August i, 1884,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



•5o 



TEA MANUFACTURE AND CULTIVATION. 

 The Indigo and Tea Planters' Gazette, in its issue of 

 July 1st, has a very sensible artiole upon ' Tea 

 Withering.' It points out the mistaken economy of 

 providing too little withering room, for, as the writer 

 says, " if it is taken into consideration that imper- 

 fect withering gives imperfect fermentation, and con- 

 sequently a deficient liquor, it must be conceded at 

 any rate that it has very largely to do with the 

 making of good tea, in fact, that good tea cannot be 

 made without good withering." This we endorse with 

 all due emphasis, for the best of rollers will break 

 up, and the most perfect of driers will fail to make 

 good tea of under or over-withered leaf. The ' kid- 

 glove ' standard is the safest one to follow, and to 

 obtain it room should be provided sufficient fur the 

 spri ading of the crop one leaf thick in wet weather 

 and not more than one inch thick in dry. Should 

 an unusually heavy flush occur in the rainy 

 season the leaves must be tossed over two or 

 three times duriug the night, but the less the leaf 

 is handled or moved once it has left the tree the 

 better. Every touch destroys some of the bloom, 

 and every bruise produces discoloration both in the 

 made leaf and in the outturn of the infusion. To 

 ensure the withering leaf receiving the softest poss- 

 ible treatment we would recommend the use of some 

 sort of canvas or cloth for the trays in preference 

 to bamboo or wire-mesh. We cannot aggree with 

 this writer when he pays : " It is almost impossible 

 to get perfect withering, as naturally the young and 

 succulent leaf withers much more quickly than the 

 larger 2nd and 3rd leaves." It is just because the 

 bud is more succuleut, and because it presents a 

 much smaller surface to the air, that it takes pro- 

 portionately longer to wither, and so all the leaves 

 small and great (not counting bhanji ones) are 

 practically ready at the same time, The practice 

 of picking the Hush in wet weather below the eye 

 of the third leafmstead of above as in the dry season, 

 we have found to answer well in assisting the wither- 

 ing. All three leaves being on one stalk they ate 

 not so liable to stick together and retain the moiss 

 turo as separate leaves would, and so the leave 

 wither more uniformly ; but there is no doubt in 

 our minds as to the expediency of picking only the 

 two-and-a-half leaves in dry weather, for an additional 

 eye is left on the tree, and the succeeding flush comes 

 on much faster, the difference be.n« between 7 or 8 

 days and 14. The writer in the Indigo Gazette seems 

 to have got a little mixed at one point, where be 

 Bays that " the aim of every good tea-maker Bhould 

 be to get the larger leaves withered sufficiently to 

 roll well, and yet not get the buds withered to a 

 cinder. " His mind had evidently suddt nly gone off at a 

 tangent to the drying process. He wisely recommends 

 that the withering trays should, iu a well-lighted 

 store, be placed not more than 4 inches apart. This 

 distance is quite sufficient for the free passage of 

 light and air, and, if found to be too close for wet 

 weather, the intermediate trays could be removed, 

 and a height of 8 inches between each tray be given. 

 Of course in rainy weather artificial heat must 

 sometimes be resorted to to work off the accumulated leaf, 

 but it is quite a mistake to suppose that good tea 

 cannot be made unless the normal temperature of the 

 store or factory be 150° in the shade. We have 

 heard of same places where the coolies are accustomed i 

 to faint off two or three at a time, and w here 

 the manager loses a pound of H -_• .-. h a day in his hurried 

 journey from one door to the other. On Abbotsford I 

 (it is the only estate we feel at liberty to speak of , 



20 



freely) the store is always kept as cool as the bunga- 

 low, one or more doors being usually open (aud all 

 (visitors welcome), and yet the average price obtained 

 for the whole outturn of 1883 was over Is 3d per lb. 



We close with the following letter which has 

 reached us, and our answer to it : 



Dear Sir,— The reports which you publish from the 

 superintendent of Abbotsford contain much useful 

 information about the cultivation and production of tea in 

 Ceylou, which must make them greatly interesting to all 

 concerned. Would you please complement the information, 

 so far given, by stating what average number of trees there 

 are per acre, and at what distances they arc lined and 

 planted ? Tea p tASTBE , 



Our answer is that when we commenced plant- 

 ing tea on Abbotsford .we naturally took into con- 

 sideration the great altitude above sea, and concluded 

 that our bushes would never assume the luxurious 

 growth of lower altitudes : we consequently planted 

 3 feet x 4 feet apart (giving 3,630 trees to the acre). 

 But we have been pleasingly undeceived as to luxuri- 

 ance of growth, and in future we would not line 

 anything closer than 4 feet x 4 feet (2,722 to the 

 acre). We can show separate bushes, pruned, 10 and 

 12 feet in diameter, and our uu pruned trees from 

 20 to 28 feet in diameter show what tea can do 

 in Ceylon even at 6,000 feet above sea. Of course, 

 we have vacancies, but including the destructive 

 effects of the dying symplochoa stump they do not 

 amount to more than 3 per cent of the whole acreage. 



NOTES ON CEYLON KAPOK. 

 {From a Cot respondent at Galle.) 

 The attention of the Oeylon public was first directed to 

 this product as an article of export by the appearance 

 of Mr. A. M. Ferguson's letter in the Observer, in which 

 he pointed out that the so-called kapok of Java, which 

 was largely used for stuffing purposes in Australia, was 

 identical with the silk cotton of Ceylon. The first ship- 

 ment was made from Galle by the P. & O. steamer to 

 Australia, and since then small quantities have been ex- 

 ported from time to time to the same destination. From 

 the interesting circular of J. C. Kliitgen of Rotter- 

 dam, a translation of which appeared in your 

 paper of the 5th, I find that a large demand ior the 

 article has recently sprung up in Holland, Germany and 

 Belgium. 



To supply the export trade, dealers are in the habit of 

 collecting the article throughout the villages iu the in- 

 terior; principally in the Matara and Tangalla districts 

 and in the Central Province. The season commences in 

 May, and only one crop can be obtained during the year. 

 The trees bear in about two years' time, but the pro- 

 duce is then scanty. They do not attain maturity till 

 the fifth year, from which period a larger yield is ob- 

 tained. It is not uncommon to gather 1,000 to 1 600 

 fruit from a tree. The flying-foxes appear . to have a 

 partiality for the tender pods, and they also feed on the 

 flowers. When the pud is fully matured, the cotton is 

 subject to the depredations of squirrels aud birds. 



The complaint hitherto has been that the staple is short 

 and the kapok interior to that of Java. In preparing the 

 article for export, the chief difficulty is experienced in 

 freeiDg it from the seeds. The most primitive methods 

 have been adopted, entailing a great waste of time and 

 labour which might be remedied by the use of suitable 

 machinery. The improved Patent Saw Cotton Gin with 

 new patent condenser appears to be well adapted for 

 this purpose, as the sample of clean kapok turned out 

 by one of these machines recently imported by M 

 W. H. Davies & Co. was very satisfactory . 



