IV [arch I, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



61s 



THROUGH THE TEA DISTEICTS OF NOETHEEN 

 INDIA. 



(to the editor "inbiax tea gazette.") 

 Deab Sir, — A "specimen sheet" of the Tropical Ayri- 

 ridturisi of 1st September was sent to me a short tune 

 ago from Colomho. In it I obseived a letter as above, 

 lieaded from a Coffee Planter, signed T. 0. Owen, dated 

 from Tezpur, who evidently came up to our valley with 

 the intention of picking holes in our system of Tea cultiv- 

 ation and manufacture, from a prejudiced Ceylon point of 

 view. 



In Oeylon we all know that the Island is traversed and 

 inter.'iected by fine roads, also boasts a rail-road, by which 

 cooly labour can be conveyed with ease to the remotest 

 parts. All the old coffee factories have, or can, be ea,sily 

 converted into tea factories, or built at half the cost 

 we are compelled to pry for pncka work in A.s.sam. 



Contractors. — There are plenty in Oeylon to bring our 

 cheap labor from the main-laud, who weed by contract, 

 .ind keep all the gardens and paths nice and clean for 

 managers to walk or ride, or to inspect their work with 

 the greatest of ease. 



Perhaps he. is not aware that flat gardens and Tcelah 

 gardens must be treated quite differently towards the 

 lose of the season. A flat garden should be kept clear 

 if jungle, until the last flush has been gathered: a Teelah 

 •jarden, to induce the bushes to flush well into November, 

 should not be scraped or cultivated after the month of 

 September. I have seen it tried, and the manager boast 

 of his (Teelah) garden being clean all over October — the 

 consequence was, the neighbouring garden that was allowed 

 to remain as it was in September gave leaf into Decem- 

 ber, whil.st the clean garden's manager had to close its 

 packing house. This shows that Mr. Owen cannot be so 

 well posted up as he wished the readers of the Tropical 

 Agriculturist to believe. 



We could also drain our lands and Teelahs had we the 

 same cheap and abundant labor at our command as the 

 Oeylon men possess. After sweltering for eight months in 

 isolated gardens, we certainly do enjoy a few days' recreation 

 »t X'mas time. But we make up for it by attending to 

 our building, hociug, and cooly-seeking, for the new year 

 — all such worries being unknown to 5Ir. Owen or the 

 planters of Ceylon. 



No allowances are made by Mr. Owen for many draw- 

 backs we suffer under here in Assam, as regards the want 

 of labour diurng the rains. "We are only too glad to get 

 our laud hoed or scraped in place or hand weeded d la 

 Oeylon, and should a cooly in his ignorance hoe away a 

 small portion of the bj'-paths amongst the tea, we can- 

 not complain or cut his pay, or oft' he goes, should he 

 be a local cooly. 



Put Mr. Owen, or any other Oeylon man newly com- 

 mencing tea in Assam, to luidergo all the worry and 

 vexations of collecting labor, and then keeping it about him 

 for one season only — coupled with bullying letters from 

 agents, he would have criticised us more leniently, and 

 not drawn such comparisons. 



Because one of our nuniher, whose garden lies close to 

 Gauhati, allows his dogs to bark about in the gi'een leaf 

 and tea houses, and greasy babies to roll in the tea also, 

 it does not follow that we all allow these dirty tricks 

 to be played in oiu- tea and packing houses. I can name 

 scores of Assam packing houses that are as cleanly kept 

 as any could possibly be kept in Ceylon, and where no 

 man dare attempt to stamp down tea into a chest with- 

 out first placing a clean cloth over it. and scores of 

 planters in the valley who are still quite capable of teaching 

 Mr. Owen a thing or two, simply because they have spent 

 many of the best years of their lives amid.st its swamps 

 and lonely jungles, finding out by weary years of toil that 

 knowledge which Mr. Owen vainly imagines he has learned 

 by a pleasure trip up the Bramapootra. — Eichard G. 

 Eades. 



A NEW INDUSTRY FOE PENANG. 



It is a pleasing task indeed when one is able to call 

 attention to the starting of a new enterprise, and still more 

 so, when its prospects are almost assured since the material 

 produced by this fresh departure in Penang is becoming 

 daily more and more a necessity all over the world. We 

 refer to the Coir trade. So far back as 1881, the late 

 Hon'ble Forbes Brown proposed going in for the coir 

 mauufactuie ; and articles were written in this paper point- 

 ing out the enourmous waste of useful material in the 

 shape of coconut husk, which then, and up to a late date, 

 was only either used for fuel or allowed to rot on the 

 ground under the ti-ees. 3Ir. Vermont, who wcnr home 

 in 1872. made enquiries as to the requisite machinery to 

 work this stuff up, on behalf of Mr. Brown, and returned 

 with full information, but unfortunately, owing to the other 

 important matters, such as the opening of Prye Estate, etc., 

 which engrossed the whole attention of Messrs. Brown and 

 Vermont for the time being, the matter was left in 

 abeyance, and finally the former's death put a stop to all 

 further action summarily. After the lapse of eleven years, 

 the largest representatives of cultivation in this Settle- 

 ment have come to the front again, and they may well be 

 congratulated on having resolved to carry out the idea 

 which Mr. Forbes Bro^\Ti intended to have done nearly 

 half a generation ago. 



In concluding this prelude to the accouut of the opening 

 ceremony of the "Ayer Etam Ooir Works," we will only 

 add that the psoprietors have extraordinary advnut^igcs. 

 Their works are in the midst of a fertile coconut country, 

 and what adds more than anything to the value of them 

 is the fact that they possess a very large water-supply, 

 which can work a turbine capable of giving motion to the 

 extent of .50 horse power if necessary. At present the machin- 

 ery is only worked up to the extent of 8 horse power, but as 

 the Company intend extending their works, they arc^as'stated 

 above, in position to command the required force to drive 

 machinery to the extent of 12 times their present require- 

 ments. The produce of the manufactory has been very 

 highly reported on in the English markets, and we are 

 confident that the speculation undertaken by the Company 

 will return goldon harvests. 



The works were publicly opened Mrs. McNair on last 

 Saturday morning (19th Jan.) at 730 a. m., in the pre- 

 sence of a large gathering of the inhabitants of Penang. — 

 Penang Gazette. 



A TOBACCO PAEASITE 



WELLS' "ROUGH ON CORNS." 



Ask for Wells' "Rough on Corns." Qucik relief, com- 

 plete, permanent cure. Corns, warts bunion'-. P.. S. 

 Madon k Co., Bombay, General Agents. 



is thus noticed in a letter from W. Wilson, Esq., Director 

 of Revenue Settlement and Agriculture, Madras, dated 

 Madras, 3rd October 1883. 



I have the honor to forward, for youi' information, a 

 note on " Bodu " (Phelipaa Indira), a vegetable para.site, 

 which last season committed great rav.ages on the tobacco 

 crop of the Godavaii delta, and shall be obliged by your 

 informing me whether tobacco in your district is found to 

 suffer from the same or any other vegetable parasite, and, 

 if so, how the evil is combated and to what use the para- 

 site is put if removed from the tobacco plant. 



(Enclosure.) 

 Note os "Bodu" Fhelip/ra Jnilica. 



1. Early in June of the current year, I received from 

 Messrs. Arbutbnot & Co., of Madras, a letter, dated 1 1th 

 May 1883, forwarding a communication from Messrs. Hal], 

 Wilson & Co., their correspondents at Oocanada, regard- 

 ing a vegetable parasite known in Telcgu as "Bodu," 

 which had last season attacked the tobacco crop on the 

 Goduvari lunkas, causing great damage and loss to growers. 



2. /(s Description. — The " Bodu " is described as a yel- 

 low-stemmed succulent asparagus-like shoot growing per- 

 pendicularly from the root stock of the tobacco plant, 

 sometimes singly, sometimes in clusters of 5 or 6 together : 

 its height is from 6 to 9 inches, and it has a tiny bell- 

 shaped flower of a yellow, pink, or pale blue colour. 



3. A specimen of the parasite preserved in methylated 

 spirit accompanied Messrs. Ai-buthncit's letter, and was at 

 once forwarded to Professor Lawson for identification and 

 the suggestion of such remedies, as might occur to him. 



4. Messrs. Hall, AVilson & Co.'s letter clearly pointed 



