November i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



5^3 



To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer, 



THE TEA PLANT:— ITS CEYLON ALLIES. 

 Budleigh, Salterton, Devon, 6th Sept. 1883. 



Dear .Sir, — On the subject of a letter which ap- 

 peared in your weekly issue of the 11th ultimo, 

 headed as above, I have a very clear recollection of 

 the great excitement of the late Mr. W. McCulloch, 

 who was then in cliarge of Carolina estate, and I 

 believe a good botanist, at having in the year 1844 

 discovered at a place called Paddepola in the Ambe- 

 gamuva district (where I was then stationed), a speci- 

 men o£ what he termed "indigemious tea," and this I 

 conclude is the same genus, as that sent to jou by 

 " Planter" from Ambegamuwa. 



The late G. H. K. Thwaites always gave it as his 

 opinion that, Ambegamuwa was the district most es- 

 pecially suited both as regards soil and climate to the 

 cultivation of tea. This product appears to be the 

 rage now, but I still believe that, if favourable seasons 

 returned (and there is no good reason why they should 

 not do ao), the old staple would still prove the best 

 friend to the planter. I do not wish to damp the 

 expectations of those who are embarking in tea cultiv- 

 ation ; but in conversation with an expert, a short- 

 time since in the city, he gave it as hia opinion that 

 tea paid everybody hut the producer — and I am soi-ry 

 to see this opinion agrees with the article of your 

 issue headed "flow the Gilt is taken off the Ginger- 

 bread." 



I trust that your new Governor, will, with reference 

 to the extension of the railway from Nanuoya to Uva, 

 Bee with the eyes of those, who have the trxie interests 

 of Ceylon at lieart, and advocate strongly the prompt 

 adoption of the original scheme. — I remain, dear sir, 

 yours truly, H. A. EVATT. 



[Capt. Evatt was formerly in the Ceylon Public 

 Works Department. The 'Mr. McCulloch referred to, 

 had been, we believe gardener to the Emperor of 

 Brazil. The plant he noticed is very common ; not a 

 true tea,but exceedingly like the dark-coloured China 

 variety. It has a curious tendency to grow up with 

 tea plants in nurseries. — Ed.] 



CINCHONA BAP>K FROM SUCKERS. 



Dindamull, 13th Sept. 1883. 



Dear Sir, — Can you give me any information as 

 to the quality of bark grown from suckers taken off 

 cinchona trees. Will puckers yield as good bark as 

 seed ? My home friends write me that they have 

 been lold that suckers grown from coppiced trees are 

 not so satisfactory as seeJhnL-s, and infer that the 

 quality ot bark is inferior. — Yours faithfully, 



JAMES W. SMITH. 



[Provided the "suckeis" are allowed to grow to 

 four years old (r over, we do not suppose there 

 can be any inferiority, but planters who have had 

 experience of coppiced trees can better ans-wer this quis- 

 tiou. Mr. Halliley of Clarendon can speak of trees 

 ooppcieil more than once, and we believe with very 

 satisfactory results. — Ed.] 



TEA CULTIVATION IN CEYLON : IMPORT- 

 ANCE OF SUPERIOR SEED. 



17th Sept. 1883. 

 Ceas Sir,— There can be now little doubt that 

 In the course of a generation our infant industry, 

 tea, will have superseded all other productions in "a 

 great degi-ee and have become the principal export 

 from Ceylon, and it behoves us as the introducers 

 VI pioneers of its cultivation to do all that lies in 



our power to ensure the success and permanency of 

 the new undertaking. Our planters are proving them- 

 selves capable of thorough manipulation in the manu- 

 facture of the invigorating leaf, and with the climate 

 we possess to help them conjointly with their agri- 

 cultural attainments (of no mean order), its produc- 

 tion in paying quantities may be taken as an estab- 

 lished fact. 



But there is one point connected with the cultiv- 

 ation of the many varieties of economic plants that 

 have been and are being grown in this island, which 

 has never received the attention it deserves, and on 

 looking closely into the matter, it seems almost in- 

 comprehensible why such an important factor in the 

 typical perpetuation of the species under cultivation 

 should have been so neglected. I allude to the utter 

 want of any attempt on our part to maintain tho 

 continuance of reproduction of the species under 

 cultivation on scientific grounds, in such a manner 

 as to ensure that the plants for future clearings shall 

 be, if not actually superior to tho parent trees, at 

 «ny rate their equal, and to reduce the possibility 

 of any deterioration in succeeding generations to a 

 minimum. In fact, no pains or trouble should bo 

 spared in endeavouring to increase the suitability of tlio 

 future generations of the tea plant for the use they 

 will be put to. 



Now, if we turn to the mother-country we will find 

 that the attention both agriculturists and horticult- 

 urists there pay to this siibject, at onco shows it to 

 be one of vital importance, and it has by degrees 

 come to be almost a science in itself. No farmer or 

 gardener would for a moment think of obtaining 

 whatever seed he might require, in the haphazard 

 way we do, from any parent stock that appears to 

 be of good quality, for he has found by bitttr ex- 

 perience that tbose qualities are transient, and that 

 his only way was to obtain the seed he required by 

 the combination of carefully selecttd varielia oj the 

 same stock. To most, this was a matter of great diffic- 

 ulty ; for to be successful, an undivided attention must 

 be paid to the subject, and to meet this difficulty 

 these enormous seed establishments and nursery garueus 

 have sprung up during the past half-century, and th.it 

 they were requisite has been proved by tluir success. 



It must not be inferred from the foregoing that I 

 am advocating the erection of similar establi.-hmenta 

 in Ceylon. If tea happened to have been au annual, 

 I believe they would have been found necessary, but 

 what I do feel is required, ie that the quality of any 

 seed I niight purchase either for myself or my em- 

 ployers should be undoubted, and that there would 

 be no fear of the plants from such seed being inferior 

 to the parent. That a large percentage of the cin- 

 chona seed sold in Cejlon during the past few years 

 may be characterized as rubbish, few will gainsay, 

 and a small proportion of tea seed may be classified 

 in the same category. I have been victimized in both 

 quite unwittingly on the part of the seller, and it 

 is for tho purpose of endeavouring to commence a 

 movement to counteract this tendency of plants to 

 produce inferior seed that I now write. 



The manner in which this desired result is to be 

 obtained, I must leave in abler handa than mine to 

 determine. All I can do at present is to draw atten- 

 tion lo ihe want, and if this want bs generally ad- 

 mitted, there is little doubt that a satisfactory solu- 

 tion to the problem will not be long of coining. 

 In the meantime, I would suggest that those who 

 are making email plantations for seed-bearing pur- 

 poses, should not confine the same to one kind o£ 

 seed ; for instance, if iudigenous Assam be required, 

 the parent trees should be from seed from diUerent 

 sources (indigenous), and planted out alternately in 

 equal proporticfns ; if hybrid, they should be com« 

 posed of different bybride of tho be»t clajs, with » 



