252 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1883, 



connected with tea, I have endeavoured to curtail my 

 remarks as much as possible. The more so, as your kuowledgo 

 of cotfee planting will fill up any gaps. I consider our 

 knowledge of coffee cultivation goes very far to aid us in 

 tliat of tea, and, with our trained labor, most apt at picking 

 up anything new, to aid us, we can place our tea in tlie 

 market cheaper than any other tea-producing country in 

 the world. 



My remarks today have more especial reference to the 

 cultivation of tea in what may bo termed our coffee zone 

 in fact, to the practicability of tea taking the place, in some 

 instances, of coffee, or of its being planted in forest land 

 adjoining our coffee estates, and which we have thought too 

 high for coffee. 



Throughout thie paper I refer t j Assam-Hybrid tea only. 



At what elevations will tea grow at, in Ceylon, to pay 'i 

 From almost sea-level to over 0,000 ft. provided soil and 

 aspect ai-e suitable. 



,5(,t;.— Should be fairly good — the richer the better — deep 

 and friable, loam well mixed with sand ; a shallow quartzy 

 soil is not good. Tea will not flush readily in this 

 although it may grow to a fair sized bush. A sub soil, 

 well mixed with sand, or grit, without, showing a very good 

 surface soil, will, although giving a slower growth at hrst, 

 turn out a better paying soil, than one with a rich surface 

 and clearly defined clayey subsoil without an admixture of 

 sand; the more we pluck, the deeper the roots must go, 

 and we must have room for them. The higher our elevation 

 the richer should our soil be, to make up for climate. 



Climate. — That that is best for coffee, will I believe, for a 

 permanemy, be found to be the best for tea. The bean 

 ideal of a tea climate is Avisawella, Yatiyantota and the 

 lower portions of Morawakorale, also portions of Ambaga- 

 muwa; but they have not our coffee zone subsoil, as a whole ; 

 and our zone will, I think, make up, in its deeper soil, for the 

 want of extreme heat with moisture, which prevails in these 

 districts, where, however, tea will rapidly^ make a fortune for 

 its lucky proprietors. 



The higher the elevation, the less ramfallis required, and 

 vice «)sa, light showers alternating with sun, if we could 

 order them so, would give us 1,000 lbs. an acre at 5.000 ft. ele- 

 vation. At the higher elevation.s, continued rain at the 

 height of thejnonsoon has the same effect in checkingthe 

 flush for the time being, as a long continuance of sun has 

 in the lowcountry. Perhaps a good thing ; for, with us the 

 bush has no wnntering, and the only rest that of a 101b 

 plucking, instead of a 21 lb. 



liite and htiij o/ia/if/.— Gently undulating land, for choice, 

 is the best ; but I have tea on steep land, doing as well as 

 that on fairly flat undulating land. In fact, any land 

 that is most suitable for coffee is most suit- 

 able for tea. In our new districts especially, we 

 find our fields at the higher elevations making wood freely 

 but even at the best of times not giving much fruit, where 

 we have coffee making most wood, there will our tea do 

 best. In my experience I have had poor thin coffee pointed 

 out to me as being suitable, vnln for tea. I say no ; if 

 we are to expect tea to pay, we must not pickout our thinnest, 

 weakest, — because washed coffee, as being the most suitable 

 site but om- frec-growiug leafy cofi'ee, that from either 

 a b.T.d aspect with good soil (and we often see this) or 

 from too high an elevation, has always persistently run 

 to wood which we call leaf, in ti'a, witli such coft'ee there, 

 need be no hesitation in at once planting it up with tea. 

 Again wk have coffee that in the good old days has borne 

 heavily, but that has now ceased to bear (temporarily or 

 not is beyond human ken) if we except occasional patches. 

 If 'the soil h(t!> nut suffered from was/mo matter what the 

 coffee may have borne in the past, tea can take its place 

 and flourish, as it h.as that in the soil to give it a start, 

 and it can seek for nourishment far deeper than the coffee 

 has ever reached. To .-uni up on this most important 

 ■ point, do not let us waste time and money on a coffee 

 estate tryiug to grow tea, where we have found 

 coffee will not make wood, though we may do 

 so where om' coffee, although now bad, has been good, in 

 po'int of croj), provided the soil has not suffered from wash. 

 Kidges and washed faces will be more profitably planted 

 with aloes which we may grow with other products with 

 profit, or mana-grass to keep out the weeds, than with tea. 

 These' remarks do not apply to Lower Ambegamuwa 

 Yakdessa &c.. where tea is flovridiin;/, but where coffee 

 would not exist but to our true coffee districts. 



Land at 4,000 feet to 5,500 feet that has failed in cin" 

 chona, provided soil and climate are suitable, will grow 

 good tea. I have now tea 3^ years old on laud that I 

 planted up four times with cinchona (both officio rt lis and 

 succirubra), — and that failed completely, although uo expense 

 was sparecl in the opening and planting of it,^-doing as . 

 well as could l)e wished. Again, 1 have tea doing well on 

 abandoned coffee laud that was cleared and planted 7J 

 years ago with cinchona — which died out at 3 to 4 years. 

 Elevation, in both instances, 5,O00 feet and over. I have tea 

 also, doing well, in land that was under cinchona for ten 

 years. 



Although tea does well, remarkably well, up to 5,000 

 feet in ray own experience — and I have had figures shown 

 me, — proving that tea, at over 6,200 feet gave, at 4 y. 4, 400 lb. 

 per acre at 6 years old, it does not follow that all and 

 any land, at these elevations will give the same results. 

 The higher we go the better our soil must be. We must 

 be rather dry than wet not absolutely without rain for 

 any length of time ; but this we need not fear near our 

 moimtain tops; and the more shelter from the monsoon 

 winds do we require. I will treat further down of the yield 

 per acre from tea at the lowest to the highest elevations, 

 and will now enter on seed., nurserieSj ojteuinf/ and plant' 

 iny of tea, /(< cultivation, and mamfacture. 



Seed. — The greatest care must be taken to ascertain the 

 seed you obtain is from the highest class hybrid, as with 

 a poor jat, neither care in the manufacture nor cultivation 

 can make a good liquoring tea, or give a profitable yield. 

 Making allowances for poor plants, accidents, bad plants, 

 and the having ample plants over for supplies, I calcul- 

 ate on one maund of 82 lb. for 6 acres planted 4 x 4 ; a maund 

 of locally grown gives from 27,000 to 33.000 seed accord- 

 ing to the time that is allowed to elapse in weighing after 

 husking ; the sooner the seed is in the ground after gathering 

 the better. 



NuitbEUiEs. — Choose the site as near a stream as possible, 

 for the sake of water. Let the land be as fiat as possible, make 

 your beds 5 ft. m 20 ft. with 18-inch walks (which act as 

 drains) between them. If you are going to plant out at six 

 months from seed, sow your seed 2iu. apart every way. I find a 

 very useful little tool for this is one I made niany years 

 ago for pricking out cinchona — a flat board, with handle 

 on the top and pegs — 50— underneath, any required distance 

 apart, press the boanl, the pugs being underneath, on to your 

 prepared bed, and you have it marked out in fifties to the dis- 

 tances apart yon wish to sow your seed. If yon are going to 

 plant them out at 1 to 2 years 4in. x 2iu. or, if space will admit, 

 4in. X 4in. apart ; sow IJ inches deep, if no shade. If your 

 pla nts are to be forced to save a season, manure your beds, sow 

 2in. i<2in. apart and 1 inch deep, shade with flat tats of jungle 

 stuff 18in. to 2 ft. above the bed and water freely twice a day. 

 You niay begin to remove the shaife by degrees, as soon as 

 the wood at the collar of the plant h:irdens. Unless it is 

 necessary for yon to save the season, do not manure, 

 nor pick out too good soil, as plants grown in better soil, 

 than it is intended to plant them out iu, suffer a check 

 from their first start in the clearing. Give your nurseries 

 time ; do not dig your beds more thanljin. to Oin.ideep, or the 

 tap root, always unmanageable, will run deeper than ever. 

 Every tea garden must keep up a nursery for supplies, 

 which is a work we have to attend to every year. Stumps 

 are best for supplies, and should be at the least two years old ; 

 even up to four, a permanent nursery can be kept up in poor 

 soil sown 3iu. x 3in., and the strongest plants taken out for 

 supplies. 



LiNiN'G. — In fairly good soil, 4 feet x 4 feet is the best 

 distance, iu poorer soil 4 feet x by 3 feet, on weak soil, 

 or exposed faces 3 feet n 3 feet. It is as well to have 

 4 feet between the lines, as each line is almost a thorough- 

 fare, from the ntunber of times the pluckers have to move 

 along it, as well as weeding contractors, in the course 

 of the year, and the proper growth of the laterals is in 

 a great measure stopped, if the pinckers have to force 

 their way through too much ; and in any ordinary fair soil, 

 at a nearer distance than 4 feet between the lines, no 

 light or air can get at the soil or through the bushes 

 themselves, and they become towards the middle of the 

 season an entangled mass of unhe.-dthy wood. Therefore 

 althou'-'h 4 x. 4 does not suit the coffee lines iu any way, 

 if the tea is to be planted through it, to eventually the ex- 

 traction of the coffee, (when tea is one year old,) it is 

 b(!tter to spend a little more money in lining than to 



