island has even a smaller rainfall than the Northern Province. The flat lands of the maritime provinces are the home of the coco-nut and other palms; and here is to be found the mass of the Sinhalese population. The mountain districts are situated east of Colombo, and, roughly, cover an area represented by a circle, with Nuwara Eliya as a centre and a radius of forty miles. The rainfall of this mountain district ranges team 70 inches to 281 inches, with a mean annual temperature from 58° to 75° Within this area is situated the tea, coffee, cacao, and cardamom cultivation, and here the British planter has given evidence of the indomitable energy that has enabled him to recover from the disastrous failure of coffee after 1875, and to produce tea, cacao, cardamoms, rubber, and cinchona, to the value, in 1904, of Rs. 60,428,850.
Nor have the native inhabitants shown any lack of energy, for the exports in 1904 from native industry reached the sum of Rs. 45,000,000; and we must not forget that, while almost every pound of tea was exported, a large portion of the native crops was consumed at home.
Previous to 1875 British capital was almost exclusively devoted to coffee, a crop which required the greatest care and supervision at certain periods, but with considerable intervals, during which the coffee-planter had a free time. But the tea cultivation calls for incessant supervision, as the entire plantation must be picked over at regular intervals of seven to ten days, according to situation, temperature, and moisture, the finest flavour being obtained in the dry season, when retarded growth gives time for the formation of the essential oil to which tea owes its 'bouquet.' The tea-planter, besides having a knowledge of agriculture, must also know the scientific reasons which govern the processes of withering, drying, and rolling that go to produce the fragrant cup that sets so many millions of tongues a-wagging—and the exigencies of the cultivation and manufacture leave him but little time for that recreation
