June i, 1885.] 



"TIE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



935 



grain than we have any idea of, an.l it is quite poss- 

 iblc that the same may be found io be the case with 

 regard to tea, and that the seed which cost moat at 

 the beginning will bring in tho greatest number ot 

 rupees in the long run. Cosmopolite. 



TEA AND COFFEE IN CEYLON. 



! 1 ;:i la, May 12th. 

 There are already extensive clearings for and 

 plantings of lea in tho Great Western Valley, 

 and the pre cess of superseding the old product by 

 the now is certain to go on now at an accelerated 

 pace. I see a correspondent of the Observer com- 

 plains of tho tone of contempt which some have 

 adopted in speaking of coffee. I do not know 

 that I have laid myself open personally to this 

 charge, any more than I can be included in 

 the category of irreverent prsons who, accord- 

 in" to Sidney Smith, were capable of "speak- 

 ing disrespectfully of the equator." Regret at the 

 decadenco of the monarch who once reigned with 

 undisputed sway has surely been the prevalent 



one regret and grief. But the truth must bo spoken : 



coffee, except in special districts and on exceptional 

 estates, has either ceased to promise fruit by mak- 

 ing "a good show" with blossom, or, having 

 made such show, has failed to justify promise by 

 performance. Were this the fault of the tree, there 

 would be some justification for a tone of contempt. 

 But coffee is not itself in fault : only unfortunate 

 in being the victim of fuugns, grub, bug, and un- 

 favourable meteorological conditions, under which the 

 candle of its life has been burnt at both ends and 

 fatal debility produced. In the young districts served 

 by the railway now completed, the signs of sickness 

 even unto death may not be so apparent as in the 

 old, where over wide areas, as Mr. Joseph Fraser 

 truly told yoti, the bushes be:ir no berries at all. 

 But.'.even on many youug p!ace3, where the blossom 

 gave' splendid promise of fruit, tho resultant crop 

 will not pay the cost of cultivation, harvesting and 

 preparing. Under such circumstances you must not 

 wonder that so many have finally given up faith 

 in coffee and cut it down or rooted it out to make 

 room for tea, which as yet seems proof against 

 insect and fungus blights and ths- crops from 

 which, being leaves, are not liable to be destroyed 

 by such rainfall or even rainstorms as occur in Cey- 

 lon. And this raises another inteicsting question : 

 that of the revival and possible extension of the 

 practice of keeping cattle on estates solely or chiefly 

 for purposes, of manuring, The custom ceased to pay 

 in the case of coffee, for many reasons : cattle-manure 

 actually bred the destructive white grubs, while crop 

 after crop of leaves which the manure enabled the 

 trees to produce merely became fresh food for the 

 fatal fungus ; and, even where crop formed in good 

 plenty on the trees, it was liable to be dasheel off by 

 unseasonable rains. Tea, which responds in the most 

 satisfactory manner to applications of ammoniacal 

 manure, is not liable, or but little auel rarely liable, 

 to such contingencies, and were there only better 

 markets in Ueylou for milk, butter and fat meat, I 

 should entertain no doubt of cattle establishments 

 paying well on tea estates. Even on many coffee 

 estates they paid before tho advent of leal-disease, 

 root grubs, scale insects and unfavourable seasons; 

 and a neighbour who has kept up a stock of cattle 

 obtained originally for coffee, told n>e recently that 

 he was going to make considerable additions, assured 

 as he was that keeping cattle for the manuring 



of tea would pay. It seems desirable that this 

 cjuestion Bbould be carefully considered and fully 

 discussed. Of the liberal response which tea will make 

 to manuring or even what the Indian plauters call 

 "cultivation," that is stirring the toil, there can be 

 no question. That coffee has ceased profitably to 

 respond to the highest possible cultivation, I hael 

 proof in a visit to the celebrated Kaudanuwara es- 

 tate near Matale. Here every bush had a little 

 manure heap of its own, all weeds, leaves, &c, being 

 swept round the roots. One effect of leaf-fungus in 

 many places has been eo to enfeeble coffee bushes as to 

 prevent their being aide to throw out feeeling rootlets, 

 even where grub elid not prey on such rootlets. But 

 Mr. Hugh Fiaser bared for iny inspection masses of 

 rootlets which lookerl as flourishing as the ample and 

 fresh-looking crop of leaves. But even on this estate, 

 until not long ago so famous for its large and profit- 

 able coffee crops, the old favourite is giving place to 

 the new, while not far asuneler from Kaudanuwara 

 is Damboolagalla, including the ancient Fitlakande, 

 whence the late Mr. Young had long derived an 

 income of £G 000 to £10,000 per annum. Here also, 

 Mr. Young, before his lamented death, having issued 

 the fiat, the coffee bushes, which in their day gave such 

 truly splendid returns, have given or are giving place 

 to tea. So almost everywhere. 

 I have thus anticipated portions of my interrupted notes 

 of a journey to see the tea grow, and, as tea now, 

 and not coffee, is the main justification for that railway 

 which the Observer did so much to urge forward, and 

 which its conductors hope to see in course of completion 

 from Naauoya to Uva before this year is out, I may be 

 allowed to say a few words about tc'p ; cs noticed by 

 Col. Money ami Mr. Jackson : the distance apart at 

 which tea bushes should most advantageously be 

 planted, nud the period during which flush-yielding 

 plants can be safely plucked between prunings. The 

 writer returned from a visit to Darjiling in 1876 

 strongly impressed in favour of such close planting as 

 3x3 feet at high altitudes in Ceylon. But experience 

 of growth and the necessities of cultivation at between 

 5,000 and 6,000 feet has compelled us to favour 

 Z\ x 4 feet even at this elevation. We need, therefore 

 scarcely say that we should not advise any closer 

 planting in the lower and hotter and more forcing 

 portions of Ceylon. No doubt a closely-planted tea 

 field at two years old completely covering the ground 

 with luxuriant growth is a beautiful sight, and the 

 plausible reasons for such close phnting as even 2Jx3 

 feet are quick returns for expenditure and the rapid 

 protection of the soil from combustion by a tropic 

 sun. As has been pointed out, heavy returns at aa 

 early period of the existence of an estate are sure to 

 result in earlier exhaustion, and such saving of humus 

 as is secured by completely covering the soil is 

 scarcely a gain when placed against the diffic- 

 ulty, the almost impossibility, of cultivating anel 

 aerating the soil. Where I would advocate 

 I such close planting as even 2x2 feet is on very 

 precipitous steeps :' on such places the soil needs to be 

 bound, anel there is no better permanent binding 

 plant than tea, sending out, as it does, lateral roots 

 from which fresh plants spring up, if encouraged, as 

 ! they ought to be on such places. As to Mr. Jackson's 

 general objection to planting steep land with tea, 

 I one auswer is that most of the available land in 

 ] Ceylon is moro or less steep-featured. The compensating 

 advantage is better drainago than can be secured on 

 i flat and swampy land such as is so frequently cultiv- 

 ated in Assam, elephants being needed to waele 

 through Hoods in the rainy season. Then, as Mr. 

 Owen pointed out, our soil, while of good quality, 

 especially for tea, is far more tenacious and can hold 

 I its own against rain and wash so much better than 

 j the rich but very friable alluvial deposits on the banks 



