February 2, 1885.] 



ttte TROPICAL " AGttTCTTLTUtfTST 



' ; 



$oi]i;6spondonoo. 



To the Editor of the "Ceylon Observer :" 

 GRUBS AND COCKCHAFERS. 



Dear Sib,— Considering the countless millions of 

 grubs in our coffee soil, I have often marvelled at the 

 scarcity cf cork chafers on the wing. In fact, I am not 

 sure that I ever saw one? This evening, however, a 

 large flowering tree at the end of my verandah was 

 alive with large buzzing insects, flying from flower to 

 flower with amazing rapidity, ci mine, however, to 

 absolute rest, while ^till on the wing, instantaneously, 

 while they inserted their long proboscis into the depths 

 ot the flower-cups. Are these the Ceylon cockchafer? 

 or what? After all, "grub" is the greatest of nil the 

 coffee pests, b rring Government! With the grub at 

 one end devouring the r ots, and the Government at the 

 other devouring the proceeds, heaven help the 



PLANTER. 



[There can be little doubt the insects rur correspond- 

 ent saw were cockchafers, which will, in due time, 

 deposit grubs in the soil. In Europe these grubs 

 seem to require time years to develope into the 

 winged state, but here it is supposed that half the 

 period may suffice. Anyhow, grub is certainly a 

 great evil, and we fear there can be no question it has 

 been aggravated by the non-burning of the patanas. — 

 Ed.] 



NEW AND OLD LAND FOR TEA. 



9th Jan. 1885. 



Dear Sir, — Your correspondent with the long signa- 

 ture, in your issue of yesterday, treats us to a long 

 letter which is very difficult to read ; so much so, 

 that it would be well if he would condense it into half 

 the space with a little table of data, as we should 

 then be better able to get at his meaning. The 

 question is an interesting one, but has more importance 

 for new men than for existing proprietors. Those of 

 us who have old estates upcountry where coffee is 

 dying out and cinchona is sticking, but with fair 

 soil, and buildings, roads, drains and open-land — 

 which together represent a capital expenditure of many 

 thousand pounds — are not going to abandon our estates 

 in the face of yields like those of Mariawatte, Imjbool- 

 pittia, &c , whose history everybody knows. I can- 

 not speak from personal experience, but, proverbially, 

 the soil throughout the "lowcountry" is poor. On 

 many of the old estates " upcouutry " the soil — where 

 it has been preserved by a good system of drainage — 

 is as good as ever it was ; but we must take the good 

 and bad together, for tea as we have always done for 

 coffee. I believe all the present coffee estates are 

 destined to become paying tea-gardens, but whether 

 by the means of their present or future owners, time 

 aloue will show. Those present proprietors who have 

 the means, with coffee and cinchona to help, will 

 leave beginners on new land in the lowcountry far 

 behind in the race in a fair comparison of expenditure. 



When land has ceased to be cultivated, it imme- 

 diately clothes itself with verdure in the shape of 

 lantana, or what we call "weeds," when we don't 

 want them or grass or forest. So long as this is left 

 undisturbed the soil is thereby protected and enriched 

 and loses nothing of the " food of plant life." The 

 soil of an abandoned estate, therefore, is better 

 after a long rest than it was on the day it became 

 neglected. Constant cropping of heavy " weeds." or 

 any other growth, impoverishes the soil. But in recent 

 years the crops of coffee have been so small, that the 

 fertility of coffee-land has been but little affected by 

 them, which, if not much, is an item worth remembering. 



One thing, however, is becoming apparent: tea up- 

 country, ,1 >es not yield its big crops ot 500 to 700 lb. 

 per acre until it is seven to eight years old. Vid< 

 the published accounts of Abbotsford and what is known 

 of other places. This is a lesson for us who come later 

 iu the enterprise. We must not sit and wait and 

 depend upon "next yen-," but ma/be the tea grow faster 

 thau our prdecessors thought it necessary to do by 

 forking the land up earlier than they did and not 

 allowing the plant to get sluggish aud sleepy as the 

 late Mr. Cameron described it. I quite believe, that, 

 with our accun ulated exp' rienc, the young tea of 

 today will do better in its fourth aud'fiftrTyear thin 

 the young tea of seven and eight years ago did. Then 

 again, tea is such a " jungle plant," as we read re- 

 cently in the letters "From the Hills" Once fairly 

 planted (good plnnts in good weather), it will hold its 

 own against almost anything, coming of course, slower 

 to ni'turiiy; ul.vays making root, however, so that 

 when once absorbed into the area of cultivation (after 

 years of re !ect) it would immediately respond to 

 your atte tion, put on a respectable appearance after 

 pruning and pay at once. For impecunious proprietors, 

 with a larger acreage than the proceeds of coffee will 

 maintain under cultivation ; this is a point of very 

 great importance, aud one well worthy the serious con- 

 sideration of mortgagees (in whose ranks I have myself 

 been, and am now a working-proprietor against my 

 wil ). Suppose u man has 300 acres under cultivation, 

 and can only afford to keep up 100 in good cultivation, 

 clean and all that, from the proceeds of the whole. If 

 he has this 1(j0 acres planted up with tea amongst 

 his coffee and elsewhere, and would manage to plant 

 up with t>-a, the remaining 100 or 200 acres, well, 

 then, so long as the estate was kept as a going con- 

 cern with 100 acres well cultivated, the mortgagees' 

 security would be fast improving, even were the re- 

 maining 200 acres seemingly abandoned ; for, bearing 

 in mind what has been said above, that the abandoned 

 soil improves during its rest while the tea is establishing 

 itself, at the end of four or five years, the whole 

 estate, at a small cost, would become a paying tea 

 estate of 300 acres. 



I have just uncovered a fmall patch of land planted 

 with seedlings four months ago, from thick weeds and 

 grass 2 ft. deep, being four months' growth. 'Not a 

 plant is missing, and 'hey are health} aud well grown, 

 and, compared to the insect-eaten things planted with 

 them at the same time, but always kepi clean, they 

 are as kings to beggars. I am afraid, though, then- 

 turn has now come for attack by the universal enemy 

 of, very small tea-plauts. OLD HAND. 



TEA MACHINERY AND MANURING. 



Ambngamuwn, 12th Jan. 1S8D. 

 DEAR Sic, — "The iuterests of the planter and thn 

 machinist are identical," ard the latter is very fond 

 of mouthing this fine sentence. But the planter often 

 finds a discrepancy somewhere in the logic of it, when 

 he is asked to pay about twice as much as the concern 

 is worth for a machine, owing to the intrinsic value 

 of the invention ! When we are many, and the in- 

 ventors count by units, then there is the danger of 

 monopoly always present. Now, there is a very popular 

 "Jackson" and a "Sirocco" whim will take a lot 

 of beating. They can make 1 heir own terms with 

 ns. But wheu I find a Barry and a K nmond, an 

 Evaporator and a Thompson's " challenge," a Kerr 

 and a W.-lker's miniature in th: lists for competition, 

 thMi I begin to feel that our interests are really 

 beginning to be identical ; somewhat better balanced ; 

 one breathes more freely. It suits us therefore to 

 encourage all comers in the field of inventions for tea 

 machinery. Come one, come all. Merit will find its 

 level. Thompson of the " challenge " (somewhat de- 



