226 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[September i, 1884. 



the wages ou ttieir gardens to the detriment of the 

 interests of the rest. We agree with the editor, when 

 he says : — " It seems to us that the sooner a Planters' 

 Association is formed in Daijeeliug for the regulation 

 of all matters appertaining to the guild, the better 

 will it be for the stability and emooth working of 

 the industry in that locality. Grunted that there 'ire 

 conflicting interests between gardens, surely these 

 should not be allowed to exist in such prominence as 

 to endanger the general welfare. Individual feeling, 

 personal pi\ directions, and conflicting interests should 

 all be swept away whenever any question affecting 

 the stability of the whole guild comes to the front." 

 Andagdu: — ' We can assure the Darjeeling planters 

 that nothing will in the end be gained by isolated 

 action and individual competition for labour, or for 

 anything else affecting the whole community, It is 

 only by united effort and common action, preceded 

 by united deliberation, discussion, and mutual con- 

 cessions, that the best ends of the industry will be 

 obtained." We need only point to the good work 

 done and doing by our own parent and affiliated 

 Associations to encourage our Himalayan friends to 

 go and do likewise. 



The third leader is on " Manure," anel is a scathing 

 exposure of the silliness of the remarks made upon 

 this subject by the chairman of the Assam Company. 

 The writer saya : — "Such a discussion as took place 

 at this meeting (i.e. of the Assam Company), regarding 

 the use of manures and the effect they would have 

 upon that wonderful thing the tea busli, is vioithy 

 of the days of tea-plauting twenty years ago. It is 

 lamentable, to say the least of it, that such an amount 

 of ignorance can possibly prevail with regard to tea- 

 plauting, iu what we consider an enlightened age, 

 anei reminds one of the times when a Board of 

 Directors of a Company more famed for its debentures 

 than for its dividends, after a protracteel discussion, 

 passed and sent out here a resolution to the effect 

 that no more Souchong and Congou bushes should be 

 planted, and that the Manager's attention should be 

 directed to getting a larger proportion of his bushes of 

 the Pekoe kind. Some of our readers may laugh at this 

 as a joke, but it appeared in more than one home 

 print besides being sent out to the Manager in India." 

 That the above is a fact we can very well believe 

 for we do not suppose that even in Ceylon more 

 than twenty in every hundred non-tea-pleanters know 

 that pekoe is made from the same bush as souchong. 

 After mentioning that he seldom if ever heard that there 

 was not an increase in yield, and in some cases a 

 very considerably heavier yield than would repny cost 

 of manure, &c. I he writer proceeds : — "In addition to 

 this the vigour imparted to the bushes gives a superior 

 class of leaf, and consequently a higher average pi ice, 

 Let any one practically acquainted with tea and its 

 manufacture be asked the (|uestion why some teas that 

 come on the market are wanting in character, or point, 

 anel let that planter visit the garden on which it 

 was made, and he will veiy soon explain the reason 

 to you and iu a very few words, want of vigour iu the 

 buhes. The question tl.en arises how to replace this 

 which has gone, and the only answer to the cpuestion 

 is manure. * * * We do not purpose going into 

 the epiestion of manures more than lo assert that the 

 yield of the bushes is much impioved by the use 

 of manure, and that almost every planter strives to 

 mamre as large an area as possible every year, and 

 eloes not trust to the bushes in bis garden s< nding 

 its loots fuither down every jear for greater nourish- 

 ment." 



Then follows a Darjeeling planter's essay on ' wither- 

 ing ' in which we see nothing worthy of note except 

 the remark: — " Of course we must have yood leaf to begin 

 with. Succulent shoots containing two, or at most 

 three, developed leaves and the terminal bud — no 

 single leaves, and no woody stalks." We have already 

 said that we do not believe the system of pluck- 

 ing the shoot below the eye, so as to have all whole 

 leaves attached to the stalk, to be such a good method 

 of plucking for Ceylon (except in very wet weather), 

 as the hippo paro, or two-and-a-half leaf system. Our 

 reasons we have already given. 



TEA IN TEAVANCORE. 

 We have received the following letter, showing 

 the good prospects for the success of tea in South 

 India : — 



South Travaucore, SOth July 1881. 

 Dear Sir, — I have read with interest your report of the 

 meeting of the Assam Tea Company. I think we may 

 congratulate ourselves on the fact that the tea-tree has 

 found a congenial home for itself here as well as in 

 Ceylon. I measured a tea-tree yesterday on a neighbour- 

 ing estate and obtained the following results : — Girth of 

 stem at surface of the ground 3(H inches ; girth at 

 two feet from grountl 22 inches ; height 24 feet. This 

 tree is about 14 years olel and has never been cut elowu 

 or primed. I should be much obliged by your kindly 

 letting me have a reply in your columns to the following 

 quest ions : — 



1. What height should tea-plants six inches high have 

 attained to in 12 months when planted out ill old coffee 

 in moderate soil ? 



2. When is it considered advisable to remove the coffee 9 

 I have seen on a cacao estate here something very 



similar to the disease which has appeared in Ceylon. The 

 branches of many trees died back in the month of Feb- 

 ruary anil March ; some of the trees succumbed altogether, 

 the remainder recovering when rain fell. I attributed 

 this at the time to drought, as the estate ift question 

 is situated at an .elevation of 400 feet, and this year 

 the dry season set in earlier than usual. — I am, dear sir, 

 yours faithfully, H. J. 



The heiglit and girth of stem of the tree measured are 

 certainly satisfactory. We should like also to have had 

 figures showing the girth of the bush itself from branch • 

 to branch. In answer to the above queries we should 

 say that in ordinarily good soil a tea-plant 6 inches 

 high when put out should iu twelve mouths reach a 

 height of between 2J to i feet. The answer to query 

 No. 2 depends very much upon the cpuality of the 

 coffee : if it is at all reproductive it might with ad- 

 vantage to the tea be allowed to remain for the tirst 

 three years. If it is worthless except for shade, it 

 ought to be removed the second year. 



At the trial of Jackson's Manual Roller the other 

 day, some Carolina estate leaf had bten sent to Colombo 

 perfectly fresh and sweet, a elistance of over 100 miles, 

 but the following paragraph from the Iiuiian Tea 

 Gazette shows that leaf can bear a five days' journey, 

 and be workable at the end of it ! — 



The following interesting account appeared recently in 

 the News Times, Vineland, America: — " On Saturday Mr. 

 Hollinsworth, of this place, manufactured what, consider- 

 ing all the circumstances, is an excellent sample of native 

 grown and cured tea. The "leaf" was by arrangement 

 forwarded by express from a plantation near Georgetown, 

 S.C., a distance of several hundred miles, and was nearly 

 five days iu transit. The quantity necessarily was small, 

 but demonstrated in a simple manner the perfect practic- 

 ability of home grown tea being successfully manipulated 

 by experts, solely by means of American machinery and 

 means, the tea being " fired " and dried by an "American " 

 evaporator, which dad its work perfectly." 



