Oct. f, t^^e.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



ns 



SELECTION OF LAND FOR TEA GROWING 

 IN JAFAN. 



Mr, T. Futatszzi, a member of the Committee 

 of the Central Tea Industry Association, Japan, 

 having inspected the cultivation of tea in China, 

 some of the estates in Ceylon and Darjiling in 

 India, has, with a companion, spent a few days 

 in Ceylon on his homeward journ.ey. (iathering 

 the materials for an oxliaustive report upon what 

 he has seen, this gentleman expressed himself 

 much gratified with the attention paid him in his 

 journey in British territory and the readiness with 

 which all information was afforded him in response 

 to his inquiries. He was good enough to supply 

 a paper on the soils of Japan, entitled " The 

 Mode of Selecting Land for Growing Tea in Japan : ' 



1. The red lime soil, partly black and mixed 

 with a little sand, is quick to grow tea, is free 

 from the invasion of insects, and the tea grown 

 on it has an excellent flavour and taste. 



•2. The same kind of soil as above, only not 

 mixed with sand, is almost equal in capacity for 

 tea-growing to the first, but is more liable to de- 

 vastation from insects ; besides the tea grown on it 

 is not pungent. 



3. Light black soil, partly red, is very quick 

 to grow tea. It wants, however, to be fully manured 

 or the tea bushes are apt to die away. The tea 

 leaf contains very little of tenacity and is hard to 

 twist, and consequently produces a large quantity 

 of fannings. Gardens on such soil pay the owners 

 well for first nine or ten years, but not beyond that 

 limit. The tea made from it is not good (superior ?) 



•i. The red lime soil is slow to grow tea for the 

 first nine or ten years. It is liable to invasion of 

 insects, and heavy oily manuring must not be done 

 for the first six or seven years. It is recommended 

 to bury in only green grass and leaf, until a 

 change is eftected in the soil. Although the crop 

 of tea for the first nine or ten years is not so 

 large as from other gardens, it eventually pro- 

 duces the largest quantity, and the tea will be 

 found to be the best in quality. 



."). White yellowish lime soil mixed with sand 

 requires manuring to the utmost. Tea is slow to 

 grow in it, but in other points equal to that of 

 other gardens. 



(■). Pure black soil is not preferred in Japan, 

 as the cold and frost in winter and early spring 

 kills the bushes. 



These statements are generally admitted in Japan 

 to be the actual condition of tea gardens, but first 

 of all it is very important to have a deep soil — 

 say eight to ten feet as the main root of tiie tea 

 plants grows straight downward. Therefore we 

 choose the jpoor deep soil rather than that which is 

 shallow and rich, if there is hard lime soil or rocky 

 sand below B feet of its surface. 



The crop of tea made per acre in Japan is 

 as follows : — 500 to 7So lb. per annum in the 

 districts of Kioto, Kanagawa, and five others ; 

 417 to 490 lb. per annum in Osaha, Iliogo, and 

 nine other districts ; 139 to 390 lb. per annum 

 in Tokio, Nagasaki and seventeen other districts. 

 The average yield of all these districts is 438 lb. 

 per acre, and the average size of the tea gardens 

 belonging to each proprietor is only about three 

 and three quarter acres. It must be mentioned that 

 most of the tea growers do not depend solely 

 upon tea for their livelihood, but mainly depend 

 upon rice growing and other agricultural employments. 



There are one or two interesting items in the 

 above report, principally as showing the conditions 



under which tea cultivation is carried on in Japan. 

 There are but few of us in Ceylon who can afford 

 to look forward for nine or ten years as a prelimin- 

 ary period in which cultivation and growth must 

 be subservient to prolit, though doubtless from 

 a purely agricuituial point of view it ought 

 to be so. In some of the districts niGntionecl 

 the rate of produce per aero is eonsideiably 

 nice than we have hitherto seen stated, ami 

 it must not be lost sight of that to arrive at 

 actual correctness with figures from so large 

 a number of very small garden '=, must be an 

 extremely difficult task, and it does not appear 

 from what source these returns have boon com- 

 piled. In all probability the smaller and more 

 carefully cultivated gardens produce a much larger 

 quantity of leaf than the larger estates. There are 

 one or two questions to which Mr. Futatszgi would 

 like to have the answers if any of our readers 

 will be good enough to supp'y them : — 



(1) What is the largest break of Ceylon tea sold 

 locally ? 



{'2) What is the largest break of Ceylon tea 

 shipped from the island ? 



{'■'>} What is the cost of opening tea land up 

 to the 2nd year. 1st Forest-land ; •2nd land turned 

 from a coffee into a tea estate (details ar*; not 

 wanted except as to cost of tea jilants.) 



(4) What is the cost of transport of tea liinu 

 Darjiling to Calcutta? 



As regards the third question we may at once 

 say that while R110toR130 is not too high to bring 

 forest land into cultivation, witli planting and two 

 years' expenditure ; in the case of coffee estates 

 transformed into tea, the expense would probably 

 not exceed R70 to R80. The " Tea Planter's 

 Manual," to be ready in a few days, will however 

 suijply the needful information on this point and 

 many others. 



The AiisTKRDAM Qdinine Wokks, — The Pharma- 

 eeiitiuli Weekhlad voor Nederland states that the 

 Amsterdam (Quinine Works may soon be compelled 

 to stop working ; but that efforts are being diligently 

 made by the directors and a few gentlemen interested 

 in the cinchona trade to avert the threatened 

 disaster. If the works are closed it is feared that 

 the Java bark would be consigned to Germany 

 instead of to Holland, and the latter country would 

 thereby lose an important and growing branch of 

 commerce. — Chemist and Bntfjgist, Aug. 14th. 



Thk Production of Heat in Flowkes has 

 often been observed and measured, and the general 

 chemical explanation given of the phenomenon is no 

 doubt true in the main. It depends upon oxidation 

 or the union of oxygen gas with the tissues of plants 

 or their contents, and to the "combustion" or des- 

 truction that goes on in consequence, accompanied 

 by the emission of carbonic acid gas. [This state- 

 ment, from the Gardener's Chronical, seems to have 

 a direct bearing on the discussion respecting the 

 so-called " fermentation " of tea. — Ed.] 



TuK Ckisis Ai'rR0.\.CHiNG IN BiUziL. — The Fall 

 Mall has the following remarks in the course of 

 a review of Mr. H. C. Dent's "A year in Brazil": — 

 With regard to slavery, the slaves are gradually 

 being emancipated, and slavery will soon have ceased 

 to exist, besides which, the lot of a slave in Brazil 

 would appear to be very bearable one, and cases of 

 cruelty seem to occur but very rarely. Slaves are 

 worth up to £200 sterling. The financial position of 

 the country is a chronic state of borrowing more than 

 it can pay, and of thereby getting more and more 

 hopelessly into the mire of bankruptcy. Stoclc- 

 hilders should beware in time. 



