39° 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1884. 



his visit to the Darjiling tea plantations he saw 

 nothing to equal the growth and promise in Matale and 

 in several other Ceylon districts. He agrees that Tea 

 even more than Ceara Kubber has found its habitat 

 in Ceylon, being able to hold its own against the 

 strongest of native plants on land where it may 

 have had from neglect, to right its way. This we 

 found to be the case in Lower Aiubagamuwa last 

 year, where an abandoned coffee clearing was in the 

 course of a few mouths simply snuffed out by the 

 invasion of weeds and jungle plants, while an ex- 

 perimental patch of tea held its own against allcomers. 

 An old, shrewd and very experienced Ceylon planter — 

 Mr. Alexander Greig, formerly of Rangala and Sabara- 

 gamuwa — who gained an iutimate acquaintance with 

 the tea plant after he exchanged a planting for a 

 mercantile career and became the agent of the then 

 well-known house of Messrs. C. Shand & Co. at 

 Chittagong, — expressed to us in Scotland lately the 

 doubt as to whether the Ceylon soil had sufficient 

 staying qualities to support long-continued cropping 

 with tea. He dreaded a falling-off in crop or in 

 quality, although of course judicious manuring 

 might postpone the evil day. More especially did 

 Mr. Greig doubt the advantage of planting tea 

 on land previously cropped with coffee. We 

 had the benefit of the presence of another old 

 planter and practical agriculturist, Mr. Arthur Sinclair, 

 during this discussion and the 2> r0 ' s &a & con ' s were 

 keenly argued in connection with the future of Ceylon, 

 its splendid climate, transport and labour facilities for 

 a tea enterprize. But it was of course impossible to 

 adduce proof of what tea might be expected to do in 

 the distant future. Since our return, however, we have 

 learned one fact that ought to reassure Mr. Greig 

 and strengthen the position of local tea planters who 

 may be inclined to utilize land once cleared and 

 planted with coffee. On a field of Barra estate, Rak. 

 wana, which had been cropped with coffee for some 

 eighteen years, Mr. A. Greig in 1864-65 planted some 

 China tea amongst the coffee. From time to time the 

 leaf was manufactured and samples freely distributed, 

 and we remember well in 1872 visiting the spot in 

 company with Messrs. Donnan and Sinclair and ad- 

 miring both the growth and product. System- 

 atic cropping has certainly not been attended to 

 onwards from that date, but for several years 

 back the leaf has been plucked and the bushes 

 not only yield but look as nourishing as if they 

 were growing on virgin soil. In the case of tea much 

 more than of coffee or cacao, we think there is 

 reason to anticipate comparative permanence for 

 cultivation even on our average Ceylon soil. A leaf 

 crop is less trying to the soil than one of fruit, and 

 our usually abundant rainfall, rich in ammonia, 

 must play an important part. 



Finally we have to call attentiou to the ques- 

 tion of an industry in fibres to which as yet com- 

 paratively little interest has been paid in Ceylon. It will 

 be seen from the letter which follows, that the General 

 Fibre Company is determined to challenge attention to 

 their famuus " Death & Ellwood Machine" by com- 

 peting at the approaching trials of fibre machinery 

 under the auspices of the Indian Government. All 

 we learned of this machine at home predisposed us to 

 regard it as a decided success ; but we riud that in 

 Ceylon its practical success is not considered to be set- 

 tled. We are certainly aware that Mr. Campbell who had 

 worked a machine here and pronounced the result to be 

 unsatisfactory if not a failure, confessed at home, when 

 he learned some more about the working, that be did 

 so under an entire misapprehension. He had had 

 less than the minimum fall of water prescribed, 

 and he had fed his raw product at a wrung 

 point to the machine, which made all the difference 

 in the work. The proof of success is now the great 



demand which is setting in for machines and we 

 saw the result at the Company's stores not in mere 

 samples but in appreciable and even very large consign- 

 ments of prepared fibres of different kinds. Unfortun- 

 ately the London market for fibres generally had fullen, 

 but the produce of Sanseviera Zeylanka (a free grower 

 here) as prepared by this machine was so much prized 

 that a very high rate up to £40 a ton was obtainable for it. 

 We brought away samples of the " Moorva " twiue; 

 as it is called, made from the fibre of the Sanseviera as 

 well as of Rhea taken from considerable consignments re- 

 ci-ived from India. We trust our Ceylon planters are uot 

 going to allow their neighbours over the way to beat them 

 in this direction any more than in other new produols. 

 We have ventured to call Ceylon a paradise for leaf- 

 yielding trees, but surely the same may be said of 

 it in respect of fibrous plants. Meantime, we shall 

 watch_ with special interest the result of the machine 

 trials in India ofwhich the " General Fibre Company," 

 through our friend the Secretary, courteously apprises us. 



RHEA FIBRE AND THE NEW MACHINES. 

 The General Fibre Company, Limited, 



London, E.C. 19th Sept. 1884. 

 Dear Sir, — We beg to inform you that our 

 Engineer, Mr. W. E. Death (one of our Directors), left 

 here for Calcutta on Wednesday last, the 17th 

 instant, and will be present at the trials witli fibre 

 machinery, to be held by the Indian Government about 

 the middle of October at Alipore (?) or Calcutta, 

 where he will show our machine in operation, Mr. 

 Death is due in Bombay on 14th October, and will 

 at once proceed to Calcutta, where his address will be 

 care of Messrs. King Hamilton & Co. — We remain, 

 yours truly, For the General Fibre Company Limited, 

 L. G. DUFF-Gn'ANT, Secretary, 



Tea in Ceylon and China. — The Japanese have not 

 pleased us by picking quarrel with the Chinese in 

 the midst of their fight with France, which is a diffic- 

 ult job enough without further complications. Why 

 Japan should claim a sovereignty over the Loo Choo 

 Islanders is inexplicable to every one ; it is true 

 some act of warfare was committed by the Japanese 

 a few years ago against the Chinese vassal prince who 

 ruled the island, but this does uot constitute the 

 rights now claimed. Japan has learnt much from the 

 civilzat ion of Europe, and, we fear, has acquired this 

 insight into the ways of a certain power especially 

 (Russia), and more or less of all, that the time, of 

 another's difficulty is one's own opportunity. How 

 England can keep out of the trouble we cannot see. 

 We only contemplate one satisfactory point, namely, 

 that we shall not run short of tea. India is nearly 

 equal to all our requirements. Yet only a few years ago 

 the idea was ridiculed that we should ever produce 

 tea at Assam, or that it would Sourish out of China, 

 Now the pearl of India, Ceylou, is also turning iia 

 attention to the cultivation of tea as a way out nf 

 the troubles she is in from losses in almost all her 

 former staple growths. Ceylon tea, an expert and 

 authority tells us, is the moet delicious in the whole 

 world, and it has a fragrance of its own superior even 

 to Chinese tea, and a strength equ<l to that of Indian. 

 Out of evil here clearly some good is likely to come 

 to us, and England stands a little in med of a bit 

 of luck once more — golden days may return. It is 

 pleasant, by-the-bye, to hear that Cyprus this year, 

 owing to the splendid weather, finds itself in a most 

 flourishing condition, and will give us proof that we 

 have a valuable aquisition — a primrose the more to 

 lay before the stone feet of the great and gone, "ho 

 had forecast, which, after all, is the supreme quality 

 of a statesman, and without which, as we see, they 

 but sorrily blunder. — Home, News. 



