October i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



337 



have run alike." There is proverbial safety in the 

 happy medium which Mr. Armstrong, and indeed 

 everyone else, approves of. but the question is : What 

 eoiistitutes that medium ? My remarks only went 

 towards showing that the adoption of a system of 

 liner plucking on a particular estate had not si) far 

 reduced the yield appreciably or injured the trees. 

 I have heard from a tea planter, second to none in 

 the inland, that the class of tea which in past years 

 be made, and which then held its own against Indian 

 teas would not do so now, and I would like to have 

 Mr. Armstrong's own experience on that point. In 

 Mr. Armstrong's invaluable contribution to our tea 

 literature he has given us his Roofewood yields fr<un 

 165 lb. to start with, up to an estimated 700 lb. tor 

 last year. Has Mr. Armstrong plucked finer than he 

 used to do; and, if so, h»s his yield appreciably suffered ? 

 -Yours faithfully, THOS. NOKTH CHRISTIE. 



PLANTING IN COORG. 

 High Field, Madeuad, Coorg, 1st Sept. 1884. 



Dear Sir,— There is an old saying that it never 

 rains but it pours, and there is no mistaking the 

 pouring this last week, having gauged 2945 inches 

 on this estate, bridges and roads washed away, and 

 (as draining is unknown in Coorg) a fearful loss of 

 surfacesoil. Anent draining, I helieve, it is to be 

 started at last. The new V. A. of Messrs. 

 Matheson & Co. '3 estates (a Ceylon planter) has given 

 orders for the thorough draining of a new 60-acre 

 clearing of cinchona. On the Sumpajee Ghaut alone 

 hundreds and hundreds of tons of good soil has been 

 washed down the hills and helped to silt up the bar 

 at Mangalore. " Can't understand why the ghaut 

 won't give crops," says planter No. 1 ; " Leaf -disease," 

 says No. 2; "Borer," says No. 3; "Climate alter- 

 ing," says No. 4; and so on, totally ignoring tbe 

 fact that all their soil has been washed away through 

 want of drains. 



Cinchona is looking very well in spite of the heavy 

 rains : those lately planted out have not seemed to 

 suffer much. Officinalis and Condaminea have proved 

 a failure, the elevation being too low. Tbey grow 

 very well in the nursery, but when planted out their 

 growth is very slow and spiudy. On goiug round 

 one of the estates in this district, I noticed that in 

 nurseries where the plants had been left 6x6 or there- 

 abouts for shade, nearly all above two years old bad 

 gone out. I naturally asked the proprietor what he 

 thought was the reason, when he informed me that 

 it was constant watering that killed them. May not 

 the constant rainfall you have in Ceylon be the cause 

 of so mauy estates losing such large numbers of trees ' 

 from canker ? In Coorg we have a good 3 to 4 months 

 in the year when we get no rain. At this period 

 the cinchonas partly shed their leaves and appear to 

 sleep, but with the first showers at about the end 

 of March they spring into renewed life and vigour. 



A friend of mine was showing a Ceylon planter 

 over his five-year old ciuchona estate, when he in- 

 formed him that he had seen whole fields die out 

 in a very short space of time through canker ; but 

 it does not appear to do so here : a few die, and some 

 only as far as the roots and then throw up » sucker. 

 The growth i», I believe, inferior to Ceylon, but that 

 may be on accouut of the period of rest they get 

 in the dry weather. Can you or any of your readers 

 inform me why trees allowed to seed should be in- 

 ferior in alkaloids to trees that have never been 

 allowed to seed ? — Yours faithfully, 



SPENCER MARYLAND. 



THAT HUSBAND OF MINE 

 Is three times the man he was before he began using 

 "Wells' Health Renevver." Druggists. W. E. Smith & Co., 

 Madras, Sole Agents. 

 43 



QUERIES AS TO THE EFFECTS OF THE 

 SHAVING PROCESS ON CINCHONA BARK 



The Neilgherries, 6th Sept. 1884. 



SlR,— Please excuse my troubling you so soon again. 

 and kindly find a corner in your esteemed periodical 

 for the following queries anent cinchona harvesting. 



1st. — With regard to the theory that the shaving 

 system of harvesting bark ultimately induces a 

 reduction or deterioration in the total amount of 

 alkaloids in the bark, will Mr. Guard of Cherambidy 

 and other planters (with whom sufficient time has 

 now elapsed since they commenced the shaving pro- 

 cess to prove by results the amount of truth in the above 

 assertion) kindly inform their brother- planters of more 

 limited experience, whether their experience corrobor- 

 ates that theory? Will these gentlemen further oblige 

 by mentioning — 



2ndly. — What is the average gain in interval of 

 time in renewing and thickness of bark so re- 

 newed on trees subjected to the shaving process as 

 compared with the stripping operation ? And — 



Zrdly. — Taking for granted the superiority of tbe 

 shaving process, is that method of harvesting equally 

 advantageous and applicable to cinchonas grown at 

 high elevations (say above 6,000 feet) as to tr.es grown 

 at the lower elevations of about 3 000 feet? 



Some planters recommend shaving for trees at 3,000 

 feet and stripping for cinch mas at 6,000 feet. What is 

 Dr. Trimen's opinion ?— Yours faithfully, NOVICE. 



"JAT." 



Dear Sir, — It must not be supposed, from this 

 heading, that I am about to presume to instruct my 

 grandmother, the public, in all the mysteries of " Jat " 

 good and bad, because I freely confess, tba 1 , not- 

 withstanding the attention and study which I have 

 lately given to the subject, I am still far from a 

 perfect knowledge, and have much still to learn re- 

 garding it. I do not know, for instance, if all the 

 tea in China is of the one single kind known here 

 by the name of that country, neither do I know 

 if the preponderance of this kind on some of the 

 bearing estates iu Ceylon materially affects their crops 

 and their prices, and in what degree. The pub- 

 lie is often favoured — and, rightly considered,- such 

 private information is a favour as it tends to our 

 instruction — with particulars of the yield of this or 

 that garden, and what they average in selling ; but 

 we never hear anything about the "jat" of their 

 tea. unless they want to sell their seed or plants, 

 and then it is always the finest "A. H. " Now, although 

 I cannot teach, I can at least warn ; and my own 

 experience teaches me that a note of warning cauuot 

 be sounded too soon. In the present rush to get 

 the land planted up, I am afraid much bad stuff 

 will be put in. For the sake of the country, as 

 well as of individuals, this should be checked. 

 Will some expert, therefore, give us a few lessons 

 how to tell good from bad jat, China from 

 indigenous, China hybrid from Assam hybrid, and 

 other wrinkles, in all the stages and ages of tea 

 plants? To give my own experience: last year I 

 had never seen a tea-plant, and yet, anxious to 

 save the season like a good many more, I rushed 

 into planting. Tbe first lot of plants I bought 

 (indirectly led thereto by a "V. A." who suggested 

 to a 'cute gentleman on the Awisawel'a side of the 

 country that I was an inexperienced " B. F. " * — since 

 initials are in fashion in Ceylou — much iu want of 

 tea plants in a burry) I paid R7'50 a thousand 

 for. This eeason / am pulling them, nearly all up 

 again, and supplying generally between every plant 

 with a better and faster growing jat. Better plants 

 are now being advertized by an enterprizing Dative 

 at Rl per thousand ! Fortunately, I got alarmed in 



* " Blessed Fool." 



