570 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1883. 



TEA :— AS TO PUUNINTi IN RELATION TO 

 SEEDING. 

 (From the Indian Tea Gazette.) 



giR, — In answer to "Proprietor's" enquiries as to 

 "whether the new style of pi-uaing has not something 

 to do with excess "f flower and seerl and short crop 

 of leaf," I should .^ay no, decidedly no. Perhaps 

 "Proprietiir" has a new manager or new coolies, who 

 have not been (jroperly instructed, and cut without 

 knowing what they ought to cut away, and so have out 

 because' they have been told to cut something. All 

 seed or fruit-be.iring treis have two distinct kmds of 

 ehoots. In the o'dfn lime when seed paid well, then 

 the strong hedtliy leaf-giving shoots were cut away, 

 and tlie small di-licate .seed-hearing shoots left on. 

 Tlien cJme a time when seed would not pay ; there- 

 fore it was necessary to chiiuge the system, so as to 

 preserve leaf-bearing wood and cut away the seed- 

 bearing shoots, pointed out to tlie coolies a- cmnjuree 

 shoots, or shoots without strength. All plants have 

 a desire to reproduce their species, and if tliis is re- 

 strained every yt-ar too much, they will, some fourth 

 or fifth jear, bre.ik out c-irlier into blossom than they 

 shonld and against which no foresiyht or management 

 can stand. I beg to bring into notice the means ad- 

 opted in France for obtaining fre.-h grapes in "inter. 

 A certain number of vines are planted, so as to be 

 readily enclosed in a hot-house. Wheu spring arrives 

 every fruit-bearing blossom is taken off before it has 

 time even to break into flower, on its appearance. 

 This not only strengthens the trees, but occasions it 

 to be impatifnt : this is continued for four years. At 

 the end of the fourth year tlie vines are pruned end 

 of August, and a hot hous" is ipiickly raised round 

 them; the vines then quickly burst into bnd, and 

 yield 'very far bunches of grapes in the winter season 

 I believe this is much the case with the Tea tree. 

 This year in Darjeeling ihe tea tree is blossoming late, 

 end of September and October, but in 188U the tea 

 tree came into flower in July. When trees blossom 

 abundantly, it no doubt shortens the crop of leaf. — 

 Yours, Sub JA^TA. 



VINE CULTURE IN .JAFFNA. 



The Pioneer of trade jsei ween .I.^ffna and Colombo 

 Bishop Bettachini's Italian Rardeneu — The Italian- 



METHOD OF PEUNI NO— A GOOD PeUi\EII NOW LIVING NEAK 



Colombo— Some Vine-groweks— The Vine in the P.W. 

 D. office— SOIL— Manure— Lands available for Vine 

 Culture. 



The following facts serve to show that vine culture 

 may be made a proSt.able industry in Jaffna ; and 

 now thfit more than one steamer plies between Jaffna 

 and Colombo the fruit may be sent to a good market 



in due season. . t a- i., 



The late Mr. Nicholas Boudewyu ot JtiHna, the 

 grandfather of the gentleman who is accountant of the 

 O B. C. BaduUa, was in more than one respect the 

 pioneer of trade between the Northern port and 

 Colombo. He initiated the trade in Jaffna cigars,* and, 

 until within the last few years, this branch of the 

 trade in Jaffna toliacco was a sort of monopoly in the 

 family- Likewise he did a flourishing trade in Jaffna 

 grapes. He had six houses at one time in the Pettah, 

 in every one of which there was a flourishing 

 vine bower. If one had the name a person best 

 • qualified to carry on vine culture in Jaffna, the old 

 oentleman's grandson— Mr. P. W. Boudewyn— now 

 somewhere in the Negombo District, is that person, 

 gome of Mr. Dyke's vines in ihe kachcheri garden 

 obstinately withstood every effort of that eminent 



* The cigar trade hiis now developed into the trido of 

 Jaffna, and the capital employed in it is not less than 

 R7 20,000 in a yeat. 



horticulturist and his staff of experts, and refused 

 to bear. Bishop BiHtaohini s dd tliat his Iialian 

 gardener (Andre) could bring them lound. Andre was 

 sent to the kachcheri garden, and, when he left the 

 garden in the evening, Mr. Dyke's gardeners with long, 

 woe-bogone faces beseeehed that gentleman to have a 

 look at the gardens before the destroyer leftlh^ place. 

 Hanuman could not have played worse havoc in 

 the Asoka garden of the fabled Ravana ! And even Mr. 

 Dyke was not without his fear whether, under 

 Aodre'.s unsparing shears, his vines had not been 

 fairly improve d off his garden altogether! The result, 

 however was strikingly different. These vines produced 

 better than all the others; and the Italian method of 

 pruning has since become the favorite method. Mr. 

 Peter JJoudewyn understands this method, having 

 learned it from Andre; and some vines in Colombo long 

 given up as hopeless have under his treatment revived 

 and borne fruit, though the climate of Colombo, 

 with its frequent rains, is tar from favourable to the 

 plentiful production of grapes. Even after the death ot 

 Mr. Nicholas Bou.lewyn the bowers in his several 

 houses were sources of large income. Tlie vine in 

 "Lemliruggen's House"* owes its existence to the late 

 Mr. Herbert Bartholomeusz, chief clerk of the Minor 

 Courts, Jaffna, the father of Mr. J. A. Bartholomeusz, 

 lately under Messrs. Sabonadiere & Co. The Barthol- 

 omeuszes were also very earnest vine-growers, and, 

 pecuniarily, the bower in their house was at the time 

 t'ne best in the Pettah , the proceeds netted during 

 some sea'OUB being so high as R500. 



Next to these ranked the bower more recently 

 plant-d by the late Dr. Cleveland in Ids place in 

 Bankshidl street, which was bringing R600 per year, 

 both seiisons taken together. 



The late Mr. Henry Muttukistna too had a 

 .splendid bower in his 'Chapel Street house, now 

 belonging to the estate ot the late WellopuUe Muclliyar, 

 and, whatever the amount of the produce, the qual- 

 ity 'of the fruits was superior to that of most varieties. 

 Foulstone House, now the property of a native 

 pad.ly dealer, and Ebell's house, which has its 

 backdoor towards the street, had also good bowers ; 

 but since passing into native hands the vines have 

 met with a natural death. 



To these may be added the fact that .«ome time 

 after tlie present Public Works Offices were occu- 

 pied, Mr. Nicholas Pooverayesinghe Mudaliyar, the 

 late storekeeper, planted a vine there, and had it 

 watered and taken care of. When Hast saw it, it>as in 

 a most flourishing condition and bearing, though the 

 fruit does not belong to the best sort, the cutting 

 having been obtained from a vine once growing in the 

 "Eechemoddai (iarden," now occupied by Mr. For- 

 ester Clarke. The fruits are rather small in size and 

 take a long time to attain maturity. Although the 

 peculiarly rich soil of the Jaffna Pettah is considered the 

 best for the grape-vine, it is nevertheless found that 

 the vine will thrive in most of the adjoining vil- 

 lages. At Nallur, Vauuarponne, Kokuvil, Tavady, 

 Uduvil and Tellipallai it is found to thrive, though 

 natives neglect its culture, as they think it too much 

 of a luxury, and, as a speculation, too small an 

 ■atfair, to engage in, i. c, for every man to grow vines 

 in his own garden. But it must be said that they 

 are wanting in the spirit to try its cultivation on 

 an extensive scale. The Public Works' office lies on 

 a side of the beach road, and the soil is a bare, 

 sandy loam and rather saline. That the vine 

 grows there under proper care proves that no soil 

 near Jaffna is so bad, but that uuHer proper culture 

 and with aood manuring, vines can be proBtably grown. 



* This house is the property of Mr. Strantenhergh who 

 follows in the wake ot the Dutch in his attention to vine 

 culture. 



