6o6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1884. 



dry weather is undoubtedly better than that made iu wet, 

 and I heard from a traveller, who had just come from 

 Japan, that he saw an acre of tea there covered in with 

 a large awniug to keep off rain aud dew, in order that 

 some fine, flavoury, fancy tea might be gathered. I would 

 now be much more hopeful of tea cultivation being suc- 

 cessful in the Kalupahaui ^'alley than I was. The laud 

 there is not steeper than many of the Darjiling estates, 

 and the wind, except on the very bleak, exposed portions, 

 is not, I think, much worse than that experienced on 

 some of the DarjiUug estates, where factories and bun- 

 galows often have their iron roofs lifted. One planter 

 told me that trees were often blown over, and at times 

 tbe gusts were so strong that it was almost impossible to 

 walk against them. Hail, too, sometimes does great injury 

 coming down in large flat pieces, and in balls as large 

 as a marble. I heard of iron roofing having been pene- 

 trated at one place last year. I quote the rainfall at 

 Sington estate, near Darjiling, on some of the upper 

 fields of which snow lay last year. 

 Sington Rainfall. 



Cheap labor is the advantage, and a very great one it 

 is, that Darjiling has in tea cultivation — the average pay 

 there for men aud women being only 19 cents per day, 

 as compared to 29 cents in Ceylou. This does not include 

 the question of head-mnnev; our kanganies' pay being 

 equalled by what is paid there to sirdars and chuprassies. 

 On other important points, the comparison is generally 

 favorable to Ceylon. i\Iost of our estates, certainly those 

 in the young districts, are better otf in the wav of charcoal 

 and timber than any of the Darjiling hill estates. There 

 are no logs or stumps on the estates there, anil such a 

 thing as reserve forest is almost uuknowu. Most of the 

 charcoal is carried up from the Teesta valley, 6 or 8 miles 

 off, and costs on some estates as much as III 25 jjer 

 maund. Chests which hold 90 to 100 lb. cost' about RIMO, 

 exclusive of lead and soldering. The cost of transport to 

 Calcutta of course varies with the distance from the rail- 

 way, but, on an average, costs more than twice what it 

 would from our young districts to Colombo. Tea-lead is 

 cheaper in Calcutta than in Colombo. I was offered it 

 at R14 per cwt. Agency charges are also less, being 50 

 cents per chest. 



On the important question of jut, I tried to get all 

 possible information, and I found the general opinion, 

 with which I agree, to be that for qvaliti/ in a flavory 

 drinking tea nothing was better than the China plant. 

 I have before me the account sales of 269 chests of the 

 Darjiling Company's teas recently sold at an average of 

 R1'20 per lb., while 15 chests of broken pekoe fetched as 

 much as 3s. lO.Vd. These teas were all from China bushes. 

 On the question of <jua)ititi/^ one or two planters expressed 

 it as their opinion that, at a high elevation in Darjiling, 

 the China plant gave just as much as the hybrid, but 

 for low or nu;dium elevations, of cour.se the palm was 

 given by all to a good Assam hybrid plant. It seems to 

 me that in Ceylon we will have two classes of tea, viz., 

 the strong low-grown mixing tea and the milder, but more 

 flavory, hill-grown, drinking tea. For the former, plnnts 

 of the indigenous, or very high-class hybrid Assam will 

 be of the utmost importance, but, for bill plantations, I 

 would prefer the strong, vigorous, rather dirk-leaved hy- 

 brid to the very large light-leave<i type, which so often 

 displays a thin spare habit of growth, when planted at high 

 elevations. Regarding seed, 1 would only prefer Indian 

 seed of good jat to Ceylon seed of similar jiit on the 

 score of a fresh stock, I saw neither more nor less care 

 taken in the collection of seed in India fian I have 

 seen and practised it in Ceylon — perhaps, iu India, they have 

 the seed lying longer in the capsule than we do. 



I was introduced to various blights, red-spider, mosquito 

 blight, green fly, &c., and I fancy tliat mosquito blight 

 is the one we hn^■emost cause to fear, t alsu saw and heard 

 about an insect which for a time at least did great and 



even fatal damage in the Kalutara district, but I forget, 

 if indeed I ever knew, its name. It is that small grub 

 which covers itself with a barky envelope and hangs like 

 a small icicle from the stem an<l twigs. Picking off and 

 destroying the insect is the only remedy. 



As the subject was exercising our minds so much when 

 when I left Ceylon, I made a point of getting an illus- 

 tration in pruning from every planter I met. I found heavy 

 pruners, light pruners, and pruners who sought safety in 

 the happy medium. "Cutting down '" the plant, as it comes 

 to a bearing age, at, say, 2k or 3 years, is a recognized 

 method of shaping the tree, and, viewed in that light, 

 there seemed to be nothing in the late Mr. Cameron's 

 heavy cutting, contrary to proper cultivation, hit, if t& 

 be repeated year after year, the general opinion was that 

 the bushes would soon be worked out. In Darjiling pro- 

 per, the annual growth is far less than in Ceylon, but, 

 in portions of the Terai and Dooars, the growth is much 

 the same as it is with us. In Darjiling, about 2 inches 

 of tlie new wood, i. t., woud formed aince the previous 

 pruning, is left, and in the other tlistricts about 4 inches, 

 and in all cases the thin, non-flushing whips are cleaned 

 out. Of cource, in time the trees get too high, and rcr 

 quire a modified cutting down again. The old idea that 

 a tea bush should be table-shaped is exploded, and no 

 one thinks of trying for a clean stem. A bush shaped 

 more like a bowl or a cup would be the ideal. Trees of 

 good j;\t rebel against being cut straight across, and, long 

 before the plucking season is over, they begin to "tower" 

 in the centre; to counteract which ".saucer" pruning is 

 adopted. I would be inclined to top back (though of 

 course, not to pluck) plants of good jit at an early age, 

 and so induce several stems, more in the cinnamon-bush 

 style. I think further experience is required before de- 

 ciding what system of pruning is best adapted for Ceylon, 

 and it is unlikely that any one system would suit our 

 varied conditions of climate. I see no reason why we 

 should prune the whole of our estates at one time, when 

 our climate gives us the very great advantage of being 

 able to pluck all the year round. If our croj> can be 

 spreac' over 11 months, we can work much more ecutiomically 

 as regards the extent of factory machinery required, than 

 is possible in India, where the great bulk of crop comes 

 in in G months. Concerning manufacture, I found that, 

 except as regards the use of machinery and the manipulatinn 

 of great quantities, there was little to be added to what I 

 first learned at Loolecondura, 10 years ago. Amongst rolling 

 machines, Jackson's " Excelsior " is the favorite, amongst 

 dryers Kinmond's takes first place, and Ansell's sifter is 

 to be preferred to Jackson's, which from the great amount 

 of travelling done by the tea, is likely to "grey"' the 

 coarser grades I doubt if that machine (Jacksori's) could 

 ever turn out sharp black looking teas as those sent to 

 the Exhitiition from Galbodde and some other estates. 

 An equalizer saves so little labor that, unless enormous 

 quantities have to be dealt with, T would prefer to break the 

 tea through an ordinary sieve. Ansell's machine is one of 

 the simplest and cheapest. I did not find the idea that 

 machine-dried teas were superior to stove-dried ones received 

 by everyone, or even by a majority. I noticed in the l;i5t 

 London sale lists many of the very top prices, particularly 

 the Darjiling Cihchona Association's were reacheil by estates 

 where all the teas are dried on "chulas." On the score of 

 quality, all that the machine-dryer can claim is that it is 

 much easier to keep up and dry all the teas day after day at 

 the same temperature, and so with very large quantities en- 

 sure a uniformity which is perhaps unobtainable when the 

 *• chula " is%sed. I saw Mr. Kinmond's latest improved 

 machine at the Exhibition, and that gentleman, who in- 

 tends visiting Ceylon shortly, was good enough to explain 

 all its advan^^ages, and when I remarked on the disad- 

 vantage of all his machines, viz., their very high price, he 

 informed me that a di.scount of 5 per cent ou one machine, 

 or 10 per cent on two machines, could be granted. 



I went to India a doubter; I return a believer. Ceylon 

 has many advantages, the chief being our cliniate, gi^'ing 

 us 9 or 10 months of plucking season. And here, be it 

 remarked that our prolonged flushing season renders the 

 liability to great loss froMi blights and insect plagues 

 much less than iu India. In a country where there are 

 only six months to pluck in, the attack of a blight, which 

 causes a cessation of flushing for three months, occasions 



