May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICS!" A8ltfCTTUrURISY. 



871 



22. I think England is the best market. The market 

 value varies according to quality. At present the machine- 

 cleaned flax is worth £18 to £20 per ton. It is always 

 quoted in the Home News. 



23. The market is unlimited. 



A. FOLLETT HALCOMBE. 



CACAO AND HELOPELTIS. 

 Sie,— Your correspondent "E. X. Z." from Uva, in 

 sending specimens of Helopeltis, states that they 

 operate upon the pods in such a way as to render them 

 useless. I suspect he is confusing. Helopeltis will destroy 

 very young pods, about the size of a little finger ; 

 but older pods they do not hurt, only disfigure the 

 husk with spots. "Bat many pods, this year, have 

 turned black before reaching full maturity, though 

 this is not the result of Helopeltis, .ond the cause is not 

 yet quite ascertained. Most people, however, attrib- 

 ute it to the great drought, a certain percentage 

 of cacao thus refusing to ripen, exactly similar to 

 coffee. Every year, since coffee began, there has been 

 a lot of light bean and, in dry years, branches, always 

 •where heavy bearing, lost one-third of their crop, by 

 the ends dying and the crop blackening and falling. 



CACAO. 



TREATMENT OF THE TEA BUSH : MR. P. 

 R. SHAND KI CORRECTION. 

 Coolbawn, Nawalapitiya, 17th April 1S85. 

 Dear Sir,— In your paper of yesterday's date I see 

 a letter signed "Experience" in which the follow- 

 ing statement occurs :— " In fact Mr, P. R. Shand of 

 Strathellie is the only planter I ever heard of trim- 

 ming his tea plants in the way described, and that 

 was some years ago." "Experience" is wrong: I 

 never treated tea bushes in the way he describes, and 

 I never advocated such treatment. I have before me 

 a letter which I cut out of your paper and which I 

 wrote in May 18S0 in answer to some remarks by 

 " C. A. R." who kindly pointed out the mistakes of 

 the Ceylon tea planter. From this letter I now quote : 

 — " I quite agree with ' C. A. R.j in his remarks about 

 allowing the plant to bush from the ground. Many 

 acres of tea in Ceylon have been treated otherwise 

 and had all the suckers pulled off the stems of the 

 trees for years, on the advice of a gentleman of long 

 experience in Assam, though most of those with a 

 locally acquired slight knowledge did not follow out this 

 plan."— Yours faithfully, P. R. SHAND. 



TEA BULKING FACTORIES IN COLOMBO. 



18th April, 18S5. 



Dear 8iij,- — I have not got a copy of the letter 

 I wrote to you about tea bulking factories iu Colombo, 

 but I am under the impression that I specially re- 

 served the question as to whether sucjh estab- 

 lishments for the final manipulation and packing of 

 tea here would offer any advantages to tea planters 

 beyond those which they now enjoy in being able to 

 oorpplete these operations on the estate. 



The chief point dwelt on by me in that letter was the 

 fact that as fa'' as my experience went such oper- 

 ations might be carried out iu Colombo with perfect 

 safety to the tea, provided that proper precauti ns 

 were taken at the Factory, and in the tra' sport of 

 tea from the estate. I agree with " S." in your issue 

 of the 10th fo far, that I thiol; it would be difficult, 

 if not iinpos ible, for such establishments to earn a 

 paying dividend without extra cost being entailed on 

 proprietors ; but I have by no means lost sight of 

 the bulky nature of uusorted as compared with 

 sorted tea. I deny, however, that it need be! 

 made to o"cupy druble the space of the latter ; 

 and, even if it did occupy double the space, I deny 

 that fie iveight of empty shooks would therefore 

 necessarily be doubled. Thus the average freight 

 of the shooks of a half-chest measuring 18 by lii by 



15, or 2'50 cubic feet, is 13 lb.; the average weight of 

 the shooks of a whole chest made of the same wood 

 and measuring 5 cubic feet, 24 by 20 by 18, being 23 lb. 

 Besides, if it became the custom to send tea down in 

 this way, I have little doubt that Government, with 

 its usual far-seeiug liberality in such matters, would 

 grant a special rate for return shooks. There is how- 

 ever another way of sending down tea which I have 

 seen tried, it was only in one instance however, and 

 all I can say is that it came to no harm in that 

 particular instance — an that is in bags. On the oc- 

 casion I allude to, the tea arrived in single bags, in 

 fine dry weather, and was immediately atteneled to, 

 and, beyond being a little broken perhaps, and having 

 gathered a few fibres which had detached themselves 

 from the bag, I coultl detect no deterioration what- 

 ever. If however bags are employed at all, I think 

 it would be better to have two, viz,, an inner one of 

 withering cloth or stout sheeting, and to enclose that 

 in another of some waterproof material which eould 

 be so well fastened as to secure the tea against in- 

 jur y from any sudden atmospheric change. 



Anyhow the saving which " S." grants might be 

 effected in sorting the tea in Colombo, instead of on 

 the estate, would in most instances, cover the cost of 

 returning the empty shooks. 



"S." says it is obvious that no saving would be effected 

 in material, carriage, or labour. Now, as regards the 

 first item, it is clear, that, if sorting were done in 

 Colombo, the cost of machinery and carriage tBereon 

 could be saved to estates ; also the cost of the fuel 

 in final firing, and the labour employed thereon as 

 well probably as the cost of a portion of the dry- 

 iug apparatus which would otherwise be reemired. 

 Then, as regards the labour, it is not merely a ques- 

 tion of a saving on the cost thereof, but of setting 

 free a certain number of hands which with a rush 

 of leaf coming forwards might be more profitably em- 

 ployed than in performing operations which could be done 

 as efficiently and as cheaply, if not more cheaply, in 

 Colombo. This is the point which will probably decide 

 the t{uestion ; but I am free to admit that it is one on 

 which tea planters have a great pull over the coffee 

 planter of a former, and even of the present, day. 



"S. " says that superintendents will prefersorting their 

 tea in the estate factory even when making in quantities 

 too small for shipment. It,may be that they will prefer 

 it ; but there is no absolute reason for the preference, 

 beyond a natural desire to become acquainted with 

 the best methods of sorting. I am constantly written to 

 by people who sell me their tea to know beforehand 

 how / wish it sorted ; aud, when I have replied, 

 as I have iu some cases, that if they liked they might 

 send it unsorted, it always appeared tome that they 

 were rather pleased than otherwise to be saved the 

 expense and bother, As to the need for a single 

 establishment iu Colombo to manipulate the tea 

 purchased at local sales, will you think it out of 

 place for me to call attention to my advertisement 

 in the local papers, from which it will ba seen tl at 

 such an establishment h')s been iu operation for some 

 time past ? and, so far as I am aware, the results 

 have been perfectly satisfactory to all concerned. 

 Hitherto I have only bulked different estates' teas 

 togitlier oh my'own account, the teas of other proprietcis 

 having either merely passed through for shipment iu 

 the ordinary way or been bulked auel packed aim 

 mark by itself; but I am now prepared to make up 

 breaks by bulking and packing the produce of small 

 gardens, or of large properties which are only com- 

 inenciug to produce leaf in small quantities, if I am 

 instructed to do so. Each estate tea will, in that case, 

 be separately valued on arrival ; ond teas of similar 

 character will be bulked together in parcels sufficiently 

 1 rge to form sizable breaks for sale in Loudon, the 

 owners sharing pro rata in the nett proceeds. — I am, 

 dear sir, yours faithfully, C, W, HORSKALL, 



