April 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGKICULTUUIST. 



797 



CEYLON TKAPLANTING ENTERPRIZE. 

 About the year IStii, tlie late Mr. Mitchell of 

 Kelljuiue estate, Haputale, then on a visit to Nuwara 

 Eliya, pointed out to us a fine expanse of forestland 

 behind Baker's Farm, which, if he had had the capital, 

 he would fail) liave purchased with the view of opening 

 it as a tea plantation. A practical agriculturist, Mr. 

 Mitchell felt confident of the success of tea cultiv- 

 ation in the climate and soil of our hill districts, and 

 had he not l)een fully occupied in opening the large 

 Haputale plantation referred to, he would have readily 

 begun at that early date an extensive tea plantation 

 near Nuwara Eliya. About the same time, a wcUknown 

 \"isiting Agent long acquainted with the districts 

 around (Jongalla and Adam's Peak, in oue of his re- 

 ports to the Observer, said : — "Mark my words, if 

 the Western slopes of Adam's Peak do not, before 

 many years elapse, present one of the finest expanses 

 of tea cultivation in the world." If our friends 

 were \-isit the districts around Nuwara Eliya and those 

 usually known as the Southern and Peak stricts in 

 the present day, they would feel that their prophe- 

 cies were rapidly coming true. Save at one corner 

 iiuthe new Kuruwita district, it cannot jjerhaps be 

 said that the Western and South-western slopes 

 proper of the Adam's Peak range have, as yet, been 

 invaded by the tea-planter. But from Kegalla riglit 

 along to Morawaka, it may be seen that tea is now 

 the predominant object of attention with the Euro- 

 pean planter and that in the palmiest days of cofl^e 

 in average districts at least, the prospects of a 

 fair return on capital invested, was not more favour- 

 able than it is today in the Yatiyantota, Awisawella, 

 Kuruwita, Kakwana and Morawaka tea plantations. 

 In confirmation of this opinion, enough has already 

 appeared in our columns respecting the first-named 

 districts and we have now pleasure in calling atten- 

 tion to the report on the latter of the experienced 

 Indian tea planter who has done so much to 

 improve and promote this industry in Ceylon. He 

 writes as follows : — 



THE RAKWANA AND MORAWAK KORALE 



DISTRICTS FOR TEA. 



To Ihe Editor of the '• Ceylon Observer:' 



8th March 1883. 

 Dear Sir, — I promised to let you know what I 

 thought of Morawak Korale and Kakv\ana as tea dis- 

 tricts. I think the soil, rainfall and climate all that 

 could be wislied for tlic profitable growth of tea. 

 Morawak Korale I consider the best of the two dis- 

 tricts, but both districts are good, provided that the 

 land to be planted with tea is well chosen. The 

 two estates that I visited, Campden Hill and Anning- 

 kande, are about the best I have seen in Ceylon : the 

 soil and lay of land are simply perfect, and the estates 

 are carefully roaded, drained, and planted with a 

 very good class of Assam hybrid. I have no fear 

 at all but these estates can be worked up to 700 llj. 

 of tea per acre in full bearing. Considering that i 

 know of two lowcountry estates that ga\e 8j and 70 

 lb. respectively of tea per acre in the first month of 

 this year and that had they been fully planted up 

 they would have given more (and note that neither 

 pf those estates are yet in full Ijcaring) and suppos- 

 ing that we could only manufacture 10 months of 

 the year,— my "awful" estimate of 700 lb. per acre 

 would be realized. 

 101 



A better system of planting will have to be adoptecl 

 in the Rakwaua district as most of the estates now 

 planted are very much exposed to the wind. \\'ith 

 a system of closer planting, say 3 x 3, and allowing 

 every third line to grow up for seed, the difficulty 

 would be got o\'er as the seed-bearing trees would 

 form wind-belts and save the young flush from being 

 damaged by tlie wind. The roads an<l drains also 

 ought to be liedged with tea on both sides and allowed 

 to run up, as wind-belts. I am glad to note that 

 all the lowcountry estates are doing very much better 

 than I anticipated in my wildest dreams, in respect 

 of quantity per acre, and there is now no doubt Ijut 

 we shall yet see thousands of acres taken up for 

 tea in the lowcountry of Ceylon. 



I intend visiting Maskeliya next week, after which 

 I will be able to give you my opinion on it as a 

 tea district. 



By the way I saw Mr. Sliand's toy patent drier 

 at work : the great objection to it as a tea drier is 

 the escape of steam which would keep the wliole 

 tea store in a continual state of moisture, especially 

 if oue had 20 or 30 at work — a numljer which would 

 be required for a very small estate. Besides you 

 could not heat the machines without filling tlie store 

 with smoke, which would taint the whole of the tea. 

 As we are all making bad enough tea as it is in 

 Ceylon at present, for goodness' sake don't let us 

 seek for machines to make it worse. — Y'ours CHA. 



The "unfortunate proprietors" in the "Southern 

 districts," once so full of hope over their coffee 

 fields, but latterly inclined to regard most of their 

 laud as useless, may now find e\en in the Kukulu as 

 well as in the Kolonna and Morawak Korales tliat tea 

 carefully planted in the way pointed out by "Cha" 

 will put a new face on their investment. Not 

 only on the Adam's Peak slopes, and (iongala 

 uplands, are there reserves availaljle for tea 

 hut away in the lowcountry towards Kalutara, 

 where a climate with abundance of moisture and 

 sunshine will do much to atone for a soil inferior 

 to that found in the majority of Indian tea districts. 

 In the Kalutara district itself, even within the in- 

 fluence of the Seabreeze, the success of tea cultiv- 

 ation has been demonstrated in the best possible 

 way, by satisfactory sales of produce in Mincing Lane, 

 and there can be no doubt that a good many tlious- 

 ands of acres can be judiciously selected between this 

 point and Gongalla and Adam's Peak before it is said 

 ^hat the land in Ceylon fit for tea is exliausted. But 

 meantime, we need not wander so far afield. It is satis- 

 factory to know that in the old districts and adjacent to 

 them, so much is being done in tea. The present season 

 has shewn how pi'ofitable the cultivation of tea 

 plants as seedl)earers can be made : for in one case 

 mentioned to us the gross return per acre seemed to 

 be manifold that of coffee in its best days. The large 

 quantity sold both of imported and locilly grown 

 seed, as well as of nursery plants, shews how widely 

 tea is being planted and " Clias' " rejjort cannot fail 

 to encourage not only those directly interested in 

 this enterprize. but also those « ho desire to see a re- 

 vival of the prosperity of the ( olony at large. 



THE SUGAR TRADE, 



jndging fn m Putrj' & Pasteur's annual review, is 

 suft'iriiig from over-production equally with that in 

 coflee and tea. Beet sugar has increased rapidly under 

 a system of boautitS which ha- given the people of 

 Britnin cheap sugar at the cost of tie rm an taxpayers — all 

 save tho beet growers. We quote as follows : — 



Aecoiding to the lioard of Trade returns the imports of 

 sugar int'i the United Kingdom during tlie past year havi^ 

 been larger than ever, exceeding tliose of I8S1 by fully 

 50,000 tons ; the coDBumptiou has re'i'ained statioiiary, 



