SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT.

89

By the latter the advantage is enjoyed of the division of labour. The dams are built of permanent material; every work is rapidly completed; the night-fires blaze in the lofty watchhouses, while the shouts of the watchers scare the wild beasts from the crops. Hundreds of children are daily screaming from their high perches to scare away the birds. Rattles worked by long lines extend in every direction, unceasingly pulled by the people in the watch-houses; wind-clackers (similar to our cherry-clackers) are whirling in all places; and by the division of the toil among a multitude, the individual work proceeds without fatigue.

Every native is perfectly aware of this advantage in rice cultivation; and were the supply of water insured to them by the repair of a principal tank, they would gather around its margin. The thorny jungles would soon disappear from the surface of the ground, and a densely populated and prosperous district would again exist, where all has been a wilderness for 1000 years.

The system of rice cultivation is exceedingly laborious. The first consideration being a supply of water, the second is a perfect level, or series of levels to be irrigated. Thus a hill-side must be

terraced out into a succession of platforms or steps; and a plain, however apparently flat, must, by the requisite embankments, be reduced to the most perfect surface.

This being completed, the water is laid on for a certain time, until the soil has become excessively soft and muddy. It is then run off, and the land is ploughed by a simple implement, which, being drawn by two buffaloes, stirs up the soil to a depth of eighteen inches. This finished, the water is again laid on until the mud becomes so soft, that a man will sink knee deep. In this state it is then trodden over by buffaloes, driven backwards and forwards in large gangs, until the mud is so thoroughly mixed, that upon the withdrawal of the water it sinks to a perfect level.

Upon this surface the paddy, having been previously soaked in water, is now sown; and, in the course of a fortnight, it attains a height of about four inches. The water is now again laid on, and continued at intervals, until within a fortnight of the grain becoming ripe. It is then run off; the ground hardens, the ripe crop is harvested by the sickle, and the grain is trodden out by buffaloes. The rice is then separated from the paddy or husk, by being pounded in a wooden mortar.

NATIVE AGRICULTURE.

91

This is a style of cultivation in which the Cingalese particularly excel: nothing can be more beautifully regular than their flights of green terraces from the bottoms of the valleys to the very summits of the hills; and the labour required in their formation must be immense, as they are frequently six feet one above the other. The Cingalese are peculiarly a rice-growing nation; give them an abundant supply of water, and land on easy terms, and they will not remain idle.

CHAP. V.

REAL COST OF LAND. WANT OF COMMUNICATION.-COFFEE-
FRENCH AND
CLEARING. MANURING.-

PLANTING.-COMPARISON BETWEEN

SETTLERS.- LANDSLIPS.- FOREST

ENGLISH

THE COFFEE BUG. RATS.- FATTED STOCK.- SUGGESTIONS FOR SHEEP FARMING. ATTACK OF A LEOPARD.-LEOPARDS AND CHETAHS. - BOY DEVOURED.— TRAPS.—MUSK CATS, AND THE MONGOOSE.- VERMIN OF CEYLON.

WHAT is the government price of land in Ceylon? and what is the real cost of the land? These are two questions which should be considered separately, and with grave attention, by the intending settler or capitalist.

The upset price of government land is 20s. per acre; thus, the inexperienced purchaser is very apt to be led away by the apparently low sum per acre into a purchase of great extent. The question of the real cost will then be solved at his expense. There are few colonies belonging to Great Britain where the government price of land is so high, compared to the value of the natural productions of the soil.

The staple commodity of Ceylon being coffee, I will assume that a purchase is concluded with the

REAL COST OF LAND.

93

government for 1000 acres of land, at the upset

price of 20s. per acre. obtained for this sum?

What has the purchaser

1000 acres of dense forest,

to which there is no road. The 1000l. passes into the government chest, and the purchaser is no longer thought of; he is left to shift for himself, and to make the most of his bad bargain.

He is, therefore, in this position. He has parted with 1000l. for a similar number of acres of land, which will not yield him one penny in any shape until he has cleared it from forest. This he immediately commences by giving out contracts, and the forest is cleared, lopped, and burnt. The ground is then planted with coffee, and the planter has to wait for three years for a return. By the time of full bearing the whole cost of felling, burning, planting, and cleaning, will be about 81. per acre; this, in addition to the prime cost of the land, and about 2000l. expended in buildings, machinery, &c. &c., will bring the price of the land, when in a yielding condition, to 117. an acre at the lowest calculation. Thus before his land yields him one fraction, he will have invested 11,000. —if he clears the whole of his purchase. Many persons lose sight of this necessary outlay, when first purchasing their land, and subsequently dis