ABSTRACT
ONE of the most striking developments of the past fiftyyears in Ceylon has been the changes which haveoccurred in its agricultural industries. The former overwhelming dependence upon coffee has been replaced by three staple exports, tea, rubber, and coco-nuts, so that a repetition of the disastrous'eighties is improbable. Moreover, the Ceylonese themselves have a far larger direct share in the export trade than formerly, since almost the whole of the coco-nut and about half the rubber cultivation is in their hands. The minor products are also more numerous and more important than in the coffee era, including cacao, cardamoms, and cinnamon. A very important change in European and to a lesser extent Ceylonese agriculture has been the increasing use of scientific methods of cultivation, due to the emergence of the science of tropical agriculture.
