April t, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



1^0$ 



INTERDEPENDENCE OF EAINPALL AND 

 TEA PEODUCTION IN INDIA AND 

 CEYLON. 



AN INDIAN planter's NOTES ON TEA IN CEYLON. 



In our previous article we noticed the averages 

 of tea production in Ceylon for a series? of years 

 and for the months, quarters and half-years of the 

 period since tea became an important factor in our 

 export trade. Most of the tea being, as yet pro- 

 duced in the south-west of the island, it naturally 

 followed, looking at the influence of rainfall on 

 the production of leaf, that more than two-thirds 

 of our crop are harvested in the south-west mon- 

 soon months. We indicated that when Uva be- 

 comes, as it inevitably will, a large producer of 

 tea, the averages are likely to be disturbed. 

 Meantime it may be interesting to see in what 

 proporions monthly, quarterly and half-yearly the 

 crop of 1S8R was produced. (J-oing on the prin- 

 ciple of crediting the export of one month as the 

 yield of the previous month, we obtain the fol- 

 lowing results:— 



Months Pounds Tea Percent- 



Exported age. 



January 364,500 452 



February 530.500 658 



March 1,003,600 12-43 



April 815,800 10-11 



May 687,400 8-52 



June 1,132,000 14-02 



July 778,000 9-65 



August 474.300 5-88 



September 476,300 578 



October 626,000 7-76 



November 413,000 5-12 



December 777,000 9-63 



Total 



8,078,400 



100-00 



Average 673,200 8-33 



It will be seen, from the above that March, 

 which is a month of very small yield in India, 

 was the second best month of J886 in Ceylon 

 while December which is blank in India gave us 

 9-68 per cent of our crop. Our best month is 

 June, then comes March, followed by April, July, 

 December and May. The period of greatest yield 

 in 1886 was from March to July, thus : — 



March .. .. 1243 per cent. 



April .. .. 1011 



Msiy .. .. 8-52 



June .. .. 14-02 



July .. .. iV65 



Total in 5 months 54-73 

 or considerably more than one-half, about the 

 proportion they get in India in June to September or 

 July to October. We differ essentially from India 

 in our appreciable percentages for December, Janu- 

 ary and February, viz. 9-63, 4-52 and 6-58=20-73 

 or with 12-43 for March ^33-16, or one-third of 

 the whole in the winter months. 



On a future occasion we may hope to be able 

 to deal with the figures of tea production as com- 

 pared with rainfall on particular estates in Ceylon, 

 such as Mr. Hogarth placed at our disposal in 

 regard to typical "gardens" in the leading tea 

 districts in India. These we now proceed to notice. 

 Lukimpur gives the largest production of tea per 

 acre in any district in Assam or all India, Pre- 

 mising that the returns for rainfall are perfect 

 only from 1882, those of 1881 being imperfect 

 and 1880 being nil, the crop being given for the 

 6 years from 18^0 to 1885, while the rainfall is 

 shewn complete only for the four years 1882 to 

 1885, the monthly percentages of crop gathered | 



and the averages of rainfall on a Lukimpnr estate 

 compare thus: — 



Months. Mean percentage Average rainfall 



of crop. 

 January ... Nil. ... 1"55 



February ... „ ... 8-21 



March ... -35 ... 4-20 



April ... 2-243 ... 12-19 



May ... 5-59 ... 11-46 



June ... 12'915 ... 1255 



July ... 19-2 ... 19-68 



August ... 20-4 ... 20-34 



September... 17-32 ... 14-79 



October ... 14-42 ».. 4-19 



November... 6-49 ... O-eo 



December... 107 ... ^ 0'50 



The average annual rainfall was lOG inches and as 

 our readers will observe, in this case well distributed. 

 Indeed, if more of the rainfall were concentrated 

 in .Tune and July, instead of falling in August and 

 September, the coincidence with the figures for 

 estates in Upper Dirabula would be very close. The great 

 difference is in the winter cold, which, in India, renders 

 production small from November to April, there being 

 but a slight recovery in May. June, July, August, 

 are the heaviest rainy months, and in those three 

 months more than half the whole crop is harvested. 

 All but a small percentage is gathered between 

 April and September, the other half of the year 

 from October to March yielding a percentage 

 which can scarcely pay for the gathering. But in 

 this case, we may say both rainfall and crops, are 

 more equally distributed over the months than is 

 the case in other places in Assam and Cachar. On 

 another estate in Lukimpur the tea season extended 

 from June to October, 389 per cent being gathered 

 in August and September, in which months over 

 28 inches out of an annual average of 95-5 fell, 

 •n this case also crop and rainfall closely coincide. 

 On an estate in Sylhet, where the bulk of the rain- 

 fall occurred between May and October, the vast 

 bulk of the crop was gathered between Juno and 

 November, the heavy months being July to October. 

 For an estate in Cachar with an annual rainfall 

 of 107 inches, there are complete figures for monthly 

 averages of rainfall and pejcentages of crop for 

 the (5 years from 1880 to 1885, and in this case it 

 will be seen the tea season extends from April to 

 September. The figures are as follows : — 



Months. Percentage crop. Ave, Rainfall 



January ... nil ... O'S 



February ... nil ... 1*6 



March ... 3-3 ... 83 



April ... 9-1 ... 12-3 



May ... 12'0 ... 17-7 



Junn ... 15-7 ... 17-2 



July ... 12-9 ... 15-0 



August ... 13*5 ... 16'1 



September ,-. 10-8 ... 12*0 



October ... 11-4 ... 5-0 



November ... 8-4. ... 1'3 



December ... 1-6 ... 02 



It will be observed that from November to Febru- 

 ary the rainfall was very slight and that as re- 

 gards crop December gave very little; so with 

 March, while January and February were blank 

 months. The six months of heavy rainfall extended 

 from April to September, May and June shewing 

 nearly 35 inches. The crop months extended from 

 May to October, the three months of May, June 

 and July yielding over 42 per cent of the whole. 

 There are figures for estates in Darjiling and the 

 Central Terai which shew that the climate of the 

 Eastern Himalayas is much more rainy than that of 

 the valley of the Brahmapootra. On the well-known 

 Geille estate the annual rainfall ranged from 86-82 

 inches to 132-21 ; another estate gave 85-50 to 121-61. 



