JPNE I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



979 



alion" may reach the three figures erc^l.-D. 1883 is 

 extinct. Tlio question may soon arise as to what has 

 become of all tfie blossum which rejoiced so many hearts 

 a short time ago. Query indeed ! Some say rain, some 

 say sun spoilt it, and some there are who delude them- 

 selves into the belief that it has — all set ! and that they 

 are going to pick a "bumper." The word "bumper" 

 reminis one of the "good old times," when estates 

 could afford to pay K'2':2o curing charges ; how is it 

 that such cliarges are still almost the rule ? Messrs. 

 Baker & Hall advertize a reduction of 50 cents per 

 cwt. on this sum, and surely it is time for strug- 

 gling planters to make an effort and say to those 

 princes of " ye sleepy hollows " : " /iWkix your charges 

 and give us a better average outturn for our parch- 

 ment !" It can be done, and it should be doue. 

 Expenditure on everything else is cut down to the 

 lowest aud even mortgagees have been known to 

 ease the interest, but our merchant princes grind 

 out the uttermost farthing ! ! 



Who i» to bo King, alter the demise of our old 

 friend " Arabica." This is a quoatiou that requires 

 mature diviuatian. 



Tea and cinchona at present seem to be in the 

 majority. Cocon, however, has many and strong 

 admirers, aud undoubtedly gives a liandsome return, 

 but it will not cover the thousands of acres that the 

 former is bound to do, nor will it suit many localities 

 on account of its deadly enemy " wind". Tea will 

 be the mainspring of our future, and we should 

 try and do ii, all the justice we possibly 

 can, as regards cultivation as well as mani- 

 pulation, A good cup of tea is a thing to be 

 remembered, so is a bad one ! ! Ceylon teaplanters 

 should bear this in mind. 



Rubber, they say, is to be planted up largely by 

 some of the knowing ones. There certainly seems to be 

 unlimited accommodatiou for this product. The Ceara 

 variety gave us rather a score in its wintering 

 " vagaries," the leaves appearing ae if stricken by some 

 fell disease — rusty, speckled sunburnt, and finally 

 drooping aud drooping off. Fortunes they prognosticate 

 are to be made of this adjunct 10 our planting enterprize 

 No^(s verrons. Au Revoik. 



AN ASSAM TEA PLANTER ON TEA 

 IN CEYLON. 

 b'rom Mr. Aitken's paper which we publish on page 

 980, it will be seen that this gentleman, who, equally 

 with Mr. Cameron, has had experience lu Assam and 

 subsequently in Ceylon, though he does not feel that 

 he can endorse the prediction of a yield of 700 lb. 

 of tea per acre for Ceylon lowcountry estates, is yet 

 quite certain, from what has been obtained from Calsay 

 at ,5,200 feet (some of the tea, we suspect runs up 

 to 5,500) that Ceylon tea planters may calculate on 

 an a\'crago of 5 maunds (400 lb. ) per acre against 3 

 maunds ("240 lb.) in Assam and .Sylhot. We have a 

 forcing tropical climate, fairly fertile soil, aud re- 

 gular rainfall ; our labour supply is good and plenti- 

 ful ; wc arc exceptionally favoured in regard to 

 means of transport and the sanitary conditions in 

 our island are innnensely superior, an important 

 eousideration in regard to native labour and the well- 

 beiflg of its European directors The result of all 

 these advantages is that, in Mr. iVitken's opinion we 

 can produce tea at 321 cents per 11). against 42^ 

 cents in India. Mr. Aitkcn talks of this as a difier 

 ence of 20 per cent in our favour, but it is in reality 

 nearer 25 per cent, and the larger our yield per acre, 

 of course the larger is the difference in our favour. 

 This is surely encouraging, although Mr. Aitken may 



be right in saying that tea can never hold so import- 

 ant a position or yield such profits as the coffee en- 

 terprize did in its palmy days. Mr. Aitken is as 

 mucli enamoured as Mr. Cameron was of the Mas- 

 keliya flats, Bitterne, Kiutyre, Laxapana, &c., but 

 his reference to Calsay aud Rookwood, and his ex- 

 pressed opinion in favour of the superior quality and 

 the profitable quantity of high grown tea, shew that 

 the owners of places at high altitudes need not 

 envy their brethren in the lowcountry. Yield may 

 not be so copious in the alpine regions, but the climate 

 is preferable aud the soil is better, and with due 

 precautions against wash, will probably be more 

 lasting. For both low and high estates the prospects 

 are exceedingly good. 



But people must not kill the goose that 

 lays the golden eggs ; and we are sorry and 

 shocked to learn from Mr. Aitken's paper, that 

 in the greed for quick returns, tea plants are cut 

 and hacked down at eighteen mouths old. All the 

 literature of the subject led us to believe in only 

 light plucking until the third year, that is according 

 to Indian mode of counting, the thh'd year from the 

 nursery, which agrees with Mr. Aitken's second year " 

 from the planting. Full plucking should only com- 

 mence with what would be tlie fourth year in 

 the one case aud the third in the other. What Mr. 

 Aitken says about planting at stake agrees with the 

 best ludian opinions ; but our own experience leads 

 us to repeat our recommendation of damp ravuics as 

 sites for tea nurseries. Moisture in such places reaches 

 the seeds by capillary attraction and no sliade is 

 necessary. Then again our experience is that the 

 strong tap-root of the tea plant, enables the product 

 to flourish where the subsoil is stiff clay — subsoil into 

 which the tap-root of the cinchona cannot penetrate. 

 As regards distances apart, we see no reasun to re- 

 gi'et our adoption of 3 x 3 feet ; aud on steep inclines 

 we only regret we did not put the plants at half 

 this distance in the rows across the faces of the 

 steeps. Mr. Kcrkhoveu, the leading tea-plantei- in 

 Java perhaps, was in favour of " the hedge system" 

 even at 1,500 feet elevation on gently undulating 

 ground : 4 feet between the rows for. cultivation , and 

 the plants in the rows only 1 foot ap.art. This, of 

 course, was for China plant, whicli we see Mr. Aitken 

 denounces. We think he is right in giving the pre- 

 ference to good jat (variety) of liybrid. The hybrids 

 originated in tlie introduction to -\ssam of Chlua teas 

 by Mr. Fortune, under the orders of Lord William 

 Bentinck's governmeut. The fact of there being an 

 indigenous tea in tlie jungles of Assam was, curiously 

 enough, held to indicate, not tliat this indigenous 

 plant should bo cultivated, but th.at the soil and 

 climate would suit viliat were ileemed the superior 

 China teas ! That was half-a-century ago, and Col. 

 Money expressed regret, in which many will not 

 share, that the China plant ever came to Assam to 

 contaminate the indigenous. But a good hybrid, with 

 large golden-green leaves is scarcely inferior to the 

 indigenous in any quality, and in superior in robust- 

 ness. Eveu up to (i,000 feet, onr hybrids from the 

 old Assam I'onipany's estate floui-ish, but our small 

 trials with indigenous have been disappointing. We 

 are bound to state, however, that a jat strongly 

 China, which Mr. Graham, a Daijiling planter, sold 

 us as good Assam hybrid, and which at one time 

 we were advised to root out, is now giving excellent 

 returns, the surface of some of the bushes being re- 

 markable. Our experience agrees with Mr. Aitken's 

 in favour of well-grown nursery plants, small ones 

 being naturally checked in growth. But there arc 

 great difl'erences in the progress of tea plants accord- 

 ing to season. When the first planters went to Assam 

 about forty years ago, they fouml there the three 

 varieties of tea: the Assam iu<1igeuous; the iutro- 



