428 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1884. 



really centred. The difficulty is to say where this plant I 

 will not gro*, provided the rainfall is 70 inches and 

 upwards to five times 70 inches. Tea is as tolerant 

 of rain as a Newfoundland dog is of water, only 

 the ram must at intervals he relieved by strong sun- 

 heat and bright light. Ceylon planters are coming 

 m<ire and more to understand the cultivation and 

 treatment of the plant. The very word "cultivation" 

 is used in India to designate the process of dig- 

 ging pruuiugs and "jangle" (grass and other weeds) 

 into the soil, and, strong as the temptation may be 

 to go on, in this forcing climate, taking " flush " off 

 plants pereuuially burstiug into leaf, for periods ex- 

 tending to a year aud it half, yet the gradually in- 

 er-'ising proportion of '* baugy " or hard leaf in- 

 evitably gives warning that a period of reat and 

 recuperatiou must be secured by the process of prun- 

 ing. In the native habitat of the plant, in Assam, 

 there is a marked winter season extending from 

 November of one year to the March following, 

 and so there is no choice but to prune in November and 

 to leave the plants in the enjoyment of what the 

 old Book calls a sabbath, until the golden flash again 

 clothes the naked stems in March. Although we have 

 no mtirked winter in this island so near the equitor, 

 I yet suspect that the north-east monsoon period 

 should be chosen for the operation of pruning, be- 

 tween November and February. But I suppose 

 that instead of six mouths' cessation of picking out 

 of the twelve, aa in India, a three months' or even 

 two months' interval will here suffice. If the picking 

 or plucking process goes on once a week, or once 

 in ten days as the utmost interval, and justice is 

 done to the plants meantime in the way of cultivation, 

 the results will be satisfactory, even if less than the 

 hundred pounds of niada tea per month, of which 

 I lately heard, are gathered. And this leads me 

 to mention what I heard as the explanation of the 

 position in the London market of teas turned out by 

 an Ambagamuwa planter, who is known to be an ac- 

 complished tea maker. I ventured to Buggest 

 " coarse plucking," aad I was told that deliberately, 

 at the risk of his own reputation as tea miker, but 

 with the full approval of his employers, in whose 

 interests he acts, the planter in queation plucks only 

 once a lortnight, in order to be able to employ hia 

 labour in the intervals in extending planting oper- 

 ations. Under such circumstance! lOd per lb. may 

 pay aa well as la 3d to Is 6d. But the case 

 suggests serious possibilities of embarrassment in 

 the future with refereuce to a sufficient supply 

 of lab mr for the varied operatious of a tea estate 

 even after machinery has done its best, and it is really 

 wonderful wnat rolling, drying, sifting and sorting 

 inventions can accomplish. The Tamil ooolies have 

 ever been largely migratory, and the habits of the coffee, 

 tree in bearing its harvest during a certain season 

 of the year suited theirs It may be a question 

 whether, in the case of tea also, the time for pruning 

 and the period for rest may not require regulating 

 with reference to the set times lor coolies to arrive aud 

 depart. Of course a large proportion of the labour 

 may be relied upon to remain here for several, in 

 some cases for many, years. In legard to coffee, the 

 Tamils, with their delicate, pliable hauds and fairly 

 intelligent brains, have gained the reputation of 

 pruning as well as if they had been trained at Kew 

 and they seem to have emulated their European masters 

 m rapidly and thoroughly acquiring the art and 

 mystery of the culture and preparation of tea. No 

 wonder, however, if a planter feels a pang at the 

 contemplation of pruning his beautiful and leafy tea 

 bushes. Coffee, even after a pretty stringent course 

 of pruning and handling, continues to cover the 

 ground and is not reduced in height. But the contrast 

 between an uupruued aud a pruned field of tea is 



really shocking and somewhat depressing : witness 

 Mariawatte at the present time. When some hill- 

 sides of tea much further up were first pruned, a 

 neighbour from the opposite side of the valley came 

 across in alarm to see what had become of the van- 

 ished expanse of bright foliaged bushes. They were 

 there, but "sailing under bare poles." Tea has the 

 advantage over coffee, however, of rapidly recovering 

 from the action of fire. 



No. II, 



THE GREAT RESUSCITATOR, TEA — THE TEA FACTORV 

 ON CAROLINA. 

 From the railway the grand tea factory recenily 

 erected by Messrs. Leechman & Co. gives one the 

 idea of barracks calculated to accommodate several 

 companies of soldiers. We slopped at Watawala 

 to have a look at the internal fittings aud working 

 of this the largest and best appointed tea factory 

 in Ceylon, built to serve the purposes of four flourishing 

 tea estates, besides curing such leaf from other estates 

 as is delivered for payment of nine cents (about 21) 

 per lb., 4lb. of green leaf on the average resulting in one 

 of dried tea. 



A special road connects the highway to Dikoya 

 with the railway station, and down this road we 

 travelled with a deep precipice on oue one side over 

 which rolled a very fine waterfall whence power 

 to drive the factory turbine ia to be permanently de- 

 rived, power which will enable it to do the work of 

 thirty horses, or four times, we believe, what an over- 

 shot water-wheel costing the same money could effect. 

 The turbine, too, ia not open to the objection of 

 scattering water about where damp is undesirable. 

 Carolina is 8teep-featured, and the tea visible around 

 the great store is still young, but nowhere can finer 

 or more luxuriant bushes be seen than on Agrawatte 

 and Kadawella including some fine indigenous. From 

 these properties much valuable seed has been season- 

 ably supplied for the extension far and wide of the 

 new and promising industry. Withering, rolling, fer- 

 menting and drying operations were in full swing, as we 

 approached the factory from which emanated that 

 pleasant malty flavour so characteristic of fer- 

 menting and drying tea. Our first impre sion on 

 entering was connected with the vast space and the 

 perfect arrangements for light aud ventilation, all the 

 numerous cross passages and glazed windows facing 

 each other. The K. A. W. Central Tea Factory, Amba- 

 gamuwa, was erected by Mr. W. Meggiuson after plans 

 (from Mr. M's. design) carefully prepared aud furnished 

 by Messrs. John Walker & Co. The total cost was 

 no less thau R35,000, hat it is anticipated that in 

 three years' time the whole of the cost will be re- 

 paid by the facilities afforded for manufacture. To 

 the courtesy of Mr. Megginson we were indebted for 

 the following interesting details: — The building is of 

 wood on fiualydressed stone pillars. There are three 

 floors, the total height from ground to ridge being 42 

 feet. Another story can be added when required and 

 there is ample room ou the levelled space for spacious 

 wiogs. The sp'iee from centre to centre of pillars is 

 15J feet, the timber being consequently very massive. 

 An elephant was constantly employed for nearly three 

 mouths removing the posts and beams from the estate 

 jungles. The grouud-floor is one even sheet of cemeut 

 J inch thick on the top of 4 inches of cemeut 

 concrete. This floor measures 130 feet by 50 feet, and 

 constituted one of the most costly items in the 

 building, but the expenditure to secure a firm, clean 

 floor was wisely incurred. This ground-floor room is 

 10 ft. high beneath the beams, aud is lighted by 50 

 glass windows 5 ft. x 3 ft. This room is used for 

 manufacturing, for sifting and sorting and packing. 

 The two upper looma are lighted by 30 glass wiudows 



