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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1883. 



MR. OWEN'S PAPER ON CULTIVATION 

 IN INDIA AND CEYLON. 



No greater possible compliment conlJ bo paid to 

 the correctness and completeness of Mr. Armstrong's 

 account (page 251) of local tea culture and manufacture 

 than the statement made by Mr. Oweu, that he had tore- 

 cast and re -nrite a large portion of his paper (page 273) 

 so as to avoid repeating what his predecessor had written 

 so well that lie could not improve upon it. The only 

 material point on which Mr. Owen differs from Mr. 

 Armstrong is that of the preference given by the 

 latter to a large Drier over the several Siroccos recom- 

 mended by Mr. Armstrong. This preference and the 

 special mention of Mr. Kinmond's machinery is due, 

 we suppose, to Jlr. Owen's satisfactory personal ex- 

 perience, as well as to what he saw in India. Jackson" 

 machinery, however, seems to be largely used and to 

 give satisfaction, Mr. Owen also suggests improve- 

 ments in firing. What Mr. Owen records as the 

 results of his visit to India and his observations in 

 the tea districts of Assam and Darjiling will be re- 

 ceived with respect. Indeed, the distinguishing value 

 of Mr. Owen's paper consists in tlie comparisons he 

 is able to institute and the conclusions he feels justi- 

 fied in drawing so largely favourable to Ceylon. 

 While the plucking season in India is really limited 

 to six months, and the yield per acre is not higher 

 than an average (DarjUing and Assam together,) of 

 nbout 250 lb. per acre, we are able to gather in Ceylon 

 aearly all the year round, and Mr. Oweu fully en- 

 dorses Mr. Armstrong's full bearing averages of GOO lb. 

 per acre for low estates and 400 lb. for those 

 at the higher altitudes such as the vast majority in 

 Maskeliya and the surrounding districts are situated in. 

 As a consetiuence of our higher yield and our other 

 great advantages of suitable labour aud facilities of 

 communicati'.n^ Mr. Owen has no hesitation in pro- 

 nouncing that Ceylon tea, with distinc,iushing merits of 

 its o-mi. wliich have ah-eady placed it in the front 

 rank, can be placed on the London market at a cost 

 materially below wliat om' competitors in India, with 

 all tho advantages of being bo long before iis hi the 

 race, can manage. Tiiis is certainly a complete aud aston- 

 ishing reversal of the relative positions which the vast 

 continent and the small island were s.ipposed, until 

 quite recently, to occupy; aud we cannot doubt that 

 great sensation aud much discussion, in the " Gardens" 

 of Assam, Cachar aud Sylhet, Darjiling, the Terai and 

 Dooars, will be the result. But there are the figures : 

 to be analyzed, questioned aud tested hy all the facts 

 estabUshcd in India iind Ceylon. Much of the soU in India 

 is superior to ours, aud in parts of Darjiling the money 

 wages of labor is lower than anything we can compass 

 in Ceylon ; but our climate, once decried by Imlian 

 planters because of too much moisture and no winter, 

 gives us gi-eat advantages for the gi-owtU of leafage, 

 while our means of communication and nearness to 

 sea-port place us far ahead even of Darjiling. Mr. Owen 

 believes in a cost of production so low as 30 cents of om- 

 Ceylon cun-eucy, by which the rupee is divided into 100 

 cents. Our Indiau friends wdl Ijctter understand the 

 figures when we state them as being less than one thu'd of 

 a rupee, which would be 33^ cents or 5J annas equal to 8d 

 per lb. if the mpee were worth 2s. Mr. Owen's 30 

 cents are, however, as nearly as possible the equivalent 

 of 5 annas equal to Tid as we used to count before silver 

 was so terribly depreciated, but now more nearly repre- 

 sentod by 6d. If we can place our teas on board in 

 Colombo at this rate, we shall have an advantage of 

 ja per lb, over Darjiling, of IJd over one of the most 



successful estates in Northern India, aud fully 3d per lb. we 

 should say over the general average of Assam, Cachar and 

 Sylhet estates. If we can keepdown prices as indicated and 

 go on impr oving the already acknowledged good quality of 

 our t^a, it seems to us that we can keep ahead of 

 every other tea country in the world ; while, if some 

 unexpected scourge does not affect tea na the fungus 

 has affected coffee, those engaged in the pursuit may 

 look for adequate rewards of "their enterprise, industry 

 and skill. Our Indian neighbours will notice tbat 

 as one result of our climate, so favourable for con- 

 tinous grovth, we in Ceylon will not be embarrassed 

 to "find work" for our labour force in a slack sea- 

 son. Fields can be pruned at such intervals as to 

 secure steady average work, ejcept perhaps in the 

 height of the south-west monsoon, June-.Iuly. Bat even 

 in those months we have known good flushes gathered. 

 One other graud advantage of tea culture is the ability 

 of the phiut to send its roots down into that clayey 

 subsoil, so cmmou on the mountains of Ceylon, ei- 

 celleiit in quality although so stiff mechanically as to 

 account largely for the failure of ciuchouae. On such 

 soils tea may be calculated on as a " permanent" culti- 

 vation, while fertilizing substances can be used to 

 keep up the ulture on lighter soils and improve the 

 yield from the richer, if stiffer, clays. Of course, 

 planters who chave any China or semi-China bushes 

 growing, will act on their own judgment, after hear- 

 ing Mr. Owen 's decision in favour of indigenous Assam 

 in°ths lowcountry and best hybrid everywhere else 

 to the absolute extirpation of China. All we can say 

 is that, with all respect for Mr. Owen, we mean, with 

 reference to a very tine aud well-bearing patch of 

 Darjiling China which exists on the estate in which 

 we are interested, to act on the advice of Mr. Ander- 

 son of Assam, who said, "I consider it an advantage 

 that j'ou have a small portion of China to mix with 

 and improve the appearance of the hybrid leaf. The 

 brokers look much at appearance." On the other hand, 

 those opening estates, had better, doubtless get the 

 best jats po.ssible.' We may say that nothing can ex- 

 cell the plants grown from Assam Company's seed 

 which, beginning with 1874, we and others obtained 

 at intervals t'urough Messrs. Schoene, Kilburu & Co. 

 of Calcutta, The other point on which we feel /in- 

 clined to disagree with Mr. Owen, is his sweeping 

 censure (foUosving in Mr. Aitkeu's wake) of the late 

 Mr. Cameron's system of pruning. There can be errors 

 in the neglect of proper prnning as well as in carry- 

 ing the process to excess. Ivlost of what Mr. Owen 

 says on details of culture and manufacture are, 

 however, worthv of respectful attention and will re- 

 ceive it. The effect of Mr. Owen's deliverance added 

 to that of Mr. Armstrong, cannot but be encouraging 

 to individual planters and benoiicial to the interests 

 of the colony. While we cUcriKb the trust that coffee 

 will recover itself, there is great ground for hope in 

 the vigorous youth of tho tea enterprise. 



BRAZIL AND THE COFFEE TRADE. 

 (From the Sottth American Journal, August 16th) 

 Coffee is to Brazil what cotton is to the Southern 

 States of America— its staple production, aud both owe 

 their culture to slave* labour, the conditions of cul- 

 tivation and cropping being also similar, iirobably coffee 

 the easiest of the two, the chief diUereiice being 

 that cotton requires moisture for the trees, whilst 

 coffee plantiitions are chiefly on hilly ranges, from 

 whence the forest has been cleared, and where 

 the best coffee is grown. Another similarity is 

 the largeness of production in both cases, a con- 

 stant augmentation of stocks, and a consequent low 



* No: Negro labour, the cotton of America happily 

 being no longer grown by slaves. — Ed. 



