October i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



273 



By bis little instrument, with the accompanying tins 

 and the process for the elimination of impurities, 

 we are very hopefiil, Cear<a Kubber cultivation may 

 be made a very piofitable branch of New Products' 

 Industries in Ceylon and «e trust Mr. Gilliat's in- 

 genuity and patient experimentalizing will meet with 

 the reward they deserve. Suffice it to say that a cooly 

 with this little knife can make the requisite number of 

 cuts down the bark of the rubber ti-ees with ease and 

 rapidity, without any material injury to the cambium. 

 When made, the cut is about Jth of an inch open or wile 

 by l-16th inch deep : the cuts should not be nearer each 

 other than six inches— that is trees on Peradtniya, 

 four years old. 24 inches gii-th, take four horizontnl cuts; 

 but Mr. Gilliat is verj' hopeful (and Dr. Trimen 

 we believe agrees) that after a month's intervid, four 

 more cuts in the intervals may be made without 

 injuring the tree, so giving a second harvest of rubber. 

 An ordinary cooly can go over 200 trees a day with 

 4 cuts in each, and a little podian can follow with 

 the tiny tins (specially made by Mr. Gilliat out of 

 empty kerosine tins) which are stuck into the 

 tree to catch the exuding rubber. Those tins can 

 be made at 5 cents a piece. The most import- 

 ant part is however the chemical process by 

 which all impurities are precipitated and lumps 

 of pure white rubber, gradually assuming the 

 pink colour ou the edges so prized at home, 

 are secured. Mr. Gilliat being more or less of a 

 chemist, had experimented for months over this, until 

 he found the spirit, a very little of which dropped 

 into the day's gathering of rubber, secures tbe above 

 result. The elimination is secured even if 24 hours 

 elapse between the tapping and the application of the 

 spirit. Dr. Trimen ia highly satisfied with the result ; 

 and we cannot help thinking that the beautifully white 

 clean samples of rubber shewn to us toduy will be priced 

 as high as any in tbe home market. Mr. Gilliat is to 

 lay them before the Planters Association. So far as his 

 exjjeriments have gone, from f ths to i ounce of rubber 

 per tree is about the gathering or say jth ounce from 

 the two cuttings with a month's interval. No one 

 can yet say bow soon the tree will bear another 

 harvesting. The experiment has to be made ; but 

 there is no reason to doubt a satisfactory profit 

 from rubber cultivation, when harvesting and pre- 

 jiaration are done ■with the instruments and according 

 to the plan invented by Mr. Gilliat of Peradeniya 

 estate to whom all rubber planters owe, at least, 

 their best thanks. 



TEA, COFFEE, CINCHONA, CARDAMOMS 

 AND ALOES CULTIVATION IN 

 CEYLON. 

 {From the Proceedings of the Maskeliya PlanUn' 

 Association.) 

 Saturday, 15th September, 1S83. 

 Mr. Owen's Papir on Tea, &c. 

 After the tasting and comparison of the differ-nt 

 teas from Strathellie, Eookwood, Elfindale, Bunyan, 

 Theberton, Awisawella and other Ceylon estates with 

 those from Assam and Darjiling, the proceedings com- 

 menced. 



The Chairman introduced Mr. T. C. Owen, reminding 

 those present that this gentleman laboured under 

 peculiar disadvantages as his paper would follow 

 only a fortnight after one upon a similar subject 

 and of a most exhaustive character read by Mr. 

 Armstong before the Dickoya P. A, 



Mk. T. C. Owen then proc?etled to read his paper 

 npon the cultivali m. etc. of tea adopted in Assam 

 and Darjiling as comp:ired with tha' of Ceylon. 



Jlr. Chairman and Gentlemen. — The subjects which I pro- 

 pose to bring to your notice today deal entirely with those 

 products which are suited for supplementing or replacing the 



cultivation of colTee,niore especially at high and medium elev- 

 ations. 1 must premise that I am not one of those who think 

 that remunerative coffee cultivation is altogether a thing of 

 the past, but this subject has been dealt with in such an able 

 way by others, and I so fully concur in all that they 

 have said, that any further remarks on that point are 

 unnecessar}'. 



Of the various products with which it is proposed to 

 replace coffee, the one which is at present attracting the 

 greatest attention is undoubtedly tea. Eiglit years" experi- 

 ence of its planting and cultivation in Ceylon, with the 

 results of an extended trip through the Assam, Darjil- 

 ing, and Terai districts, which I was able to make recently, 

 have enabled me to form some conclusions on the sub- 

 ject which may be of interest to others. 



The general conditions under which cultivation is carried 

 on in Assam are utterly different from those which characterize 

 the hills in Ceylon ; the nearest approach to oiur ci'cum- 

 stances being found in the Darjiling hill district, which 

 therefore possesses a special interest for us. The land 

 there is very steep,as steep as anything that is generally 

 planted with coffee, but it is worked in a different way. 

 In Assam and the Terai the laud is perfectly flat, that w^iic'n 

 is suitable for tea consisting of raised banks of dry soil 

 surrounded by swampy land unfit for cultivation. The 

 soil in Darjiling is very variable. Tlie upix'r portions of 

 the hills are yellow clay with very little surface soil, but 

 the clay seems to be especially rich, for the tea flourishes 

 in it wonderfully. Lower down towards the ravines and 

 rivers, the character of the soil entirely changes, ar d it 

 becomes a rich black miciiceous loam of gi'eat depth. In 

 the Terai, the surface-soil is very rich and fertile, but 

 underlying it at no great depth is a barren gravelly .mb- 

 soil; the result is that when young the tea flourishes 

 luxuriantly, but when old the results become disappointing. 

 Assam has a very rich loamy soil in most places, which 

 is exceedingly deep, 20 feet and more sometimes, and of 

 a remarkably fertile character. It is evident that the suc- 

 cess of tea depends ou the depth and quality of the sub- 

 soil more than anything else. The Darjiling clay is very 

 similar to what we -are so familiar with in Ceylon, and 

 the fact that tea sends its roots down into it freely and 

 grows healthily, shoidd make us confident as to its future 

 in our stiff lands. 



Now, this subject of soil is a very important one 

 for us; its importance cannot, in fact, be over-rated 

 and the chief question we have to decide is this :— 

 Is the Darjiling hill-sod of such a nature as to lead us 

 to hope that our Ceylon tea will be a per,riaiienci/ •" That 

 our young tea w iU bear, and bear well, has been «onclus- 

 ively proved, as I shall show later : mil this last As I 

 have said, the Darjiling soil is very variable ; som. is ap- 

 parently very inferior to much of ours ; (I speak as a pract- 

 ical planter, not as an agricultural chemist) ; some is 

 superior to anything we have. As an iUustratiou, I will take 

 the Siug-toen estate. The upper portions of this garden ore 

 so stiff and clayey that a walk of half-a-mile down-hill, 

 without a fall is a real feat. As we go lower, the clay 

 becomes covered to a greater depth with a rich black 

 micaceous loam. This garden is a very old one, and with- 

 out manure of any kind the tea is yielding a better crop 

 this year than it has done for a loug time. The estimated 

 yield is about 320 lb. an acre, a large yield for the local- 

 ity as I shall show later. The manager tells me that the 

 lower portions bear better than the upper, but the latter, in 

 spite of having an inferior jat of tea in them, and in spite 

 of a less favourable climate, bear well and jiay handsomely. I 

 have aI.so seen land, very much of the same characteras some 

 of ours upcountry, a light loam, growing good and permanent 

 tea in the same locality, and I unhesitatingly say that if 

 i/oit have Jtjith you need have no fear of its future. The 

 Terai is a most important instance of the uselessuess of rich 

 soil it an unfertile sub-stratum underlies it. We have not as 

 a rule, rich soil in these districts; we have nothing as guodas 

 the soil of tile best localities in As.sam, but we have better 

 soil than some districts even in that favoured province (and 

 as an instance I will name Gowhatty), and we have plenty 

 of it. Those th.it have a good depth of such soil as I have de- 

 scribed ou their estates, although it is not apparently very 

 rich and even th-ugh it is clayey, may plant tea without fear 

 for the future ; but I would warn you against shallow soils 

 over-lying gravel or rock as sure to lead to disaijpointmeak. 



