Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/380

Rh 368 CEYLON native hospitals for 1874 show that chronic dysentery, diarrhoea, anasarca, and asthenia are the most fatal. In the principal hospital in Ceylon, namely, the Maradana hospital, near Colombo, out of 292 deaths 34 were from chronic dysentery, 99 from diarrhoea, 33 from anasarca, and 18 from asthenia; in the Kandy hospital, out of 304 deaths, 14 were from chronic dysentery, 99 from diarrhoea, 94 from auasarca, and 4 2 from asthenia ; in the Galle hospital, out of 89 deaths, 4 were from chronic dysentery, 14 from diarrhoea, 11 from anasarca, and 1 from debility. Itoads. The policy of the Sinhalese rulers of the interior was to exclude strangers from the hill country. Prior to the British occupation of the Kandyan territory in 1815, the only means of access from one district to another was by footpaths through the forests. The Portuguese do not appear to have attempted to open up the country below the hills, and the Dutch confined them selves to the improvement of the inland water-communi cations. The British Government saw from the first the necessity of making roads into the interior for military purposes, and, more recently, for developing the resources of the country. The credit of opening up the country is due mainly to the governor, Sir Edward Barnes, by whose direction the great military road from Colombo to Kandy was made. Gradually all the military stations were con nected by broad tracks, which by degrees were bridged and converted into good carriage roads. The governors Sir Henry Ward and Sir Hercules Robinson recognized the importance of giving the coffee planters every assistance in opening up the country, and the result of their policy is that the whole of the hill country is now intersected by a vast number of splendid roads, made at a cost of upwards of 2000 per mile. In 1848 an ordinance was passed to levy from every adult male in the colony (except Buddhist priests and British soldiers) six days labour on the roads, or an equivalent in money. The labour and money obtained by this wise measure have enabled the local authorities to connect the Government highways by minor roads, which bring every village of importance into communication with the principal towns. The expenditure in 1874 out of the revenues of the colony on roads, streets, bridges, and canals was, in round numbers, 175,000, of which sum 113,500 was expended in the ordinary maintenance of existing roads. The expenditure by the local authorities under the road ordinance amounted in the same year to 65,000, and by the municipalities of Colombo, Kandy. and Galle to 23,000. Railways. After repeated vain attempts by successive governors to connect Colombo with the interior by railways, Sir Charles MacCarthy successfully set on foot the present railway of 75 miles in length from Colombo to Kandy, which is probably the most prosperous in the world. It was constructed at a cost of 1,738,483. The gross receipts in 1872 were 226,000, and the working expenses 89,000, or about 38 per cent, of the gross earnings. A branch rail way from Peradeniya (four miles from Kandy) to Navala- pitiya, 17 miles in length, has just been completed, and a line from Colombo to Moratuwa, 11 miles in length, has been commenced ; the latter line will probably be extended to Kalutara, distant 26 miles from Colombo. The line from Colombo to Kandy is remarkable for its beauty, and for the engineering skill shown in its construction. The ruling gradient for the first 50 miles is 1 in 100; the line then rises for 12 miles with a gradient of 1 in 45 throughout and curves of 10 chains radius, to the Pera deniya station, which is 1562 feet above the sea-level. The Navalapitiya railway station is 1913 feet above the eea-leveL Agriculture. The Sinhalese are more attached to the pursuit of agriculture than any other occupation, and although their implements are of the rudest kind, and their processes the most simple, they succeed in obtain ing successive crops of grain of good quality wherever they can secure sufficient water. The chief culture in every part of the island is that of rice, the staple food of all the native races in Ceylon. Rice. In a few places, where the rain-fall is abundant, rice cultivation is allowed to depend on the natural supply of water, but in most parts the cultivation is not attempted unless there is secured beforehand a certain and sufficient supply, by means of canals or reservoirs. In the hill country every valley and open plain capable of tillage is made to yield its crops of grain, and the steep sides of the hills are cut into terraces, on which are seen waving patches of green rice watered by mountain streams, which are conducted by means of channels ingeniously carried round the spurs of the hills and along the face of acclivities, by earthen water-courses and bamboo aqueducts, so as to fertilize the fields below. These works bear witness to the patience, industry, and skill of the Kandyan villagers. In the low country to the north and east and north-west of the hills, irrigation works of a more expensive kind are necessary. Irrigation. The native rulers covered the whole face of the country with a network of irrigation reservoirs, by which Ceylon was enabled in- ancient times to be the great granary of Southern Asia. Wars, and the want of a strong hand to guide the agriculture of the country, have led to the decay of these ancient works, and large tracts of land, which were formerly highly productive, have become swampy wastes or dense forests. The remains of sonic of the larger irriga tion works are amongst the most interesting of the memorials of Ceylon s former greatness. Some of the artificial lakes were of great size. Mincriya, formed by damming across the valleys between the low hills which surround it with an embankment 60 feet wide at the top, is at this day twenty miles in circumference. Another with an embankment several miles in length, the Kala- wewa, was formed by damming back the waters of the Kalaoya, but they have forced their way through the em bankment, and in the ancient bed of the lake, or tank, are now many small villages. In connection with these large tanks were numerous canals and channels for supplying smaller tanks, or for irrigating large tracts of fields. Throughout the district of Nuwarakalawiya every village has its tank. The embankments have been formed with great skill, and advantage has been taken to the utmost of the slightest fall in the land ; but they in common with the larger works had been allowed to fall into decay, and were being brought to destruction by the evil practice of cutting them every year to irrigate the fields. The work of restoring these embankments has at last been undertaken by the Government. Proper sluices will gradually be supplied to all the village tanks, and the em bankments will be raised and strengthened by the united labour of the villagers in proportion to their shares in the fields under the gamsabatva system. Dry Grains. Several dry grains (so called as distin guished from rice, which is grown in water) are grown in Ceylon. These are chiefly kollu, millet, kurakkan, gingele, and pulse of various kinds. Tobacco. Tobacco is extensively cultivated in various parts of the island, and the growth of particular places, such as Durnbara and Uva, is much prized for local con sumption. The tobacco of export is grown in the penin sula of Jaffna, where the rajah of Travancore has an agent who purchases for him direct from the growers. The exports of this article in 1850 were 22,176 cwts., valued at 20,698, and in 1873, 36,676 cwts., valued at 99,174.