246 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1883. 



Both in Assam and in Darjniug, the use of ' cooty. 

 Backs" fcr plucking leaf is unknown. In the foi-nier 

 district, ihe leaf is collected in baskets slung to the 

 waist, and is weighed in twice a day ; in the latter, 

 the baskets are supported on the back by forehead 

 straps, and ihe leaf thrown into tliein over the 

 shoulder, weighing-in being generally done once a day 

 only. Baskets are, undoubtedly, very awkward things 

 to carry, especially amongst chisely planted tea, and, 

 when due care is exercised, that tlie leaf is not 

 pressed down and allowed to heat in any way, the 

 employment of bags is, I think, best, especially with 

 coolies who are accustomed t') pick coffee "cherry" in 

 this way. As we all know, sour tea is the result when 

 leaf is nHowed to heat in the field, and, in using bags 

 for its collection, the greatest care must be exercisde 

 that this does not occur and the pressing down 

 of leaf be prevented. 



There is one small matter in which Darjiling 

 is ahead of us and of Assam, und in which 

 we might well take a lesson. The road to every 

 garden is indicated where it leaves the main 

 road, by a sign-post giving the name of the estate. 

 The great convenience of this system and the saving 

 of th.) vexatious loss of time which sometimes occurs 

 througli losing one's way, should be tried to be 

 appreciated. A stranjjer travelling from the station 

 has only to be put on the right road to start with, 

 and he cm scarcely fail to find his way with ease and 

 without the loss of time which "a cooly to show the 

 roid" means. 



The coolies' lines are invaiiably situated high up in 

 the hill side and never, by auy chance near the bottom 

 of ravines. In spite of the elevation, it appears that 

 fever hangs about persistently whenever there is the 

 bed of a stream, and stagnant air. The same cause 

 makes it desiiable to have the factory in the hill- 

 side, otherwise the distauce between it and the bun- 

 galow and Imes would lie a great drawback. The 

 difficidty and expense of choosing and clearing sites 

 for buildings, with which we are familiar in some 

 ports of Ceylon, is therefore reproilnced in Darjiling ; 

 but the most serious difficidty is that the supply of 

 water-power can seldom bo talceu adavautage of "from 

 the distauce at which it is situated. The streams here 

 have very little water in them diu-iug the dry season, 

 at which time they are not required ; our chief difiic- 

 idty in Ceylon is that the dry season is the time 

 when water-power is most necessary, and the minimum 

 amount available during the dry months has to 

 form the basis of oiu- calcidation in erecting tea 

 machineiy. The small extent to which water is used 

 as a motive power in a hUly district like Darjding 

 is indeed strdiing. In some cases, turbmes are being 

 used snccessfully, and there are a few water-wheels, 

 hut steam-engines alone are employed in the large 

 majority of factories. At one garden, I saw the 

 most perfect piece of motive machinerj- I have seen in 

 India : a very fine 30 feet water-wheel, perfectly 

 erected, with no very large head of water, was 

 employed driving the several rolling, sifting and 

 tiring machines of a large factory, and it did so 

 with perfect ease, at a trifling cost compared with 

 that of working the engine previously used. lu 

 another garden wbere a turbine was employed, great 

 diliiculty was caused in the entrance into the machine 

 during rainy weuthei- of sand and grit, too small to 

 be collected in the boxes. Tiie most ingenious 

 transmission of power is at. a g,ard'-n in the neigh- 

 bourhood where a turbine at the rivtr drives mnchiiery 

 in a factory some distance up the hill by a 

 succession of driving belts and pulleys. There must 

 be great loss of power by this system, and the 

 wear-aud-tear of belting would be considerable. As 

 I have mentioned above, the factories are all per- 

 manent solid structures, and the limited area of 



the sites necessitates the utilization of all space 

 inside them. Withering space is generally provided 

 in an upper floor, and hastened 'oy the heat from the 

 stoves and tiring machines below, wbere all machinery, 

 &o. are situated. The remark about untidi- 

 ness and want of cleanliness which applied to As- 

 sam factories would be out of place here, the Dar- 

 jiling buildings being, as a rule, kept clean and 

 tidy, though not, I think, to the same extent as 

 is frequently seen in Ceylon. T. C. OWEN 



THE CEYLOxY TEA ENTEKPRIZE AND 

 ADVERSE CKITICISM. 



The local "Times" in an editorial article specially 

 mentioned that specimens of Ceylon tea would be 

 shown at the Calcutta Exhibition, "With the double 

 purpose of making known the excellent quality of the 

 article to the thousands of visitors from many parts of 

 the world who will be there pi-esent, and secondly and 

 cliiefly to make known to capitalists who will be met 

 with in the exhibition in large numbers, especially 

 from Australia, the capabilities of this island for the 

 production of the article and the admirable returns 

 that maybe obtained by investments in this enterprise." 

 We suppose the "Times" editor, in his capacity 

 of " Kepresentative of the Planters' Association," 

 will attract the special attention of capitalists to a 

 letter which encourages the capitalists, whom to 

 attract to Ceylon will lie avowedly the main func- 

 tion of the " Representative of the Association," 

 after the fashion following : — 



'•Although a deal of writing on this product lias 

 appeared during the last twelve months, both in your 

 own and in your contemporary's columns, there is 

 still a great de.irth of general and practical knowledge 

 of the subject. What else we have seen published 

 with authority may be termed the big gooseberry and 

 monster cabbage portion of the subject ; the TOO lb., 

 the 730 lb., the 80.5 lb. 



" I confess I would be better satisfied were writers 

 [including the ' Representative,' of course] seemingly 

 more anxious to spread accurate information and to 

 give intending tea-planters a better average and a 

 more unexaggtrated ide> of the prospects befjrethem: 

 in short had a few of the cases of short returns and 

 low prices also appeared — heralded or endorsed by the 

 editorial p.vragraphs, so liberally bestowed upon the 

 monster cabbages. 



" To dilTuse fair, as distinguished from inflated, inform- 

 ation, is doubtless to be accused by your contempor- 

 ary as deliberaiely attempting to 'defile your own 

 nest ;' but at the risk of this, may I not ask if the 

 figures in the report of the Ceylo!! Company are not 

 as worthy of a place in the literature of tea as those 

 bushes of gigantic girth in Dimbula? 



"So far as lean read these figures correctly, I learn 

 from tliem that from 1,000 odd acres of tea, over 3 

 years old, the average yield for the last year was 1.351b 

 per acre. Now the estates of that Company are not 

 confined to any one district, elevation, or sod, nor is 

 their tea all planted in old co6fee land. On the con- 

 trary, we find it in Colonna korale, in Kakwane, Vel- 

 laioya, in new land in Anibegarauwa, in new and old 

 land in Koladeniya near Nawalapitiya, in fresh patana 

 toil on Sogania in Pu^sellawa, in new and old. soil in 

 Rambodda, and on ' Hope' in Upper Hewahette. 



"So far as I can see and hear, the product seems 

 to be put out anywhere and everywhere, and looked 

 upon as the renovator of all sods^ however worn-out 

 anil indebted. ' Plucky' is the usiiil epithet applied 

 to our planters when their doings in new products are 

 noticed, but eiu-elv our experience with cinchona, Li- 

 berian coffee, and rubber, points at this stage of our 

 history to caution as a more valuable attribute 



