February 2, 1885,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



Hi 



I am now" using, I have no hesitation in saying that 

 tho " Challenge" is a good tea-roller.— Yours truly, 



JAS. H. BARBER. 



Report and valuation of 21 packages tea per ship "King's 

 Cross" from Colombo t — 



Blackstone, Ceylon.— 7 half-chests broken pekoe (good 

 strength ami flavor, bright blackleafy broken pekoe, good 

 tip). 2s 9d to 2s Kid; 7 half-chests pekoe (fair strength, 

 good flavor, black, rather bold, irregular fairly twisted leaf, 

 few tips), Is lid to 2s; 4 half-chests broken souchong 

 (rather strong, brisk flavory, black, rather small, flat, choppy 

 leaf), lid to Is; 2 half-chests pekoe fannings (rather 

 good, strength little brisk, small mixed pekoe fannings, 

 rather irregular, little tippy), Is 6d to Is Sd ; 1 chest dust 

 (rather strong burnt, small black pekoe fannings), lOd to 

 Is. These teas show fine quality in cup. — Lloyd Mathe- 

 son & Co., Brokers.— London, 21th December 1884. 



SQUIRRELS AND OACAO. 



Passara, 22nd Jan. 1SS5. 



Dear Sir, — I shall be much obliged if any of your 

 numerous readers (especially any of those who have 

 anything to do with cacao) will give me the benefit 

 of their experience as to the best way of contending 

 with the squirrel pest. Last year I lost fully 20 

 pel cent of a nice little maiden crop through their 

 depredations, and this year they are already begin- 

 ning to attack the pods, although they (the pods) 

 are not yet more than four or rive months old. I 

 tried shooting them last year, but with little or no 

 effect : perhaps I was not persevering enough. Who 

 will come to the assistance of 



A POOR CACAO PLANTER? 



fin Dumbara, we believe shooting was the only 

 means taken. — Ed." 



SOMETHING MORE ABOUT TEA : LARGE 

 FLUSHES AT A HIGH ALTITUDE. 



Abbotsford, Lindula, 24th Jan. 1884. 



Dear. Sir, — When everything about one's own con- 

 cerns is so eagerly seized upon, exaggerated, miscon- 

 strued, and disbelieved, as it is in this scandal-loving 

 little island of ours, it beboveB me to weigh every 

 word set down in the balance of truth, and reject 

 everything that will not stand the test of proof. I there- 

 fore say, once for all, that I am prepared to stand 

 by all I have said, or may in future say, to the pub- 

 lic through your columns. I know that the most 

 absurd and J often wilfully incorrect statements are be- 

 ing industriously circulated, chiefly by those who 

 have never been here and who hardly know a tea- 

 bush when they see it ; but so long as this estate tea 

 yields 500 lb. per acre, and averages Is 3d all round 

 (including dust and fanninga), we can well afford to 

 smile at the growling of the envious. I give oue or two 

 iustances of these reports and the faith that can be 

 placed in them. 



A few (about twelve altogether) of the smaller seed- 

 bearers, from G to 12 feet high, Bhowed symptoms 

 of decay ; so I pruned them down. This Ins been 

 exaggerated into the definite statement that all our 

 giant trees are dying out ! I am sorry to say that 

 about a fortnight ago our special giant was blown 

 over by a strong wind, but we have ready to take 

 his place, fully a thousand giants, of which not one 

 is touched by disease. AgaiD, a gentleman asked 

 my conductor (in my absence) how much tea we had 

 sold locally. He told him, "Nearly 7,0001b." This, 

 I hear, is being spread abroad, but of course in a 

 Dew shape, namely, that we hadsold 7,0001b. of red-leaf . 

 So many in all parta of C(-yl »n are now piactical tasters 

 of Abbotsford pek e, broken pekoe and pekoe dust, 

 that it is needless to refute the above. Another case 

 will suffice, ^moug over 500 coolies I have three or 

 pur of those eccentric creatures, of which I suppose 



every estate has one, if a careful enquiry were made: 

 I mean Tamilized Sinhalese, or people who are Sin- 

 halese by race, but have, for some nason, thrown in 

 their lot with Tamil coolies, adopting Tamil names 

 and speaking Tamil. This, I find, has given rise to 

 the wonderful story that we are working a gang of 

 thirty Sinhalese and their wvox as an experiment. 



Now for " Moderation " 's very sensible letter, with 

 which 1 fully agree, but all of whose questions I 

 really cannot answer. For instance, as we are not a 

 public company I do not see why we should tell the 

 world what we have sold locally and how much it costs 

 us to make our tea. The former question I have 

 partly answered above ; the latter it is impossible to 

 give satisfactorily on such au estate as this, where a 

 great deal of the expenditure is shared by coffee and 

 cinchona, and unless I could give a perfectly reli- 

 able figure I would rather not give one at all. 1 can 

 only say to "Moderation" what I say to all other 

 disbelievers : " Do come and see for yourself." In 

 passing I would call Mr. Rutherford's attention to a 

 mistake that had bttter bo corrected in the Maria- 

 watte statistics. His acreage of manuring is given as 

 50, 15 and 40, vihich make 105 and not 100 acres, 

 so that a 5 too much has crept iD, or 5 acres were 

 manured twice. I trust he will not misunderstand my 

 reasons for pointing this out at once. I cannot give 

 "Moderation" our average price for last year, as we do not 

 hear of the sale of December's tea till somewhere about 

 April, but I think I can safely say it will not be under 

 Is 2d. Our average for 1883 was, as I said, Is 3d. 

 The decrease (if any) for i8S4 is not due to the in- 

 crease of yield, but to a depreciation iu prices all 

 round. As " Moderation," iu his reference to l.oole- 

 eondura, rather infers that a higher yield than 350 1b. 

 per acre, must necessarily distress the bushes, I give some 

 tigures, that will rather open his eyes, as to what our 

 bushes are doing after giving their 500 lb. last year. 

 Here is this week's work, four days' picking: we had 

 to stop on Thursday as our tea-house got too full : — 

 Green Leaf. Average lb. 



Fancy 5,250 lb. made tea in four days, and an aver- 

 age per cooly for the week of 29J lb. leaf ! The trees 

 are in spleudid condition. The following is a state- 

 ment of the distribution of the picking for this and 

 last week: — Cattle-shed field, 15 acres, 4,0 81b. leaf, 

 1,002 tea, rate 1,2021b. per acre. Bungalow field, 

 5 acres, 1,225 lb. leaf, 308 tea, rate 1,10111b. per acre. 

 Lower estate, 20 acres, 4,490 leaf, 1,122 tea, rate 

 1,346 lb. per acre. 70-acre field, 13,078 leaf, 2,420 tea, 

 rate 8791b. per acre. Of course I do not expect, and 

 hardly desire, such a high rate to continue. To show 

 what Tamil women can do when put to it, yesterday 

 17 coolies brought over 50 lb. each, four brought over 

 60 lb., one 70, one 73 and one 75 ! My books are 

 open to any who choose to examine them. As pre- 

 viously stated, our picking consists of the bud and a 

 leaf and a half, and the above 21,000 lb. was almost 

 the finest sample of leaf I have ever got on Abbotsford. 

 —Yours truly, A. M. FERGUSON, Jr. 



The people of Florida, according to some of their pro- 

 minent journals, do not want any protective duty on 

 oranges. The growers throughout the State are very hope- 

 ful, anAdeclare that when it. comes to orange growing, they 

 can hold their own against the world. The next crop, it is 

 claimed, will foot up to about a million boxes. — l'luvl> r »« 

 Farmi < 



