eely that in one year 15,000,000 lb. bark was shipped,
bringing the price of quinine down from 16s. to 1s. 6d. an ounce.

In a few places, where the rainfall 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. In January 1892, the immemorial
rent or tax on fields of _paddy_ (rice in the husk) was removed, but
not the customs duty on imported rice. But even with the advantage of
protection to the extent of 10% in the local markets, there has been
no extension of paddy cultivation; on the contrary, the import of
grain from India has grown larger year by year. Through the
multiplication of irrigation works and the northern railway, rice
culture may be sufficiently extended to save some of the large imports
(8,000,000 to 9,000,000 bushels annually) now required from India.

Tobacco is extensively cultivated in various parts of the island, and
the growth of particular places, such as Dumbara and Uva, is much
prized for local consumption. The tobacco of export is grown in the
peninsula of Jaffna. The exports of this article in 1850 were 22,176
cwts., valued at L20,698. The cultivation of the plant has not greatly
increased of recent years, and is almost entirely in the hands of
natives in the northern and parts of the central Province.

Ceylon has been celebrated since the middle of the 14th century for
its cinnamon, and during the period of the Dutch occupation this spice
was the principal article of commerce; under their rule and up to 1832
its cultivation was a government monopoly. With the abolition of the
monopoly the quanti