January i, 1883.I 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



537 



roots are all laid bare and exposed to the sun. A few 

 days, say. a week, after pruning, the hole at the foot is 

 tilled up with manure composed of cow-dung, dried 

 simple and beaten info dust, Occasionally it is slightly 

 mixed with fowl dung, but it is the opinion of ex- 

 perienced vine cultivators that cow-dung is the best 

 manure and that fowl dung has a tendency to force 

 the tree into unnatural fructification, which would 

 exhaust and injure it rapidly. The ground lille<l up 

 with manure is kept studiously dry and under no 

 circumstances should it be watered for some time. 

 When blossoms have appeared and matured into fruits 

 of the size of a pepper seed, the tree is watered. Daily 

 watering both in the morning and in the evening is 

 continued untd the fruits attain their full size. 



Except in Jaffna, the conditions necessar.v to suc- 

 cessful vine culture are, perhaps, not well understood 

 in Ceylon Dry ground exposed to the sun suits the 

 vine. A well spread pandal is required and it generally 

 forms a lurge item of expenditure in vine culture. 

 Some pandals, put up at the instance of Mr. Dyke 

 in the kachcheri, cost upwards of R80 each. The 

 ground under the pandal should be free from rubbi.',h 

 and kept scrupulously clean, the sun playing on the 

 pandal, unshaded by any tree. Water is necessary 

 only when fruits have been formed. 



The vines at outstations in the north also thrive, 

 making it clear that the whole peninsula is more or 

 less suitable for vine culture. A graft from the 

 kacboheri gardens was taken and planted at the 

 country seat of Kanagaratne iludaliyar at Tellipallai, a 

 village 8 mill s away. It came up well and was doing 

 well. About, five years ago I noticed some at Chavaoh- 

 cherri and in good condition. Pridham.in his "Historical, 

 Political and Statistical Account of Ceylon," speaking 

 of Jaffna nnd its products, says "that grapes are 

 raised in the towns and the various mission stations." 



A. B. C. 



TEA : CENTRAL DRYING AND PACKING 

 HOUSES. 



In relation to the statement above, that Monday's and 

 Tuesday's Indian tea sales contained no less than 448 

 separate parcels — wlien the time occupied in drawing 

 samples of these teas, and then in arranging, tasting, 

 and comparing them, is reckoned up, some idea will 

 be formed of the growing difficulty of conducting the 

 Indian tea trade, owing to the mass of small lots of- 

 fered for sde. As the imports increase, this matter 

 grows in importance, and, if not done in India, some 

 rongh-and. ready remedy will soon have to be found 

 here, such , as bulking the entire sound produce of one 

 mark togel;hi'r, disregarding the names of the tens. The 

 bulking is already effect>-d Lere — more's the pity for 

 the Planters — and all that would have lo be done would 

 be to mix the so-called Pekoes, Souchongs, etc., to- 

 getlier. There is, as a rule, no appreciable difference in 

 flavour between them, for they are all plucked at the 

 same time off the same bushe", and then elaborately 

 sorted out, an operation useful, no doubt, when the 

 smallest and youngest leaves, the Pekoes, fetched 3s 

 6d per lb., but out of place when they mav fetch 

 a third of that price. It is, indeed, difficult 

 to understand why the Planters continue to sift and 

 sub-divide their teas in this manner. If they left them 

 all together, simply winnowina out the large fiat red 

 leaves, and passed them all through a bulking mill 

 such as the grocers use, the cost of sifting would be 

 saved, the tea would not have to be injured here, nor 

 would its cost lie added to by mixing in the bouded 

 warehouses, and it would not have to be turned out 

 it the che-sts were of a fairly uniform tare. To this 

 argument, so often advanced in th-se pages for the last 

 fifteen or twenty years, the Planters reply that such a 

 course, which may be advantageous in itself, is sim- 



ply impossible, except on large guidons. If this be 

 so, the sooner the smaller gardens amalgamate, so as 

 to ciinduct their business in a thorough manner, the 

 better it will be both for Planters and for the home 

 trade. If the Chinese, barbarous as we may consider 

 them to be, can prepare breaks of 600 or even 1,000 

 packages, the whole of which can be fairly represented 

 by a pinch taken from one of them, the boasted prac- 

 tical superiority of our planters appears questionable. 

 Central drying and packing houses, buying the green 

 leaf at a given price, appear to be the solution of this 

 and of many other difficulties connected with small 

 gardens. This, however, is again dechared to be im- 

 possible, owing to the difficulties of roads, distance, 

 and damp weather. How do the Chinese get over the 

 same, or much greater difficulties? Things here are 

 evidently coming to a crisis, for this week it was im- 

 possible to taste and value carefully each lot in the 

 short space of time allowed prior to the sales, as many 

 of the teas otfernd on Monday were not ready for 

 Bampling until the previous Saturday. At least two 

 clear days shouM be allowed before the day of sale, if 

 Importers expect the large quantity now being brought 

 forward to be dealt with properlv. But if the rush 

 of the past fortnight continues, those who would other- 

 wise give ca.eful attention to each break will ba com- 

 polled to conline their attention to such parcels as they 

 immediately require, — a course which must result in 

 heavy pecuniary loss to the owners. — -Produce Markets' 

 Revieii). 



THE MAKING OF TKA AND COFFEE, 



{Pall Mall Gazette.) 

 Some curious fanatics in matters of taste bent on 

 belittling the conclusions of exirenie civilization main- 

 tain that the true and only wise method of taking tea 

 and coffee is to drink tliem us do the Chinese the one 

 and the Turk or the Egyptian the other. The Celestial, 

 who exhausts his testhetical powers on the appreciiition 

 of biids'-oesl soup and gastronomic on the prepara- 

 tion of rats and puppies in pies, puts a pinch of tea 

 leaves into a tiny cup, pours on it boiling water, and 

 swallows it. The gustatory fauatic admires the simpli- 

 city I'f the operation, reflects that the Chinaman grows 

 tea, prepares it for our use, knows every grade and 

 quality of it, and himself drinks it — ergo, the China- 

 man's way of drinking tea is the bust way. The Arab, 

 again, discovered ooffie, gave it to Europe and the 

 world drank it first and drinks it still. He roasts it a 

 little, pounds it to a fine powder, puts it into a little 

 copper boiler which they call an iiiric, pours some 

 boiliug water on it, boils it in an instant, aud serves it 

 hot, to be drunk grounds aud all. Now, the Arab 

 quoth our fana'ic, invented the beverage, grew the 

 berry, drank it first, and drinks it still — therefore his 

 way of drinking it is ideal ; and one continually hears 

 people who have passed iliree months in the Levant 

 talk with the gravity of a Turk on the supreme and 

 sublime perfection of Turkish coffee, hot from the ibric, 

 and swallowed grounds and all. Philosophy and gas- 

 tronomy are both against the fanatic — the one against 

 the assumption that the taste of the birbarian is a 

 proper standard, and the other against the absurd 

 conclusion that tea and coffee, which are infusions, can 

 be rendered more lielicate to the palate by ihe swallow, 

 ing of the woody particles from which the infiisio.i is 

 made simultaneously with the elecoction itself. I have 

 never drunk tea with a mandarin, but I hove often 

 taken it in the house of China merchants, habituated to 

 the Celestial usages, aud as choice in their selection of 

 the herb as Kung himself could have been ; and of all 

 varieties — Assam, Japanese, Chinese; and at prices 

 varying from £.3 per pound avoirdupois to Is .'id ; yellow, 

 green, black, over-land, and oca-borne. In England 

 most housewives understand the mystery of making 



