DECEMBER!, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



481 



TEA IN CEYLON. 



1st November 1882. 



Dear Sir, — "Cha" 's letter in your issije of the 

 30ih ultimo, and your leading article on it, will, 

 doubtless, attract a great dt-al of attention at the 

 present time. Hia liberal, if not reckless, estimates 

 of quantity of tea per acre nnd value per lb. might, 

 no doubt, do good by inducing capitalists to embark 

 their money in tea, but they will do much mors 

 harm than good by disappointing those capitalists if 

 they are not fulfilled. 



I think "Cha" would have done much more good 

 had he given us facts and figures of the past yrar's 

 returns on the places under his management, than 

 indulge in whaf is popularly known as "gas." 



Can "Cha" explain the low prices obtained for 

 Dunedin and Ruanwella tea, at a r-^cent s:ile, very 

 much under Is 5d per lb. all round, and those estntes 

 are also under an "experienced Indian tea-planter." 



So far as could be made out from newspaper re- 

 ports, which are all an outsider can learn from, un- 

 less "Cha" comes forward with facts, the aver,age 

 price wfts about Is OJd on the former estate com- 

 pared with about Is 4|d for Loolcondera tea in the 

 same papier, and this does not bear out what he says. 



Does "Cha" include Loolcondera tea in the rubbish 

 sent from old estates, as, so far as could be made 

 out from newspaper reports, this considerably topped 

 the market last year when " Cha" has been amoni; us. 

 "Cha'' says that high estates will give higher prices to 

 make up for deficiency of yield ; how then does he 

 explain that low estates as K. A. \V. (one of the estates 

 condenitied by him for not having a full name on the 

 chests) aud CuUodeu, both low estates, especially the 

 latter, almost at sea-level have given such high averages 

 for their bulk teas viz. Is 3d to Is 4d per lb. 



I have every faith in small but sure profits from 

 tea and own land well suited for its cultivation in 

 several districts, and it is wih a desire to get fur- 

 ther information of a reliable ' character ttiat this 

 missive is penned, and for this information •th.' public 

 in general will be grateful to "Cha." — Yours faithfully, 



D. W. F. L. 



very different appearance from that 1 saw. This part 

 of the island is no doubt the place for officinalis, the 

 group of estates all round in KandapoUa— wherever 

 attention has been paid to planting, draining, and 

 supplying— indicate this. 



THE CEYLON REGION FOR CROWN BARKS. 

 Cinchona CuLTn-ATioN in and around Nuwara 

 EiYA. — A recent visitor to Nuwara Eliya and Kanda- 

 poUa reports that he was much pleased with the 

 appearance of some cinchonas on tlie Nuwara Eliya 

 plains ; and towards KandapoUa : " Portswood " estate 

 and ' ' Lover's Leap " still hoUl their places as officinalis 

 estates in prime form and although both estates 

 average 3 years, and some parts are 4 years old and 

 over, the patches or vacancies are not more numerous 

 than I recollect in cofi'ee, and the trees are well 

 gi-own aud healthy. The system adopted at " Ports- 

 wood " between two and three years since of cutting 

 out small lots in the forest, well protected from 

 wind, has proved a perfect success, but of course to 

 attain this you must also have soil aud lay of land, 

 in liotli of which nature has highly favored this 

 place and some others in the same locality. In the 

 small blocks referred to, the officinalis trees are so 

 thick that you can only with difficulty get through 

 the plantations. " Court Lodge" is looking up well, 

 and the new clearings belonging to "Pedroe" estate, 

 which are on either side of tlie road between the 3rd 

 and 4th mile posts from Nuwara Eliya in the direction of 

 Udapussellawa are simply splendid. It might be ex- 

 pected after the three months of hea\y rains we have 

 had that cinchona officinalis would have made a 



SALT FOR FISH CURING. 



The very interesting letter to the Alailras Mail 

 which we copy on page 484, written by the chief 

 officer of the Salt Department in the Madras Pre 

 sidency, shews that on the opposite continent attempts 

 to adulterate or "de-naturalize" the important condi- 

 ment and antiseptic, sodium chloride, popularly salt, 

 have been no more successful than those instituted 

 in Ceylon. The use of salt in coffee and other hUl- 

 cultures does not seem to be strongly indicated, un- 

 less as a remedy against fungi and insect pests. 

 Most of the salt obtainable here is from the ad- 

 niixture of magnesium chloride with the sodium, 

 highly deliquescent, and it is not from deficient but 

 excessive moisture that our hill culture generally 

 suffers. But it seems certain that the extensive 

 coconut palm culture of Ceylon, especially in the 

 drier regions of our coasts, might be largely bene- 

 fited by the application of salt, provided the sub- 

 stance could be so defiled as to render its recovery 

 and use for food purposes impossible. The question 

 has been frequently agitated, and on the last occasion 

 a decided opinion was obtained from so high an 

 authority as the late Dr. Lankester, that perfect and 

 final adulteration was possible by means of admix- 

 ture with salt of a substance exceedingly repulsive 

 to most human beings, except to the Chinese who 

 store it carefully even in their dwellings in order 

 to be used as manure. Dr. Charsley, who was then 

 Principal Civil Medical Officer of Ceylon, shewed, 

 however, that the result of treating the horrible 

 mixture with charcoal filters was to recover the 

 salt crystals in a perfectly pure state. So long, 

 therefore, as the necessity exists for a revenue from 

 salt (just as opposed to Western ideas as the grain 

 tax, but both equally necessary in the present con- 

 ditions of life and government), so long, we fear, it 

 will be impossible to obtain salt in Ceylon for 

 agricultural purjioses, except at the mouopol}' price. It 

 is just possible that some of the many bye-products 

 of the formations aud manufacture could be rendered 

 available under certain precautions. For purposes of 

 mere experiment, in operations directed against fungi 

 and grabs, we cannot doubt that Government would 

 furnish our correspondent ".J. 8. "with a few tons of 

 salt at cost price, on the guarantee of personal honour 

 that care wo\ild be taken to restrict the use of such 

 salt to the experiments alone. One of the bye pro- 

 ducts of salt manufacture is magnesium sulphate or 

 ' ' Epsom salts. " This substance might, perhaps, be 

 supplied by Government at a low price or admitted 

 free of duty for use in the anti-fungus warfare ? 

 We mentioned some years ago that in Cooke's book 

 on smut rust, blight, etc, this was the only substance 

 mentioned as a remedy against fungi. To the use 

 ot salt iu agriculture we may recur but at present 

 our object is to attract attention to the liberal policy 

 adopted by the Madras Government .as described by 

 Mr. Bliss, in supplying salt at cost price (£1 to i'2 

 per ton), for fish curing. Surely the Government of 

 (.'eylon might see their way to make similar relaxa- 

 tions under similar conditions ? At present, we have 

 ascertained there is no concession even in favour of 

 fishermen, and probably the difficulty here would be 

 that fish cured by means of duty free salt would 

 be, none of it exported, but all go into local con- 

 sumption. It would so, free of duty, go into com- 



