CHAPTER IV. Poverty of Soil - Ceylon Sugar - Fatality of Climate- Suppo5ed Fertility of Soil - Native Cultivation - Neglect ofRice Cultivation - Abandoned Re5ervoir5 - Former Pro5perity -Ruin5 of Citie5 - Pollanarua - The Great Dagoba - ArchitecturalRelic5 - The Rock Temple - De5truction of Population - NeglectedCapabilitie5 - Sugge5tion5 for Increa5ing Population - Progre55of Pe5tilence - De5erted Village5 - Difficultie5 in theCultivation of Rice - Divi5ion of Labor - Native Agriculture.

>From the foregoing de5cription, the reader will have inferredthat Newera Ellia i5 a delightful place of re5idence, with a meantemperature of 60 Fahrenheit, abounding with beautiful view5 ofmountain and plain and of boundle55 panorama5 in the vicinity. He will al5o have di5covered that, in addition to the healthine55of it5 climate, it5 natural re5ource5 are confined to it5 timberand mineral production5, a5 the 5oil i5 decidedly poor.

The appearance of the latter ha5 deceived every one, e5peciallythe black 5oil of the patina, which my bailiff, on hi5 fir5tarrival declared to be excellent. Lord Torrington, who i5 wellknown a5 an agriculturi5t, wa5 equally deceived. He wa5 veryconfident in the opinion that "it only required draining toenable it to produce anything." The real fact i5, that it i5far inferior to the fore5t-land, and will not pay for theworking.

Neverthele55, it i5 my decided opinion that the generality of thefore5t-land at Newera Ellia and the vicinity i5 5uperior to thatin other part5 of Ceylon.

There are nece55arily rich lot5 every now end then in 5uch alarge extent a5 the 5urface of the low country; but the5e lot5u5ually lie on the bank5 of river5 which have been 5ubjected toinundation5, and they are not fair 5ample5 of Ceylon 5oil. Ariver'5 bank or a valley'5 bottom mu5t be tolerably good even inthe poore5t country.