March 2, 1885] 'THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



661 



tea plants growing underneath it even to within a few 

 feet of tbe trunk. They always looked uinformly healthy 

 with doep greeu leaves, while those growing in tho open 

 not far off had several vacancies ; some looked healthy, 

 but the greater portion looked scraggy with leaves of a 

 pale greenish yellow colour, and would be often affected 

 by bliglit, either red spider, green fly and fungoid spots 

 ou the leaves. 



The " Medeloa" (Acacia Elata) which I presume you 

 know as " Koroi " is another desirable tree to grow 

 among tea, but from its slow growth and not having 

 spreading branches, it does not answer so well as 

 the " San." • 



The timber of the " Sau " is not useful for posts as 

 it decays in tho ground quickly, for niarolies aud planks 

 it would answer, but it is rather brittle. Natives scoop 

 out old trees for canoes, which they say last longer than 

 those made of the Pooua. It makes excellent charcoal 

 as it burns slowly. 



I would surmise, by your writing to gain information 

 about the " Sau," that you want to plant it among tea 

 as a shade. I think it is time that a move is made in 

 this direction, for in consequence of the indiscriminate 

 cutting out of all trees, and leaving none for moderate 

 shade to the tea plants, all the blights now prevailing have 

 been introduced. Fruit trees require planting in the 

 open to receive the heat of the sun, but to treat a 

 plant from which the leaf is required, moderate shading is 

 necessary to prevent evaporation from the leaves. 

 Again Dr. Simons writes : — 



Mr. -Macdouald told me there are some " Sau " trees 

 growing among tea in a garden named Burasoli of the Grob 

 Company, and cover about 5 acres of plants. He is of 

 opinion that the tea plants growing underneath tbe shade 

 of these trees have looked uniformly healthy and kept free 

 from blights, while those in the adjoining open laud are 

 generally affected by blight when prevalent. The yield of 

 the whole garden has averaged 8 maunds per acre, but he 

 considers the greater portion of this yield is plucked off 

 from the plants growing under the " Sau " trees. 

 It will thusj be seen that Dr. Simons attributes blights 

 to the indiscriminate cutting down of forest trees. 

 Next comes 

 Mr. Teel, who writes :- 



Yours of 7th to hand, and I have noticed for many 

 years what you allude to regarding "Sau.'' I first 

 clearly noticed its value in tea at Bursali in 18(18, 

 and later on found that " Medeloa" was even better: I fancy 

 It is peculiar to all that group, i.e., 



Medeloa Albizzia elata 



Sau „ Stipulata 



Hiris or Siris „ Proeera or Sirisa 



. (Jati) Koroi „ Marginata or Odoratissima 



These used all to be called " Acacias." 

 The benefit to tea is obviously neither shade nor drip, 

 but some chemical process due to the roots, as tbe effect on 

 tea is often seen long after the tree has been felled, and the 

 stump alone remains, at times " dead." I have planted 

 " Medeloa" by fids of root best, and it grows easily. Yes, 

 Hingori is bad, aud Sawa which Dr. Simons calls " Engle- 

 hardtia Koxburghiana," is "worse," and I have seen '•.Sum" 

 bad. What is the chemical that the " Sau " and " Medeloa" 

 roots evolve ? 'Worth knowing, 



Me ars. Philips and Liwrie write in the same strain. 

 Mr. Walker objects to shade of aDy k nd. Mr. Mac- 

 doi a'd bolls a contrary opinion and writes : — 



This garden has been repeatedly attacked by red spider 

 and green tly. 1 have never noticed the former touch- 

 ing tea near a "Medeloa" although all around might be 

 perfectly black ; the green fly does attack it, but does not 

 seem to do any thing like the damage it does outside the 

 radius of the tree. 



Auother garden of the Company's VI miles off has a 

 plot of indigenous " Sau " tree, probably not more than 

 10 trees to the acre. I have secu all sorts of blights in 

 this garden, which is only a small one, but have never 

 noticed any on this plot tor the last nine years. I can- 

 not say what the probable yield of this plot may be, as 

 it was uevcr kept account of , but judgiug i rem the steady 

 outturn of from 7 lo o maunds au acre for tho whole 



garden, including some very poor plots indeed, I should 

 think it cannot be less than 10 maunds an acre. Many 

 trees are good for tea such as •' Amluckie," " Modar," &c, 

 but not to tho extent that chese are. I am not in a pos- 

 ition to say how tea is actually beueiited by shade or 

 chemicals in the soil genial to it. It is a subject that 

 certainly should be brought to the notice of proprietors 

 in a manner that it would leave Uttlc doubt in their minds 

 as to the experiment being at least worth a trial. 



Mr. Eyre writes of the extraordinary effect of the 

 sau tree in benefiting tea aud suggests a chemical 

 analysis of the leaves. Mr. D. Lumsdeu recognizes 

 the benefit conferred on tea by the sail tree. Mr. 

 Gibbous is entirely opposed to shade of any kind. 

 Mr. Pringle writes: — The seed I got from you never 

 came up, so I should very much like to get some more and 

 give it a trial, as certainly from what I saw at Amgooriu I 

 think there is no doubt it is beneficial to tea. 



I have a good many " Koroi" trees scattered about the 

 garden here, aud since you drew my attention to the matter, 

 I have noticed that the tea looks uncommonly healthy and 

 well grown in their vicinity. It might be that the " Koroi" 

 keeps a happy medium in taking moisture out of the soil 

 enough in the rainy weather, aud not having any heavy 

 foliage to keep the sun from getting at the soil round about 

 it, and not taking too much in the dry season. Here I notice 

 that most trees dry up the soil tremendously round about 

 them in the cold weather, and the drip from heavy foliage 

 in the rains is certainly bad. Jak trees I have found 

 deadly for tea. 



No doubt the foliage of the jak tree is too dense 

 for t< a. 



Mr. Dowling of Chittagoug writes.— (Alluding to the 

 " Albizzia Odoratissima " or " Jati Koroi") Bengal "Siris." 

 The tea bushes are decidedly better under this tree than 

 in tbe surrounding parts, aud tbe " Koroi " also im- 

 proves the tea in light soils but not in clay. 

 Then follows Mr. Earnshaw, who writes : — 



It would be most interesting and useful if the chemistry 

 of the question could be explained to us, as without under- 

 standing that, it is difficult to venture an opinion as to the 

 reason of the good done by these trees. It would seem that 

 somehow their roots, in drawing their nourishment from 

 the soil threw out the property which the tea tree required 

 in ibis way restored to the soil what had been taken out of 

 it, to au excessive extent, by the tea. 



I hear it has been noticed that young tea is not much 

 affected by these trees, and the benefit done is in old gardens; 

 this would point to the feasibility of the above idea. The 

 leaves of these trees are so small and light that they would 

 hardly act as manure to any appreciable extent, but that the 

 light shade is useful in checking excessive aud sudden heat 

 from the sun seems quite reasonable, I think. The fact that 

 the beneficial effects are to be seen in tea around stumps 

 of " Sau " confirms the correctness of the root action theory, 

 but would not altogether exclude the probability of some 

 good arising from the light shade when it was present. 



Whether the gas^s thrown off from the leaves of these 

 trees could in any way affect the tea, only a chemist could say. 

 It certainly would be worthwhile to have the whole question 

 gone into by a scientific man, as it seems very certain that 

 in many old gardens something is wanted to restore vigour 

 to the tea trees and to stop the mortality which is going 

 on among themto a considerable extent from some cause or 

 other ; and if by planting certain trees which are close at 

 hand, old gardens can be very materially improved, the 

 fact should be realized and acted on as soon as possible. 

 Our readers have thus this case lefoiethem and 

 can decide for themselves the quest it n of introduc- 

 ing and cultivating Albizzia stipulata ou tea estates. 

 We deem it well worthy of a trial. The effects of the 

 albizzias indigenous to our forests might also be 

 observed aud reported on. 



We may add, as a contribution to any enquiry 

 into the bentfhs conferred or the mischi. f effected 

 by certain forest trees, that when we visited the 

 OuchteiloDy Valley, the late Mr. Grant drew our 

 attention to coffee tretn dead or dying from bcinn 

 planted around trunks of the "wild cinnamon tree," 



