d its quality was so satisfactory as to command good prices
and a quick market.

There are several special advantages which tea culture possesses over
that of coffee; one is the ease with which the tea planter can get rid
of any pest which attacks his trees. The coffee plant gives, as a
rule, but one crop annually, the blossom season being narrowed to four
or five weeks, and if that fails because of bugs or disease of any
sort, the year's labor is in vain. In the cultivation of tea, there is
the chance of plucking leaves nearly every month of the year. If an
emergency arises, the planter has only to clear his bushes of every
leaf and, gathering the same, burn them. The insects are thus totally
destroyed, while the bushes are sure to produce a new covering of
verdure in a few weeks. There are to-day nearly three hundred thousand
acres devoted to tea culture in Ceylon.

The planters have been giving attention of late years to the raising
of cacao, the chocolate plant, and some large plantations have proved
to be very profitable, the demand being considerably beyond the
present supply. The article produced here stands as the best in the
London market, and commands the highest price. Over twenty thousand
hundredweight were exported from Colombo in 1892. That of the year
just past, we were assured, would show a considerable increase over
this amount.

Let it not be understood that coffee is no longer raised on the
island. The fact is that the blight spoken of seems to have in a
considerable degree exhausted itself, and many coffee planters are
again rejoicing over paying crops, as abundantly proven by the amount
of the berry which is still exported. It may be almost doubted if
there is any such thing as unmitigated evil; the brief though serious
blight of the coffee plant in Ceylon has proved to be a blessing in
disguise. Finite judgment is often delusive. Joseph's brethren, who
sold him into slavery, meant it unto evil, but God meant it unto good.
The equity of Providence has framed a never-failing law of
compensation, though we may not always possess sufficient intelligence
to see its application.

A coffee plantation is a charming sight at each stage of the ripening
process. Its dark green polished leaves are beautiful examples of
tropical foliage, and the white blossoms look like snowflakes gathered
in clusters about the tips of the branches, emitting a perfume not so
pronounced as, and yet not unlike, that of the t