514 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[Januars I, 1884. 



vegan! to tea plants raised from "' cuttings. " As far 

 as my experience goes on this subject, I give it. 



I have tried cuttings largely, both in Assam and 

 the Himiilayas, and also in this island, in the dis- 

 tricts of Laggala, Rakv/ana and Morawak Koralc, and 

 1 have always found them thrive very well indeed. 

 lu India, I generally put the cuttings out as hedges 

 round dilYeient lields to distinguish them from each 

 other, as a hel|) to the picki-rs, and numbered my fields 

 accordingly. The yield is not so large as plants grown 

 from seed, and the liquor not so strong, but ns seed- 

 producing plants thej' are unexceptionable. There is 

 uot the slighest harm in filling up vacancies with 

 them, if required, for seed, and where the vacancies 

 are not too high, but iu any other case I would not 

 plant them, as where you have a good jat of plants 

 as " Short of Plants" evidently seems to have, it would 

 deteriorate the quality of his teas by mixing them. I 

 would, however, recommend planters, planting up a 

 few a acres of land with tea cuttings and reserving 

 tliem for seed which will ba of 81 rvice to them in 

 times, when there is a want of seed and where nurs- 

 ery plants are scarce. In planting tea cuttings, I 

 would do so in hedges, in the same way as rose 

 or shoe-fl >wer cuttings are put out, and each time 

 three feet apart from the other. It is generally 

 understood that you cannot get both leaf and seed 

 fi'om the same gurden and, to get a better quality 

 of seed, cuttings are the best for this purpose, as 

 the percentage of good seed is larger than in the 

 other ease where you have weakened your plants by 

 " plucking." 



I give my opinion here from several yenrs' ex- 

 perience in tei planting in Assam and Darjeeling, 



I am, &o., O. ACLAXD RYVES. 



TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN TAMANKADUWA. 

 Topare (near P ilonuarnwa), Dec. 1883. 



Dear Sir, — I send you (accompanying my letter) a 

 small packet of tobanco, prepared from plants grown 

 iu the Tamankaduwa district on the banks of the 

 Mahavveligaiiga. It i-i, 1 believe, of good quality, and 

 is said t.) liave been sold iu Neg-nnbo (where native 

 tobacco of the best kind is grown and cured) at the rate 

 of R4S per thotisaud, the standard price there being, 

 1 think, K.''0. It is well to mention that an attempt 

 was once made by some energetic planters to open 

 out a tobacco estate a few years ago in the same local- 

 ity ; an experienced man was brought from India to 

 aup'jrvisfl tlie processes of growing and curing ; but, 

 on the wh'de, the enterprise seems to have proved a 

 failure. The s.ample enclosed has been (dcked from a 

 crop gathered from a few acres which were planted 

 for trial. I do uot (|uite know the cause of the fail- 

 ure of the former attempt, but certainly this one has 

 been very successful, for the land cultivated has yield- 

 ed an ample profit to its very enterprising and energ- 

 etic owner. Should a fair trial be given to the 

 cultivation of this plant here, it is not improb.ible 

 that the wildest, and iu some respects poores:, district 

 iu Ceylon will advance to a flourishing condition. I 

 write this to point out to enterprising spirits what 

 might be made a new (and perhaps well-paying) field. 



Hoping that you will be kind enough to express an 

 opinion as to the quality of the tobacco I forward. I 

 reniain, yours etc., J. H. li. F. 



[We have submitted the tobacco to Jlr. C. E. H. 

 Symons, who reports as follows : — " The leaves, I think, 

 have, been left on the stem too long, the ribs being too 

 coarse; color is too dark and uneven. Character of leaf 

 good." — Ed.1 



CANKER IN TEA PLANTS. 

 Dear Sir, — By this post I send you a number lof 

 tea plants taken this morning from a nursery within 



3 miles of Nawalapitiya. You will observe they appear 

 to be cankered much in the same way as cinchona 

 plants, round the collar. Kindly say if you have seen' 

 this disease before and whether it is likolj' to prove 

 as fatal to tea as it has to cinchona. — Yours faithfully, 



. H. M. K. 

 [We cannot say that we have ever seen the disease 

 before as shown on these plants, but we know that 

 some nursery beds in an elevated swamp in Abbots- 

 ford were killed out by apparently the disease which 

 attacked gains and cinchonas so severely in 1S72. 

 Some of the adult trees were also affected, but they 

 speedily recovered, and for long now there has been 

 not a trace of disease — only flourishing growth. We 

 trust the present case is owiig to some peculiar con- 

 ditions of seed, soil, or climate, and that the aflection 

 may not spreail. Of course tea, like every other 

 product, has its enemies. — Ed.] 



TEA SEED IMPORTED AND THAT UROWN 

 LOCALLY. 



Sir, — Before writing cm the first subject, I will ask 

 my readers to make a little allowance for any discrep- 

 ancies they may find in my fifiures from what they 

 have experienced prnctically. I have exported large 

 quantities of seed from Dirjiliug to Assim and the 

 c.m&ignments have invarialily turned out well ; yield- 

 ing from about .SO to 35 OOO plants per manud ; and 

 this was at a time when the tea mania was on, and 

 seed was selling at a fabulous price. Again, I have 

 myself visited selected and picked seed off two estates 

 in Ceylon one in the Laggala district and »nother 

 situated in Dolo'bage, and this has yielded me 

 from 35 OOO to 40,<JC0 plants per maund. The local 

 seed I found soni'what smaller in size than that sent 

 to Assam from Darjiling. I have invariably packed 

 my seed in well-sifted soft earth and moss and have 

 (immediately on arrival) separated the germinated seed 

 and put them out in prepared beds iu a nursery; and 

 the rest I have pitted and as they germinated re- 

 moved them to the nursery. If planters follow this 

 plan, thev will find that a larger peiceniage of seed 

 germinate than by immediately putting them out ia 

 nurseries r.s I have seen done here in Ceylon. 



More again. C. A, R. 



PLANTING TEA AND COFFEE: 

 DIBBLING VS. HOLING. 



•27th December 1883. 



Dear Sir, — I was under the impression that I was 

 the only planter iu the country who was bold enough, 

 or fool enough as some would s.-^y, to plant tea with 

 alav.angae. I have just finished 60 acres without having 

 made one of those tea-cup excavations called " holes." 

 But I see that Mr. Mullens has had the courage to 

 wrtre the practice, as not only being the most econom- 

 ical (m these hard times), but also the best, or better 

 than holiny. Both these reasons should cause earnest 

 enquiry, and to help to give forely- pressed planters 

 confidence in this cheaper and more efficient process, 

 1 will, sir, with your permission, give my own reasons 

 and experience. 



Now, s X months ago I had never even seen 

 a tea-plant, so that 1 am not trjing to pose 

 as an expert in tea. But I have planted as much 

 coffee as, perhaps, any planter now iu the country, 

 and I may claim, iherefore, to kmiw .something about 

 that? I could point to hundreds of aci'es of the finest 

 coffee ever seen, in all the CJva disiric's, pl-mted by 

 me with alavangas only, t)ie roots having spread 

 themselves out everywhere throughout the soil. Some 

 months .ii^'o I p dd a visit to an old friend of mine, in 

 Diko.va, and assiduou.sly trudged with him tbrnuah his 

 own and his neighbours' fields of coffee ; and what did 



