — a road which is subjected 
to floods, too, to say nothing of the delay and cost." 

The Tea Planteb at Work. — "Let us suppose that a young 
man has learned his business, and has a thousand or two of 
capital. He buys 200 acres at 166. an acre. He would begin 
by opening up, say, twenty-flve acres his first year, clearing. 



XI 

dndning, and planting. Then, in his second year, he would 
prepare another twenty-five acres. Up to and incladlng the 
third year his outhiy would be about £20 to £25 an -acre. In 
his third year there would be a crop of tea-leaf — a small 
one. In the fourth and fifth years he might expect, sup^ 
posing that he is lucky, to have a crop of tea of 400 lb., to 
the acre, which he would lay down in England at 9d, a lb., 
which would produce in the market from Is. 3d. to Is. 6d. 
a lb., thus leaving a margin of 6d. profit. Then he would ad- 
vance, not laying out too much capital to start with, but 
gradually feeling his way. All the year round tea requires 
one man per acre, in crop time a fuller force. It is hard 
physical work, though there may be no absolute manual 
labour. At five in the morning the bugle sounds for 
all hands, the planter comes down to the muster, the 
coolies go off to their work, the master has his coffee 
and follows them going on foot of course, from point to 
point, supervising and directing, and at 11 a.m. he returns to 
Ids breakfast. Until 3 p.m. he remains indoors, attending 
to business matters, the going out again for another spell of 
work and inspection. Ajid so the days pass." *< Snakes?" 
' Boots and clothing are a great protection against snakes, and 
during the last sixty years I don't think there has been one 
case of death among the whites. The natives, of course, have 
no protection from clothing, and are more careless. In 
Oeylon our coffee machinery for pulping, for skinning, for 
di^ini;, has been brought to a state of perfection, and the 
machmes manufactured at Colombo are known through- 
out the tropics. It is this attention to improvements that 
has h^ped us so materially. Our planters are men with 
ideas, which they are quick to put into force. So it is 
with the new industries — tea, cincnona, cacao — the machin- 
ery for their preparation is being improved every day, 
YovL see Oeylon is a comparatively small country, and the 

Slanters are able to compare notes. A hears how B is 
oing this, he tells it to 0, they have a talk about it, 
and so the matter grows. Each district has its little 
centre (not to mention the hecdth resorts on the hills), 
where there is a club and other facilities for the inter<* 
communication of ideas." 

The Ways of the Heathen Ohikeb. — ^**0n my way 
from Singapore to China I fell in with a Sumatran to- 
bacco-planter who had imported Chinese coolies at a cost 
of £7 to £10 a head, on an engagement of a number of 
years. Smallpox broke out among them. Now aChinamaii 
prefers death to disfigurement; he has no notion of re« 
volving through endless cycles with a pitted face, so they 
took to suicide, and every morning the overseer came 
in with his report :—* Another ten to thirty pounds gone, 
sir. One to three more of 'em foimd hanging to a tree just 



Xll 

now.' This was a serious difficulty. So at last tiie planter 
issued a proclamation to the effect that the body of the 
next hung Chinaman, instead of being carefully^ coffined, 
would be cut into pieces. This device stopped suicide. ^ An- 
other curious fact respecting the peculiarities of the Chinese 
is worth mentioning. When a Chinaman signs articles oft 
board ship one of them is that if he dies on the passage his 
body shall be embalmed and sent back to China. In the 
steamer between Yokohama and San Francisco, one of our 
stokers met with an accident. The doctor said the only 
chance for him was to cut off his leg. ' No, no,' said the 
stoker and ' No, no,' chorused his comrades. But in a day or 
two mortification set in, and the leg was sacrificed. The 
man died, and his friends were horribly savage at the 
"desecration wrought by the doctor's knife and saw. But 
they made the best of it, and embalmed the mortified 
leg with the dead body of poor John. The Chinese in 
the Struts earn, if they are good workmen, about 4s. a 
day. Perhaps, we have three Chinamen all told in Cey- 
lon, but it is curious to notice that after four days' 
steaming from Colombo to Singapore vou are virtually 
in China, for tiie Chinamen are kradually filling the 
Straits up. Of course there is much to be said on both 
sides — but the Califomians, so far as I saw, miss their 
Chinese servants sadly — ^in fact, a Chinaman is at a pre- 
mium. In my opinion the time had not come in West- 
em America to stop Chinese immigration. At present 
only traders are allowed to enter the country, though 
for every Chinese coolie who dies one is allowed to take 
his place. A big business is done in certificates from all 
I can hear. Why, I heard that one of the most violent 
of the anti-Chinese agitators still kept to his Chinese 
servants. He is not a true patriot, like the Englishman 
who refused to eat slave-grown sugar. Some two or three 
years ago a Queensland planter engaged 500 of our Sinhalese 
to go to his sugar plantations. They went, much to our 
surprise, for sudh a thing as Sinhalese emigration was 
unknown. They proved a bad bargain, for they were 
nearly all selected from gaol-birds of the worst type. Few 
of them ever found their way to the plantations, many 
were absorbed in the towns, whilst a few found their way 
back home." 

An Opening fob English Girls. — "There is just one 
word of advice I should like to give to fathers and brothers. 
To the latter, if you go to Ceylon or India — or to any 
other colony, for the matter of that — arrange after you 
have a house of your own to get your sister out with you. 
England is overstocked with women, who are clamouring for 
work and votes and husbands, too. Now England is sending 
out some of her best blood to its distant possessions. Why 



Xlll 

should the young men go and not the young women? I 
am convinced that the presence of bis sister would have 
saved many a young fellow, in the pioneering days in the 
tropics, from drink and ruin, if she had been there to look 
after his bungalow and minister to his wants. Fellows used 
to come in &oma hard da:^'s work on the mountain slopes,, 
fagged and weary, to their bungalow. There was food for 
them prepared by native servants, but it was often not fit 
to eat. So some went to the beer or brandy for consolation. 
Things are better now, and ladies more numerous; but 
still, in colonizing, whether to tropical or temperate climes, 
sister and brother may well go out together. But there is no 
need for me to expatiate on the advantages of my proposal.'' 

<*What do you think of the prospects of the Nortii 
Borneo Company?" I asked Mr. Ferguson, as he rose ta 
go. ''I cannot say from actual experience, but we have 
one or two correspondents there from whom we hear 
now. and then. It took Oeylon seventeen hard years of 
pioneering before we began to think that success would be 
permanent, and North Borneo is yet a very young country. 
There are at present a few plantations of tea, coffee, and 
cinchona scattered along the coast, while collectors are 
at work in the interior gathering ivory and minerals. It 
is like other new colonies — ^it needs capital and men.'' 

Kxw Gabdbns. — "I cannot, by the way, over-estimate 
the value of the work which Sir Joseph Hooker and Kew 
Gardens do for us, not only for Oeylon, but for all the trop- 
ical countries wherein fresh products are being tried. The 
Kew authorities have correspondents and collectors in all 
parts, and if any one wishes to try experiments he has only 
to write to Kew for advice and specimens, which are f or<* 
warded to him from the gardens. You might think that it 
would be easier for us to send to the country where the plant 
or fruit was indigenuous rather than to England, but the 
difficulties would often prove too great. Kew is of vast 
service to the planters m many respects.'' *'The military 
force," said Mr. Ferguson, in conclusion, ^'situated in 
Oeylon, coasts us £120,000 a year, or 10 per cent of our 
revenue.* Now, why should we be compelled to expend 
this sum on British troops we don't want. It is a serious 
grievance. You use Oeylon as a convenient centre, from 
which you may draw in case of any little war in India,, 
in Ohina, in New Zeland, in South Africa, or Egypt. I 
do not think it fair to impose this burden upon us. 



ff 



* This burden has rince been reduced by one-half, very 
much through the influence of Governor Sir Arthiur 
Gordon. — In some other parts of the Fall Mall report of 
this Interview I have made corrections where my remarks 
were slightiy misunderstood. — J. F. 



J 



'•CEYLON AS AFIELD FOR THE INVESTMENT 
OF CAPITAL AND ENERGY." 

•« 

Such a heading fifteen or even twelve years ago could 

xnly apply to an extension of the great plant* 
ing enterprize of the colony in coffee. Snbsidiary 
^products were sneered at equally by capitalists and 
planteis— by merchants and proprietors. The experi- 
ments so far made in tea did not promise much 
success, at leisb judging by the fields of the CeyloA 
Company Limited ; \ihile as to cinchona) who 

•cared to invest time or money in covering any acre- 
age beyond a mere patch, with a product only used 
medicinally ? With middling plantation cofiee rulioi^ 

-at over lOOs per cwt. and the utmost confidence 
felt that proper cultivation would dispel the BemUeioL 
vastatrix, then first coming into notice, why should 
a rupee be invested or an acre cleared for any other 
than the one great and profitable staple ? Such weitt 
the questions or objections raised about *' new pro- 
ducts" a dozen years ago. We remember about that 
time urging caution, and calling on newcomers, then 

if reely flocking iu, to base their coffee investments on no 
higher estimates than 3 cwt. per acre of crop and 8Qli 
per cwt. of value— figures then considered ridicnl> 

-ously low, although now they may be regarded aa 
maxima in connection with this branch of oar planting 

industry. It may be calculated that letween 1869 
and 1877} there were no I'^ss than 3^ millions stekw 
ling introduced into Ceylon for the extension cf cultiv- 

-atiou apart from the outlay on plantations previously in 
existence. The fresh capital brought in, therefore ma^ 
be said to have then averaged some £400,000 per annan. 

^ince 1877| we suppose one- tenth of this sum would be 



ftbove the annnal average, although the interest 
awakened in tea especially, has naade a difference 
within the past three years. ■ 

It is onr ol>ject now to show, as far 
as we legitimately can that Ceylon in its new pro- 
ducts offers as good a field for judicious investr 
ments as any with which we are acquainted in the 
wide circle of British dependencies. We acted on this 
belief in writing the letter which the London Time^ 
published a few months ago and in answering the 
enquiries of the representative of the PaU MaU 
Gazette. With the same object in view we now begin 
the publication of a series of papers by planters of 
more or less prolonged local experience for the benefit 
more especially of many persons outside the island who^ 
at this time, are looking to it for the investment of 
their energy and money. Although there are at present 
several indications of capital becoming more generally 
available for local use; yet the influx has to continue freely: 
if progress is to be made with tea at the rate justified by 
the success hitherto attained on most, if not all, our tea 
plantations. There is therefore plenty of room for draw- 
Ing further attention to the subject. Tea among all new 
products, is of course the most generally believed i& 
and the most promising, because of the hardiness of 
the plant and the varieties of climate, soil and altu 
itade in which it is found flourishing. Cinchona and 
cacao although very valuable— in fact the mowr 
▼alnable perhaps from one point of view, when fairly 
established,— have a far more limited range and the 
planting of them involve a good deal more risk. 
Some of the advantages of tea over coffee as an in- 
vestment are found in the longer duration of crop time,. 
tiie greater independence of climatic conditions and the 
steadier employment afforded to a certain labour force 
all the year round. The whole year's labour of a planter 
over his coffee fields was occasionally rendered valueleaa 
by anpropitious weather prevailing for one month or six. 



weeks when the bushes were ready to burst iuto, or to 
mature blossom. Again a coffee planter would come to 
Colombo to get advances on crop^estimated to be gathered 
aixor nine months after date according to the blossom*. 
The tea planter, as in the case of one whom we saw 
the other day, comes to an agent for an advance on 
the security of crop gathered month by month. '* I 
don''t; want money " — as our friend said to hia agent 
— •*to be repaid out of next year's crop; but an 
advance which I shall begin tomorrow to pay off by 
sending you leaf for shipment, my picking going on 
ateadily month by month." There is no doubt o€ 
the additional safeguard for capital which this fact 
gives in the case of tea over coffee investments. It 
ia further urged that a tea clearing can stand neglect, 
« temporary stoppage of expenditure, without the per- 
manent injury which was too often sustained under 
similar circumstances by coffee ; while in the event 
of severe competition between India and China bring- 
ing down the price for a time to a point that allows 
no margin of profit, the Ceylon tea planter could 
saspend outlay without injury until the ciisis was over. 
In the case of coffee (or any fruit crop), of courso 
the berries must be picked when ripe or finally lost. 
As regards tea in India and Ceylon, enough 
has not been made perhaps of the greater 
ooonomy with which tea can be transferred from 
the Ceylon plantations to the London market. The 
intermediate charges in Colombo are decidedly less 
than in Calcutta. 

We think it will be found that the subject of the 
Papers above referred to, is treated with sufficient 
variety. Some of our correspondents have thrown their 
observations into Letters addressed to enquirers at 
home ; others will give their experiences in an almost 
autobiographical form ; while one writer will tell us 
'**Howhe kept his Wattie" (plantation) all through 
the bad years. Notwithstanding many disadvan- 



tegee, the last- men tioned gentleman made his coffe». 
pay working ezpsnses and interest ; and more, 
to give enongh to cover the post of planting, 
einchona which in its turn yielded fanda sufficient 
to enable most of the land to be turned into- 
a tea plantation ; and this again is now valued at 
nore than ever the coffee wattie was. Bub enough 
•f reference to the several Papers which will tell' 
tkeir own story all in good time. 

« 

CHAPTER I. 

%dB PERIOD OF PLANTING DEPBESSION IN CBYLQN DBAWINQ TO 
AN END— OVBH-SPECULATION IN TEA DEPEECATED— SALUB- 
BTTT OF CEYLON TEA DISTBICTS — PROSPECTS BEFORE INVEjOT- 
OBS : TWO COURSES : — ^FOREST-LAND US. OLD ESTATES — 
CAPITAL REQUIRED— PROBABLE OUTLAY AND RBTUBN— 
mnOER JUDICIOUS INYESTUEKT, 20 PER CENT ON CAPITAL. 

It is generally conceded by those who have long 
XQsided in, and are well-acquainted with, the island 
of Ceylon, that the period of depression which has 
overtaken this country is coming to an end, and that a 
period of comparative prosperity may be confidently 
looked for in the immediate future. The failure of 
the coflee enterprize has been a severe blow to the 
Island, and one from which, not so long ago, it would 
have appeared inconceiveable that she could ever re* 
cover. Now, however, it is becoming more and more 
Tident everyday that through the extension of the 
tea enterprize a fresh era of prosperity is at hand, 
and one it is to be hoped that will prove of lasting 
benefit to the Island. 

Over-speculation, and the hasty and ill-oon- 
aidered expenditure of money in unsuitable land, 
will, it is to be hoped, be avoided for such oan 
Imt lead to disappointment in the future as it has. 
in the past. The judicious investment of capital in 
the tea enterprize by those resident in the Island who 



•have profited by the experience of past years, and hgf 
new colonists of the right stamp, is an event to Im 
hoped for, and one deserving of every enconragement* 
Whether a period of speculation in Oylon tea is 
about to occur or not, it is difficult to say. What has 
happened in the past may occur again ; in the immed- 
iate future we have, however, to look for an ioflaz €if 
-capital into the Island, which will render much of 
iihe laud at present unproductive, profitable, and gjLve 
remunerative employment to many who are now suff«r-> 
ing from a period of depression which affects either 
directly or indirectly every individual connected witb 
the planting industry. Ihe general salubrity of the 
Ceylon tea districts is well-known, and tlitt 
advantage which this gives us over our Indian 
brethren is proverbial. Any one unacquainted wif^ 
the European residents in the Island would be aju 
iK)nished at the number of robust men who haTe- 
already passed the better portions of their lives uk 
•constant residence here, and who are probably in. 
better general health than they would have been haA 
they never left England. Some of the lowconntty 
tea districts are in parts rather trying to some Eiir> 
opean constitutions, but even these districts (whichaie 
becoming more healthy every day as the country 
gets opened up) are as a rule better than the 
other tropical colonies which offer inducements to in* 
vestors. The hill districts, which comprise the large 
bulk of the existing tea estates, as well as large 
tracts of land suitable for tea, afford as pleasant and 
-healthy a place of res'ideuce as can be desired. 

Proposing investors in tea have two prospects opea 
to them : they can either purchase forest- land in 
localities which have not bef n found suitable for coffee^ 
or they can obtain ecttatcs which have been planted witb 
-coffee, and either abandoned or cultivated as the case 
'may be. As a rule, the soil of the districts at present in 
forest is inferior to that of the coffee district, but 



on the other hand its fertility has not been a^cted^. 
by previous cultivation. The soil of coffee estates. 
that have not been badly affected by wash appears 
mdmirably adapted to tea cultivation in most cases, as 
the roots of the plant, which is a very deep feeder, are 
«ble to tap stores of nourishment left untouched by coffee. 

The fiuitability of the Ceylon climate, with its 
abundant aud evenly distributed rainfall, for the pro-. 
daction of leaf, need not be enlarge <! upon; the 
•dyantages we possess in that respect are well-known. 
In the wet portions of the iowcountry the climate 
ia very forcing, and causes a growth which is re- 
markable in what apparently seems a poorish scmI. 
Hence, earlier returns may be looked for in such 
district?, and with this is joined the advantages d 
cheap production. Such land, being in all cases. 
jangle, requires of course more capital to briug it 
into cultivation than coffee Lind. 

On the hUls in almost every case the only land 
available is that which has at one time or another 
been in coffee. If recently abandoned the cost of 
clearing such land is great: abjndoued coffee of old 
date here showing a considerable advantage. lu the 
case of cultivated coffee, however, much of the cost 
of putting the land into tea will be covered by the 
crop from it, whilst the cost of felling, roading and 
draining, and in most cases the erection of lines, 
bungalows and stores is avoided. Under such cir- 
cumstances, the conversion of a coffee estate into a 
tea-garden becomes an undertaking requiring a com- 
paratively small outlay of capital, aparc from the 
original purchase. 

R250 per acre should be amply sufficient to bring 
a tea estate into bearing, where the original purchase 
has been that of a block of forest laud. Such land 
can now be procured for about- B30 per acre and 
upwards. ' Where a coffee estate has been purchased 
a far smaller sum will suffice : the exact amount will: 






depend on the thoroughness with which the land ha» 
been originally openerl, and the extent to which the 
old product assists towards the introduction of the new.. 

A capital of K60,000, or say £5,000 sterling, should 
be sufficient to bring into full bearing, with all the- 
neceSwiry machinery and buildings, a tea garden of 
200 acres, allowing a]so for the purchase of a reserve^ 
of timber. A garden of this size, if care has been 
taken in selectipg the seed, and if the soil is fairly 
good, should give a continuous yield of 400 lb. per 
ftcre, costing from 30 to 35 cents per lb. (according. 
to circumstances) to put in Colombo, and netting at 
present prices 60 cents. 

Low prices are, at the present moment, the b'urthei^ 
of most reports regarding Indian Tea Companies, 
The margin between cost of production and sale price 
18, just now, at the very lowest point compatible 
with the realization of a fair dividend ; many con'> 
oerns, in fact, yield no dividend at all under the 
present circumstances. Allowing, therefore, for a 
further fall in prices of 10 cents per lb., one which 
would have a serious effect upon many of our Indian 
friends, we still have a margin of profit of 15 cents 
per lb. or R60 per acre. This on a 200 acre fwjiate, 
costing R60,000 to bring to a bearing age, sh^wA m^ 
terest at the rate of 20 pe.- cent on the invested capttal. 

In the cases where coffee estates are purcTlae^d for 
oonversion into tea gardens each investmenf.^ust be 
considered on its own merits. As a rule, sifoh invest- 
ments offer great inducements to capitalists* for the 
returns from coffee and cinchona will usually go » 
long away towards meeting the cost of planting with 
tea, whilst the prices at present ruling for such land 
are very low. 

In the foregoing letter I have not thought 
it necessary to suppoit the statements made by 
any proof, nor has space allowed any entry into^ 
details : abundance of such are at the command of 



8 

mny one who it deturoat of enqmriog cloaely inta 
the sabjeot. My object hM been to shew briefly Hm 
inducemenU which Ceylon now offers for the invert- 
tnent of capital in the te* enterprize, and to illastratc 
the fact that the present moment affords opportnnitee 
which may not for long be so readily offered. 

T. C. OWBN. 

CHAPTER IL 



[We now give a second instalment of the papers oot 
this subject. Oar correspondent this time — a planter 
of prolonged and varied experience — has chosen to 
^hrow his relation of experieace and advice for men 
meditating investment in Ceylon, into the form nf 
« couple of letters. These are supposed to be ad> 
dressed to a yonng friend in the old country wlio 
has applied for information respecting the Ceylm 
planting enterprize and the prospects before investonk 
How well these supposed questions have been an* 
Bwered, we leave our readers to judge.] 

twenty yeabs* experience of cstlon — ^mew and ouk 
products—sinbad's "man op the mountain" — 
• wp4^se places than ceylon. 

My- de&r , — I shall be happy, as desired, to td' 

you" so^nething of my Ceylon experience, giving you 
8ome<.ifl^nts therefrom and my opinion as to the ad- 
visabiHiy of your coming out to and investing in this 
country > " My local experience as you are aware ex- 
tends coneiderably over a score of years, during which ' 
I have seen many ups and downs, felt many hopes 
and disappointments, sometimes with the wise man i 
learning at the expense of others, at other times V 
with the fool at my own. 

I early turned attention to what are now styled New 
Products, working up all the information I could gather 
both from men and books. Without capital, however 
my speculations were but theoretical, all the plant I 



9 

» 

isg of maay an interesting and hopeful product beiDg 
done in the gardens of oastles in the air, and hope 
deferred soon made the yoang heart sick. NeYertheless, 

BO novel were snoh thoaghts in those jog-trot dayfr 
of the one great staple — ooffee, *that friends re- 
garded me as a visionary, more theoretical than 
practieal, and one Colombo agent, a fine trae-hearted 
kindly gentleman, now alas ! no more, shaking his 
head, spoke of me as a good planter, bat very specal- 
aitive. The crj then was : stick to coffee, keep to 
the beaten track ; — now it is : plant up new products^ 
don't have all your eggs in one basket. 

With time at length came savings, credit and 
what are called chances ; but I had to forego my 
aspirations for the new, and start with coffee. 
Then came the earth hunger, investment after in- 
vestment, buying and selling more or lees to ad- 
irantage, credit making credit, and with fair cropa 
and handsome realizations, all finding fuel for 
fature combustion. Gradually at first, unexpectedly 
n^id at last, things changed for the worse. Leaf- 
disease appeared, and yearly spread and intensified. In 
spite of much intelligent thought, h^rd work and 
high expenditure, crops fell off, prices folI^fK^, 
eredit became restricted, cultivation was loweft^^&nd 
at last our very coffee trees are disappearing* .before 
the advancing attack of black bug. Probahiy'lhere 
is not one estate proprietor in Ceylon who t^AtS alone 
to coffee now, while the future is very 'djtrk indeed 
for him who has not largely planted up the old pro- 
duct with the newer cults. When the seriousness 
of leaf-disease grew evident, my thoughts were 
turned to the loves of my youth. In small ways I 
tried a whole host of minor cultivations. But too 
often, even vhen the requisite knowledge was acquired, 
the answer to the question. Will it pay ? was unfavor- 
able. In some instances the natural difficulties arising 
from climate and soil were uosurmountable ; in others,. 



10 

thieves, vermin and strange pests took more than 
the lion's share, while of most, one quickly found 
how very soon supply might overleap demand. As 
regards the major and now no longer nevr pro. 
ducts— cinchona, cacao, cardamoms, tea, Liberiaa 
coffee, &c., I did of course, and have continued to 
do what I coald, but with credit clipped and capital 
exhausted, means and time have failed to thus 
adequately fill up the void created by the rapid 
decadence of coffee. 

If however, the continued struggle has become 
almost hopeless for many an old proprietor, it is not 
60 for the country itself. The ownership of large areas 
of no longer profitable coffee and of fields that weve 
of cinchona, together with an ever-growing accumnl. 
ation of old advances, debts and liabilities, with inter* 
-€8t, compound interest and annual charges piled 
high over all, — such a load, clinging more tightly than 
Sinbad's man of the mountain, weighing more heayily 
than Christian's burden, — may indeed swamp many a 
weather-beaten craft, but freed from indebtedness 
revivified by fresh capital, the estates themselves wiD 
again get a fair chance and do well. This digging 
out•{>^ old stock and replacing it with new blood may 
be '9'^ Very painful saddening thing for some; and they, 
nobly «%1uruggling to meet liabilities, are to be pitied ; 
but thcf Sooner it comes the better will it be for all* 
Ceylon, wMh its unrivalled climate, equally so as a 
tropical \cfmtitry for animal and vegetable life, with 
its abundant cheap supply of labor, its admirable 
eysteoi of communications, with its energetic pro^res9> 
its hard-won experience and its daily press, will ngaia 
attract a new set of investors, who, buying far 
below intrinsic values and profiting generally at the 
expense of their predecessors, must while enriching 
themselves, restore prosperity to the Island itself. 

There are still certain New Products that have not yet» 
but will in time make a name for themselves. In the low> 



u 

ccNwtry pftrtionlarlya good time and an enduriDg time 
will undoubtedly come some day when land there becomes, 
cheaper and more accessible. But for the immediate 
<iiture it 18 to tea we must look as the means that will 
largely bring back rich, warm blood to the heart 
and mainspring of the community— European enter- 
prize. Cinchona will continue to be profitable in. 
etrangely favored patches; cacao will yield long, steady, 
«»8ily.made returns in suitable localities ; cardamoma 
for a time will give little fortunes ; and other 
things in their order will help ; but for general, great 
Mid speedy regeneration tea must and will take the 
place of our old and favorite staple. 

Thinking I have now done more than justice, any 
way as to space, to the historical part of your re- 
quest I now more briefly proceed to give you the 
advice you seek. If you really desire to lead the life 
of a planter and to profitably invest capital in the 
East, then, if willing to work hard and thoroughly 
learn your business, to live as you should in all thinga 
and not to invest till after you have acquired the 
requisite knowledge and experience, then by all itre^na 
oome to Ceylon and go in for tea. There arS^i^prse. 
places than Ceylon to live in, and its charijJ^growa. 
with residence. Ceylon possesses exceptional' aji'vant- 
ages for the production of tea, good in qijality and 
at low cost. There are few, if any, of-Jtj{e larger 
tropical products more likely to bring in quick, steady, 
certain and continued returns than tea when judiciously 
planted and cultivated in Ceylon, and in the coming 
struggle with rival producers it will more than hold 
tte own. 

Should you feel inclined, as I expect, to act on my 
advice, I shall be pleased then to give you for guid- 
ance a few hints and lessons from dearly-bought ex-~ 
perienoe and observation. — Yours truly, 



12 
CHAPTER III. 

TEA CULTIVATION : BULBS FOR THB GUIDAKCB OF 
A TOUMG TEA PLAMTKB. 

My dear ,— I am glad to hear yon ha^e »•- 

solved to cast your lot in with as, and **do*' Tea ilk 
Ceylon. As promised then I now proceed to give yo« 
a few hints founded on observation and ezperienoe, 
that you may begin where I leave oaf, and that, if 
my successes hav^ led to little, my failures at least 
may be of service to others : 

1. Stick to your laai. It a merchant, merchaDdiae ; 
if a lawyer, study your business ; if a doctor, at. 
tend to your practice. But if you determine to own 
estates, then change all that : first become a planter, 
'earn your work and all about it, and then invest. 

2. While not trusting altogether to one string to 
your bow, don't at the same time have too many irons 
in the fire. Find out what products suit you* and 
your land best, then go in thoronghly for them and 
not fritter away time and money in every newthing. 

3. Concentrate your investments. In coffee all 
4ep,Q]sd8 on the chance weather of a few weeks^ 
andTe^M it was well to distribute risk, when, whether, 
thd season was wet or dry, some property would do 
welU*'^at in tea, select the best locality you can^ 
«nd tSi«n confine yourself to it, to the saving of much 
labor i^u^ time in inspection. 

4. S%&k an investment with capacities for large 
•expHUsion. Begin as small as you like, progress as 
slowly as you choose, but let the land be there for 
iuture b'g things. In the ultimate struggle for th« 
market, other things being equal, the largest estate 
will have the advantage. If means compel, rather buy 
a small ehare in a large property than entire poss- 
-ession of a small lot. 

5. Be neither the first nor the last to open ia 
« new district, or to cultivate a new product. Pioneer- 



13 

ing is expensive, laborions, risky work ; bnt wt en all 
is plain- sailing profits are small. 

6. In making your selection, other things being 
equal, give the preference to abandaooe of fuel ; still 
more to a plentiful supply of wat-^r- power : hand- work 
will never maintain itself against machine. 

7. Avoid block loans. Never expect tranquility* 
independence, or success, unless you carry your title- 
deeds in your poeket. The nominal value of the land 
itself, the rik and uncertainty of all tropical cultiv- 
ation, and the high rate of the interest, only render 
prudent, advances for working expenses and against 
prodace. 

8. Buy for cash. The dibcounts by the end of the 
year far outstrip the interest, making a handsome profit. 

9. Realize when you can to advantage, and su turn 
over your money. More fortunes have been made by 
Bales of estates than by sales of crops. 

1<X Bright as the proppects of tea are, seeminglj" 
certain as its success, still keep a weather eye open 
for all natural pests and bUgbts. With coffee leaf- 
disease as a terrible warning, never forget thi^ little 
beginnings sometimes make great endings. ««VJ* " 

11. Cultivate for utility and not for appe&rance. 
In former days that continual titivation ^1^ make 
things look nice often led to much profitle^li' Expend- 
iture of money that could be ill-spared. S^^iates are 
kept up not for show but profit, and the first question 
to be always asked is : Will it pay ? 

12. According to your purse have good substantial 
buildings when such become desirable, but don't be 
led astray by ihtkt iffnis Jaiuus — permanency. "Suffici* 
ent unto the day," and in making buildings to out 
labt estates* capital is but wasted. 

13. Work out the profit and loss of estate-made 
cattle manure at the expense of your neighbour rather 
than of yourself. It could never be proved to me 
that this moat extravagant of manures paid whea 



u 

applied to coffee, andtif bo, it U itill less likely t9 
pay when pat to tea. 

14. Fix yonr private income, and keep within the^ 
figure. This needs no comment. 

15. Learn to know yonr coolies. A word in seasoo 
is generally better than a blow or a checked name. 

16. Give and take all the infurmatio^ you- can. A. 
stick-at-home is always behind the age, and if you 
wish to partake of the common tftock, yo« must 
add to it. 

17. Avoid quarrelft. As a matter of pc^icy enmity 
between neighbours and unpleasaotness with officials 
do not pay; and the more you are in the right, 
the more you have been wronged, the more 
charitcbble, as S^-. Paul teaches, must you be. The 
injured may forgive, the injurer toUl nether. At the 
same time, tiiat the violent and the malignant may 
not have everything their own way, i^ith the harm- 
essness of the dove combine a little of the wisdom 
of the serpent. 

18. Take all reasonable care of your health, for 
without that there will be neither pleasure nor profit. 

19vr'I^^lyi do not altogether overk>ok, as the world 
too t>peh doesy that old scriptural precepts **HaBte not 
to he rip'h ** There are things more valuable than riches, 
and sellf<espect is better than gold. — I remain, &o.» 

After ^p^t experience, even within the leaf-diseaso 
epoch, of'^me "great expectations" (by no means 
realized) based on planting operations in CSeylon, we 
are aware how distrustful home critics are apt to 
be of a series of papers apparently all on one side. 
It cannot be said that the above writer,, however, 
does not fairly put his ease and hold the scales 
evenly. But we are really obliged to the planter 
who sends us the following letter,, which, of course, 
was written without reference to what has appeared 
on the subject within the past few days. No one 



15 

wn fray alter readiDg *' Moderation " *s letter that 
fhere haf) been no adverse criticism of tea in oar 
xsolumns : — 

To the Editor, *' Ceylon Observer." 

Dear Sir,— I do not wish, and I am sure you will not 
taredit me with any desire to throw cold water on the tea 
enterprize in Ceylon, but the tendency of the planter to 
exaggerate all that is favourable and to conceal that which 
is unfavourable is a feature in hie character which he appears 
to take some trouble to develope. 

If my opinion of the present position of the tea industry 
and of the prospects before us were based entirely on what 
•one reads in the local papers, I should arrive at the 
follop(iring:coDcIu8io!ns : — 

(1) That tea is an absolute unqualified success in 
Ceylon. 

(2) fcThatfthe area adapted for further cultivation is pract- 
ically unlimited. 

(3) That we have no difficulty in combining quality with 
•quantity. 

^ow tea is not an unqualified success in Ceylon: nor 
anything like it What is the yield per acre from the 
gardens in the immediate neighbourhood of Nuwaia Eliya ? 
I refer particularly toOHphant, Mr. Rossiter's estates and 
Tocumagong. 

What is the return per acre from the Ceylon Company's 
places : the Hope, Labookelle and Yellaioya ? 

What are results from the district of Medamahanuwara ? 
Has an average of 300 lb. of made-tea per acre been secured 
from any estate in Kalutara or its neighbourhood ? 

Is it not true that* in the district of Ambagamuwa a 
garden not a hundred miles from Strathellie has never yet 
given 300 lb. an acre and that the average from a number 
of years has been very much less than this ? 

How much tea has been sent away from the large estates 
lying between Ambagamuwa and Yatiyantota ? 

Have any of the Dolosbage esftates averaged more than 
300 b. an acre? 

Is it true or is it not true that 400 lb. an acre of pucka 
tea is a nearer estimate of the average from the districts 



16 

of Yatiyantota and AwitaweQa than the 700 which Mr. 
Cameron said might bo expected ? 

That tea does pay and will pny well in many parts of 
Ceylon I do not for a moment doubt ; bi(t| that it is all 
absolute success I deny, and let those who think it is 
make further enquiries particularly in the directions I liave 
indicated. 

Now, as regards the land adapted lor further extension. 
A gentleman, writing a few days ago dn the Observer sign^ 
ing himself '* Peppercorn,*' seems to think that in the 
course of a very few years there will be one unbroken 
sheet of tea from the sunny shores of Kollupitiya to the 
frozen plains of the mountain Sanatorium. '^Peppercorn*' 
is not singular in this ; on the contrary there are many 
equally simple. My own experience teaches me that good 
land is very haid ix) get, and that inferior land pro- 
duces very iaferior results. People are planting up 
old eoffee estates with tea, and. if you acdc them whether 
Ihey are satisfied that the bushes will flush freely in old worn* 
out soil, they say : ''Yes, look at Mariawatte, Imboolpitiya 
and Kadawella ; if these don't satisfy you, go to Windsor 
Forest and so on." Now none of the estates alluded to 
ean be accepted as AfFordifig satisfactory evidence on this 
poiut, for the reason that they were all abandoned for 
many yeairs and their soil was to some csKtent renovated^ 

I believe myself that several of our old districts will 
prove themsekes admirably adapted to the cultivation of 
the tea plant, but so far w have absolutely no data 
to prove it ; on the coiitrary the few statistics at our disposal 
axe unfavourable, and yet one would not gathw this from the 
papers. Can quality a&d iquantity be combined is a question 
which must naturally suggest itself to a thoughtful mind 

Mr.. Taylor of LK>oleco&defa, than whom a more iur 
teligent, practical planter does not -exist, eontents himself 
with a very moderate yield: he does not distress his bushes 
and he tops the market. My own conviction is that he 
«how6 a lar^r profit per aere with his 350 lb. than others 
^io with 600. 

We have heard a great deal about Mariawatte lately 
Jbow thai it jga,v^ 1,1)00 lb. an acre aud that it would hav^ 



17 

given 1,500 if every flush bad been taken at the proper 
time. No furtl^^er information is vouchsafed: we are 
in ignorance as to the prices realized and the cost 
of production. Will the enterprizing proprietors of 
this very remunerative garden supplement the statist- 
ka they have already furnished us with by aBsweribg 
the following quetiltions :— 

How much tea Was sold locally ? How much was sent 
homeland under what marks? and what was the average 
per lb., including dust and fannings? Seeing tbat so 
much has been written about the yield, it is only fair 
the public should have information as to prices realized. 

I heard it stated not long ago that Galbodde had given 
an average yield of upwards of 800 lb. an acre^ and that 
the cost f.o.b. was 27 cents per lb. I do not believe 
this, but I will if Mr. Hughes tell me positively that 
the figures have not been e^taggerated. I was also in- 
formed that this 800 lb. per acre had netted 80 cents 
in the London market. I can believe this, for the te* 
is very good indeed, and considering the yield, which is in 
the highest degree satisfactory, the result is probably 
unequalled ; but how much' of the inferior tea is sold in 
the country ? 

Aberdeen estate is, if I mistake not, somewhat steep 
and possesses an inferior soil. The rainfall per annum 
is not far short of 200 inches, and yet the yield from a, 
certain field rivals Mariawatte. Here again further in- 
formation is desirable. I should like to know the acre" 
age of this field and whether or not sinxilar results may bo 
expected from other portions of the estate. I should also 
like to know how many leaves were plucked and the 
prices realized. 

It is not fair to quote the yield only, nor is it fair to 
quote prices only: the two should in all cases be com- 
bined, so that cenclusions may not be misleading. 

My opinion of tea in Ceylon is briefly this.— In com- 
parison with coffee and the hundred other things that 
have been tried and found wajiting, it will come out 
favourably ; but that every estate will turn out a Maria- 
watte or a GUUbodde, or that an average yield, of 3tt01b. 



18 

will be exceeded, taking the coantry all through, I do 
Dot for a moment believe. 

I am quite sure that at least 30 per Cent of the places 
already in bearing don't pay and that another 30 per cfent 
■how a very slender profit. I am also quite sure that very 
few people know this. 

Before closing, I may say that a few more particulars 
respecting Abbotsford would make the very fall 
statistics still more useful. I infer of course that tea 
plucked from the bushes along the roads and amongst 
tlie coffee is not included in the 110 acres. What 
prices were secured in the London market? How much 
tea was disposed of locally and what was the cost of pro- 
duction ?~Yours faithfully, Moderation. 

Ab regards Abbotsford, we may say at once — and 
we are glad of this opportunity of contradicting an- 
warrantable statements to whioh, no doubt, '* Moder^^ 
ation " refers— that the statistics pabliehed, referred 
only to the 110 acres counted as in cultivation, and 
by no means inclnded the plucking of seed bear- 
ing bushi 8 scattered thronghout the coffee ox along the 
coffee- field roads. ''Moderation** is not alone in his soep^ 
ticism, about the success of tea in Ceylon being so great 
or universal as is generally declared. Curiously enough 
last mail from England, brought us the following inter^ 
pellation from an old planter whom " Moderation '* 
knows well, one of a school noted for looking well before 
they leap, and whom to convibce, therefore, of tea 
being a good investment, is worth some amount of 
trouble. Our friend writes : — 

<<No one knows how low Oeylon has fallen till he 
tries to induce people to invest or to interest them in 
anything connected with it. How different it was 7 years 
ago ! Would there be any means of ascertaining the 
real truth about Mariawatte? Of course no one will 
believe in 1,200 lb., and £40 is out of the question ; but 
if 600 lb. and £20 an acre could be reasonably calculated on, 
then I know thousands of acres of similar soil-^if soil i( 



19 

can be called — ^ina climate exactly Baited: half Kailut^uauawa 
would come in again and three-quarters of Matale rejoice, 
and Balakaduwa itself be a fortune to any poor if industrious 
planter. Mariawatte reports, however, are too good to b^ 
true. Though I well remember that when one bushel coffee 
per tree was talked of at RajaweUa th^bare idea was scouted 
till a special agent from Colombo was sent to confirm 
the fact. These were the days before desperate estimates — 
and newspaper correspondenta were more tro^tworthy 
than they are now I-^no o£fence meant/' 

We think the Abbotsford Ggures, now oik the way ta 
this correspondent, will satisfy hinx that there is more 
in tea than he was inclined to believe, ftnd, as 11 
to answer his enquiry about Maria watte^ we are 
able to give the following letter published by our 
morning contemporary yesterday : — 

RESULTS OF THE MARIAWATTB ESTATE XJV^ 

TO END OF 1884. 
To the Editor, « Times of Qeylou/' 

Sir^— One hundred acres of tea were planted 4h4 iiv 
1879, which distance apart gives 2,722 trees to the acre. At 
the present time there are fully 10 pe? cent, vacancies, sa 
that the actual number of trees to the acre is about 2,450. 
Xn 1882 50 acres were manured with cattle manare. 
„ 1888 16 „ M 

y^ 1,884 40 ,« between August and Nov. 

The manaring of 1884 cannot be taken as having affected 
the yield for 1884, as the estate was pruned gradually be« 
ween August and November. The large yield of 1884 waa. 
obtained with 66 per cent^ of the acreage being manured in, 
1882 and 1883. 
The yearly yields per a<ve from the oiigiiial 100 aeres of 

Mariawatte estate have been:— « . - „ 

Fer acre. Eainf all. 

1880 9 Ih* inches. 

1881 ... 136 ,, U8-82 
1883 ... 312i „ 11711 
1888 ... 560 „ 92-77 

1884 .... i.<»a „ 92-Ta 



20 



The prodttce from the 100 acrei in 18»4 has been m 
ttuder : — 

Tea lb. 100.280 

Oocoa » 1,740 

Tea Seed Maunds 20 

Monthly yield of Tea. 

lb. mafle tea 



January 

Febraary 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September 

October 

November 

December 



••• 



••• 



••• 



4,2«6 

4,124 

5.138 

14,007 

liV>44 

13,188 

14,830 

13,236 

11^82 

8,102 

2,611 

1,393 



Rainfall 
inches. 

0-52 

048 

6-44 

505 

790 

4-75 

4-44 

9-56 

5-99 
18-86 
1001 

8-63 



Total 109,230 8272 

The weigh'; of green leaf plucked per acre was close on 4f. 
ewt. and the average yield of each tree was equal to 1} lb. of 
green leaf, or *44 of a pound of made tea per tree. 
Ooldstream, January 12th. H. K. Buthebfobd. 

* First plucking began October, 1881.. 
It mnst be remembered that 1884 was one of the 
driest years on record on the Kandy side,, and in the 
Gampola Valley the rainfall return was not more than 
82ioches, which is well within the average of many 
Uva estates. On^another page (25) will be found 
Mr. Johnson's report from on9 of the driest 
portioDS of fiadolla showing an average for eight years 
of 71*27 inches but so well-distribnted that we feel 
sure tea will do fairljwell, as indeed is evidenced by 
the growth already described by Mr. Johnson. Then 
again from Baputale and Matale we have returns 
vbigh loay as well b^ included hore :.^ 



21 



Haputale (Below the Pass) — R infall in 1884 



was : — 

January 

February 

March 

April 

May 

June* 

July* 



days. 

15 

9 

15 

21 

18 

3 

3 



in. 

2-32 

3-64 

15-24 

1516 

16-66 

107 

1-04 



August* 

September* 

October 

November 

December 



flays. 

7 

6 
23 
20 
20 



in. 

•4 

12% 

7-41 

24 94 

J210 



160 11119 



12-08 days- 
' 12-42 



f> 



* The average number of days on which rain fell durinj 
these months in -twelve years previous were 

June... 9 5' days. I Aug. 

July ... 6-42 „ I Sept. 

These months 'have therefore been ^ceptionally dry for 
Haputale. Do you consider Hi^ntale 'fcoo'dry for tea ? 
Certainly not — with 111 inchest Here is anotherie- 
.port from a different |)art of the distiictr: — 

West HATUTAiiE, 9th Jan. — After perfect planting 
<weat4ier, from 4th October to end of December, 
January has opened very dry with a parching wind 
which is disastrous to the tea planted (seed planted 
at stake espeoially) during l^eoember. Tea appears 
to grow here like, a weed* ftn4 with our raiufallt 
which, as enclosed statement for 1884 will show, is all 
that could ^e desired for the satisfactory growth o^ 
'that product, I cannot see bow tea can fail to 
^ive remunerative returns, if we are to get anythiog 
iike the good prices for our tea which many believr 
me will do. Nothwiflistand»ng the long drought 
during June, July and August, the rainfall for 1884 
has been 54*11 in. over that of 1882, and 29 83 in. 
over what fell in 1883. I do not think anyone is re- 
ejecting recUly good coffee for tea : but where tea is 
planted the coffee must be sacrificed. The theory of 
getting crops from the coflTee, while the tea is growing, 
will not hold good. Our good coffee has a crop on 
it as much as we could wish for, little or no disease 
efcifcowing. Cinchona suc^sirubra hasbeon a gr^at siico^s 



22 

ID far M the growth ifl ooooemed*: were prices better 
lOl would be welL The foUowiog is the rainfall for 1884. 



Jan. 


Feb. 


March. April. 


May. JuDe.99 


6 


0-04 


1 


1-50 


5 


2-93 3 


0-82 


6 


0-74 28 


0- 


14 


004 


2 


1-20 18 


0-88 4 


1*38 


6 


687 


• • • 


15 


003 


8 


0-72 14 


1-25 6 


019 


7 


0-77 


•■■• 


16 


2-52 


5 


0-54 15 


a-48 7 


«24 


8 


0-47 


*«* 


:S9 


^•04 


6 


0-&4 16 


2-21 8 


0^26 18 


0-39 


'•■«« 




■••• 


f 


O-ai 17 


0*31 13 


110 17 


1*21 


• • • 




■••• 


8 


t>*92 18 


2*01 14 


1-15 23 


0^76 


-<•-•• 




■• • • 


28 


O-SZ 19 


212 15 


0-97 




• « • 


••• 




*••• 




*•• 


20 


0-32 28 


0-79 




• •• 


-««■ 




••• 




• • • 




... 24 


110 




• • • 


• « • 




• •• 




■•• 




... 25 


203 




• ♦• 


-•«• 




«•• 




• •• 




... 56 


107 




• •• 


•«• 




•••• 




• •• 




... 27 


014 




• • • 


-•*•« 




•••• 




■ • • 




... 28 


0^10 




• «• 


• «• 




• •• 

4-67 




••• 


— 


... 80 


1-10 


- 




• • • 


Total .. 


6-50 


15-61 


12-^ 


8-20 


0-99 


1888 ... 


•5-96 




6-11 




11-70 


12'84 




16-46 


2-72 


1^82 ... 


17-89 




4*73 




7^8 


11-58 




603 


301 


July 


^A^s- 


Sept. Oct. 


Nov. Dec. 






22 


002 


6 


•07 4 


O-Oi 


1 


2-70 3 


•14 






26 


0-01 il 


•» 5 


2-86 


2 


1-26 4 


2-27 






.27 


002 12 


•17 6 


4-41 


3 


291 5 


110 










18 


•60 7 


3-02 


4 


1-il 6 


•70 










19 


•40 8 


2-92 


5 


6-87 8 


^ 










22 


•17 9 


3-35 


6 


•10 9 


-70 










^ 


•10 10 


4 21 


7 


•50 11 


116 












12 


2-36 


9 


•20 12 


400 












16 


1-26 10 


100 13 


•74 












16 


2-00 


11 


•70 14 


•05 












17 


110 


12 


1-19 15 


•75 












18 


200 


14 


1-60 16 


•20 












19 


-81 


15 


1-62 17 


1-27 












20 


•SOW 


•10 18 


2-00 












183 


•07 


17 


•10 19 


1-40 


• 










24 


-06 


18 


8*20 20 


•61 












25 


•02 


22 


207 21 


•19 












26 


•01 


23 


•94 22 


44 












^ 


'02 


24 


2-90 23 


2-47 












28 


1-10 


25 


2-10 24 


•14 












:29 


1-75 


29 


•46 25 


•67 












to 


1-10 




26 


33 










. 


^1 


105 


• 
• 


29 
80 
31 


.60 

2.01 

15 


Total... 


• • • 


0-06 


1-61 ; 


B5-93 


^-28 24-18 


1888... 


5-45 




1112. 




3-18 


L3'92 


15-49 


8-64 


1882... 


816 




6-28* 




2-32 


5-21 


] 


11-96 10-56 



2? 



ToM 1884... 
yf lo83.«« 



BiainffiJl inches 143*3r 
113-48 
89*20 



• •b 



•'•' 



Th« average of the three years here is over 115 inches, sc 
that, looking «t the distribution of the raiofiall over the^ 
months, a better climate for tea could notki otfopfbiOD* 
well be desired. From Matale we have the following :: 
Matalb East, 9th Jan. — I enclose a memo. show, 
ing the rainfall herej for the past 6 ll-12th yeara^ 
With reference to oxtr future in tea ^ the fignre» 
•how » sufficient and well-distriboted rainfall, and, 
with our generally speaking good soil^ there onght 
to be a good future for the old district yet. The: 
1883 plantiogB promise remarkably well, and with" 
the present outlook ave very encouraging : in several!' 
instances the growth is as fine as ean be seen aiijr 
where at the age^ 




«0 00 »H 



S 9 s 



JO. 

to 



^ « 



00 »o o 

•^ i-l »H 






CO 



00 



3 J*d' 

I -a 

g o 

«ao 






CO 






en *o 



00 to 



00 

Oft 
00 



o 



ta o 
<» CO 






9 



® EJ ^ <0 I CO 
op o »- ^ « 

en <M £2 « L©i t^ 



9 



tflr 



»o 






on 



S3 ** 00 *- ^ i2 



00 



s 

Oft 



s 



CO 






=; s » gig 



CO 

^ IS 



00 



00 



9 






s 



si? s 



do 



5^ 

O^ 






CO 

a 



(N 



CO 

a CO 

I eS. 0) 






Oft- 



* Si's ® ^"S 

o t^ o ^ o 2 



.as, 



24 

Rainfall at — - Estate, Matale East, for 6 ll-12th years. 



•eg t- o^ 



I ;d ^ 






r 



o 



^- * *" 



|.sg 



P^F^ 



to 



a 









:?5 r^ 



00 



CO 

. «** 



C4 



04 



00 

lb 



^.2«> S 



C4 



Ob 
0» 
Ob 



.as S 
IF "" 

•P 00 00 



SCO 

1^ - 

go CO CO 

|> r- «p 



CO 
9q 



tfi CO 

g r-i rH 



«o 



k<d 



U3 



00 



H 00 

<U Xt 00 



^ (N 



Ob 



i I 



<S e3 « *> 



o 
O 

Cq ts* Q iS 

«o e>* "^ o 
00 ^ Ob V 



00 IS eg S 

zr <» ;^ w 

-S SI 00 w 

di J5 « « 

;4 S i2 S2 



00 



«0 rM ^ 

»H eo i-i 



CD 

do 

CO 



s s 



s 

CQ 



09 









2 ^ 



00 



«o 

CO 



CO Tf 






a s 



2?" « 

t> CO 






00 



2 ^ 8 s 

-^ »o ::; 

i-i ,-H '^ 

eq ♦-• O iH 

f^ CO <N 

« ^ 2 5 



TT CO t* 



fe & S ? 

•:- CO CO 



•-♦ c<i eo 
00 oc 00 

00 00 00 









o* 



.S I I I :! d 



CO 

io 

' CO 



fl 

Ob 



CO- 



oq 









2 t- 00 
1-^ iH ^ 



o» 

(N 
00 

O) 






lO 



kO 



to 



00 



oq 

69 



O 

t-4 
(M 






O 
<M 

CO 



CO 
to 



to 

to 



il 



to 



CO 

to 
to 



Ob 

CO 



2 CO (M o t^ 

•^ oq C5i c5 »-* 






O) 
Ob 



eo 

Ob 



Ob. 

CO 



Ob 


o 


2^ 


(N 


00 


i^- 


9 


• 
• 


1-4 




s 




^ 


00 



09- 



CO CO 



to G«l 



Ob 



to 



to 

00 






S 






«o 



C3 



S 



to 



C<9 



f^ 00 



O) 



cq 



00 

• 

1-4 



8 



CO 
"if 



00 t>. 

to CO 

a • 

•^6 .,6 



@ 



CO 94 



si d br 4 2° S «A 



4 S*g ©"s © n S 



C5 



2« 

Here again we have an average rainfall of fully 120 
inchei spend ov r 211 days. The old and famous 
coffee districts of Maiale and Uva, therefore, are likely 
to become equally famous as tea districts. In this con* 
neotion we very pleased to learn that tea is likely to 
be planted on an extensive scale on peveral Haputale 
properties very shortly. 

•« 

TEA AND RAINFALL IN THE BADULLA 

DISTRItJT. 
Dotlands Estate, BaduUa, lObh Jan. 1885. 

DftAB Sib, —Enclosed please find ra'nfall for the past 
twelve months, in which, yon will see, there has 
been rain in €a>:h months but, unfortunately, in the 
months of April and Majr (when a good fall is expected) 
we were much disappointed, and the usual dry months 
following have been the cause of our coffee being of 
such an inferior bean. I don*t remember S'^eing autumn 
crop turning out so badly, although a larger percentage 
of light and deformed beans is usual after drought. 
The severe rains last month on the 8th and 12th 
caused the cherry to ripen up quicker than was ex- 
pected. On the 11th, the cherry was in fine comUtion, 
and I looked forward the following day for a two-bushel 
picking, but during the night the rain ceased, and a 
dry north-west wind set in t by morning the cherry 
WM withered, and one side dry on the trees ; instead 
of a 2-bushel picking, it was as much as a cooly 
could get her 1 to 1^. Pulping it was out of the question 
at the time, and it was put into the cisterns, kt'pt damp^ 
And pulped two dajrs afterwai:ds. I wish I could 
say leaf- disease was on the wane. With me, it has 
appeared again, and by what I heard in Badulla last 
Week it was general, 

1 enclose you a few tea-leaves from bushes 9 
months old to 10, the average being 4 feet 
and many 5i, with 4 and 5 primary branches. 
The few trees I have round the bungalow hare ' 



26 

flushed 8 times the past year, Although the 
weather was so dry, and I feel sanguine it will 
do weU and pay if we get the railway to 
Hapatale, and, better, if it ever reaches Badnlla.— 
I am, dear sir, yours faithfully, 

T. J. E. JOHNSON. 



Bemarks. 

Dec. 8th.— There was heavr 
rain : fall 4*01, out of which 
2*96 fell in 1^ hour. 
7*24 Dec. l2th.->Gauged 4*96->bot- 
tle overflowed during the 
night. With this storm the 
wind at timt-s was very severe 
varying from N. E. to N. "W. 

Dec. 13th. — Strong dry wind 
from N. £. 



128 64-32 7127 
[The leaves are lai ge enough to stand the test t>f 
" indigenous," covering the palm of one's hand. — £d.] 



Months 
1881. 


1 


1 


Averagi 
for 8 
years. 


Jan. 


19 


626 


10-83 


Feb. 


6 


0*92 


3-40 


March 


8 


2-70 


4-95 


April 


9 


540 


7-24 


May 


8 


4-96 


4-90 


June 


4 


1-48 


1-56 


July 


4 


100 


220 


Aug. 


T 


8*48 


4-45 


Sept. 


6 


117 


415 


Oct. 


18 


10-28 


6-83 


Nov. 


17 


8-80 


8-82 


Dec. 


28 


17-92 


11-94 



TEA CULTIVATION AND YIELD AT HIGH 
AND MBDIUMl ELEVATIONS IN CEYLON: No. I. 

COFFEE WHICH STILL YIELDS PAYING CROPS— CINCHONA 
BARK KERPINQ UP OLD COFFEE. 

The annual and weekly reviews of a numher of 
London tea broking houses are to hand by tbe mail, 
and the series of sales reported^ including the 
really magnificent priops .for Rookwood teas, are 
very satisfactory. Several of the London firms 
call attention to our summing-up and review in 
which we deprecated too great haste on the part 
part of planters to transform all their coffee acre- 
age into tea — and indeed too great haste on the 
of any individual proprietor to plant more 



27 

tban a ressonable extent with the now leading produot. 
We wrotd in the interests of earefnl planting and care- 
ful selection of seed, as mnoh as of retaining intact 
oofiee fields that still paid for expenditure if not 
Borne interest on capital. To cover the country 
again with the one plant will be too much like 
repeating the mistake at first contmitted with coffee ;' 
so we shall trust to see tea, cinchona and even coffee 
fairly distributed up-country, with in many cases^ 
eardamoms, and cacao and even coca with the half-a- 
dozen minor similar products. 

Our friend and correspondent *' Moderation " (seep. 15) 
has done good service to the cause of the tea enter- 
prise in Ceylon by the suspicions he ventured to 
express and- the questions he asked of the planting 
community. Mr. Drummond of Western Dolosbage 
without dealing with a thousand of pounds per 
acre, or even half that maximum,, gives good reason 
we think in his statistics of the yield from very 
yoHug tea, for regarding his district favourably ; and 
we have no doubt that a proportionably encour. 
aging report can be given by planters in old 
Dolosbage. Travelling the other day in the eompany 
of planters so experienced and shrewdly observant as 
Messrs. Elphinstone, Talbot and Borron we had the op- 
portunity of hearing a good deal on the pro*8 and cor^^ 
of new and old products and also of the advantages 
and disadvantages of certain tea machinery. Mr. 
Borron had doubts as to the advantages of '* No. $ 
sirocco'' which Mr. E. M. Hay of Goorokoya waa 
eertain would vanish no further acquaintance 
with a machine which in his experience did 
excellent work. The circumstance of Logie and 
Belgravia estates this season giving 11,000 bushel* 
of coffee already gathered, with perhaps 1,500 to 
2 000 more to come in, is encouraging to owners of 
the old product; for we believe not much manure 
waA used to secure this result. The maximum crogi 



28 

of these eBtates has how(*ver he n bo high as 2ti,00o 
bnsheU ; but the half of this with the present eoonomy 
in working, will pay. Another instance of a change 
for the better is fonnd in the case of an old DOIO0- 
bage property which in 1882, after an apparently 
good blossom, yielded for its harvest, but mnety bush- 
els of coffee I Now the same place thia season, gives 
its 1,100 bushels of coffee, 20, 000 lb. cinchona bark, 
and a good many thousands of lb. of tea. That 
is the experience we should like to see realised 
on a great many of the old properties. In oonnec- 
tion with Mariawatte and its fine tea returns, the 
question was raised as to wiiether it (as Weyunga. 
wattie) had ever done much in coffee although 
freely m^inared. Mr. Borron, who twenty years ago 
thought it amongst the Hnest-Iooking sheets of coffee he 
had ever seen, never heard of good crops ; but Mr, 
H. Blacklaw tells us that in I860 it yi^ded some 
13 cwt. an acre and, perhaps aa a consequence, 
never did much afterwards although freely man. 
uied. The question then will be, ia the tea now 
benefitting by the manure which the prematurely 
weakeufd coffee trees were unable to take up? 
Sir J. B. Lawes, of agricultural fame, ex|»«t8ly 
rules that the benefits of substantial manuring often 
extend over twenty years. Sinhapitiya, the property 
of the O. B. iJ. creditors, close by, promises to be 
another Mariawatte in succesd but with mere diversi* 
ffed products. The question is asked why old Atgalla 
with its equally good lay of la id mid, possibly soil, 
on ^e other side, has not been taken in hand ; 
but this only brings us face to face with the ** thousand 
of acres" winch the " old Colonist '* V. A. eays he 
can point to, as good as Mariawatte, in Kaduga^mawai 
Allagala and the region thereabout for tea. Our 
o<Hnpinions were certainly loud in praise of much 
of the soil between Gamp'ila and Ailagila : finer 
paddy straw or better fruit ttees are not found any 



29 

where else upcountry. (By the way, has anyone else 
noticed the reflemblance between the grassy hiUt 
on this pide of Gampolt to the ^ad and coal hills 
of Lnnarkshire as pointed out to ns by **Logie?") 
Bat we are bound to say that if th^re are encour- 
. gements to keep goo t coffee intact, we heard and 
Baw enough uf conn try to show the foolishness of 
cultivating miserably poor worn-out coffee. Apart 
from the utter ruin wrought in coffee in Matale 
ftnd Eadugannawa, by bug (has this pest anywhere 
touched tea ?) a Puseellawa planter was clear that 
his iHToprietors had sacrificed large annual profits 
derived from oircbona by spending it on cffee 
which gave no return. Many old plantations have, it 
'eerns, yielded bark enough of late years to pay 
well, had the outlay on non-paying coffee been 
'^topped. But then '* May not the coffee m some of 
these oases^ yet come round as m the typical Dolosbage 
estate we have mentioned?" will be the question asked. 
However, if wc are to satisfy ** Moderation," we 
must go higher up and deal directly with tra. Messrs. 
Forbes, Aspland, Grigg and Black'aw have within 
the past few days, given us very favourable accounts 
of the growth and promise, aye and yield of young 
tea in Ambitgamuwa, Lower Dikoya, Upper and 
Lower Maskeliya respectively. Of the good yield in 
these directions there can foe no doubt and improve- 
ment in preparation after the pattern set by Gatle- 
bodde and Blackstone, will also go on. We are 
pleased to learn that Mr. Wm. Rollo and Mr. John 
Walker, now on a visit to Ceylon, have expressed them- 
selves well satisfied with our tea prospects. 

Higher up stIU, we had an opportunity — though only a 
brief one, — of marking the really wonderful flush, on the 
vigoroas and luxuriant tea-bushes covering the Abbots. 
ford fields at 5,000 feet and upwards. The fignrog 
recently given by the manager must convince even 
"Moderation" that there is more in tea at a high 



so 

*1eratioD thui he htd inppoBed. In the neighbour- 
hood of Nnw»rft ElLya we had the opportunity of 
going carofally through aevetal tea fielda, not of iftrg* 
extent bat aufficient to enable a judgraeat to be 
formed on the qnettion before ub. Soma 3G acroe 
under the Bmall-IeaCed, shrubby bat bardy China pUnt 
on Hizalwood, eaitward of the Plaina, on an eiposed, 
ratber bleak, and by no toeana fertile spot, are giving 
■ftiiafaotory retunu op to and in eicoH of 300 lb, 
per acre althongb widely planted and hitherto, not 
rpgularly plaeked. On thia easy lay ol land, and 
with a slow growtb of needs, the AHam lyttem oE 
digging in the grasfi and weeda throe or tonr lamea 
A year ia adopted, with a suing in woiking, And 
great benefit apparently to the tea treea. 



No. IL — ^HAU-HVBRID TSA 6,000 FBKT ABOVE SEA- 
tEVBL YltLDtna 600 LB. AMD UPWAEDS, PER AOKK, 

Mr. RoBsiter's teafactory ia situated close to Ihemaim 
road on Fairyland about 3 miies from Nuwara Bliya, 
and in it ha preparea the leaf plucked from the 
hybrid tea in the aanrovinding garden ; from the field 
of china on fiwel wood three miles away; from some 
14 000 bushes in bearing of fine Assam tea on Capt. 
Bayley's Pedro property oloae by; from Mr. Grin, 
linton'a Portawood estate, two miles farther on ; aud 
from Kaiidftpolla, ai" miles dis ant from the factory. 
These properties as yet have bo small an area, or 
rather number of bushes ready for cropping, that 
it suits the proprictora very well to allow Mr. 
Boasiter do tbe pluckii>g with his own coolies aud to 
receive payment at the rate of 4 cente perlb. for tbe wet 
leaf As yet it is thu day of small thmgs Ground 
for tea crops in this neighbourhood ; Hie total out- 
turn from the Fairyland factory last year not exceed. 
iug 15 0001b., although dnHng 1885 Mr. Bossitet 
bopea to prepare »od djspftl^lj some 36,000 lb. flooagb 



31 

baa, however, been done Ln plucking leaf from mature 
trees carefully counted, to give the informa ion de- 
tired by our correspondent " Modeiation** as to the 
probable yield of tea at a high elevation. Of jcourae, 
it may be «aid that cultiva.tion carried on in com- 
paratively small patches and the statistics of harvesting 
from trees irregularly planjbed with abundance 
of room, afford no fair criterion for a regularly 
planted garden. Bat the margin afforded by last year's 
experipnce is we think wide enough to allow for any sueh 
deductions, in our last we said the hardy China tea 
•scattered over rather more than 30 acres on Hazel' 
wood, had given in 1884 about 3 lb made tea per 
aere. The return was fiilly equal to this if allow- 
ance be made for nameroais blanks and for somewhat 
Irregular plucking during part of the year. But there is 
the greatest contrast in the world between the hardy 
China alongside tho Hakgala road, and the Inxuri- 
Aut Assam- hybrid bushes from 5to S years old se«noa 
each side of the Udapussellawa road, on Fairy- 
land, orscatt^ed over one or two fields of Oapt. 
Bayley's very fine Pedro property, and again in the 
rieh hollows of Portswood (Mr. Grinlinton*«). Both 
of these latter are primarily cinchona plantations 
which have yielded already heavy crops of bark, 
from most ^valuable groves of officinalis and ro^ 
bnsta trees — dome; of really splendid growth — still 
oovering large portions $ but both proprietors ar.e 
going in txtensively for tea, having flourishing nurs- 
eries with a good j^t of plants ready to cover a 
considerable area now to be cleared. Captain 
Bayley has had his tea bushes which have been 
plucked during 1884, carefully counted, the result 
being 14,000 which if taken as equal to 5 acres, shows ^ 
a return of ^05 lb. of made tea per acre. Mr.^^ 
RoPsiter*s trees on Fairyland are fully older and 
they have certainly done wonders, since he says that 
off 6 288 Cull bearings trees, thei;^ have come no less thXkH 



82 

11,5051b. of wet leaf or 2,8761b. of prepared tea. 
Tbig would be at the rate of from 900 to 1.000 lb. 
per acre! We have lot got the namber of trees in 
bearing on Portawood ; bat tbe full retarn of each 
month's plucking as kept at* the Tea Factory is aa 
follows : — 







Fairy- 




Ports- 


Hazel- 


1884. 




land. 


PmyBO, 


wood. 


wooo. 






lb. 


lb. 


lb. 


lb. 


January 


■ • • 


162 


534 


— 


2,353 


February 


• • ■ 


652 


940 


647 


2.2P8 


Maroh 


• •■ 


953 


1,560 


699 


2015 


April 


«•• 


443 


784 


1,018 


3,728 


May 


■ • • 


1,221 


986 


216 


2.918 


June 


ma* 


1,015 


1«502 


910 


2,037 


July 


• • ■ 


562 


373 


544 


1.766 


August 


• •• 


— 


706 


—. 


.i_ 


September 


• •A 


1,702 


936 


-_ 


4,275 


October 


• •• 


815 


412 


807 


8,288 


November 


*• 


1,481 


690 


1,267 


4,7fi« 


December 


• •• 


2,509 


787 


146 


8^91 


Total wet leaf 


11,505 


10,110 


5,653 


83,030 



Made tea (I) 2^76 2,527 1,888 8^7 

Capt. Bayley remarks of the Pedro tea : — 

I gave you the yield for 10 months once before; th^ 
other two months have brought down tiie average, but i^ 
seems to mye satisfactory for 6,500 feet above sea-level* 
The tea was allowed !k> grow up anyhow and was pruned 
down with catties as I wanted to let light on to the 
cinchona I planted between. I am going to have it pruned 
down now somewhat more scientifically, and will see what 
it does after that. 

Mr. Rossiter says of the same tea and of the prospects 
generally of the nrfohbourhood : — 

I am satisfied that the clearing would have given fully 
double the quantity it did, had it been properly pruned 
' ^ early in the year. At all events it is satisfactory to know 
'"that land at this elevation is safe to yield over 6001b. of 
tea per acre per annum and that without any extraord- 
inary cultivation. For planting a new clearing here, I 
would advise 4 x 4, and if the vacancies are kept filled 
»p as they occur, the clearing sheltered and the young plants 



zs 

protected from the cold winds, the owDer is lafe to get 

as follows: — 

2 years from planting 160 lb. per acre. 
8 do do 300 do do 

4 do do 400 do do 

6 do do 600 do do 

This latter figure can be kept up for years to come for. 
our soil is second to none in the island, and our climate 
is perfeeUon for the endurance and lasting of the tea plant. 
Theteaabovementioned, runs up to 6,500 feet above 
sealeTcl, very nearly as high as any on ihe Oliphant 
estate, where the result of cropping for some years has 
not given so good an average return^ we believe. There 
was some talk of tea of an inferior jftb being con- 
demned to be palled up on this property — Sk mistake, if 
committed, we should think — seeing that even the 
BmalMeafed hardy China tea is well adapted for 
high exposed si&uauons, and on Hazeiwuod, Mr. 
ilo4siter quite expects it to yield up to 400 lb. per 
acre this year. Farther Eastward in Udapussellawa, 
we learn ihat on Goatfell estate t-ea is doing exceed- 
ingly well up to 6,800 feet^ We suppose this is 
about the highest clearing in the island f 

Port»wood and Tuiliboddy (recently purchased^, 
* together make tor Mi\ Grinliaton a compact property in 
one block of about 500 acres, much of it covered with 
valuable and promising cinchona. The bark now 
being harvested is very hne and samples of * renewed ' 
lately analyzed in London from this estate have 
yielded splendid results. Tea is however to be freely put 
cot on both places as well as on Messrs. Delmege's 
Court Lodgs estate above, where the cinchona fields 
protected by bine gums also look very flourishing ; the 
most satisfsietory experiment of this kind however in 
the neighbourhood of Nuwara Eliya is found in the reg- 
ularly planted fields of cinchona with belts of blue gums 
on Lover's Leap estate. Altogether as a Cinchona and 
Tea district, the neighbourhood of Nuwara Bliya and 
Kandapola, neariy all over6,000 feet altitude, affbrda 
much reason for anticipating goodand permanent results. 



*■ «. It. *, 



S4 

riBLD OF TEA AT A HIGH ALTITUDE IJf 

(CEYLON. 

Abbotsford, 5th Jan. 188&. 
Of theHOacree^ 15 acres (thu cattle-shed field of 
which a separate aocoant follows) were pruned in Anguatr 
188^; & acres (the bungalow field)' in Pebmary 1884 . 
and 90^ acres in March, April and Miy 1884. None 
have been touched since. All the praDings' were buried 
and a small amount of cattle-manure, ravine stuff and 
ashes were added where available. The whole acreage 
has been onoe forked daring the year, acd a second 
forking is now in progress* If I coald spare the 
labour I would foxk three times in the twelve months. 

as this seems to mean double fl^asli. 

• 

As regards the number of picking days,, it will bo- 
seen that we only availed ourselves of 245 out of a 
possible 312 week dayai this was to avoid Sunday 
work if possible, and 1 am certain we have by 
pursuing this course suffered no loss. We picked two 
or three times during the year on Saturday because^ 
tue weather was wet and the leaf would keep till 
Monday. The figures below do not include the tea 
plucked from our young plants. I mention this as the 
same doubts were most ungenerously cast upon the 
Mnriawatte yield* The yield of the acreage reported on^ 
was for 1883 . ... ... 34,2931b. 

against a yield in 1884 of ... ... 66,7231b. 



makiag an increase in 1884 over 1883 of 21,4301b. 

The make for the respective months is as follows: 

January, 4,906 j February, 8,«86; March, 4,468 j 

■ ApriJ, 6 096 : May^ 3;903.* ; June, 868* ; July, 863* ; 

* August, 1,132; September, 2,377; October, 6,i8Sj 
November, 6,288; December, 10,7:-8. Total 65,723. 
From the December figures it will be seen that we 
made at the rate of 978 lb. per acre for the month, 



Effect of pruning^ 



S5 

c» 1,173*6 lb. per acre for the year, could such a ratQ 
be sastained. 

lielow are the figtires for the whole 11-' acres ]-^ 

ABBOTSIOBD TlSA. USTATfi. 

Betnmi from 110 acreB, 7 and 8 jears old, January to 
December 1864. Altitude 4^600 to 6,600 feet above sea. I5 
acres nnpraned; 96 acrea pTtmed, Febrnaty-Jime. Bate^ 
506| lb* per a<ffe« 

Totajl ATerage No. of 

Tea per ncre Bain- Days 

Made, perannin. fall. Pickings 
811 

1,788 

2,838 

8,938 

6,^00 

6,680 

8,620 
11,520 
18,793 
14,294 
J 5,866 
16,856 
18^088 
19,510 
20,782 
22,232 
24,072 
25,352 
26,402 
27,044 
27,791 
i8,249 
28,498 
28,749 
28,950 
29,081 
29,281 
29,457 
29.673 
29,884 
80,008 
30/220 
30,369 
30,804 
31,112 
31622 
32,056 
32,635 



No. of 


Week 


Tea 


Week. 


ending. 


Made. 


1 


Jan. 6 


811 


2 


„ 13 


977 


3 


„ 20 


1,0561 


4 


,, 27 


1,100 


5 


Feb. 8 


1,262 


6 


,. 10 


1.480 


7 


» 17 


1,840 


8 


„ 24 


8»000 


9 


Mar. 2 


2,272 


10 


» 9 


502 


11 


•„ 16 


1,572 


12 


,> 23 


990 


13 


„ 30 


1,232 


14 


April 6 


1,422 


15 


„ 18 


1,272 


16 


„ a» 


1450 


17 


„ 27 


1,840 


18 


May 4 


1,280 


19 


„ 11 


1,050 


20 


„ 18 


642 


21 


„ 25 


747 


22 


June 1 


458 


23 


,. 8 


249 


24 


„ 15 


251 


25 


,1 22 


201 


26 


,. 29 


131 


27 


July 6 


200 


28 


„ 13 


176 


29 


» 20 


2W 


30 


„ 27 


211 


81 


Aug. 3 


124 


32 


„ 10 


212 


33 


„ 17 


149 


34 


„ 24 


435 


35 


., 31 


308 


36 


Sept. 7 


610 


S7 


» 14 


434 


38 


,. 21 


479 



383 


02 


4 


422 


•22 


6 


447 


••• 


6 


475 


•20 


5 


.491 


•17 


5 


526 


•72 


5 


675 


•»• 


5 


680 


••• 


6 


724 


... 


5 


676 


4^59 


5 


681 


•41 


6 


664 


•56 


5 


650 


•78 


4 


6.58 


*27 


5 


6S5 


•»• 


4 


655 


•13 


4 


669 


•54 


6 


665 


•43 


8 


655 


V84 


5 


630 


3-01 


2 


625 


•70 


5 


607 


•05 


5 


585 


•56 


5 


566 


4-33 


a 


647 


110 


5 


528 


2-42 


4 


612 


2-44 


4 


497 


6-66 


4 


483 


l-5i 


5 


470 


•69 


4 


457 


1-64 


5 


446 


4-39 


5 


4^4 


•68 


4 


427 


2-90 


& 


420 


5-20 


6 


415 


116 


5 


409 


2-27 


6 


404 


3-67 


6 



S6 



w _ __ 






Tiotal AvemKe 




Ko. of 


>^o.of 


W«ek 


Tea 


Tea 


per acre 


Bain- 


Bays 


Veek. 


ending. 


made. 


Made, perann. 


fUl. 


Piokiiig^* 


80 


Sept. 28 


920 


83,405 


405 


•55 


6 


40 


Oct. 5 


131 


38-586 


897 


•78 


3 


41 


« 12 


1,700 


85.286 


406 


1-63 


5 


42 


., 19 


676 


86,162 


406 


7-40 


4 


43 


..- 26 


1,004 


87.166 


408 


•76 


6 


44 


Not. 2 


Mir 


88.677 


418 


3-91 


6 


45 


» 9 


1.312 


80.969 


419 


8*59 


5 


46 


- IS 


2,170 

2,076 


42,150 


433 


2-40 


8 


47 


rt 28 


44^35 
44,965 


442 


^03 


5 


46 


„ 80 


730 


442 


*64 


5 


40 


Deo. 7 


2.898 


47.863 


457 


77 


6 


50 


•, 14 


1,608 


48,969 


468 


4-04 


5 


51 


>, 21 


1,950 


50,919 


474 


1-30 


5 


52 


. ., 28 


2.950. 


68,860 


490 


•16 


5 


^hree dibyis to 












iotd of tno&th 81 


1,654 

• 


55,728 


506^ 


•53 


8 



Total... 8502 245 
In giving teparate figures for the 15 acres cattle- 
fehed field, some rtmarka are neoessary. The biiehet 
rn this field were pruned in Augast 1883, and as nn 
experiment have not been pruned since. Tn 1883 
they yielded 425 lb. per acre* and in 1884, without 
the process of pruning being resorted to, ihey have 
given 521 lb. per acre and are still fiushing profusely. 
At the time of pruning all branches were buried, and 
about 10 acres had oattle-manure and ravine stuff 
added to the hole^. The field has had one forking, 
and has been picked in 40 rounds, which means aa 
many flnshes. Half of the tea on this field is nearly 
pure China or China hybrid, but a large proportion 
of the bushes present a broad surface and flush well. 
We see no necessity therefore for removing thi» tea 
(which was sold to us a good hybrid) but our 9eed- 
bearers (first class hybrid) are at a distance from 
this field. About September this got a severe attack 
of bug and turned quite black in the face, so that 
for many weeks that delightful maidenly flush that 
gladdens the manly heart could not be seen. Other* 



37 

wise the bashes were in nowise injured, as will be 

seen from the following details: — 

Cattle Shed Field.— 15 acres— JaQ.-Dec. 1884 (not 

primed since August 1883). Rate 521 lb. per acre. 

Green Made Bate per acre 

Date. Bound. Leaf. Tea. per annum. 

Jan. 2, 4 i 203 lb. 

„ 9, 11 ii 392 

„ 19, 23 iii 504 

,, 28, 80 iv 642 18,31 458 868 

Feby. 5, 7 v 614 

„ 13, 14 vi 665 

„ 25, 27 vu 642 1,821 455 918 366 

Mar. 6, 7 viii 420 

„ 13, 14 ix 543 

„ 24, 25 X 804 

A^'ril^i; }^^28{|^S 2,135 534 1,447 386 

„ 8, 9 xii 588 

„ 17 xiii 650 

„ 23, 24 xiv 476 

j^^ } ^ 6^ { 141 2,719 680 2,127 425 

., 7 xvi 722 

„ 22, 23 xvii 1,228 

^ 22, 30 xviu 496 2,587 647 2,774 444 

Jane 9 six 840 

^ 19, 20 XX 410 1,250 312 3,086 411 

July 1, 2 xxi 666 

„ 16 xxii 500 

„ 24 xxiii 525 1,690 423 3,509 > 401 

Aug. 4, 5 xxiv 503 3,509 

„ 18 XXV 570 

,, 28, 29 xxvi 431 1,504 376 3,885 388^ 

Sept. 4, 5 xxvii 487 

„ 12 xxvu 493 

„ 18,19,22 xxix 548 1,478 269 4,254 378 

Oct. 6y7 XXX 1,800 

13, 14 xxxi 636 

20, 21 xxxii 573 

„ 28, 29 xxxiii 992 3.503 876 5,130 410 

Nov. 10, 11 xxxiv 2,040 

„ 18, 19 XXXV ^ 1,015 

D^. ^1 { "^ '^ ^'815 ^'^^^ ^'^^ ^'^2^ ^^ 

9, 10 xxxvii 1,558 

16, 17xxxviii 1,300 

23,24,25 xxxix 1,586 

31 xl 1,605 6,364 1,591 7.820 571 

4 A. M. FERGUSON, Jr. 



99 
99 



99 

99 
^9 
99 



88 

It is ooly right to say that the picking which- 
yielded the average of over 500 per acre, was re- 
stricted to the bud, the first developed leaf and 
kalf of the second leaf. Mr Thomson of the great 
London Tea Firm said ''If you get 590 p*^ acre 
of such tea, the yield is very good." 

The several thousands of seed -bearers scattered 

over Abbotsford not a leaf from any of these went. 

into the returns ,of 1SS4. > ecently published. But there 

«re pruned trees along paths and drains, which were 

plucked. They were, however, estimated for acreage, the 

apace they cover having been over rather than under 

estimated for extent. The figures for the acreage of 

•even eight years old ten, which produced 506^ lb. 

mvorage per acre in 1884, are thus made up, as hack 

frequently been stated: — 

Cattle-shed field 15 acres. 

Bungalow „ ... .. ... 6 

7 yeara old „ ... 70 






90 

Add bushes along roads aud draio9, 

a liberal estimate ... ... ... 20 



»> 



>« 



Total 110 acres, 

to which total the returns referred. 



Abbotsford, Lindula, 24th Jan. 1884. 
I cannot ^ive ''Moderation" our average price 
for last year, as we do not hear of the sale of 
December's tea till somewhere about April, but I 
think I can safely say it will not be under Is 2d. 
Our average for 198.3 was, as I said, Is 3d. The 
decrease (if any) for 1884 is not due to the increase- 
^ yield, but to a depreciation in prices all round. 
As " Moderation," in his reference to Loolecondura, 
nifcber infers that a higher yield than 350 lb. per 
must necessarily distress the bushes, I give some 



39 

figures, that will rather open bis eyes, as to what 
our bushes are doing after giving their 500 lb. last 
year. Here is this week's work, four days* picking : 
we had to stop on Thursday as our tea-houses got 
too full :— 

Green Leaf. Average lb. 
Date. Fluckers. lb. percooly. 

Jan. 19th 176 3,636 20 65 1 school childrea 

„ 20th 177 4,552 258 j went to school 

at 2 p.m. 

„ 21st 184 6,680 357 7 school children 

„ 24th 172 6,220 3616 ) picked all day. 



Total...709 20;988 296 

Fancy 5,250 lb. made tea in four days, and an aver- 
age per cooly for the week of 29^ lb. leaf I The trees 
are in splendid condition. The following is a state- 
ment of the distribution of the picking for this and 
last week : — Cattle-slKd field, 15 acres, 4,0 8 lb. leal, 
1,002 tea, rate 1202 lb. per acre. Bungalow field. 
5 acres, 1,225 lb. leaf, 308 tea, rate 1,109 lb. per acre. 
Lower estate, 20 acres, 4,490 leaf, 1,122 tea, rate 
1,346 lb. per acre. 70 acre field, 13,678 leaf, 2,420 tea, 
rate 879 lb. per acre. Of course I do not expect, and 
hardly desire, such a high rate to continue. To show 
what Tamil women can do when put to it, yesterday 
17 coolies brought over 50 lb. each, four brought over 
60 lb., one 70, one 73 and one 75 I My books are 
open to any who choose to examine them. As pre- 
viously stated, our picking consists of the bud and a 
leaf and a half, and the above 21,000 lb. was almost 
the finest sample of leaf I have ever got on Abbotsford. 
— Yours truly, 

A. M. FERGUSON, Jb. 



*« CEYLON AS A FIELD FOR THE INVEST- 
MENT OF CAPITAL AND ENERGY." 



We now give a farther instalment of the papers written 
with reference to young men seeking an investment' 
^r capital and a career for themselves, through tea- 
planting in Ceylon : — 

Ceylon and the Position and Prospects of rrs 
Plantinq Entebpbize. 

A great deal has been written about Ceylon and 
jret much remains to be written. The latest work is 
"Ceylon in 1884," by John Ferguson, and in that 
brief but excellent little work the reader may find 
flufficient information to prevent his making mistakes 
as to its position in the globe and statistics suffici- 
ent to enable him to grasp its general condition as 
9k colony. 

In writing the present paper^ however, it will not^ 
be out of place to remind the reader of the position 
ot the island. It is situated between 5° 55' and 9° 51' 
K. lat. aod 79° 41' and 81° 54' E. long. Its area 
15,809,280 acres. Its greatest length is from north 
(o south 266 miles, and greatest width 140 miles from 
east to west. On reference to the work abovementioned,. 
it is further explained that 2,846,100 acres are cultiv- 
ated. Lands in private hands equal about 32 million, 
or one-fourth ; the remaining three-fourths belong to 
the Crown. 

In 1505 the Portuguese formed settlements on the 
island, but were dispossessed in the next century by 
the Dutch. In 1795 the British took possession of 
the Dutch settlements on the island and annexed them 
to the Presidency of Madras, but six years after, in. 
1801, Ceylon was erected into a separate colony. 

With this very brief reference to past history, it 
will be well to turn to the present time with whicb 
this review has more to do, as it is my intention 
to deal with Ceylon as a field for intending colonists, 



i 1 



41 

nd I do not pretend to famish food for the soientifift 
adnd. 

Having pointed out the position of the island, it will 
be well vo make a few remarks on the manner us 
which it is to be reached. In these days of com* 
petition the choice is wonderful in its variety ajuA 
witlial a very pleasant journey it is in the proper 
season of the year. The journey from Britain take* 
from 21 to 35 days according to circumstances : if 
the traveller goes with the letters (the convenience 
^ir inconvenience of which method was once graphically 
'described in the Atkenceum) the former ; and if by the 
slowest Canal steamer, or *• ditcher," the latter. The 
Biost favorable season for leaving England is October 
— about the middle. By adopting this coarse no very 
oold weather is encountered in the northern latitudes* 
mnd in journeying south the heat is gradually per- 
ceived. The end of October or beginning of 'November 
is acknowledged to be the best time for passing th* 
Red Sea — a place having all sorts of imaginary borrow^ 
which Steam the Tyrant has somewhat dispelled. It 
in true that a leading breeze may make the heat in* 
tolerable, but this is a rare occurrence. I have been 
through this Sea five times, and never felt that ther* 
was anything really to be afraid of — and I never one^ 
slept on deck. A great deal might be written on th* 
subject of the voyage, but this has been so frequently 
described that on this occasion the reader will b* 
spared the description of the storm, the fastest .time <m 
record and the testimonial to the captain of the vesseL 

What an interest there it, though, in these details 
to the tyro ! 

On the subject of outfit the same silence may no^ 
be so advisable : because it is to the colonist and 
not the opulent ''globe-trotter" that these lines ar^ 
addressed. 



42 

Pray do not think that a list of clothes is goiii£^ 
to be given like a washing- book I 

All that is required cin be' very soon described. 
Two good trunks, two small tin boxes, a large linen 
bag like a sailor's, a fitted Gladstone bag and a 
liat-box are the sam 'total of the impedimenta, and 
these should contain a good stock of clothes such as 
would be worn on the hottest day on record in 
Bnglaod, flannel of course being the material which 
predominates. The thousand and- one-suggestions made 
by one's friends can all be listened to with attention, 
and like most advice neglected. A large battery of 
guns is imposing, but a " little Fletcher " will see 
most men through their sporting career. Many» 
though very fond of sport, find that it entails too 
great risks in the way of health and too great 
expenditure for those whose capital is not available 
for extraneous purposes. With sportsmen then it is 
not necessaary to deal, and to them the introduction 
en landing will not be extended. Are introductions 
of any use? Certaibly if they are given by people 
well and favorably known and to others of locally 
equal repute. It is well not to choose crowned heads 
for one's introducers — better to take the lowest seat 
and rise, than establish at once a reputation for what 
the Australians call *' blowing." 

A few good introductions then will be recommended* 
and with them the whole little European world will 
•oon be open to the new arrival. 

What capital is required to start in the island as 
a planter? This is a question which is always put 
and one which is very difficult to answer. Lord 
Denbigh asked the question at a meeting of the 
Colonial Institute, and the answer may be repeated 
with advantage and applied at the reader's pleasure. 
The Chairman said — " I have also been asked that 
(viz. the amount of capital required for New Zea-. 



43 

Imd) a great number of times. I will answer it by 
one short anecdote. I myself took ont two servants. 
They landed in New Zealand both with wives and 
families : and when they landed they only had their 
elothes on their back and eighteenpenoe in their 
Pockets — that was the whole of their worldly goods 
I also knew another man, who had £150,000 when 
he landed in the colony. In result the one who landed 
with eighteenpenoe has now an estate worth £40,000 ; 
while the gentleman who lauded with £150,000 died 
a pauper. Anybody with brains can do well ; and, 
of course, anybody with brains and money can do 
better than in England; but if a man has neither 
brains nor money, he had better stay in England, 
where he will have the work-house to fall back upon."* 
Well, the advice which will now be given is this ' 
Bring no capital in your band, for the in- 
experienced man with money will be a prey 
for the unprincipled merchant or planter. Far 
better will it be for the intending investor to make 
sore of a supply of money when his experience shall 
have taught him the right moment to invest and a 
good opportunity occurs. 

Under all circumstances experience should be gained 
•nd a good knowledge of the business in which it 
is intended to embark. It is a dreadful mistake to 
suppose that anyone can farm, anyone can plant. 
Look again at the answer Sir Charles Clifford — 
Chairman of the Colonial Institute meeting — gave Lord 
Denbigh. Sir Charles Clifford's servants began at the 
beginning and learnt what they had to do, and in 
course of time they knew how to apply the knowledge : 

* The rule applies more strongly in Ceylon than in New 
Zealand, where, as the case of Sir Charles Clifford's servants 
shows, men having only labour as their capital can get on. 
But in Ceylon, as m all tropical countries, the openings for 
the profitable employment of European labour are few and 
far between.— Ed. 



44 



the result wm suooeee. How very different wm tte 
care of the oapitalUt who plunged doubtless ds 
nudiaa res. He had no experience to teach him "whf 
one estate or farm or run was better than another. 
He had to trust to agents and bailiffs ; he had no 
experience of seasons : in fine, no technicalknowledge; 
and be failed miserably and his great capital en* 
'iched everyone but himself. Aod if such instances 
occur in New Zealand of the fickleness of fortune, it 
is certainly not peculiar to that country. Ceylon, ob 
the contrary, will compete favourably with any colony 
under British rule for instances of the vicissitudea 
of fortune-seekers. It has suffered severely at differ- 
ent times from financial panics. 

The Calcutta Review for March 1857 cites instanoee. 
A property costing £10,000 sold for £350, and an- 
other of equal cost for £500. Supposing therefor* 
that a man with capital had arrived a short time before 
such a crisis and invested without experience, what 
would have that inexperience cost him? 

The same man learning and gaining experience 
would in course of time have made a fortune. At 
the present time history repeats itself, and there is m. 
terrible reaction after the inflated prosperity of the 
decade of which 1874 was the summit level. 

I have had some years' experience of the colony, 
and arrived in it at a time when everyone was quite 
mad with excitement as to their prospects. There 
was a coffee ''boom,'' and the scene was not one 
to forget in a hurry. "In all they undertake they 
feel the anxiety of a gambler, and not the calmncM 
of a labouring man." This was the state of the 
Ceylon planter in those days, and nothing can be 
more hostile to successful agriculture. There seemed 
a prevalent idea that nothing could be done except 
at railway speed : acres and acres were planted with- 
out any regard being paid to soil« climate, or aspeol* 



45 



All was feverish haste and intense anxiety to be 
rich all at once. 

In Caird's AgrictUiure, page 531, the reader may 
ind a note on leases, and it is stated that in the 
108th Olympiad 345 b. c, the iEnonians used to lease 
land for 40 years. The terms of the lease are given. 
In 1874 a planter in Ceylon woald have expected to 
retire on a fortune made from the lease of a coffee 
estate for 40 months. 

Too much could not be adduced to illustrate the utter 
tolly of rash speculation in tropical agriculture. In 
the Spectator of May the 10th, 1884, there is an 
able article on the Oriental Bank in which the habits 
of planters are commented upon: — *' When a planter has 
made money, he goes * home ' to spend it, leaving his 
■accessor, be it partner, agent, or assignee, to meet all 
the requirements for wages, new machinery and 
cultivation, the best way he can, that is, in fact, by 
borrowing." Supposing the typical English farmer (the 
gentleman farmer is not included) were to be off to 
Paris every time he made a good speculation in sheep 
or got 10 quarters of Rivett's wheat per acre at 50s 
per quarter (a fact in 1868), would one ever have heard 
of a farmer making a fortune ? or a farm remaining the 
same for half a century in point of condition ? True it 
is that change is necessary for the European who 
settles in the East; but the change is not required to 
that degree in the island of Ceylon that it may be on 
the larger portion of the Continent of India, or Hindn- 
■tan. Hence that mania for going home (or for leaving 
liome to speak more correctly) should not exist if the 
Planter who wishes to prove " that the land be worry 
konest, whatever yon do put into it, you shall get back 
again." Many, if the truth were known, could date their 
misfortunes from the evil day when love of their coun- 
try — sudden and spasmodic ! — induced them to break 



48 

ap and scatter their Lares and Penates and visit their 
friends in the old country who perhaps would have 
preferred their room to their company ! 

What is the beat investment in Ceylon at the present 
time? 

Tea undoubtedly, but it is a product which has only 
lately come into notice. In 1867 there were 10 acres 
in the island, and in 1S77 the acreage had risen to 
2,720. In 18S3 there were 32,000 ! And now there ia 
a rush and tea is being planted everywhere. It is a 
wonderful success in many places, and it can be 
extended still farther. Land can be obtained at the 
upset price of RIO per acre. Survey and other fees 
added in some cases as much as 30 per cent. Old 
cofifee estates — abandoned wholly or partly — can be 
bought very cheaply and planted up. The yield of 
some of the best bearing estates is very large — as much 
as 1,0001b. of prepared tea per acre. Elevation seems 
to make but little difference, for estates at sea-level 
and estates at 6,000 feet above it have made equally 
high prices ,for prepared tea. The labour question at 
present gives no anxiety, and tea estates are sought after 
on account of the regularity of the work. There is an 
abundance of eeed of fair jat in the islund which can be 
obtained at moderate prices. 

There has not yet been any speculation in tea estates, 
but the time may come, and the happy possessor of 
an estate may find a good sale. The whole of the 
Central Province or mountain zono is suitable in 
climate for tea and the insular climate is a great 
advantage. Again at a time vchen the fr nit-grower 
is crying out at the cessation of his trees from 
bearing, a product is introduced which is cultivated 
for the leaf only. Post- fact wi&eacres have remarked 
that tea was the proper product for Ceylon and not 
coffee. The best known estate, it must be borne in 
mind, has peculiar advantages. It is close to a rail* 



4.7 

way station, close to a town, and has a cart-road 
(Government) right through it. Compare these ad- 
vantages with the disadvantages of an estate in a 
more remote part of the island — say the BaduUa district 
— where there is no railway, labour not too plentiful, 
•nd 125 miles of road to be traversed to Colombo. 

Nevertheless, if a yield of 800 to 1,000 lb. per acre can 
be obtained saleable at Is sterling per lb., a fair profit 
can be looked for even under considerable dis- 
advantages. 

The planting of a tea estate can be done by a coffee 
l^anter of experience, and the art of tea manufactur* 
ing is now well understood by many, and has been 
brought in some instances to approximate perfection. 
If therefore the intending investor were very anxious 
to cov'mence operations at once, he could live on an 
estate whilst the planting operations were going on 
•nd learn this work, and afterwards whilst the tea 
wms growing, go and learn the art of preparation for 
the London market. In this way the first three years 
of proprietorship could be profitably spent and the 
tealization of profits rendered all the sweeter by an 
intimate acquaintance with the cause and effect. 

It IS highly improbable that any tables of estimates 
would be understood by the tyro, and therefore 
figures which prove anything will be avoided ; bat 
briefly to give some idea of how capital would be 
•Kpended is only reasonably to be expected. 

First then let us take the case of an old coffee estate. 
An estate of 640 acres or a square mile of land is 
^rchased, say for R20,000, or, to make it clearer, 
£1,660. On this there would be a bungalow, a good 
«lore with water-wheel and machinery, and ample 
accooimodation for the conly Ial>our. There then might 
be SCO acres of coffee, good, bad and indifferent ; 20 
acres of cinchona, some good forest and some chena or 
•econd growth of jangL' or land once opened. The annual 



48 

expenditure on snch a place would be, lay, £1,200 and 
crop value of coffee and cinchona £1,440. The coffee 
crop being 400 cwt. and the cinchona about 2 tons, a 
profit of £240 would be left with which to plant tea. 
and the coat would be about E50 to R60 per acre. 
(The rupee is estimated at Is 8d. ) The weeding and 
all expenditure on roads and drains for upkeep would 
be found in the estimated cost of maintaining the 
declining coffee estate : hence the capital required for 
such an undertaking would be £2,000 to £3,000, and 
the proprietor ihould be perfectly free under such con* 
ditions from all agents and mortgagees. 

Having finished with the last favorite, I will now 
proceed to touch upon the last but one, viz., Cin- 
chona. This product was in great favour a short 
time ago, until it was discovered that it did noi 
flourish, like Horniman's tea, always good alike. On 
reference to Ferguson's Directory it will be seen 
that the product was known a long time ago, but 
during the halcyon days of coffee little attention 
was paid to it. A well-known instance is quoted 
of the fabulous prices realized by sales of bark in 
the early days — that is to say, up to 1880. Ten 
shillings and two-pence per lb. was obtained f<Hr 
cinchona officinalis quill bark. But space will not 
admit of going in for all these details and statistics : 
they may all be found in that marvel of compil- 
ation, the said Ferguson's Directory. The subject 
now before us is the present position of the. enter- 
prize. To deal with this, we must leave alone isolated 
nstances of great profits and take the market valae 
of the unit of sulphate of quinine on which to base 
ear calculationB. 

Before, however, looking at the financial succem 
ef the product it should be viewed agriculturally. 

I quote a sale of a cinchona estate which has 
just taken place to show how bargains can be picked 



49 

up. The estate was the Tullibody estate near 
Nuwara Eliya and the price paid was R 13,000 or 
£1,000 sterling at present rates o£ exchange. The 
estate was thos described in the local papers : — 
^'248 acres more or less— 65,000 trees from 9 months 
to 7 years old. Buildings consisted of a bungalow, 
store and conly -habitations. The estate was well 
drained and 'admirably suited for the cultivation 
of tea.* *' 

Circumstances alter cases ; but there must be some 
very peculiar circumstances about this estate if it be 
not a case of a bargain. For my own part, I would 
rather have a plantation at Awisawella or Kalutara, 
two lowoountry places, than live at the high elev- 
ation of Nawara Eliya, where one encounters the one 
thing to avoid in a tropical country, namely, cold ! 
My first experience of the place was in Christmas 1875, 
when I ascended Fidurutalagala, the highest point in 
Oeylon, and felt such a chill as I shall not forget 
My companion, an old gentleman, got congestion of 
the liver from it. There were frost and ice on the 
puddles in the road, jam scUU terris, &c. I came 
to avoid cold, and here I was in the zenith of the 
Christmas Father's glory. I do not recommend 
Nuwara Eliya and its neighbourhood. 

Of course, it must be thoroughly understood that 
the typical estate is one that has been forced into 
the market in times of great depression, for it might 
be truthfully said that a practical planter who so 
sacrificed a good concern would be a fool. The pict- 
ure is not altogether overdrawn. 

Where can cinchona be grown? For my part, I 
am prejudiced in favour of a certain district ; but 
I do not fear contradiction when I say that it 
oannot be grown in clay. When the product was 
looked upon as a means of evading ruin it was the 
fashion, wherever a bare ridge or patch of vacant 
oies was seen in the coffee and elicited oritioiim, ta 
5 



50 

say : *' Oh I plant it ap with oinohona" (and to realise 
the fall weight of thie yon mnst prononnoe the 
word with a Scotch accent). Time proved howerer 
that this was as great a mistake as the indiscrimin- 
ate selection of land lor coffee. When there were 
a few planters and a few coffee estates, men of 
experience used to select good land, but when the 
rush came, people sought the flimsiest excuses for 
making out that land was suitable. A well-known 
visiting agent, ^an itinerant land agent— used to say 
to me when I first came to the country, ' good soil * 
or *good climate' of nearly every estate that I asked 
him about. Now as it is notorious that the. soil of 
Ceylon is not generally good, this was peculiar to say 
the leasts and did not argue in favour of the gentle- 
man's good sense. 

Cinchona requires a soil with a. good mixture of 
stone and sand or quartz. Heavy moist soil does not 
suit, nor slab rock ; and a field that I know haa 
Apparently nothing but quartz, but here the plant 
seems quite in its element. 

And as to climate. A dry climate is the best, and 
this is found on the eastern side of the mountaiu 
zone. The critical time, viz., the age of three years, 
can here be passed safely, and one may look for trees 
of a great age comparatively speaking. The present 
fashion is to spokeshave the bark off the trees and 
after the first operation, wait 9 to 12 months and 
repeat it. The first is the original bark and the 
second the renewed, of commerce. I will give an 
instance of what the cinchona sucoirubra will do. 
Original shavings off 5^ acres weighed 1,500 lb. and 
analyzed 1*65 sulphate of quinine, the renewed off 
the same acreage weighed 2,000 lb. and analyzed 
3 31 sulphate of quinine. The trees are still 
standinflf and the bark has renewed very well the 
third time. In the first instance the bark wonld 
be worth 8d per lb. and the second Is 4d, so that 



51 

the groBB proceeds (with unit at 25 oents currenoy 
or 5d) would have been Ist year £50, and second year 
^IdO^the actual results were much better than this. 
The cost of harvesting may be put at 2d per lb. 
I should not recommend shaving any tree under 
three years old, and indeed it would require that 
soil and climate were all in favor of the plant's 
growth to shave at so early an age. At four years 
old the operation may be considered safe, and the 
tree sometimes seems to thicken and grow after it. 
Great care is necessary however not to injure the 
'cambium.' 

Most people know how to destroy trees by 'ring- 
ing ' the bark, and if the actual wood is exposed 
the operations of shaving and ringing are synonymous. 
After the second shaving it will be well to coppice, 
and in so doing cut off the trees leaving a good 
slope on the stump — suckers soon spring up, and two 
or three will grow to a great size from the one 
atnmp. I have suckers growing in this manner that 
are equal in size and strength to a stem of the same 
4ige from an original plant. 

A cinchona estate arrived at the age of three 
years old from jungle would be rather costly, because 
bnildinga would be required, with the exception of 
«tore, to the same extent as a small coffee estate. 
A bark store would be necessary. 

Boughly speaking 1 would not recommend a smaller 
oapital than £2,000 for an estate of 100 to 150 acres. 
Of course, as in entry on a farm, the whole amount 
is not immediately necessary ; but whereas the har- 
vest would come in a year, say, on a Michaelmas 
entry; in the cinchona estate it would be delayed 
lor three. In the first year all the planting oper- 
ations would be done, the buildings put up at least 
^or the labourers, and subsequently, weeding and 
improvements and sullying losses of plants by death 
•ad insect enemies. Handbooks on the cultivation 



62 

are writteo, and in these all the details will be 
eonnd. It is just possible that the proprietor might 
arrange to live with a neighbour if there waB one 
near the jangle and lo the erection of a bungalow 
could be delayed until he saw that his "agricultural 
Tenture was a financial success." 

But some one will say : " How long ib this cinchona 
plantation going to last that yon talk of buildings 
and bungalows T" I reply that if it be a success it 
will last quite long enough for its owner to .spend 
his capital and get a Tery fair return for it : after 
that perhaps he may wish to enter upon some other 
speculation. Three years before harvest and three years 
of harvesting are ample time for a man to decide 
whether he will remain in his voluntary exile, and 
ample time for him to " spoil a horn or make a spoon." 
I do not think a cinchona plantation would last for 
ever, nor any cultivation in the tropics that meets 
the approval of the European. If he means to spend 
his life in a climate admittedly unsuitable to the 
European constitution — and in many cases made so 
fatal by utter want of commonsense in personal 
habits — he should plant coconuts, nutmegs, or buy 
paddy (rice) fields, and live as abstemiously as a high- 
caste Hindu. Cinnamon, too, is a good lasting invest-^ 
ment, and has enriched more people than any spice 
the white man has grown. There are so many draw- 
backs to all these products that it is scarcely necess- 
ary to meotion them except in the way I have done. 
The European planter as a rule has in his mind's eye 
large profits and quick returns and will not wait for a 
slow but sure concern. 

But to return to Cinchona. In it as in tea there 
is no fruit, no blossoming season, which have of 
late years given the poor coffee planters so much 
anxiety, but ia contraposition the uncertainty of 
the market value may be placed. If it be true that 
present prices only remain as they are on account 



53 

-of the large sume lent on the stocks of bark, tben 
I fear that there is a bad time coming for the 
cinchona planter, bat if increased consumption (owing 
to the price of the mannfactured article being low 
enongh to place it within reach of the million) 
tjontinue, then 5d per unit will make the planter a 
profit, and every Id above that will lighten hia 
anxiety and increase the weight of his purse. Prices 
are now rising. I feel that to enter deeper ia de- 
tail and mention the varieties of cinchona, — all house- 
hold words to the experienced planter, — is here out 
of place, so I dismiss the subject of cinchona and 
will proceed to coffee. 

At the commencement of this subject I fancy I 
see the pessimist who 

" beheld their plight 
And to his mates thus in derision called " 

lit the bare idea of a man writing about coffee 
in these days! Laugh and deride, Mr. Pessimist, 
Mr. Merchant, or whoever you may be: but per- 
haps you have not much to laugh at. You had 
not the money to invest in the year 1874, before 
alluded to, and now take credit for perspicience. 
Or, you recklessly risked your own and other people's 
money in 1874, and now regard yourself as a special 
subject for compassion — one who has received no 
Providence. Yes, I know well the ways of the 
•turn-coatsM "Ruined, eh?" "Yes; but, has coffee 
ruined you"? **No, but leaf-disease (Hemileia vast- 
fUrix) has.'' "Has leaf-disease killed your coffee?" 
"No, but it has spoilt the crops, and there was no 
money for cultivation, so it snvjfed out," "What be- 
came of all your large profits when coffee paid well 
say from 1869 to 1876? Was there no leaf-disease 
then?" "I thought the large profits were going 
on for ever : indeed some said coffee would 
go up to 200s percwt., so I spent them. Yes, there 
was leaf-disease, but manure and cultivation seemed 



54 

to keep it from being very bad." *'And could you 
not get any credit for working your estate, if not 
expensively in such a manner that you would be 
ready for a good season if it came ?" ** Well, no, I 
was pretty heavily mortgaged, and my agents would 
not allow a cent beyond what paid from the mort- 
gagee'B point of view." '*So your cofiFee after 
being highly cultivated and stimulated was starved 
eh?" "Yea, I suppose it was?" *' And have none 
cultivated their coflFee since these hard times came? 
"Oh, yes, a few I beUeve.'' **And in what con^ 
dition are these estates—* snuffed out'?" " No, I be- 
lieve the other day there was a case of an estate 
cultivated well, being much admired by the 
mortgagee or an agent, and he said that he 
should not think of turning out the mortgagor.*' 
•' Then it is possible to cultivate coffee to a profit 
even with short crops and low prices." "Well, I 
am out of it, so I cannot give you my experience ; 

but I suppose if it were not and and 

& Co. would have shut up shop long ago. They, 
are all heavily mortgaged, and if they did not pay 
would be sold up; so there must be the interest 
that they have to pay above and beyond working 
expenses allowed." '* What about a proprietor who ia 
free of all mortgages, cannot he make a good coffee 
estate pay, for I suppose a bad coffee estate would 
be just as great a loss as a bad farm or a bad horse ?" 
•* Yet, I suppose he might show a profit over working 
expenses, .but he would not be able to show anything 
like a fair interest for his money, if he bought in 
1874 at the then market rate." " Exactly, but in the 
latter emergency he is not different from many capit- 
alists who invested in land in England about 1870. 
Land was then bought to pay about the same inter- 
est as consols at 92^, and rents have now fallen so 
low that perhaps it only pays about 1 per cent or so." 
I will not prolong the conversation, but I do 



55 

» not hesitate to say that a great deal of the depressioa 

; now being ezperieoced is owing to human folly and 

r not divine intervention. My own feeling was when 

I I fire t came to the island that perhaps if I were 

fortunate I would obtain double the interest for 
. ^ money that I should get in the old country, but 

of course there was more than double the risk. 
At first I was very cautions, and would not accept 
the off-hand representations of huge profits which 
were given to me. But at last I doubted my own 
judgment and listened to crafty people and " plunged/*^ 
with the result that I have learned a very bitter 
lesson. I did not do as I have advised. I invested 
I before I had gained experience, and others made 

I money while I lost the capital which I introduced. 

i Like many others I had something good and some- 

L thing bad, and the bad was always dragging me down, 

r At last I cut the Gordian knot and let it drift at a 

ruinous sacrifice, and now am free to speak of only the 
good. I believe that besides a living I can make a 
Anall profit over working expenses, though of coarse I 
cannot get even a fair interest for the capital invested. 
Crops, too, have steadily gone down and now seem to 
have found a level at about two to three hundred,, 
weight per acre which at present prices leaves little 
margin of profit. That this average of crop could be 
raised by judicious cultivation I do not doubt, having 
very good authority for the assumption ; but there are 
historical reasons for the cultivation being denied to 
the suffering plant, and therefore things remain 
in statu quo, I do not suppose that you would 
^ find a single person so bold as to say that they 

would still depend on coffee planting to make 
them a living. Perhaps they may be right if 
they are thinking of the old districts known 
as the Kandy side ; but in Uva or the eastern portion 
^ of the Central Province beyond Nuwara Eliya and 

^ looking towards Batticaloa and Hambantota the case is. 



56 

different. Here soil and climate have rendered the 
struggle of the coffee against adverse seasons and 
disease and neglect prolonged, and should succour 
oome now in the shape of Government recognition 
of the requisitions of the coffee planter, I believe 
that these districts might still flourish and be 
profitable in this product alone to their proprietors. 
Having had experience in agriculture I know 
that it is not every one that can farm successfully, 
and pitchforking money into the land does not con- 
stitute good farming. There was a time (in the early 
days) doubtless when a man could hardly fal to 
succeed in coffee planting because the demand for 
plantations was not great and there was plenty of land 
to select from. The best land got taken up and then 
when a rush came, people went in for the second beat 
and 60 on until there ceased to be any good, bette)*, or 
best left, and land was opened, which the old pioneers 
would have shunned like the plague. Besides this a 
vast area was opened and a late Governor remarked 
that in no country in which he bad been, had he 
ever seen such general devastation of forest as in* 
some of the new coffee districts of Ceylon. Is it 
a matter of surprize then that a number of 
years of great fertility should be succeeded 
comparatively by a few years of sterility? The 
farmer in North America has a large quantity of land 
to select from, and he sows his seed in virgin soil ; 
when he has got a crop from one piece of land he 
goes on to another, the soil is there and no exhaus- 
tion has yet taken place. In like manner in Ceylon. 
From what I have heard even this deep virgin soil 
in America will not crop year after year without 
cultivation or rotation of crop; and in Ceylon the 
one crop was perpetual and no change was made. 
And the same land was always cropped, coffee being 
never replanted as in some countries, Java for instance. 
A blight came on the coffee in 1869, followed by 



I 



57 

^ ^ the aopreoedented prices in 1870-80. Whilst these 

high prices continued manure was put into the land 
{ without stint and without method. Everything was 

done to force the crop. When the coffee plant became 
keenly susceptible of stimulants, they suddenly ceased 
on account of a fall in prices and a withdrawal of 
the confidence of the capitalists. 

The coffee eeems to be less to blame than its 
treatment. 

A farmer never knows his bnsinees, and the seasons 
he admits beat him. The coffee planter expects to 
learn his business in a few short years, and rarely 
studies the seasons. The cultivation went on in the 
old jog-trot style, and it was only with a rise of prices 
that innovations came, and with these entirely in-^ 
experienced men. 

Coffee then is under a cloud, and it will be almost 
useless to waste more time in describing the land 
suitable for it, because there is none left. It will 
be useless to describe the manner or cost of planting, 
because no one would have faith enough to plant it 
if he had suitable land it will be useless jbo de- 
scribe or estimate the profits, because the crops do 
not come. But — and there is always a '*but" in every 
case — I should advise any possessor of. good coffee 
to stick to it and do all his purse will allow to 
preserve it against a possible return of favourable 
seasons and the departure of leaf-disease. In con- 
clusion, I am told that there are many worse places 
than Ceylon, by one who has been round the globe, 
and 1 can quite believe it. I have a great friend, 
with whom I lived in Ceylon ; he is now in the Far 
West. He described to me that his prospects were 
to become a fairly good agticnltural labourer. He had, 
after some months' residence, a few acres of grain, 
potatoes and onions. He and his brother were then 
quite alone, and after bis experience of an abundance 
of native servants and cooly labourers this muet 



58 

liave been very trying. Yes, I should be indlDed to 
wy that for a gentleman who has from £2,C00 to 
£6,000 capital to inveet he might do worse than oome to 
Ceylon. " SpectcUum veniuntf veniurU spfctentur ut ipH," 
frill be a good role however, and if tbe inspection is 
tinsAticfaotory do not go farther. If it be very satis* 
factory do not fail to make it long enough to verify 
first impressions. There are few hardships in the 
t)oantry. Provided that you have plenty of Tamil or 
Sinhalese labourers for transport and a little money, 
there is scarcely any necessary you need be long in 
want of. Colombo is one of the finest towns in the East, 
iLandy,* besides being well supplied in every way with 
comforts for Europeans, is one of the prettiest. Badulla 
ia a very good specimen of an outstation; and be* 
rides these there are Matale, Gampola and Nawala- 
{dtiya that may rank as quite civilized places. Nuwara 
Eliya, the hill sanatorium, and on the Badulla side 
fialdummuUa, Passara and Lunugala, all with post 
offices and regular daily mails. Telegraph offices at 
«U the principal towns, good English and native shops« 
maila every week from England, steamers going and 
-ooming almost daily to and from east and west, — all 
this makes life worth living. 

There is plenty of good food to be had ; — it is the 
fashion to run down the beef sometimes, but you 
tsannot expect <' Welsh-runts*'' in Taprobane, — and 
very cheap it is! A. single man can live very com- 
fortably on £200 per annum and need not owe a 
tingle bill. Horses are fairly cheap and horsekeepia 
not more than £3 per month. Of course.all imported 
articles are dear and just about 100 per cent over 
cost price in England, i.e., what costs Is in England 
oosts Rl here ; but allowing for exchange this would 
not be cent per cent. Nevertheless, the calculation il 
near enough without splitting straws. 



* Some of the finest beef extant. 



r 



59 

As for health, in the hills the matter lies almost 
entirely within the power of the resident ; and ia 
these days of moderate drinking and almost complete 
absence of beer one may enjoy as good health as ia 
one's native village in England. Plenty of exercise, 
plenty of flannel ('* white things " I abhor I), oare 
about the sun and sobriety are the main points. 

To all who read these remarks I would say : ** Come^ 
and see the place, and if you do not like it there 
will be no harm done, only a few pounds gone in 
a pleasant voyage ! I for one will give you a welcome- 
and any information that lies in my power." 

Dec. 3l8t, 1884. A. C. I. 

*-^ 

BOYHOOD THE HAPPIKST TIME OF LIFE — CEYLON IN 
OLD DAYS : ITS CONQUEST BY THE BRITISH— THE 
SOAD TO KANDY : HOW IT WAS MADE AND IT3 
EFFECT ON THE BEVENUS OF THE ISLAND — THE BISE 
AND FALL OF THE COFFEE INDUSTRY — THE RUIN 
CAUSED BY LEAF-DISEASE NOT CONFINED TO THE 
EUROPEAN COMMUNITY—NEW PRODUCTS— THE NEW 
KING, TEA : ITS UBIQUITY OF GROWTH— DANGERS OF 
HURRY — ADVANTAGES ENJOYED BY CEYLON TEA PLANT- 
ERS—LIKELIHOOD OF A FALL IN PRICES — COST OF 
PRODUCTION — THE BEST TEA SOIL — CHOICE OF PLANTS 
—HYBRIDS— NEW AND OLD LAND— ELEVATION AND. 
RAINFALL— COST OF OPENING A TEA ESTATE OF lOOt 
ACRES —PROFITS- A HEALTHY CLIMATE — THE CEYLON 
PLANTERS — DISTRICT ASSOCIATIONS. 



My dear Mac D , —Your letter came duly 

to band, and I was at first a little excited about 
how you discovered my address, but I suppose you 
came across. Ferguson's Directory, which travels far 
and wide over the face of the earth, or perhaps you 
may have met with one of the few old planlen wha 



60 

may have known me in other days. I never was a ^ 

very conspicuouB person, but for the last dozen years 
nothing could be more obscure than my existence. 
You remind me of those winter eveninga 51 years 
ago, when some little assistance old Mrs. Mackay 
solicited for her grandson, in getting up his lessons, 
led to the nightly gathering of half-a-dozen boys 
round me, to be coached in the questions the dominie 
was likely to ask next day, and then we indenmified 
ourselves with much fun and frolic for our hour of 
fitady. I have often thought that the days of boy- 
hood, say from ten to fifteen, are the only real good 
times that life has to offer. 

You wish me to give you my opinion of the Ceylon 
of today as a field of life work for a young man of 
twenty with fair talents tolerably cultivated, and who 
<jan command a capital of £2,000, two or three years ^ 

hence if the life and work should be satisfactory. 

The Ceylon of today is very greatly changed from 
the Ceylon that I first set foot in forty-four years 
ago. The Ceylon of that day was one of the poor- 
est countries on the face of the earth. It had been 
conquered from the Dutch in 1796, and was kept by 
Britain at the peace, because it was not desirable 
that any foreign nation should have a footing so near 
our Indian Empire. A large garrison was maintained 
chiefly at the cost of England, and in 1815, the 
whole island was brought under British rule by the 
conquest of the Eandyan kingdom, which added some- 
thing to the strength if not to the wealth of the 
Government. It was for the more secure military oc- 
cupation of the new conquest that a road was run *< 
into the centre of the mountain zone. The Govern- 
ment of those days was not rich enough to have made 
twenty miles of carriage road in any direction on 
the system that now obtains; but it had inherited I 
horn the native rulers an unlimited right of corvee, H 



61 

and by this custom all the unskilled labour reuqried 
for the construction of the skilfully planned system of 
roads was supplied. Else it is not easy to see how 
the island could ever have become other than it had 
been for a thousand years, a land of fons's and 
swamps inhabited by an indolent apathetic race, living 
•from hand to mouth, decimated by famines from time 
to time, and keeping population in check by the 
practice of polyandry aud female iufanticide. In the 
towns on the sea coast, there was a mixture of other 
races, Europe m descendants, half-caste Moors, Tamils, 
&c., and there alone the scmty capital of the island 
was concentrated, and the smill trade transacted, 
A man who could give his daughter one hundred 
dollars, say £7 lOs, as her marriage portion was held 
to be in prosperous circumstances, and he who gave 
two hundred was called rich. 

The public revenue in such a country was of ne. 
cessity rather limited and consisted of a monopoly 
of the production of cinnamon, a salt monopoly, a 
tithe on the grain grown, a customs duty on the 
small import trade, and a few other small imposts, 
which with a pearl fishery at long intervals made up 
4Ui average of something over B3,000,000. 

It was into this state of affairs that the existence 
of a road into the central districts brought Europeans 
with money in their pockets, and in native opinion 
a mad desire to get rid of it. I do not propose to 
^o into the history of coffee planting in the island, 
the capital and the lives it wasted, its see-saws of 
depression and prosperity till the great disaster that 
in ten years ha? reduced the production to onc-fourtli 
of the amount it ouce reached and in its fall has 
oai-ried ruin into industrial pursuits that it created 
and supported. H emileia vastatrix has not only rained 
coffee planting bui everything that even remotely 
depended on it. Except the purely native element 
that has lived its own life apart in the obscure vill- 
6 



62 

»gcs unaffected by the changes that went on outside- 
iCj economy as inherited through fifty generations of 
unentei'prizing ancestors, and a less numerous bat 
luore important section of natives who made money 
vlieii they had the chance and invested it in cooo- 
cuts, cinnamon and other enterprizes that can now 
Uaud alone and save the country from ever falling 
tack 'nto the poverty-stricken, dead-alive state of 
ha- fa century ago, even had European planting be- 
como a thing of the past, which was greatly desider-- 
a ted by some members of the public service, but is.. 
not likely to come to pass yet awhile. The planters 
have fought their battle like a band of heroes. Ko 
sooner had the serious nature of the fungni become^ 
suspected than they began to plant all kinds of new 
products suitable to the'r respective climates, and 
that promised to pay for the cultivation, cinchona^ 
Liberian coffee, cacao, cardamoms, rubber and tea. 

On thi^ last planters have taken their stand, and 
have tlecte«l it king i- stead of the moribund coffee- 
tree. It is asserted that this plant grows luxuriantly 
over more than one thrd of the turface of the island 
and from the sea-shore up to 7,000 feet, that it will 
pay to grow it on indifferent soil, but that in 
tho most favoured spots unprecedented crops have- 
been pri duced already, 900 lb. pt r acre and more ex- 
pected wh n the bushes are more mature, but. 
no one seems to doubt that 400 lb. is to 
be got got off almost any land, and that with 
proper machinery it can be put into the London 
market for 6d per pound, where it has already made 
a place for itself, inferior to none. While such are 
the opinions generally held by Ceylon planters, you 
may be sure they arc not idly contemplating poM-^ 
ibilities but rapidly carrying their theories into- 
practice, and tea plants are being put down by tens 
-of millions. For good or for evil, Ceylon has com- 
mitted itself to tea, and a great tea country it will 



become : nothiDg will hold them back now, though I 
and others may howl ourselves hoarse, shouting 
festt'Tui lente. There would not be much to regret in 
this movement were it not that bad jdt may result 
from the hurry, and the vast demand for labour 
may soon outrun the supply, and permanently in- 
crease wages without estates being thereby fully manned. 

The present advantages of the Ceylon tea producers 
are a forcing climate, a railway that penetrates 
to the heart of the mountain zone, good cart roads into 
nearly every important district, a tolerably abundant 
and not prohibitively costly supply of labour — but it 
is said iiat competition is beginning to tell in what 
has hitherto been Ceylon's preserve ; and we are 
quite willing to believe that our average per acre 
will exceed that of our Indian brethren by twenty- 
five per cent. The only one of those advantages that 
has the elements of permanency about it is tho 
climate that gives a tea harvest aU the year round. 
In a few years India will match us in means of 
oommunication, while increased competition and cheap 
and rapid means of travel will tend to equalize 
wages all over India and Ceylon. By the time Ceylon 
^nds her fifty or sixty millions of pounds of tea 
annually into the markets of the world consumption 
will not be able to overtake supply and a time of low 
prices will ensue, through which only the fittest will 
florvive, namely, those who can give the finest qualities 
at the lowest cost of production. 

It is most probable that here in Ceylon, where the 
most perfect machinery yet invented is in use, the 
lowest cost of production has been reached and we 
flOAy take it as an established fact that it can never 
be produced at a lower rate in future, as the undoubted 
tendency of the age in this part of the world is towards 
a rise in the wages of labour as new industries open up 
new fields of employment and the condition of the 
labouring population improves with larger means. 



64 

The best tea soil is a deep permeable loam, the rioher- 
in the common elements of fertility the better. As 
the soil falls off, either towards stiff clay or hungry 
gravel, the growth becomes less and less rapid and 
vigorous, yet tea will grow tolerably on soils that few 
other useful plants would relish. The most important 
point in the establishment of a tea field is the choice 
of plants. We have borrowed the word j&t from. 
India and speak of a good or bad jat according as it 
approaches to our ideal of what a tea bush ought to 
be. The tea plant is indigenous in the forests of 
Assam, and though it has been cultivated in China 
from time immemorial it is probably not indigenoua 
in that country, and the forest tree of Assam and th& 
cultivated shrub of China are specifically the samew 
When the t\^o varieties were planted together the 
seed of either produced varieties without end. There 
U no hybridizing in the process but only what takes- 
place in the case of all other plants that run ta 
varieties. We have learned to call the plants we^ 
vaut to cultivate Assam hybrid, but instead of one 
h^'brid we have a score of types and even within 
tliese no two plants are exactly alike in the size, form, 
colour and serrate of the leaf or in the habit of 
growth. Many of the inferior sorts are unfit for 
cultivation and should be treated as weeds trs soon as 
they declare themselves and their place supplied with 
better jdt. The seed should be taken from the very 
best jdt, but this even will nob bo safe if an inferior 
jat be allowed to fiower at the same time within a 
bee flight. 

I do not know what set me on about j4t, which can 
be of very little interest to you, but as it is written 
I let it stand. If your grandson should finally decido 
cu tea planting he will learn that and other thingej 
connected with the business best on the spot. 

A large proportion of the tea already planted is on 
old coffee land, and there are plenty of old estates in 



65 

the market, but for a young man proposing to settle 
new land is what I would recommend. The Govern- 
ment upset price is RIO per acre, but all choice lots 
are in future likely to be competed for, and it is liavd 
to fix a probable price, but lower qualities outside 
the coconut region may generally be had for the 
upset price. If I were going in for tea on my 
own account I would prefer lots over 1,500 feet 
above sea level, as you are more likely to get 
regular rain than at a lower elevation, and frequent 
rain is a necessary element in successful t a growing. 

In the part of the country I reside in there re- 
mains no Government land, but at the current rate 
of labour a tea esta.te of 100 acres could be estab- 
lished up to the plucking period with everything but 
machinery complete for £1,500. The establishment of 
suitable machinery would leave little of another 
£500, so that £2,000 of capital would be necessaiy 
for the purpose. We count here in rupees, and the 
fiipee is equal to Is 7id more or less. 

For the returns from the property so established 
we will only estimate 300 pounds per acre, costing 
£10 and selling for Is per pound all round, £15 be- 
ing a return oi 25 per cent on the capital. I cannot 
say what the same extent might cost elsewhere, and 
under other circumstances. I have taken a low yield 
compared with what has been achieved in other dis- 
tricts, 600 lb. per acre having been obtained at an 
elevation of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet and from 800 
to 900 lb. on choice spots from 2,000 to 3 000. 

There is perhaps no part of the world more healthy 
than the tea region of Ceylon : some authorities even * 
assert that some of the mountain districts possess the 
finest climate in the world 

It is an easy journey of ten hours from Colombo 
to Nuwara Eliya, the highest town in the islan^l, 
where frosty mornings are common in the season 
•and with the exception of the outlying province of 



GO 

Uva any of the planting districts may he n ached 
in one clay from Colombo. 

Among the planters of Ceylon there 13 a large 
proportion of exceptionally able men, and the whole 
1) dy form a well informed and highly intelligent 
class, now pretty generally tamed int> conventional 
fcui jection by the presence of many ladies. In all 
tlie large districts there are Associations that meet 
periodit.ally to discuss local matters and bully the 
Government, a duty they perform with more energy 
than effect, for, '• jour dull ass will not mend his. 
pace for beating." L. 



* 



How A Coffee Plantation has Paid its Way in 
A PooK Part of a High District, in Ceylon, in 
SPITE OF Leaf Disease, Poor Prices and G enteral. 
Deprbssiof. 

You ask me to tell you the story of *' How we 
kept our wattle." I cannot give you full particulars, 
because, if I did so, my partner might not like it ;. 
and a good partner is not to be sacrificed to satisfy 
tl.e cravings of aa inquisitive public. 

I tbiuk one of the chief elements in our successful 
attempt to hold cur own over a space of 12 years, 
was our being mutually blessed (ahem !) with cautious 
prudent partners who would not contract a debt greater- 
than they could pay off with funds available elsewhere. 
A good soil for coffee and a climate suitable for 
this peculiar tree were not what kept the wolf from 
our door; for the elevation was over 4,000 fee!; the 
climata decidedly wet, say 180 inches, if not more 
S. W. exposure ; and the plants in nursery were 
* covered with leaf-fungus. I question if there could 
have been a poorer investment as a coffee estate 
pure and simple. I don't think we ever averaged 
more than 2 cwt., and we often tumbled down 
to 4 a cwt. We did not spend much on buildings. 
I think bnngalo7«r, lines and stores did not cost more 



67 

than ^4,000. We wasted about R6,000 in manure. 
We rtaded and drained the estate very effectively. 

Cinchona has done not so badly however; officinalis 
very poor ; but the plain but honest succirubra has 
certainly done us a good turn. 

The superintendence averaged E2,000 per annum 
for a little over 200 acres — given to others. If we 
had worked our own property, that would have been 
an income very few farmers in England or elsewhere 
woul 1 have got out of 200 acres. 

To Slim up, the estate stands as at £3,000 sterling. 
We h ve 80 acres of good cinchona, which, if harvested, 
in thvi next year, should give u^ £2,000 worth of 
baik, and we have this land for tea. We have 110 acres 
of good land planted with tea from 1 to 3 years 
old most promising, and about 30 acres of not so 
bad coffee that will last for two or three years yet^ 
if we do not find tea a more profitable investment. 
The conclusion I at any rate have come to is that 
I would not part with the property for £6,000, should 
any of those Tea Company gentlemen offer "cash 
dow^." Why should we? I think we have found the 
products that will give us p »ying returns. We were very 
despondent about 18 months ago. We are now chirpy. 

Ceylon property, if the proper product is grown in 
it and, if judiciously and carefully managed, will hold 
its own with that of any other country, and what a 
place it is to be here. A really temperate climate, 
only three weeks distant from England by P. & O,, 
but will be only that time's distance from the dear 
old country when the first "ditcher" really does her 
best. The passage to London and back will soon be 
R500. I shall be able to harvest my tea and go 
home and sqaare up with my London agents for four 
months every year if so disposed. 

Ceylon gone ? Never a bit ! We have a shot in 
the locker yet, and ber Planters have the stuff in them 
that command success. Floreat Lanka. 



68 
NEW PRODUCTS IN CEYLON: 

ESTIMATES OF COST AND YDSLD FBOM PLANTATIONS. 

We append Estimates in connection with the principal 
Planting Products cultivated in Ceylon. For fuller and 
practiciS information as to mode of cultivation,^ &c., we 
refer to the Manucds from which our quotations are 
taken, as well as to the various other indispensable public- 
ations for planters issued from the Ceylon Observer Press, 
more especially the monthly Tropical Agriculturist. 

ESTIMATES. 



TEA. 

(/Vw»" TeaCvltivation in CeyXoitC^hy C. Spearman Armstrong. *y 

Take for example a *< garden'' of 150 acres, bearing at 
the rate of 400 lb. (of made te%) per acre : 

^Supt.) including Factory overseer, at R20 per cents 

acre, cost per lb. of tea 5'000 
Weeding at 87 cents per acre RIO'44 per acre 

per annum ... ... ... ... 2'610 

An ordinary pruning at B6 per acre ... ... l'50O 

Nurseries R225 ... ... | ... ... f '375 

Supplying at R4*50 per acre J ... ... ( 1*125 

Ro«ds and Drains at R3 per acre ... ... *760 

Tools, say R160 ... ... ... ... 250 

Transport of Tea from estate f. o. b. ... ... 2"200 

General Transport ... ... ... ••400 

House and Tappal coolies, medicines, stationery, 

contingencies, and export duty and medical aid 1*540 

Upkeep of building at R450 per annum ... *750 

Manuring 30 acres per annum at R100=-R3,000 5*000 

Total estate expenditure per lb. ... ... 21*500 

Add for cost of plucking and manufacture ... 17*500 

Total cost 400 lb. per acre f. o. b. at per lb. tea 

AaTtc^made ... ... ... ...39 cents 



Value of 400 lb. tea at 60 cents per lb. 

nett R240 

Less cost as above at 39 cents per lb. 156 



Nett profit per acre R84 

Or if no manuring is done R104 per acre profit. 
Manure of course eventually pays for itself by increased 
yield. [The 3deld on Ceylon plantations in 1884 ran up to 
1000 lb. per acre in one or two cases, so that 400 lb. 
should be safe. — Comfilebs.] 

* Revised Edition published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, 
Colombo, 1884. 



69 

CACAO. 

{From Esthnatesand Reniarks by a PracUcal Planter *) 

Estimates for openinr/ and hrinffing a Cacao Estate of 20O 

acres into ieaHng, including cost of land. ^^ ^^ 

Probable cost of 200 acres of land at R25 ... R&,001> 

1st Year from January to 30th June of following yew. 

FeUing and clearing 200 acres atR15 ... ^ ' 

Nurseries: clearing sites ... ••• J^ 

80,000 baskets at R6 50 ... •• jt^ 



K {W\ <»«<»<»^ m>.^Ar» <»* "Of 



r 



T.<:a : It will be observe I that the estimate we give 
of Mr Arms^/0ng*8 is for hiad-mzde tea: where improvei 
machiaery is in a^, the co-tt is reduced from 39 cents 
to 32-68 ceats per lb. 

Si ace the^e estimates w^re frame i, the results of fur- 
ther experience by Messrs. H. EL Ratherford, A. E. 
Scavell and O. S. Arm<9tron? have been published, vir. 
Rutherford's experience over four gardens with 24 million 
pounds green leaf from trees 1} to 6^ years old, shews 
a result 6 cents per lb. above Mr. Armstrong's for the 
work between plucking and shipping, and the experience of 
Mr. A. E. Scovell on Strtithellie closely agrees with that 
of Mr. Rutherford at I7'd0 to 17*72 cents for the total 
cost of manufacture f .b.b. Colombo against Mr. Armstrong's 
11' 16 cents. On the other hand, during the present season 
ri884-d5) we have several gardens in bearing in Oeylon 
trom which t'uU crops of tea are estimated to be produced at 
from 26 to 28§ centp per lb. for total expenditure to f.o.b. 
against the 32'd8 cents which is Mr. Armstrong's minimum ; 
and it is expected that from good gardens, when all is in 
proper working order, the cost of Oeylon tea will only 
be 25 cents (4 annas, or the equivalent of 4fd per lb.) on 
board ship at Colombo. 



xiuriteries ana suppiymg 

Weeding at Rl 

Roads: upkeep and culverts 

Drains upkeep 

Pruning and singling ... 

Staking at R4 ... — 

Buildings: bungalow and furnituje 

Contingencies 

Superintendence and allowances ... 

R10,750 

» PubUshed by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo. 





70 

AO AO. — (conti nued. ) 

3rd Yfar from 1st July to 30th June. 

Nurseries and supplying ... ... R150 

Weeding at £1 ... ... 2,400 

Roads: upkeep and widening out 3 miles into 

cart road with 10 feet ... ... 800 

Drains upkeep ... ... ... 200 

Pruning and suckering ... ... 300 

Staking, re tying, etc ... ... ... 100 

Building: temporary curing-house with stores 

and fan ... ... ... ... 500 

Permanent set of lines ... ... 700 

1,200 

Gathering, curing and dispatch of 200 cwt. at B6 1,200 

Contingencies, including watchers ... 900 

Superintendence and allowances... ... 3,000 



B10,250 



4th Teab from 1st July to 30th June. 

Weeding at Bl ... ... B2,400 

Pruning and suckering ... ... 400 

Roads upkeep ... ... ... 400 

Drains upkeep ... ... ... 200 

Buildings, permanent, clerihew, engines, etc 5,000 
Gathering, curing and dispatch of 600 cwt. 

cacao at B4 ... ... ... 2,400 

Contingencies ... ... ... 900 

Superintendence and allowances ... ... 3,500 

Conductor ... ... ... 500 

— 4,000 



5th Yeab from 1st July to 30th June. 

Weeding at Bl 
Pruning and suckering 
Roads upkeep 
Drains upkeep 



R15,700 



... 
... 




•t. 
... 


R2,400 
400 


.1. 




... 


400 


• .. 




.«. 


250 


of 


1,000 


cwt. 




... 




... 


8,500 


... 




... 


200 


••• 




... 


900 



cacao at R3*50 
Building ujpkeep 
Contingencies 
Superintendence and allowances ... ... 3,500 

Conductor ... ... ... 500 

4,000 

B12,050 
Interest on Expenditure. — 

^ years' interest on cost of land at R8 per 

cent on ... ... R5,000 R2,00O 



71 

OAOAO. — (contimieJ.) 

5 years' interest on 1st year's expenditure at 

. R8 per cent on ... ... 18,800 7,620. 

4 years' interest on 2nd year's expenditure at 

B8 per cent on ... ... 10,750 3,440^ 

8 years' interest on 3rd year's expenditure at 

B8 per cent on ... ... 10,250 2,460 

2 years' interest on 4th year's expenditure at 

R8 per cent on ... ... 15,700 2,512^ 

1 year's interest on 5th year's expenditure at 

B8 per cent on ... ... 12,050 964 

B72,550 B18,89ei 

Add interest ... ... 18,896 — -* 

Expenditure for 5 years ... R91,446 

Less 1,800 cwt. cacao sold at B45 81,000 

Debt on estate at end of 5th year B16,446 
Add for purchase of other 50 acres at R25... 1,250 

BI1,696 
The expenditure each year after this, allow- 
ing B3,000 for manuring would be about 16,600^ 
Against which put proceeds of sale of 1,000 

cwt. cacao at B45... ... 45,000- 

Year's profit ... ... R28,50O 

Value of estate at 5 years old with only 
5 cwt. per acre — this is at the rate of 5 
years' purchase-^ ... B140,000 



CARDAMOMS. 



{From " Notes on Cardamom CiUtivation" hy T, C. Owen.*) 

Estimate of expenditure and returns on 25 acres of 
cardamoms, managed from an adjoining estate: — 

1st Yeab. R. R. 

Value of land at RlOO per acre 2,500 

Olearing undergrowth and 1st weeding at R15 375 

Lining, holing, planting and supplying at R20 500 

Superintendence 500 

Oost of 37,500 good double bulbs, allowing 

50 per cent for supplies, at R30 per 1000 1,125 

Tools, &c. 100 

Roads and weeding 200 



Oost at end of 1st year {plants 1 year old) ... 5,300 

* Published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Oolombo. 



'1 



2nd Year. R R 



Supplying and cost of bulbs 200 

Weeding ... ... ... *> ••• 125 

Supmntendence ... .•• 500 

Contingencies 100 



925 



•Cost at end of %n.d year {plants ^ yean old) ... R6^5 

3bd Yeab. 
Expenditure 3rd year as before - - ... 925 

Cost at end of 3rdj year (plants 3 years old) ... R7)150 

4th Ykak. 

Superintendence and contingencies - 600 

Erection of curing house, including cost of 

scissors, &c. - - - - 1,000 

Picking, curing, clipping, packing and trans- 
porting 3750 lb. dry fruit at 40 cents pep lb. 1,500 3,100 

"Cost at end of 4th year (plants 4 years old) ... R10,250 

Receipts 3250 lb. at R2 R6,500 

600 lb. split at RO'75 ... R375 6,875 



5th Year. 



R3,375 



Superintendence and • contingencies ... 600 

Pruning and clearing stools ... ... 100 

Picking, &c., as before 6250 lb. at 40 cents 2,500 3,200 



Cost at end of 5th year (plants 5 years old) ... R6,575 

Receipts 5400 lb. at R2 R10,800 

850 lb. split atRO-75 ... R637 ... 11,437 



Profit ... R4,862 



Notes on Estimate. 

1st Year. — The allowance of 60 per cent supplies may 
seem large, but it is very likely to be required when the 
bulbs have to be carried far. If seedlings are employed 
the cost would be much lessened, but a year would be 
lost. The other items need no comment. 

27id Year, — Supplying allows for the failure of 25 per 
cent of the first year*s planting. Weeding will be neces- 
sary this year, but is very inexpensive under forest shade, 
if the forest clearing has been effective. 



73 

Srd Year, — The same expenditure is allowed for the 3rd 
«i8 for the 2nd year, and imould suffice for putting ravines 
into order and clearing jungle edges, as the actual weed- 
ing would be almost nil. 

4th Year. — The K1,000 allowed for a curing house 
should allow ample margin for all expenses of erecting 
a special building for the purpose, in most cases a large 
portion of this oatlay can be saved by the adaptation of 
some existing building to the purpose. No crop is estimated 
for before this year. At low elevations there would be a 
maiden crop in the third year, and there would certainly be 
some crop then higher up, but this has been left out of the 
calculation, as its amount is uncertain, and dependent on a 
greater degree of success at the outset than is usual in card- 
amom clearings. The estimated amount per acre, 150 lb,, is 
what may be expected in suitable localities, and under fairly 
favourable circumstances (cardamoms should not be planted 
otherwise), and is the outcome of actual experience. The pro- 
portion of split fruit will generally, during a whole season, 
amoimt to from ten to fifteen per cent of the crop, depending 
entirely on the amount of care taken with the picking 
and curing; the allowance here made is very high, and 
certainly should not be exceeded under any circum- 
stances. The cost of picking and curing, 40 cents, allows a 
good margin for all expenses from the time the fruit . is 
picked to its delivery in Colombo. The present rate at 
which split cardamoms sell varies from one rupee to a 
rupee and a half, according to quality ; at recent prices, 
S lb. well cured fruit may be calculated to nett one pound 
sterling. The course of the market is no doubt very 
uncertain, and if production were to increase to any great 
•extent it would soon be glutted and prices fall considerably. 
5th Year. — 250 lb. per acre is the estimated crop in 
the fifth year : this is below the actual results of my ex- 

?ierience, and 300 lb. might be safely relied on in favourable 
ocalities. After the fifth year there will probably be a 
falling-off in the yield, or, at any rate, there will be no 
increase, for the first full crop appears generally to be 
the best. Cultivation, in the form of careful attention to 
clearing out and pruning, now becomes necessary. 



From this year too the sample of fruit will become very 
much smaller, and hence the cost of picking, &c., will prob- 
ably rise to nearly 50 cents per lb. A considerable profit 
may fairly be looked for annually, but the rate of pro- 
duction (luring the early crops must not be expected to 
continue. As before stated, also the effect of prolonged 
and abnormal wet weather is most disastrous and dis- 
appointing. 

7 



74 
CINCHONA. 



{from " Cinchona Planters' Manual " by T. C, Owen*) 

I will now tabulate the results of the preceding estim- 
aites, rejecting fractions, and show the annual expenses 
and returns per acre in each case. 

Officinalis. Succumb ra. 





/ 








/ 












Mossing and 




] 


MOSSIN 


GAND 




Uphootino. 


Renewing. 


Coppicing. 


Renewing. 




S 6 


» 9 


QO • 


CD a5 


OQ • 


te O 


09 


oc Q> 


Date. 


Expens 
per aci 


Return 
per aci 


Expens 
per acr 


Return 
per acr 


Expens 
per acr 


Return 
per acr 


Expens 
per acr 


Return 
per acr 


To March R. 


R. 


R. 


R. 


R. 


R. 


R. 


R. 


1880... 


279 




279 




196 




196 




1880-81 


31 




31 




27 




27 




1881-82 


36 




31 




29 




27 




1882-83 


36 




31 




29 




27 




1883-84 


78 
108 


544 


84 
72 


360 


29 




27 




1884-85 


78 
108 


544 


110 
108 


541 


84 
71 


358 


101 
71 


358 


1885-86 


138 

287 


1,435 


84 
144 


721 


110 
107 


638 


101 
71 


358 


IS86-87 






199 
649 


2,166 
1,082 


120 
191 


957 


101 
143 


717 


1887 


1,179 




1,822 




993 




903 
1,796 


2,871 


Profit 


















peracret 1,344 




3,047 




860 




2,509 






R2,523 


2,523 


4,869 


4,869 


1,853 


1,863 


4,304 


4,304 



* Published by A. M. & J. Ferguson, Colombo, in 1881. 

t Prices of bark have fallen since these estimates were 
mstde up; and much more has been learned of the. un- 
certainty attending Cinchona Cultivation in the East : see 
Tropical Agriculturist ; but there is still a margin for satis- 
factory profits where care is taken to plant and cultivate 
according to the experience gained. 



75 
COCONUT PALMS. 



Es^mated cost of planting and cultivating 100 ac^^es of 
Coconuts for 10 years in the WesUrn Province of Ceylon. 
Year. R. r. 

I.— 100 adres land at RIO and Government 

charges ... .: ... .„ 1,500 

Felling, Clearing, and Fencing ... 1,000 

Holes 2^ X 2§ X 2^ 7,500 @ 04 ... 30O 

Planting ... ... ... ... 40 

Ditches, etc. ... ... ... 200 

Nursery ; 10,000 nuts at B30. . . ... 300 

Tools and Sundries ... 50 



Note by Mr. T. O. Ow^n in a letter to Compiler, duteii 
26t.h Feb. 1885 :— 

"Cinchona Estimates of returns are rather npet by 
the fact that as a rvle Cinchona cannot be ^rown 
Mtber in new or old land now. The plants do not thrive 
as they us«'d to, and apparently the stock is det**riorated.* 
Shaving two or more times and then coppicing, even at 
present low prices would shew a handsom** profit to those 
who have the treea, but for tliose that haven t, I question 
the advisability of any planting on a large scale. If suc- 
cessful, however, the future profit would un»ioubtedIy be 
large owing to decreased productioji." 

* This may mean that fresh seed from South America 
is required. 



VII.— Weeding ... ... ... ... 250 

Repairs and Tools ... ... ... 20 

Kangany ... ... ... ... 150 

VIII.— Weeding ... ... ... ... 200 

Kangany ... ... ... 150 

IX. — Weeding ... ... ... ... 200 

Kangany ... ... ... ... 150 

X. — Weeding ... ... ... ... 200 

Inspection and Sundries, 10 years ... 210 

Kangany ... ... ... ... 150 

560 

Carry on... E8,20O 



43U 

420* 
350 
350 



76 

R. 

Amount over ... 8,200 

Interest — ^Nine years at 7 per cent ... 4,700 

B12,900 



]\'ote 1. — If given out to Goveyas (native cultivators) 
there will be a saving of about B2,900, which will leave 
the nett cost of estate B 10,000. 

yote 2. — Orop to the value of 11200 or so may be ex- 
pected between close of 8th and 10th years. 

Xote 3.— At close of 15th year should yield from R2,000 
to K2,500 ; at close of 20th year should yield from Bd,500 
to R4,000. 

^''ote 4.— Value at close of 10th year R20,000. 
Do. do. 15th do. B30,000. 

Do. do. 20th do. R50,000. 

Xote 5. — ^Above calculations made on the supposition that 
the soil and climate are first-class. 



AREOA PALM. 



{Notes hy a Ceylon Planter.*) 

The trees admit of close planting — 6' x 6' (or — ^as I should 
prefer them — 12' x 8'; and perhaps better still, in double^ 
rowed avenues of 21' x 3' x 3)— or say 1,200 trees per acre> 
not being at all too close. It takes on an average 12,000 
cured nuts to one cwt. At 300 per tree, the yield per 
acre (of 1,200 trees) per annum would thus be 30 cwt., 
and as far as can be made out this is not at all too high 
an average yield to calculate on. The local wholesale value 
at Galle on Colombo is usually about RS per cwt.^-or, at 
30 cwt., R240 per acre, equal to a nett profit of say R140 
— as RlOO may be considered a liberal expenditure. In 
Madras and Bombay about R15 per cwt. is generally real- 
ized for consignments from here: it may therefore pay 
better to ship. And of course if the more valuable kinds 
are grown the profits will be still further greatly enhanced 
— probably more than doubled. Uses, and perhaps a good 
market, may hereafter be found for the fibre? The in- 
dustry not having as yet been put to the test on a large 
scale, I may be overrating it, but don't think so ; and it 
would at least be interesting to have the opinion of some 
of your native correspondents. If not, with jn^acticcdly an 
unlimited demand, hundreds of millions of people in China> 
India, &c., using arecanuts, it ranks second to few other 
enterprizes, and offers at the same time a safe investment 
for limited capital. 

• From Tropical AgHcaltvrist for April 1883. 



77 

CEYLON CURRENCY. 
«- It Dmy be well to eiqpleio for the benefit of Eng- 
liBh readers tUt the Ceylon Ourrency ia in rilver Rupees 
and Centa of a Rupee, .nd that the latter fluctu*tesiD 
value according to exchange, between Is. 6d. aad Is. M., 
the rate at present being about la. 7d. 



AB>c«a. -Itr. A. U. K. Barnm has published a valuable 
letter aa the eultiratian of (he Areoanut palm (see Trap- 
tcirf Agrieatttritt for April 18^), shewing that a gross 
rdl ir.i it lis? per acre mtj be eipected aCter six years, 
or aiiauC B3) per acre fa aaoum lUtt. Mr. Borroa has 
h.t,i prMtical eiperienee frota about 49 acres in bearing 
ao I ais a.it« molerats eatimate is more reliable than 
that oa page 7<3. though it ia but right to say that the 
InttRC aas drawn up ia a very differeat and perhaps ri'iher 
put Iff the couatrr with a nore genial climate than Hr. 



4 



^ 



ft 





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PUBLISHED BY SAMPSON LOW & Co. 



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Grigson ... ... ... ... 1 02 

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Coffee Planting in Southern India and Ceylon 

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(by ** Double Entry *') adapted to the re- 

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* '^ 

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33 O TTOET O Z^-O 

INCLUDING A PAPEK ON THE 
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BEING THE RESULT OF OBSERVATIONS 

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Price: —With uncoloured plates: Rl*50 and R2 
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CONTBNT& 
The Grub Pest in Ceylon 

Canse of Grub 

Soil 

Time of Attack 

Age of Grub 

Prevention... .„ ••• ... 

ilemedies ... 

Uses of Grub 

Varieties of Beetles .. ... 
Big Patana Cockchafer 
Maskeliya Cockchafer 
Yellow- Bellied Cockchafer... 

Small Cockahafer • 

Uva Cockcha^i^r 

Specked Beetle 

Bronze Beetle 

Ezperiments 

APPENDIX. 
Authorities on Grub, quoted ... 

Coffee Grub and Patanas _ 

Extracts from '^EncyolopsBdia Britannica," 

on Cockchafers 29-30 

Remarks on Mr. Haldane's Essay from 
another pU ntimr ojbiecrer SO 



*•• ••• ••• 

.. ••• ••• 

••• ••• ••• 





Page. 


... 


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••• 


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M« 


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••• 


16 


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20 


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20 


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21 


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23-28 


• •• 


28-29 



A CONCISE ESSAY ON THE MEDICAL TREAT- 
MENT OF MALABAR COOLIES, employed on 
the Coffee Estates of Ceylon and India. By Dr. * 

Thwaites, M.D., m.r.i.. Third Edition, Cash K2-75,. \ 

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CONTEISTTS. 

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COCOA AS GROWN IN TRINIDAD, and how to Plant 
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Ceylon Observer" Office, Nov amber 1st, 1884. 



<{ 



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"I NG-E. Y A!"" 

OB THE 

SINNA DURAI'S POCKET TAMIL GUIDE. 

.'iieatly enlarged, 170 pages, or more than double th^ 
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Price:— Bound inflexible cloth cover, B3; cash ll2-50[ 
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A planter, in >rderine a copy of the new edi^ 
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most practical book of the kind I have even 
Been, and as invaluable to sinna durais as it is to tbos^ 
more advanced in Tamil. In it is to be found many 
a sentence and word that older hands have used sub-! 
stitutes for until * IngS Vft I ' came to their rej'oue.'; 

A visiting agent writes : — " A copy of it should be iu tho 
bands of every assistant, and there are few managers 
!who would not find gr^t benefit from the study of it. 
The plan of the work is, I think, the best that could 
qave been adopted." 

Dr. B. Bost, Head Librarian, India Office, describes the 
work as " an excellent book,'' and adds : — ** There i» 
A vast deal of useful information in it (as e. g, the mean* 
ioffs of names of pl9oe«)not usually fomd in sadh booloL^