chiefly through the demand for Indian bullocks for draught purposes. There is no doubt scope for the energy of the people of Ceylon to meet the local demand for such food supplies, although the natural pasturage is, as a rule, rather poor. But this difficulty can be met by the cultivation of other grasses; Guinea and Mauritius grass which grow freely with a little attention, are some of the best fodder grasses in the world and are easily cultivated in Ceylon. At high elevations, the "prairie grass" of Australia is successfully grown. NATIVE MANUFACTURES. Of Manufacturing Industries Ceylon has a very poor show. The Sinhalese are good carpenters, and supply furniture and carved work in abundance; both they and the Tamils make good artisans; witness the roll of workmen in the Government Public Works and Railway Factories of Colombo, and the Colombo Ironworks, where ocean-going steamers are repaired, as well as a great variety of machinery is turned out, such as steam-engines, watermotors, and tea, coffee, and oil-preparing machines. The Sinhalese were distinguished as ironworkers in very ancient days; they knew nothing about firearms until the Portuguese era, and yet they soon excelled European gunmakers in the beautifully-worked muskets they turned out for their king. Even now there are ironsmiths who make muskets in the villages, within 20 miles of Colombo, for some 35 to 40 rupees (say £2 108.), which can scarcely remunerate for the time given to them in their primitive mode of working. They were early workers in brass and glass, as their ancient ruins show, and they must have known a little about electricity, for it is related in the Mahawansa that King Sanghatissa, A.D. 234, placed a glass pinnacle on the Ruanwelli Dagoba, to serve as a protection against lightning. Of late years, the natives have watched with interest the introduction of railways, the electric telegraph, telephone, and light; and when suitable electric motors are made available, and the numerous and splendid streams and waterfalls of the hillcountry afford ready force for utilisation, they will be still more delighted. Any contrivance for saving human labour has a great attraction to the Sinhalese Buddhists. Native cotton spinners and weavers were at one time common, but the industry is dying out; very little tobacco is manufactured; the making of mats, baskets, and coirrope gives some employment. The masons of the country are now chiefly Moormen; though the Sinhalese must have done much in the building of tanks and other huge erections in ancient times. Fishing and mining plumbago and search for precious gems, as well as hunting, afford a good deal of employment. Workers in ebony, tortoiseshell, and porcupine quills, and in primitive pottery, are also numerous among the Sinhalese. CHAPTER VI. THE ORIGIN AND RISE OF THE PLANTING INDUSTRY. (See Appendix Nos. II. and III.) Coffee introduced in 1690, by the Dutch-First systematically cultivated in 1740-Extensive development in 1837-Highest level of Prosperity reached in 1868-70-Appearance of Leaf Disease in 1869Its disastrous effects. WE E now turn to the great planting industry which began in coffee, and the latter additions in tea (now by far the most important staple), cacao, the chocolate or cocoa plant, not to be confounded with the coconut palm : cinchona, rubber trees, cardamoms, etc.; to these the past rapid development and prosperity of the island are mainly due, and on them its future position as a leading colony must still chiefly depend. It was long supposed, and Emerson Tennent adopted the opinion, that the Arabs first introduced coffee into India and Ceylon, and that the shrub was grown in the latter before the arrival of the Portuguese or Dutch, though the preparation of a beverage from its berries was unknown to the Sinhalese, who were said only to use the young coffee leaves for their curries, and the delicate jasmine-like coffee flowers for ornamenting the shrines of Buddha. But Dr. Trimen, F.R.S., the present accomplished Director of the Ceylon Royal Botanic Gardens, has shown conclusively that coffee was unknown in tropical Asia until the Dutch introduced it into Java in 1690 it was brought thence by them to Ceylon probably about the same year. The first attempt at systematic cultivation was made by the Dutch in 1740, but, being confined to the low country, it did not succeed, and they seem never to have exported more than 1000 cwt. in a year. The Moormen (Arab) traders and Sinhalese, having once discovered the use of coffee, kept up the cultivation and trade, but when the British took Ceylon, and up to 1812, the annual export had never exceeded 3000 cwt. So it continued until the master-mind of Sir Edward Barnes designed and opened road communication between the hill country and the coast, and began to consider how the planting industry could be extended, and the revenues of the country developed. The Governor himself led the way, in opening a coffee plantation near Kandy, in 1825, just one year after the first systematic coffee estate was formed by Mr. George Bird, near Gampola. These examples were speedily followed, but still the progress was slow, for in 1837, twelve years after, the total export of coffee did not exceed 30,000 cwt. It is usual to date the rise of the coffee planting enterprise from this year, which witnessed a great rush of investments, and the introduction of the West India system of cultivation by Robert Boyd Tytler, usually regarded as the "father" of Ceylon planters. An immense extension of cultivation took place up to 1845, by which time the trade had developed to an export of close on 200,000 cwt. Then came a financial explosion in Great Britain, which speedily extended its destructive influence to Ceylon, and led to a stoppage of the supplies required to plant and cultivate young plantations. Much land opened was abandoned, and for three years the enterprise was paralysed; but nevertheless the export continued to increase, and by the time Governor Sir Henry Ward appeared, in 1855, confidence had been restored, and all was ready for the great impetus his energetic administra tion was to give; thus in twenty years, the coffee enterprise had come to be regarded as the backbone of the GENERAL VIEW OF A YOUNG DIMBULA PLANTATION (ABBOTSFORD). Tea and Cinchona Nurseries in foreground; rows of Coffee around Buildings in centre; felled and standing, Forest beyond. |