dustry of tea
cultivation. Thirty years ago the island exported a million tons of
coffee annually, and tea was an unknown article; last year the quantity
of the leaf which was exported to all parts of the world exceeded
150,000,000 pounds (of which 18,000,000 was sent to the United States),
while coffee hardly figures on the customs returns The industry is
almost exclusively in the hands of Europeans. All the chief producers
were represented at the exposition, their interests forming the special
province of an assistant commissioner.

The cocoanut palm and its cultivation was fully represented. The nut
itself, the various fibers, matting and ropes made from its husk, the
copra or dried kernel, from which is extracted the oil now so largely
used in the manufacture of best soaps and hair oils; the desiccated and
"shredded" cocoanut, the demand for which among confectioners is rapidly
increasing; cocoanut butter, an excellent emollient and substitute for
lard; the arrack, distilled from the "toddy" extracted from the flower,
a valuable liquor after a few years in cask; the vinegar and "jaggery,"
or molasses; down to the brooms, made from the "ekels" or midrib of the
leaves, were shown in infinite variety.

Rice, the staple food of the country, was represented in a few of its
350 varieties, and cinnamon in bark or oil, cloves, nutmegs, mace,
cardamoms, pepper, vanilla, and citronella oil, cocoa and coffee,
rubber, cinchona bark, from which quinine is prepared, croton seed, and
annotto dye might also be seen. The fibers included those of the Kitul
and Palmyra palms and the silky niyande (sansevier zeylanical). One
hundred and twenty exhibitors were represented, and the value of the
collective exhibit was $5,000.

The educational exhibit, which had been prepared under the direct
supervision of the director of public instruction in Ceylon, illustrated
the procedure adopted by the British Government in dealing with races
with an advanced literature of their own, to whom a certain knowledge of
English is a necessity. The present conditions of education--elementary,
advanced, and technical--were well depicted, and the exhibit contained
in addition a collection of the various scientific journals issued by
the Colombo Museum and the department of the botanical gardens in
Ceylon.

Graphite, locally known as plumbago, the only commercial mineral of the
country, might be seen in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy. More than
600,0