December i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



41^ 



insectivorous birds and the rapidity with which they feed, 

 we can foam some faint idea of the vast amount of insect- 

 life destroyed in a few short hours, by even a single family 

 of these useful little creatures. 



It would appear from "S. W. H."'s letter referred to, 

 that these pests, the leaf-rolling moths, must be doing 

 serious injury, at certain seasons, to the tea gardens in 

 some parts of India. Should they show up here in such 

 numbers as to be equally injurious (which Heaven forbid), 

 I believe that the best agents of destruction to be found 

 will be our in^sectivorous birds. 



[We have more than once referred to a minute leaf- 

 rolling moth as the most serious tea pest we have yet ob- 

 served at work. Red spider and '•mosquito bV.ght"(Helopeltis 

 Antoiiii) exist, but they have have not hitherto done extensive 

 mischief. The moth referred to appears perhaps once 

 in a year, and then vanishes. The moths, which we believe 

 to be the parents of the poochies, are nocturnal ; creamy 

 white in colour, and not larger than the little finger-nail of 

 a man. The most marked and marvellous characteristic 

 of the larviv is the rapidity with which they pass through 

 aU the changes from grub to winged insect. We have seen 

 a flush leaf perfectly healthy on the morning of one day, 

 and roUed-up, black, dry and cindery the next. When we 

 have found the insects there has been no obvious web, only 

 a little worm in a damp envelope, making no attempt to 

 escape and not having any apparent power of throwing 

 out a thread to descend by. As to the remedy of insecti- 

 vorous birds, a most marked characteristic of Ceylon 

 plantations, especially at high altitudes, is the paucity or 

 utter absence of bird life. Birds seldom appear even to feed 

 on cinchona seed, and we do notknow how they are to be 

 attracted.— A proof of this letter having gone to A. W. with 

 our note at the end, he writes : — " I observed your interesting 

 foot-note as to the paucity of insectivorous birds, and in 

 fact birds of all sorts, in ourcotfee districts. Just so. 

 I quite agree with you; there is a deplorable want of bird 

 life in these old favorite districts, where scarcely a remnant 

 of forest or cover of any sort is left. But this is an _un- 

 mititral state of things, and there would be no lack of birds 

 if they only had suitable cover and favorite breeding haunts. 

 For example in and around Nuwara Eliya there are abundance 

 of them ; and warblers, bush-creepers, ant-thrushes and 

 blackbirds can be seen in every hedge-row, and it 

 ■would be much to the advantage of the owners' knle 

 yairds if these useful birds and their habits were studied 

 "more. Another serious question will arise in these districts 

 which are but one expanse of coffee, — where is the fuel 

 and charcoal to come from for drying the new and destined 

 to be the staple product — tea .' May the experience of the 

 past and present impress upon planters the folly of clear- 

 ing away large expanses of natural forest without leaTing 

 intervals of cover, and thus banishing from their estates the 

 most valuable enemies to insect life, which Natm'e has 

 provided." — Ed.] 



COST OF COAL FUEL FOR TEA IN 

 MASKELIYA. 



Maskeliya, 16th Oct. 1883. 

 Dear Sib, — Mr. Gray was quite right about the cost 

 of coal. Coal can be "ot in Colombo for K20 a ton, 

 and, when the railwny is opened to Dikoya, the cost of 

 bringing it up to Hatton will probably be 1260 a 

 ton ; add 12'20 for other charges, cart-hire, &c., 

 and we have it in Maskeliya for R44S0, or 2 

 cents a lb. The Sirocco advertisement states 

 that No. 1 dries from 20 to 2o mauuds of 

 fncfeu leaf per day of 10 hour^, with 6 to 8 maunds 

 of dry wood or 2/2 to S/2 maunds of coal 

 fael. This clearly showa that 1 lb. of coal does 

 dry 2 lb. of te;«. Mr. 0«'en's reply to thi Chair- 

 man's question was surely a rash one, as he must 

 know that the estates with a reserve cf jangle 

 on them are few and tar between. We are 

 told that M.iakcliya, Dikoya and Dimbula are ad- 

 mirably suited for the growth of tea, and I am sur- 

 prized that this fuel question has not been mooted 

 befor.!. Mr. Cray deserves our thanks for bringing 

 the question to light. How did those in the old 

 53 



districts, Pussellawa for instance, propose drying 

 their tea, where they have not even firewood for their 

 coolies ? — Yours faithfully, I!. L. 



THE SCANDALOUS EXACTIONS ON, AND DE- 

 J)UCT10NS FROM, TEA SENT FOR SALE 



IN THE LONDON MARKET. 

 Sir, — For the information of my brother tea planters, 

 I beg to say that 6 breaks of my tea amounting to 

 27,469 lb. were shipped to London : of this only 

 26,749 lb. were accounted for as sold, the b.alance 

 720 lb. being lost to me. The explanation given is, 

 that 398 lb. went as trade allowance of 1 lb. per 

 parcel, and 322 1b. wees lost in weirihingl I look upon 

 this as -scandalous robber//, and the sooner some motion 

 is made about it the better ! The home charges for 

 freight, insurance, brokerage, sale charges, dock charges 

 and agents' commission amount to a little under 2d 

 per lb. : this does not include agents' commission ani 

 olher charges paid at Colombo. I look upon it that 

 with all these deductions tea planting loill not make 

 our fortunes ! What are we to do?— Yours faithfully, 

 A CEYLON TEA PLANTER. 



MR. ARMSTRONG ON " BANGY " BUD AND 

 TEA MANUFACTURE. 

 Rookwood, Deltota, 17th October 1883. ' 



Dear Sir. — " Beginner " will find I do recommend 

 the plucking of "bangy" in my paper, under the 

 head of plucking, last paragraph, oven if its single 

 leaf is hard and has to be thrown away. 



If it is plucked, a healthy shoot is nearly always 

 thiown out from the next eye ; if not, the twigre- 

 maius the same till the end of the season, to be 

 pruned off. I have some very windy ridges, but I 

 have not noticed that wind causes "b.iu.ny." Causes, 

 as far as I can see, are :— Heavy pruning with the 

 sudden and rapid growth ensuing, giving a fmall per- 

 centage ; young whippy laterals not cut far enough back 

 in pruning often grow " bangy" ; dry, hot weather 

 after prunina ; poverty of soil ; and low jat. 



I think Mr. Owen's explanation in your issue of the 

 15th and a more careful perusal of I he cost of hand- 

 vs. manufacture by machinery will satisfy " the gentle- 

 man of high authority "—he has been too hasty. For 

 hand manufacture I have, as with machine, given the 

 outxide rates, and I am at piesent working my 

 machinery at one cooly less than I showed. 



With regard to lining for tei among coffee, I see 

 no difficulty in it. If the coffee is very thick, and 

 land much broken, cut the lining rope into lengths 

 of about 40 feet or so, and fasten them together by 

 a hook and eye (made out of pieces of old wire shoot, 

 a ring and hook) ; the rope can then be worked any 

 length, and always on the ground, the coffee lines guid- 

 ing°ns when we have short ropes, aud instead of haul- 

 ing the rope unhook the lengths and p>i3S them along 

 the ground. The objection to Mr. Northniore's method 

 is that coffee is seldom square lined throughout, and 

 Ilia lines would run diagonally across the hill, an ob- 

 jection it the land is at all steep. —I am, yours trul}', 

 C. SPEARM AN ARMSTRON G. 



PREPARATION OF TEA. BY HAND AND BY 

 MACHINERY. 

 Maskeliya, 19th October 1883. 

 Dear Sir,— Mr. Owen's explanation (page 365) of the 

 "mistake your infornvrnt has falk a into" may he" quite 

 plain" to Mr. Owen himself, but I fear his readers are 

 scarcely so fortunate. Mr. Owen's figures as to h.iud- 

 manutacture are so ludicrously incorrect, that I can 

 only suppose the printer's devil has been "fooling 

 around" with Mr. Owen's manuscript. The cost of 

 rolling by hand is under 4 cents, not 6-5, aud sorting 

 •S6 per lb. not 4 cents. 



