December i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



Sor. 



The Tea Season in Assam is abo'jt to close 

 a proprietary planter writing on the 10th ult.) with 

 a very large increase on the outturn of last year, 

 but owing to the state of the market it is very 

 doubtful if last year's profits will be reached by many 

 estates. 



Tea. — The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal has come 

 to the conclusion that it is his duty to maintain the 

 restrictions already imposed on the extension of the 

 tea industry in the Darjeeling hills. Mr. Rivers Thomp- 

 son hiis received several applications from capitalists 

 for grants of waste land in the Darjeeling district ; 

 but several of these he was obliged to refuse. In the 

 first place, in the interests of the Indian public, the cin- 

 chona reserves must not be encroached upon. Se- 

 condly, the hill sides are being denuded of trees 

 already, to a dangerous extent ; and lastly, the 

 native population is rapidly increasing ; and land 

 must be reserved for native cultivation. — Civil and 

 Military Oazette. [One effect of this policy will be 

 very largely to enhance the value of lands held by 

 private parties. — Eb.] 



Crops amd FaNoi : Causes or Pests and Remedies. 

 — Our readers will be interested in the following 

 paragraph, which we quote from Mr. Eobertson's 

 report for 1882 on the Saidapett Farm, Madras -. — 

 "The early-sown crops were generally free from 'fun- 

 goid ' diseases, but the later crops were, in several 

 instances, severely attai-ked by ' rust," the result 

 ohietiy of the bad cliniatical conditions, which charac- 

 terized the latter portion of the cold weather crop- 

 ping season. Neither ' smut ' nor ' ergot ' were ob- 

 served on the crops. This, probitbly, was due to the 

 fact that the seeds were, in almost every instance, 

 dressed with sulphate of copper, before being sown. 

 The process followed, is shown in the following direc- 

 tions ; — ' For 50 lb. of seed, take 3 ounces of sulphate 

 of copper, which dissolve in one quart of hot water; 

 when the solution is quite cold, pour it over the 

 seed, and mix thoroughly ; when quite dry, the seed 

 is fit for sowing.' The object in dressing the seed 

 in this way, is to kill the fungoid spores that may 

 be mingled with the seed ; this dressing, however, 

 does not appear to have any marked effect in pre- 

 venting attacks by 'rust.' Of course, if straw is 

 used, in bedding the cattle, which has been attacked 

 by fungoid disease, and the manure of which this 

 bedding forms a part, is applied to land, the pro- 

 bability is that the spores of the fungus will be con- 

 veyed to the soil at the same time, and in this way 

 the spores may get into the plants, even though the 

 seed, from which they were raised, was chemically 

 prepared. There is, however, one clear advantage in 

 thus dressing the seed, irrespective of any effect that 

 may be produced in checking fungoid disease ; this 

 is, in preventing the coolies from eating the grain 

 when they are sowing it- In other countries the loss, 

 in this way, is too trivial for attention, but in this 

 country, where four or five men are usually em- 

 ployed to do work for which in other countries one 

 man would be employed, and where, the people are 

 grain-feeders, and frequently only half-fed, the con- 

 sumption of grain during the sowing process is often 

 a most serious evil ; not so much on account of the 

 value lif the grain as, because the land is frequently 

 only half-seeded — a fact which is disclosed only, when 

 it is too late to remedy the evil. The paddy crops 

 of the farm were attacked by a fungoid disease, and 

 afterwards by insects, The canse was the mismanage- 

 ment of the irrigation water, it having been allowed 

 to stagnate, by too lonL< retention on the land. By 

 draining off the water, and drying the land for a few 

 days, tWe crops recovered completely from both attacks." 

 There is here a hint for the improvement of paddy 

 cultivation in Ceylon, which Government Agents and 

 their Assistants ought to impress on the goyas. 

 04 



Yatiyantota (Ceylon) has, for some.time back, ftea- 

 dily risen in favour as a tea district, and now that Mr. 

 W. H. Morrison of Mepitiakande, has topped this sea- 

 son's prices for Ceylon tea with 2s 8id for his broken 

 pekoe, we may be sure that fui-ther attention will 

 be directed to the neighbourhood. Mr. Monison has 

 already been instructed to begin opening the ."500 

 acres of forestland purchased by Mr. .J. H. Young 

 of Danibulagalla and Petikande. It may be men- 

 tioned that on Mepitiakande as yet, no machinery 

 has been introduced in the preparation of the tea, 

 although in respect of rolling especially the saving 

 of labour from the use of machinery is very gi-eat. 



Tea Grown Near Galle. — Mr. Ziegan has sent 

 us a packet of excellant Pekoe tea grown and pre- 

 pared on his estate near Galle, and writes as follows: — 

 "I have to thank you for the paragraph yon in- 

 serted in the Observer, referring to the sample of 

 tea I left with you some short time ago, and am 

 pleased to hear your favourable opinion of it. I 

 scarcely, however, expected so favourable an outturn, 

 it being the first manufacture on the estate and 

 which will account for any faults the tea may still 

 possess, .such as a badly rolled leaf, the greyish tint 

 in the 'Pekoe Souchong', and perhaps a slightly 

 pungent taste, owing to the freshness of the tea. 

 These faults I hope to remedy in time. Still it goes 

 to show how suitable the lowcountry in this island 

 is for the tea plant, even if grown in the very val- 

 ley as this has done and with every appearance of it 

 turning out a profitable venture. For your inform- 

 ation, I may remark that the tea in question is 

 grown from some of the best seeds imported from 

 Assam, that the place it grows on is called 'Citrus' 

 estate, lying at a distance of 8 miles from Galle, and 

 that it thrives well from the very road side to a 

 height of about 180 feet. I send you a small packet 

 of the ' Pekoe ' which being now a few months old, 

 will, I trust, be, still more palatable than the com- 

 paratively new sample." 



The Quastitt of Cinchona Bark now exported 

 annually from India is becoming large, and it is 

 encouraging that certain vaticinations regarding value 

 have not been verified. It was thought by mauy 

 that an increased supply would so reduce the 

 price, that the bark would not be worth cultivating. 

 This has not been the case, and for this reason ; 

 quinine is an article of general utility, and the demand 

 is therefore expunsive. The Madras Government has 

 issued a return showing the results of the last six years 

 in the cinchona industry on the Nilgiris. The follow ing 

 tables give the details of the plants in existence, and 

 the annual outturn ; — 



Number of plants Produce, 

 in the Gardens. in lb. 



187fi-77 ... 42,208 10.3,.341 



1877-78 ... 204,434 138,808 



1878-79 ... 818,885 114,320 



1879-80 ... 1,525,285 179,299 



1880-81 ... 2,612,922 243,245 



1881-82 ... 2,963,287 242,052 



The cost of producing and the returns per pound are, 

 so far as available, given in the next table : — 



Cost per lb. Price per lb. 

 1876-77 ... RO 9 3 Rl 10 8 



1877-78 ... 8 3 13 5 



1878-79 ... 10 4 2 9 5 



1879-80 ... 8 7 3 



1880-81 ... 6 3 2 8 



1881-82 ... 7 5 ? 



The average profit was therefore about R2 3 2 per lb. 

 The acreage is given at 847 during the last year under 

 notice, .so that the year's profit (ISSO 81), of H336,095, 

 was equal to R396 per acre, a result which ought to 

 make a tea-planter's teeth woXev.—tf'ritiid of hxdia and 

 Statesman, 



