HISTORY OF EUROPEAN PLANTING. 75

increasing in Europe, and the West Indies were handicapped
by difficulty with the slaves. By 1838 the success of the
industry was assured, and in that year 10,401 acres of Crown
torest land were sold to planters, while in 1841, when the
rash was at its height, no less than 78,685 acres were disposed
of. “The coffee mania was at its climax in 1845. The
Governor and the Council, the Military, the Judges, the
Clergy, and one-half the Civil Servants penetrated the hills
and became purchasers of Crown lands.........capitalists from
England arrived by every packet.........S0 dazzling was the
prospect that expenditure was unlimited; and its profusion
was only equalled by the ignorance and inexperience of
shose to whom it was entrusted. The rush for land was
only paralleled by the movement towards the mines of
California and Australia, but with this painful difference,
that the enthusiasts in Ceylon, instead of thronging to
lisinter, were hurrying to bury their gold.” (Z'ennent.)
The inevitable collapse soon followed, and for some years
:he coffee industry was almost paralysed, but by 1855 it had
more than recovered the lost ground, and was conducted on
more practical and economical lines. From that date to about
1882 it was the staple export industry of the Colony,reaching
its maximum in 1875, when almost 1,000,000 ¢wt. of coffee
were exported. About 1870 the plants began to be noticeably
 attacked by a fungus blight—Hemileia vastatriz, the
soffee leaf disease—which spread steadily and irresistibly
over the vast sheet of coffees plantation in the mountains,
and was disregarded until too late, if indeed any practicable
measures could have been adopted against it at any time in
its history. By 1880 the industry, though still considerable,
was in a parlous condition, and the planters in great
distress, but with the most commendable pluck they set
themselves to redeem their fallen fortunes, aided by the
afforts of the Botanical Department of the Government.
Cinchona trees—the source of the valuable alkaloid quinine
—introduced by Government years before, but disregarded
so long as coffee was profitable, were now the salvation of
the Island. Large areas were planted with this product, and
at first large profits were realized, but soon over-production
rapidly brought down the price of quinine, to the incalculable
 benefit of sufferers all over the world, but to the ruin
of the profitableness of the Ceylon bark industry—a ruin
consummated by the attacks of a canker disease and the
competition of better barks from Java. The gap, however,
was bridged, and by the time that ecinchona had passed its
zenith it was clear that tea was the industry of the future,
and large areas were being rapidly planted up in it, while an