April i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



739 



WARNINGS AND ENCOURAGEMENTS FOR 

 TEA PLANTERS. 

 Upper Abbotsford, Liudula, 28th Feb. 1885. 

 Deak Sir,— In 1883 I dispatched to the Loudon 

 market a break of pekoe ami broken pekoe in 1 lb. 

 ami 2 lb. packages and got respectively 2s Id and 2a 

 id to 2s Cd per lb. Encouraged by this successful 

 precedent, I last year repeated the experiment, and, 

 to my disgust, for tea which I valued at an average 

 of Is 4d'l received an average of Is 0£d (see 

 last sales but one of Abbotsford tea). I would not 

 have attempted to publicly explain the cause of this 

 undeservedly low average, but for the following letter 

 of explanation which I have received from Messrs. 

 ,1. M. Robertson & Co., and which, I think, ought to 

 be published to prevent others falling into the same 

 mistake. It seems to indicate that buyers in Eng- 

 land do not desire Ceylon tea in order that they may 

 sell it pure, but that tbey may mix it. 



(Copy.) Colombo, 21st Feb. 1885. 



A. M. Ferguson, Esq., Abbotsford. 



Dear Sir, — We annex for your guidance an extiact 

 from a letter received today from Messrs, Baring Brothers 

 & Co., which, we think, has special reference to Abbots- 

 ford tea. — Yours faithfully, 



J. M. Robertson & Co. 

 (Extract referred to.) 



" Please take note that in consequence of the tea you 

 send us being in such smalt packages it is almost un- 

 marketable ; and with regard to the last parcel we sold 

 it was with much difficulty that our broker could hold 

 the buyer to his bargain." 



Now for the encouragements. In giving the 

 Abbotsford statistics, I know I am thought by many 

 to be blowing my own trumpet, but I think it will 

 be admitted, if the gnm-disease of 1882 is called to 

 mind, that I am as ready to givo the dark side as 

 the bright. I am thaukful to say that it is very 

 br ght just now, while Ceylon is in sad need of all 

 the cheerful news that can bo given at present. Our 

 tea is simply glMeringly green with health, and here 

 are my leturus of made tea to enel of this and last 

 week : — 



Cattle-shed Field, 15 acres 3,133 1b.; average for year if 

 same rate could be kept eip, 1,206 lb. per acre. 



Bungalow Field, 5 acres, 881 lb.; average as above, 1,017 lb. 

 per acre. 



Roads and Drains, 20 acres, 2,846 lb. ; average, 924 lb 

 per acre. 



Large Field, 70 acres, 8,947 lb. ; average, 738 lb. per acre : 

 — this week's picking will raise this latter consielerably. 



My young plan's that I am picking from cannot 

 possibly consist of more than 10 acres 3 years old 

 and 70 acres 2 years old, chiefly scattered among 

 coffee and cinchona ; yet they have given me in 

 nine weeks of this year 3,058 lb. made tea, or 220 

 lb. per acre. 



My pluckers to the end of last week have averaged 

 21 -S lb. green leaf each (3,065 pluckers have gathered 

 05,840 lb. green leaf). 



I know that other estates are doing equally well, but 

 they hide their light under a— Sirocco !— Yours truly, 

 A, M. FERGUSON, Jk. 



Demerara. — The weather and the crops in the wet 

 season has now fairly set in and copious rain has fallen 

 throughout the colony, Ihough the downpour has neither 

 b en so heavy and continuous as the planters hope it 

 will prove to be. " In Essequebo," writes our coire- 

 sponrient, " I hear some of the estates have not yet had 

 sufficient rain to clear the draining trenches of lees, and 

 the smell alongside the public load is very offensive. 

 Bsrbica and Demerara seem to hxve been favoured with 

 more rain linn the other county. The effect of the late 

 drought on the spring of the canes cut lately has been 

 v ,i-v erious, and I lour of estates abandoning larse 



stretches of cultivation from the want of plants to 

 supply the blanks in the fields. As many of the Much 

 canes have already been cut owing to premature ripe- 

 ness, very little sugar will be male during the first 

 three months of this year, and the abandonment of con- 

 siderable acres of cultivation will curtail the crop for 

 the end of the year, so I think it not unlikely that the 

 ci-opof 1S85 will not exceed 100,000 finds."— Royal 

 Gazette, Jan. 3. 



Pbofits op Oranges.— A correspondent from Florida 

 writes, that "orange culture is one of the most profitable 

 enterprises any one coming to that State can engage in, 

 especially if one can manage to sell out his orchard." — 

 Gardeners' Monthly. 



Returns from Coconut Planting.— An old coconut 

 planter writes : — " Mr. Rama Nathan's estimate of the 

 profits is R30 per acre, which is pretty near the 

 mark for the average native property. The cost of 

 getting up a property is very slight. The original 

 cost of the land say R15, some part of which is re- 

 covered by the land share of the goyiya crops ; then 

 there is the felling of the jungle twice -between the 

 goyiya's work and coming into bearing about the tenth 

 year. On the whole I should say, that, on the most 

 common system, the proprietor of a coconut garden 

 seldom expends more than R40 to R50 an acre during 

 the non productive stage. Of course those who have 

 faith and means can spend veiy much moro with 

 advantage in earlier and heavier crops. I have already 

 expressed my belief that it is a profitable investment of 

 capital to bring up the bearing to 100 nuts per free 

 annually, but this is too European for o common 

 practice among coconut proprietors." 



Sugar Cultivation in Java. — Several Ratavia 

 mercantile firms have memorialized the Governor 

 General in favour of the remission of taxation on 

 sugar in Java and Holland, and lowering freight 

 charges upon that article on State railways, the result 

 being tint they were 'officially notified in reply that 

 their application will be taken into consideration. 

 Meanwhile, cane growing in Java i, threatened who 

 ruin by a foe far more dangerous than low prices or 

 beetroot competition, by the appearance and steady 

 spreading for years in the province of Cheribon of a 

 disease calleel Sereh among growing caneo, whereby the 

 stalks shrivel up until they become useless for crush- 

 ing purposes. Neither is the origin of the disease 

 nor any remedy for it known, the only thing 

 certain being that it gains ground year after jear, 

 slowly but surely. — Straits Times. [It seems as if every 

 product largely cultivateel — wheat, potatoes, viuee, cotfee 

 anel now sugar — will, sooner or later, be attacked by some 

 destructive pest. — Ed.] 



Coffeb and Labor in Brazil. — Mr. Van Deltleu 

 Laerne. — who in consequence of the alarm among Java 

 planters arising out of the fall in the price of coCee 

 brought on by the overproduction of that article in 

 Brazil, was recently commissioned by the Dutch 

 Government to proceed thither anel report ou the con- 

 dition and prospects of coffee growing there — 1 as em- 

 bodied his experiences and conclusions iu a recently 

 published repoit filling a volume containing 600 pages. 

 In his opinion tl ere need be no fear of any increase of 

 the Brazilian coffee export, owing to scarcity of labour 

 in Brazil, which is so great that, whenever the 

 crops are heavy, the growers are so short-handed that 

 delivery falls short of requirements, so that the exp( rts 

 do not keep pace wiih the outturn of the crops. Pr >- 

 fessor Conty, a Brazilian, whose report on the same 

 subject is noticed in the Sourabaya Coiirant of the 15th 

 January, ascribes this scarcity of labour to the supply 

 falling short by slaves dying out in gieat numbers 

 yearly, and by free people declining to »ork on the 

 estates. Chinese labour being too costly and European 

 labour unavailable, Brazilian coffee growing is in a eery 

 depressed condition, — Strailt Tim< 



