73*^ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March i, iSS^, 



judgement on the part of the planter, as to whether he 

 will gradually descend by pruniug down to 2 feet 9 inches 

 and so on, or go right down again. Should the latter 

 course be decided on it is best to cut down to 1 feet 9 

 inches and not to the old level 2 feet so as to get new 

 layers. That this severe course of pruning will force the 

 tree tbrow out continually, fresh Hushes of leaf is obviou.s ; 

 but for how long the tree is capable of standing it in 

 Ceylon, is of course problematical. Col. Money of India, in 

 his essay, says '*of the two extremes it is probably better 

 to over-prune than to under-prune,'' but we have heard 

 the same thing isaid with regard to coffee, years ago, and 

 I kuowofa well-known planter of over 20 years experience, 

 a great advocate of heavy pruning, who is now using the 

 knife in a very different style to what he used to years 

 ago. And, as I have shov/n, pruning coffee is nothing 

 compared to pruning tea. That this is the best method 

 for obtaining constant flushes I can well understand, but 

 I am afraid it must try tho tree very much, and I hope 

 that our tea planters will begin to manure and give back 

 something to the tree of what has been taken from it, 

 before it is too worn out to respond to a liberal treat- 

 ment. Plucking the leaf is much the same kind of work 

 as picking palam, the cuttysack of the one being changed 

 for the basket of the other. Coolies soon obtain a pro- 

 ficiency in tea plucking, the nail of the thumb being applied 

 to the top of the forefinger and the stalk or leaf cut 

 through, but after a Uttle practice a good picker will 

 nip the stalk or leaf between the thumb and slightly 

 curved forefinger, and with a sharp pinching twist take 

 off the leaf or stalk clean enough. Only the two top 

 tender leaves and the stalk, together with the next leaf 

 nipped off at once just above axil of the third leaf is 

 taken, and then the next leaf is also plucked just above 

 its axil. This is done in order to leave the axil of the 

 leaf intact, as it is from this that the next flush starts, 

 and it must on no account be injured. The pickers meas- 

 ure twice a day, at 11 a.m., and 4 p.m. The average 

 throughout the year is about 12 lbs. a day. though a 

 good cooly will often pick as much as 20 lbs. of leaf, 

 but this is only after his fingers have by long practice 

 acquired a dexterity that is unknown to the novice. 

 The Store is the most interesting part of a Tea Estate 

 being of a different build and style to the usual ponder- 

 ous and substantial affair. There is with a Tea Store 

 no necessity for massive pillars of chipped stone as no 

 heavy weight is to be supported, and there is little real 

 necessity for more than oue floor. The leaf that is weighed 

 in at midday is at once placed on shelves to wither, 

 and spread out or rather sprinkled over sacking down 

 tightly over a framework of light wood. These run up 

 and down the building, and are attached by hinges to 

 the wall or planking, placed about 6 inches one above 

 the other, and held in a horizontal position by a simple 

 contrivance, formed by hanging a rope from the top of 

 the shed and knotting it (i inches apart, each knot fitting 

 into a notch in the edge of the frame. This simple plan 

 has many advantages, as by merely pulling aivay the 

 end of the rope all the frames are released and by their 

 own weight fall down, held up only by the hinge that 

 holds them to the wall, thus throwing all the leaf iu 

 one heap on the ground. The midday leaf is usually ready 

 for rolling and is comp'etely withered, early next morn- 

 ing; the 4 o'clock leaf at midday next day, so tliat it 

 takes from 18 to 20 hours for the leaf to properly 

 wither. There are several ways to .sliew wlion the loaf ■ 

 is withered. Withered leaf never crackles if squeezed 

 in the hand, and held near the ear, as fresh leaf does. 

 Again, withered leaf retains the shape imparted to it 

 by pressure of the hands, but fresh leaf does not. The 

 best test is the feel of the leaf, and practice soon tells 

 one when it is properly withered. It is then taken to 

 the table to be rolled. This operation iu Ceylon is done 

 by baud, though machinery is being introduced for this 

 purpose. The process seems much like kneading dough 

 on lung varnished tables. After this the leaf is heaped 

 in biixes and allowed to ferment. The time tliis takes 

 varies very much, and is never less than half an hour 

 and often as much as '6^ hours. It is then fired; the 

 fire, a charcoal one, being enclosed by a brick wall all 

 round it, and built up to about 4 feet high, regulated 

 by drawere, however, ao that a sieve can be slipped iu 



at different heights when a less or greater degree of 

 heat is desired. The leaf is spread equally over a fine 

 sieve and this placed at first on the top of the wall and 

 furthest from the fire. It soon begins to darken slight- 

 ly and to throw off powerful fumes, which I have alluded 

 to before. After a little it is taken off and turned over 

 with the hand; to allow of all the leaf getting the same 

 amount of heat. Soon after this, when a considerable 

 quantity of moisture has been driven oft", it is placed 

 a little lower down and nearer the fire. It is by this time 

 quite a rich dark color and as soon as this stage is 

 reached and when it is taken off to be turned by the 

 hand, it is at the same time shaken and tapped so as 

 to allow of anything, that can, falling through the sieve 

 on to the table. Whatever falls through will be of a 

 pale grey color, almost white, and is the most valuable 

 part of the manufrctured tea, being formed from the 

 young shoots and tips of the branches and called Pekoe 

 tips. The rest is again put over the fire until it is 

 quite dry and crisi^, when every piece should break and 

 not bend when taken between the fingei's. This finishes 

 the operation, beyond the necessary sorting and picking 

 out the red leaf which, however, is an important work, 

 and one requiring great care and discrimination. In Ceylon 

 the number of classes into which tea is sorted is not so 

 numerous as in Assam or China, the best called No. 1, 

 Pekoe, then No. 2, Pekoe Souchong, No. 3, Broken Mixed 

 and then Souchong. The leaves that refuse to be rolled 

 are picked out and broken up and sold as broken leaf. 

 They produce a dark liquor, very astringent. Packing 

 requires little mention at my hands; the chests are about 

 square and contain as near 80 lbs. as possible — a break 

 of tea being 800 lbs., and it is not advisable to ship less 

 than this quantity home. 



I have endeavoured to give some slight idea of the 

 process the tea leaf undergoes in its progress from the 

 trees to the tea box, as briefly as possible, but there is 

 one subject I have omitted to make any mention of, and 

 that is the distance the trees should be planted apart. 

 In the early days of Ceylon Tea planting most of the 

 estates that were opened were planted far too wide apart, 

 some indeed, as niuch as 6ft. h 5ft. but later experience 

 has shown that this was altogether unnecessary, and waste- 

 ful of room, that was lying fallow as it were. By degrees, 

 however, a closer system, of planting was adopted and 

 now most clearings are laid down 4ft. by 4ft. and some 

 as close as 4ft. by 3ft. the older and wider planted fields 

 being fi^lled up with more plants. By this means a far 

 larger yield per acre is obtained, as the trees in the closer 

 planted fields show no lack of size or vigor as compared 

 with other trees with more room. Nearly all the tea 

 planted in Ceylon is Hybrid, as easily distinguished from 

 from either China or Indigenous Assam, as a robusta 

 Cinchona tree is from Succirubra or officinalis. It is nei- 

 ther so large a leaf or so vigorous a tree as the Indigen- 

 ous variety, nor so small a leaf and so mean looking a 

 tree as the China. On the various estates, I saw many 

 fields of tea on different soils aud with every variety of 

 aspect, and they one and all presented are even and 

 uniform appeareuce that speaks well for the suitability of 

 tea, not only to the soil and climate of Ceylon generally, 

 but of these districts in particular. The shuck ridges 

 invariably to be seen on the finest Coffee estates in the 

 Island, are hardly as yet disctirnible on most tea estates, 

 although to the eye accustomed to a green expense of 

 Coffee unbroken by hardly a glimpse of the soil — perhaps 

 this is not now to be seen you will say, but I know of ■ 

 many estates that can fairly be described thus — a field 

 of tea no matter how luxuriant or magnificent, is flat, stale 

 and — no! that .simile decidcdl// wont do, so I will say sim- 

 ply, small, mean, aud insignificant in comparison. This 

 is the case when the tea is in course of flushing, hut 

 immediately after pruning, especially when it is cut down 

 low, it presents a dismal and woebegone appearance 

 that few other sights could possibly equal and none sur- 

 pass, unless it be a once well-known field of coffee, now 

 woini out, choked with weeds and abandoned! This new 

 enterprise we look to with considerable anxiety and some 

 apprehension — apprehension that land unsuitable for cult- 

 ivation may be opened indiscriminately when the rush 

 for tea comes, as come it will, and we look to it with no 

 inconsiderable amount of hope. Driveu as we have hither- 



