3S2 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883. 



planted on patauas. An enormous advantage of elev- 

 ated estates in Ceylon is tbe slight extent to" which 

 young tea plants suffer from insect plagues, snoh as 

 grnbs, crickets, &c. The great — to us the conclusive — 

 advantage of nurseries over planting or sowing "at 

 stake" is the ease with which the young plants can 

 be protected from gruhs or rats when they do appear. 

 The first nvirseries put dosvn on Abbotstord, now 9 years 

 ago, were to some extent attacked by grubs, but even 

 where plants were nipped off at their jnuction with the 

 surface of the bed they soon sprang up again and ulti- 

 mately became .si rong plants. Planting at stake at high 

 elevations with abundant rainfall, in Ceylon, is a safer 

 process than in most parts of India. But nurseries, 

 whicli must in any case be adopted to provide sup- 

 plies, are, in our opinion, decidedly preferable. Tea 

 bushes occasionally die oft', mainly from the poisonous 

 roots of a forest tree, a symplocos, but we cannot recol- 

 lect noticing one destroyed by grub. 



Mr. Hay is so strong on the value of abundance 

 of light for tea-houses, that it occurs to us to suggest 

 who her conservatory glass, ground so as to moderate 

 the light rays (and ne suppose the heat rays also), 

 miglit not, witli advantage, be imported and used for 

 tea-houaea? A modified "Clerihew" seems to have 

 found favour, but, as we understand the matter, tea 

 leaves in withering recpiire only gentle warmth and 

 not the strong current of liut air forced through 

 thick layers of damp coffee by Clerihew's original iu- 

 vention '! The great improvement recently has been 

 the enormous multiplication of horizontal space by 

 means of Layers of movable shelves. A combination 

 of Clerihew and conservatory may probably be a 

 still further improvement, care being taken to modify 

 the heat; unless indeed Ureig's withering machine 

 is a succcES. We h.ave no doubt a good many de- 

 cisious as to machinery will be arrived at by planters 

 and engineers who witness cxperiuients at the Cal- 

 cutta Exhibition. Liberal manuring ultimately will 

 increase the yield of tea without by any jneans in- 

 juring its flavour, and this opens up a new prospect 

 of really paying traffic to the section of the Uva 

 railway when completed only to Xannoya. We are 

 confident tbat Sir Arthur Gordon will not be long 

 in the island until he is convinced (by the repre- 

 sentations of Sir John Douglas, as well as facts and 

 figures supplied by planters and railway othcers), that 

 what with shocks of boxes and sheets of lead, with 

 tons of manure and rice for coolies up rind bulky boxes 

 of tea down there will be traffic which will enable 

 the railway so fo answer the question " Will it 

 pay?" as to leave no excuse for delay in pushing 

 forward the work to Uva, the capability of which 

 .splendid district to grow tea profitably is, in our 

 opinion, beyond question. Even Mr. James Sinclair 

 will ere long acknowledge that tea has revived cou- 

 fidence in and the prosperity of the great Ceylon 

 planting enterprize. 



While tbe greater design of railway extension ii t) Uva 

 remains unfulfilled, we should think t heGovernment might 

 satisfy the demand that Diagama at the top of Dimbula, 

 as well as Bog.aw.antalawa, should be "connected with 

 Horton Plains by road. We suppose " bridle road " 

 is meant? 



We take it that most planters will agree with Mr. 

 Hay that it is desirable to have good holes made 

 for tea, although in specially pervious soil dibbling with 

 an alavanga may .answer. In every i-espect tea plants 

 will bear much rougher treatment in the climate of 

 Ceylon tliin in tlian of Coutiueutal India. 



What Mr. Hay s.iys as to the superiority of large 

 sized seeds agrees with experience in regard to "pedi- 

 gree wheat" &o., but some readers will be 8urlriz^d 

 to learn that the sizes of seeds differ eo much tli.at 

 a inaund of SO lb. weight may vary in number of 

 seeds from 10,000 to 50,000, We flUijpoee that, as a 



rule, of the 10,000 seeds, two-thirds would become 

 plants : of the 55,000 about one-half. A fair average, it 

 appears is 25,000 seeds (not plants) to amauud. Mr. Hay 

 speaks of 43,000 plants from 2 mauuds of freshly picked 

 and planted seed, or -il,500 per m.iund. It seems 

 to follow that only in very exceptional cases can more 

 than 15,000 plants per maund be expected from im- 

 ported seeds. • 



There is no fear of too much rainfall from our 

 atmosphere, and we believe there is equally little 

 fear of injury to tea plants from such an amount 

 of limestone as is diffused in any hill soil in Ceylon. 

 Tea was at an early stage in the enterprize grown 

 beneath the limestone clilfs of Meddecumbera. 



Mr. Hughes of Gallebodde, it will be seen, agrees 

 with Messrs, Armstrong and Owen as to the large 

 saving by machinery. 



There is much else in Mr. Hay's remarks, especi- 

 ally his warning against overdose i^lucking, well 

 worthy of attention, which we are sure they will 

 receive. 



Cej'lon planters are fortunate in the virtual commence- 

 ment of the enterprize to have available the .iccummu- 

 lated experiences obtained in India and to be assured that 

 circumstances of soil and climate as well as labour 

 supplies and means of communication are so emin 

 ently favorable. 



TEA CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 

 A correspondent writes : — Though the Tea Essays 

 contain much of intei'est and value, the abstract results 

 were m.ade public by you as long ago as November 1S79, 

 when you published some figures sent you. 1 think 

 the memorandum appeared on 26th November. It 

 was signed '.S.' I remember it with interest, because, 

 though it might be much expanded, the statement 

 still holds good." We repeat the statement re- 

 ferred to as of general interest just now. It will be- 

 come our duty by-and-bye to select from our old 

 files of the Observer such practical papers as ought 

 to have a place in tbe Tropifal Agricalturint, where 

 they can at any time be readily referred to. "S."'8 

 valuable notes were written at a time when "cin- 

 chona" was all the rage in Ceylon: — 



The following remarks are offered by one who has had an 

 interest in tea for nearly three years, and who has had 

 opi)ortuuities of observing tea cultivation in India. 



There can be no question that in the normal state of 

 the tea market, tea cultivation paj^s most handsomely 

 where the conditions ai'e favourable for obtaining a good 

 yield and for working economically. That these state- 

 ments may not be considered too broad let it be imder- 

 stood that a good }-ield is -tOOlb. (.5 maunds) per acre 

 and that economical working is to grow tliis quantity for 

 EiO per annum, and to pluck it, dry it, pack and de- 

 liver it on boarilship at Colombo for 27j cents per lb. 



(N. B. — High cultivation such as maumang is not pro- 

 vided for. Tills of com-se must be made to paj- for itself 

 in additional yield, which no doubt it will where the cost 

 of transport is not prohibitive.) 



On tliis scale 4001b. of tea costs 11160 or 40 cents per 

 lb. deUvered on boardship. Recent London account sales 

 of Ceylon teas have shown the charges (with freight at 

 4.5s.; to be witliin S cents per lb. Let us allow 10 cents. 

 The tea has then cost .50 cents per lb. delivered to the 

 buyer, who in tfie pi'esent state of the m.ai'ket pays about 

 Is 4d sterling for it. At the e.'ichauge of Is 9dper loipee 

 (allowiug for the 10 cents charges payable in sterling) 

 this is worth 75 cents, which leaves a profit to the 

 grower of 25 cents iier lb. or RlOO per acre. The estate 

 may be supposed to have cost R300 per acre to biing 

 into full bearing and we have the handsome return of 

 '6'i per cent on tlie capital. 



The figui'es upon which the above calculations are based 

 have been carefully computed either from the usual Indian 

 tasks beuig worked out in Ceylon money ur from known 

 local rates, and if of sufficient public interest, any detail 

 cau be explained or veiitied. Superjutcudence at EJ& pet 



