48 2 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1884. 



than it does far apart. Then you have the option later 

 on of selling half your trees if you find they really are 

 too close together, or making another grove with them. 

 The soil is sandy, and it 's a marvel to me how things 

 grow here. They do, and most luxuriantly. The timber is 

 splendid. There is a magnolia tree just in front of our 

 house, full 80 feet high. There is a risk to be run here, 

 and that is frost. A severe frost wonld play the mischief. 



Well I remember had a touch on . There 



is risk more or less in everything. A grove of 20 acres 

 three years old about one mile from ua was sold for 

 21,000 dollars. I really cannot tell you the price of groves, 

 I can only tell you what they ask and what they 

 sell for. You know as a planter so much depends on 

 situation, soil, and size of trees, also uniformity of size, etc 

 Will you send me a few cinchona seeds ? I have a 

 couple of coffee trees growing. Do you want to go in for 

 the orange spec ? I think there is money to be made in it. 

 The Florida oi-ange is preferred to the Jlediterranean. 

 An enormous lot of Mediterranean oranges are im- 

 ported every year simply because Florida does n't grow 

 enough. Much more fruit, I should think, is consumed 

 here than in England. An American will have fruit before 

 taking breakfast. Whenever they can get fruit they do. 



A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT OE.VRA. 



AV"e planters cannot afford in these dreadful times to 

 lose any of our remaining resources. I recur to this subject 

 of Ceara, because I am convinced that we are simply losing 

 time by deferring to an indefinite period the tapping of our 

 rubber trees. Recent remarks of a Haputale planter, who 

 has tapped some of his trees for a short time, seem to con- 

 firm a very general idea, that the Cearas are not fit to be 

 tajjped until they have attained an advanced age ; but, as 

 this is not in accordance with my observations, and is, I be- 

 lieve, an erroneous view, I have referred to collectors of 

 longer experience and more perseverance. Their evidence 

 goes to show that young trees, say of 4 inches in diameter, 

 yield, on the uhole, a freer flow than older trees of 9 and 10, 

 and that the quality of the milk is very nearly the same 

 from both. My own observation indicates so much irregul- 

 arity both in the flow and the quality of the milk, and the 

 evidences fluctuate so much, that the principal lesson to be 

 learnt therefrom is to avoid jumpiug to conclusions. It may, 

 however, now be safely said that whatever oiu- Oearas may 

 be able to do for us they may do as eflfectually at 4 inches 

 diameter as at any more advanced s*age of growth. The 

 difference, so far as is yet ascertained, is that more sur- 

 face may be tapped at a time in the larger than iu the 

 small trees, and, consequently, more milk may be taken 

 from the former than for the latter. It may possibly be 

 that the womids of the older tree bleed for a longer time 

 than those of the younger, but the evidence on this point 

 is very conflicting. 



I do not profess to unfold all the secret of the art of 

 extracting rubber from the Ceara, nor do I hope to obtain 

 a revelation thereof by waiting with my hands in my 

 pockets. AVhat we want to know can only be learnt by 

 persevering experiment: casual reiults are simply mis-leading. 



As to curing, we have made some advance. If the milk 

 be poiu'ed at once, as drawn into water, and if the daj'^s 

 mixture be allowed to stand for the night, the rubber will 

 be found in the morning to have partially coagulated 

 into a spongy mass of remarkable whiteness ; and if tliis 

 be washed, it will dry mthout forming the blow-hoies 

 which give such trouble in the drying of rubber that has 

 been allowed to coagulate into a cake dn*ect from the 

 trte. Tlie water in fact, removes some of the feculent 

 matter, and is, in so far, useful, but the rubber so washed 

 appears Us^s strong and liard than that dried by minute 

 divi^ittn into strings. It remains to be proved whether 

 wash'ug, tr drying in strings, will yield the best result. 

 Both yifhl good rubbei", if we can get enough of it. 



As to collecting, the fitting of a leather lip to 

 tlu* collecting tin materially facilitates the collection 

 of the milk, and is an important improvement on pre- 

 vious appliances made since the date of my last. Of still 

 greater moment is the evidence, recently afforded, of the 

 eti-cxcy of mere pin-pricks as compared with the larger 

 wounds made even by any improved pricker. This evid- 

 ence eo far as it goes seems to show that the milk may 



be drawn as effectually by pin-pricks as by an equal 

 number of larger punctm'es ! Should longer experience con- 

 firm this inference, we may extract the milk with a 

 minimum injury to the bark, which appears to be the only 

 injury inflicted by the operation. The rubber seems tobea 

 mere secretion, and to take no imx^ortant part in nourishing 

 the tree. 



An interesting experiment made by subjecting Oeara to 

 great pressure, immediately after its removal from the 

 tree, showed that the lacteals had been completely emptied 

 in the act of removal. The only result of pressiure was to 

 extract a watery fluid without a particle of rubber in it. 

 The lacteals appear to discharge their contents, almost 

 instantly, on tlieir having a vent, for a considerable distance 

 round each puncture. 



Hitherto the tapping practised under my direction, though 

 persevering aad sufficient for experimental purposes, has not 

 been on a scale to produce the article in quantity sufficient 

 for export, but now that minute punctures are found to be 

 effectual and the method of collecting has been simplified, 

 operations will be attempted on a larger scale. W. 



TEA CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION IN 



CEYLON. 



Paper on Tea by Mr. D. Mullens. 



[Read at a Meeting of tJie Maskeliya Planters^ 



Association.') 



Maskeliya, 20th Dec. 1883. 



Gentlemen, — I have been honored by you, through your 

 Chairman and others, with a request that I should gi\'e you 

 some of my experiences iu tea manufacture and cultivation 

 with special reference to Maskeli3'a. In response to so flat- 

 tering an invitation, it behoves me to do my best, though I 

 have but little confidence in my ability to do justice to a 

 suljject on which others more competent have spoken, and I 

 have to ask your forbearance for the many shortcomings of 

 which I shall doubtless be found guilty. 



I shall not detain you with remarks on soil and climate, 

 as I see but few here who are not practical planters, whom 

 it would lie presumptuous on my part to address on such 

 points. Suffice it to say that Maskeliya appears to be spe- 

 cially favored in these important points. If anything is left 

 tobe desired it would, perhaps, be a trifle less rainfall. This 

 drawback, however, (if indeed I am right in considering it 

 such,) is one which we share with other successful tea dis- 

 tricts. Nothing in point of soil, that I know of, can surpass 

 the river-flats so^common iu this district, and on the uplands, 

 I have seen tea growing with a vigour which must be most 

 grateful to its proprietors. The yield of leaf, too, would 

 appear to be satisfactory. In the case of the estate of which 

 I have charge, the tea being planted up somewhat irregu- 

 larly over a large expanse of cofl'ee land, it is difficult to 

 arrive at a certain estimate of the acreage, but so far as we 

 can judge, the yield was between 200 and 2501b. per acre 

 on three years' old tea, which is highly satisfactory and pro- 

 mises very good results in the future. 



My remarks will come under the following headings 

 Planting, topping, pruning, plucking and the usual tea-house 

 works. Most of these operations have been so fully and 

 ably gone into by Mr. Armstrong, that I shall have but little 

 to say about them, merely pausing when I think I can add 

 something, or where my experience has been different from his. 



Planting. — I prefer to plant up of amongst coffee with- 

 out holing. And this not only for econony's sake, 

 though in these days, that alone would be almost a suffi- 

 cient reason, but because I believe it to be better in 

 everyway. I have, I think, tried at various times, every 

 way of planting, holing, planting with forks, and planting 

 with alavaugus, and I prefer the latter. Mr. Armstrong 

 says of sowing at stake in coffee "loosen the soil with 

 the ordinary fork, this is better than holing. As we are 

 all aware, the cofl'ee roots soon find their way into, and 

 fill a hole iu which the good surface soil has been scraped 

 in this case to the detriment of the seed." Now liiis is 

 excellent, but why not go further r* What is bad for the 

 seedling is surely bad for the young plant! I must con- 

 fess to holding opinions with regard to holing which may 

 be considered somewhat revolutionary, but which 1 ven- 

 ture to think, are not unsupported by reason. I find that 

 when I suggest that holing may be imuccessary, and 

 under certain conditions, even harmful, I am gtiucruliy 



