ill
be about eight pounds per acre; this, in addition to the prime cost of
the land, and about two thousand pounds expended in buildings,
machinery etc., etc., will bring the price of the land, when in a
yielding condition, to eleven pounds an acre at the lowest calculation.
Thus before his land yields him one fraction, he will have invested
eleven thousand pounds, if he clears the whole of his purchase. Many
persons lose sight of this necessary outlay when first purchasing their
land, and subsequently discover to their cost that their capital is
insufficient to bring the estate into cultivation.

Then comes the question of a road. The government will give him no
assistance; accordingly, the whole of his crop must be conveyed on
coolies' heads along an arduous path to the nearest highway, perhaps
fifteen miles distant. Even this rough path of fifteen miles the
planter must form at his own expense.

Considering the risks that are always attendant upon agricultural
pursuits, and especially upon coffee-planting, the price of rough land
must be acknowledged as absurdly high under the present conditions of
sales. There is a great medium to be observed, however, in the sales
of crown land; too low a price is even a greater evil than too high a
rate, as it is apt to encourage speculators in land, who do much injury
to a colony by locking up large tracts in an uncultivated state, to
take the chance of a future rise in the price.

This evil might easily be avoided by retaining the present bona fide
price of the land per acre, qualified by an arrangement that one-half
of the purchase money should be expended in the formation of roads from
the land in question. This would be of immense assistance to the
planters, especially in a populous planting neighborhood, where the
purchases of land were large and numerous, in which case the aggregate
sum would be sufficient to form a carriage road to the main highway,
which might be kept in repair by a slight toll. An arrangement of this
kind is not only fair to the planters, but would be ultimately equally
beneficial to the government. Every fresh sale of land would ensure
either a new road or the improvement of an old one; and the country
would be opened up through the most remote districts. This very fact
of good communication would expedite the sales of crown lands, which
are now valueless from their isolated position.

Coffee-planting in Ceylon has passed through the various