April i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



73i 



finest on the is'.auJ, anil that the tea-plant will be 

 more durable and lasting under constant pruning 

 and heavy plucking. These are strong assertions to 

 make, so I shall give reasons for them : lirst, I have 

 seen tea on many estates in Uva, so far back as 24 

 years ago, up to the most recently planted from 

 good China tea to a first-class jat of Assam hybrid 

 and grown at elevations from neaily 7,000 feet down 

 to 2,500 feet, and at these different elevations I have 

 seen the finest hybrid cattied down after running 

 wild and grow up better than ever and Hush freely. 

 I have for years watched the China tea in the 

 Governmeut Gardens at Hakgala, where it actually 

 killed out the natural growth of the soil, and when 

 cattied down and cleared up, gave enormous Hushes 

 of fine tea. I have myself done the same at lower 

 elevations, where on one estate I cultivated a patch 

 of China tea till the proprietors instructed me to 

 root it out and plant coffee : in all these cases the 

 growth of the tea was enormous, and anyone who 

 has had the experience of coffee on both the Kandyan 

 and the Uva estates as I have had must know that 

 the Hush of wood thrown out on really good Uva 

 coffee is larger, quicker in growth and more suc- 

 culent than anything to be seen on the Kandy side, 

 and it is the same with tea. — There will always be 

 found exceptionally fine estates all over the country 

 as we have had exceptionally fiue ciffee estates. 



As for quality my reason may not appear quite so plain, 

 as no Uva tea has yet been thoroughly tested or 

 placed on the market, but my reasons are also based 

 on fact. The soil of Upper Uva is principally com- 

 posed of decayed gneiss and felspar in a very rapid 

 state of decomposition, so much so, that it is quite 

 common to sec the patana, and even whole hill-sides, 

 sink or subside as if undermined. It is the rapid 

 decay of these rocks which gives our soil its great 

 fertility, felspar in particular abounding in potash. 

 Most of our available land has little humus or 

 vegetable matter left, but all the mineral constituents 

 most valuable for the tea-plant are found in abund- 

 ance in the suil : this combined with the peculiarly 

 rapid and succulent growth of the plant and 

 wonderfully fiue climate for gathering, withering 

 and fermenting, the tt a produced must be fiue and 

 as I have alieady said probably the finest tea in 

 the island ; the necessary good machinery and skil- 

 ful management will rot be found wanting. Trans- 

 port aud fuel are the real difficulties with which 

 the Uva tea planter will have to contendr. Transport 

 has always been our Uva difficulty, aud our stand- 

 ing grievance, but we are not so badly off in this 

 respect as wc were when coffee paid we'll, with the 

 good trunk roads intersecting the country from Ratna- 

 pura to Batticaloa, from Nuwara Eliya to Badulla 

 and from Haldummulla to Hambantota. We are well 

 supplied with main roads and the outlying estates 

 will have most difficulty ; tea packages will not stand 

 the rough tieatment aud long exposure our coffee 

 receives without serious injury, and proprietors will 

 have to road so as to admit of their produce beiDg 

 loaded on the estate. * * 



Uva can uever be content till the railroad is brought 

 to badulla, and so f>r as freight to be carried is con- 

 cerned, at the present rate of progression 1 wili allow 

 five years wheu the produce of Uva will be larger than 

 it has ever heeu. As for timber for boxes aud even 

 fuel this can be got from the low-country of the 

 best description and in great abundance. The Ella 

 Pass should be opened out, the road from VVellawaya 

 to Passara opened up, and the road from Passara to 

 Monar.igala via Alupota opened up, the old Batticaloa 

 Mad from Badulla via Ridipane I o Teldeniya ie already 

 op ii For wood carts for tltc supply of Badnlla, but 

 this road Bhi uld be carr.ed further into the low. 

 oduntry : the3e i'oa>'s opened up abundance of timhp 



and churcoal for fuel, and packages can be laid down 

 at a cheap rate for any estate adjacent to or having 

 cart communication with our main roads — for estates 

 more difficult of access, charcoal can be carried at a 

 rate not altogether prohibitory; the new Fori st Ordin- 

 ance, however, may interfere with the burning of 

 charcoal on waste land. As for boxes and " shooks, " 

 I have no doubt Messrs. Walker* Greig will under- 

 take to turn them out, in any quantity as goo.l and 

 quite as cheap as they can be sent from Colombo 

 even by rail. All tea estates should plant up waste 

 land with fast-growing timber trees, eucalyptus, 

 casuarina, grevillea robusta, &c, &c ; there is no 

 difficulty in getting seed of trees adapted to every 

 elevation. I would also point out that it will pay 

 far better to purchase fuel from waste land and pay 

 for its transport over good roads than to reserve 

 valuable tea land for fuel, though this Droperty has 

 plenty of standing forest to last as fuel for many 

 years and there are few estates where enough of fuel 

 cannot be got to cure a moderate acreage of tea for 

 some years to come till the railroad is completed 

 when coal and coke will be available, or probably 

 cheapest and easiest of all for transport, rock oil. 

 ***** 



I must not omit in conclusion to point out that tea 

 both from the nat-re of the plant aud its cultiv- 

 ation and the foliage or leaf only being used is a 

 far more permanent cultivation than coffee. 1 have 

 heard it stated by some of my friends long resid- 

 ent in China that the tea gardens of the peasantry 

 are said to be centuries old, and I believe the tea 

 plantations of Ceylon planted in suitable localties 

 will prove to be like the olive gardens of Southern 

 Eur.ipe almost indestructible by age or neglect, but, 

 to insure general success here in Uva, we must have 

 the only modern means of transport, viz., a railway. 

 Without this we will never be able to compete with 

 districts and countries more favoured in this respect 

 and groups of estates must be placed in direct com- 

 munication with railway stations by cart roads. — 

 (Signed) James Irvine. 

 Badulla, 18th Feb. 1S85. 



TIC A CULTIVATION IN CEYLON 40 YEARS AUO. 

 Iu a recent interview with a reporter of the Ceylon 

 Observer, Sir Samuel Baker enquireel what the com- 

 me cial prospects of Ceylon were, and said he had been 

 greatly concerned of late to hear the bad reports from 

 the island as to coffee. The reporter told him that 

 our planters anel merchants had now put their faith 

 in tea and were cultivating that product to a large 

 extent anel with considerable success. 'Ah," said he, 

 " I recollect the Brothers Worms in Pussellawu, they 

 were the lirst to try tea. They got over some Chinese 

 labourers and they grew Chinese tea. It grew beauti- 

 fully and they made some pounds of tea. They were 

 rieliculcd by the whole colony because they were 

 talking of tea. Everybody said: 'This is the country 

 for coffee, it 's no use growing tea.' The Chinese 

 then went home again, but the Brothers Worms 

 had triumphedfand had made some tea. It was a very 

 simple experiment, and that was 40 years ago." 



SIB SAMUEL BAKER RECOMMENDS A NEW PRODUCr. 



"I have just been reading the Tropical Agricult- 

 wist," continued Sir Samuel, "aud it has interested 

 ine very much indeed. 1 see what immense pains 

 Mr. Ferguson has been taking in the interests of 

 the colony. Wh n I was in Japan about 2 years ago 

 I sent to my relatives at Nuwara Eliya a laige 

 quantity of the seeel of the lacquer plant, and Mrs. 

 Baker told me she hns cot a lot of young plants 

 from the seeds. It struck ras that this might be a 

 new product worth growing. I am snr.) Mr- Raker 



