June r, 1885.J 



THB TROPICtt, AO'RTCTTLTURTST. 



937 



^ovvflspomloneo. 

 « 



To the Editor of the " Ceylon Observer. " 

 HAH VESTING CINCHONA BARK. 



Deltota, May 12th, 1885. 



Dear Sin,— Can you kindly let mo know what 

 amount of bark (shavings) a cooly is expected to 

 bring in a day. The trees on this place are from two 

 to five years old and are fairly healthy. My coolies who 

 were new to the work began about a fortnight ago 

 by bringing in an average of 571b., and today they 

 brought in an average of I30j lb. green bark. la the 

 latter a fair amount ? My average from the time 

 I commenced barking is about 110 lb. The bark loses 

 about 07 per cent of its weight, so that a cooly brings 

 in about 36.', lb. dry bark. Is it necessary to thatch 

 tho trees after shaving '! I find it costs a great deal, 

 about 5 men in all for one man shaving, i. e. cost of cut- 

 ting maua «ud carrying thatching, cost of drying &c. 



An early answer in your valuablo paper will greatly 

 oblige, yours faithfully, B. K. 



[We quote from Owen's " Cinchona Manual " — a 

 copy of which " B. E." should have by him — as 

 follows : — 



The amount of bark that a cooly can take off depends 

 greatly on tho weather, the size of the trees, and their 

 health. With large trees, in wet weather, a big task can 

 bo done; if the bark is unhealthy, it adheres to tin stem, 

 and is very difficult to separata^ Tho following will give 

 an idea of the cost of this work for five year old trees. 

 For Sut mibra, quill 25 to 35 lb per man (large and Bmall 

 together), of green bark; branch from 40 to 15 1! • ; twigs, 

 from 22 to 2 "ilt>; root, about 20 lb. If the steins are whittled 

 a largG quantity can be taken, 51) to 60 lb, and sometimes 

 over. For < Officinalis, quill 1511) ; branch 35 tb ; twigs 13 16 ; 

 and root 18 II. ; are average rates. 



Of the cost of mossing and renewing processes in Ceylon 

 not much is known. Officinalis appears to cost about 2(Jc. 

 per tb harvested by this process ; this is when moss is 

 plentiful in the surrounding jungles, a woman bringing in 

 -10 lb as a day's task : but when moss is not obtainable, 

 grass maybe employed, and reduces the expense greatly. 

 A gentleman in Maskeliya gives the cost of mossing and 

 . renewing Succirubra at 12c. per lb dry, and this proportion 

 is about fair to the rate for officinalis I have quoted. 

 At high elevations, covering the shaven or stripped 

 troes is not now in many cases, considered necesa- 

 ary. Lot " B. E." try both plans and report result. 

 —En.] 



SORTING AND THE FINAL PACKAGE OF TEA 



IN COLOMBO. 



12th May, 18S5. 

 Dkati Sib, — " S." (page 297) is nothing if he is not 

 emphatic ; so long, however, as our supplies of cinchona 

 continue to come forward on the present scale, wo must 

 not be too precipitate in turning our stores into baths and 

 ballrooms whatever we may do with our barbacues. 

 When " S. " wrote his letter of 8th, he possibly had 

 not seen my reply to " T. P.," or he would have 

 noted that even before I saw Mr. Scovell's figures 

 for sorting I had coupled with the idea of using 

 bags the suggestion, that sorting should continue to 

 bo done on tho estate. In this case the objection 

 that inferior tea would get mixed through breakage 

 on the way with the finer teas falls to the ground ; 

 and it only remains to consider whether an effici- 

 ent package of this description can bo secured — and 

 at what price. The slight breakage that sorted 

 tea might be subjected to in these packages 

 would be of small account. The wear and tear of 

 waterproof bags might be minimized by enclosing them 

 in an ordinary gunny. Messrs. Davies & Co.'s water- 

 proof bags are linod with stout canvas, so that no 

 inner bag would be necossary. The weight of the 



118 



double bag would be nuder 5 lb , and they would 

 hold ou an average 1 cwt. of tea. I have just 

 tried one with some broken souchong, and find it 

 will contain 110 lb. of this quality. Here then is a 

 package which, whilst weighing little more than l-6th of 

 a lead- lined chest will bring down 25 per cent more 

 weight of tea. This is equivalent to a saving of 86^ per 

 cent on freight due to package. On tea down asi at present 

 the proportion of freight duo to package is 25 per cent 

 of the whole— or £ per cent per lb. when the total 

 freight amounts to 2 cents per lb, or 50 cents 

 in 1001b. The same amount of freight is due for 

 packages up, so that for every 100 lb, of tea in which 

 the gross freight to Colombo amounts to K2 and for 

 which chests and lead &c. are supplied from Colombo, 

 Rl has to be paid for freight on the packages up 

 and down. If bags could be used, tho freight on 

 package would be reduced to 13$ cents for every 

 100 lb. of tea, thus showing a saving of 00S65 cents 

 per lb. or R865 on a crop of 100,000 lb. Speculations 

 sucli as these may be wild or not ; but it cannot 

 but conduce to tho benefit of the tea planter that 

 they should bo thoroughly sifted, even though in the 

 process they should bo blown to tho winds. I am 

 bound to add that I think the first cost of the bags to 

 which I have called attention is at present prohibitive. 

 I note what " S." says as to the disadvantage of 

 divided responsibility, and I admit the force of it; but 

 loss by reweighing and final filing would be no greater 

 in Colombo than on tho estate. There need be 

 no bursting of bags en route, nor any pilfering of 

 the contents in my assumed " model bag of the 

 future "; - consequently no mixing or damage by rain. 

 And as regards the wear of the waterproofing, are 

 we not growing our own indiarubbers ? Why, my 

 dear sir, just look at the vista that this thought 

 alone opens up !— Yours faithfully, C. W. H. 



PRACTICAL HINTS ON THE TREATMENT 

 OF THE TEA BUSH BY AN OLD HAND. 



9th May 1885. 

 Sir, — Mr. A. E. Wright in your issue of 5th inst. 

 invites discussion as to whether keeping the stem of 

 the tea bush clean six icche.3 from the ground by 

 clearing off suckers and side-shoots or leaving thfse 

 to grow is the better mode of cultivation, his own 

 leanings being in favour of the latter. The more ex- 

 perience, Mr. Wright acquires in tea culture, the 

 more, I think, is his opinion to be strengthened in 

 that respect. A clean single stem cannot well be got 

 without allowing the plant to run up a leader to an 

 objectionable height before cutting down : this delays 

 tho growth of the side-shoots, consequently they are 

 weaker than the inner ones. Breadth cannot bo got 

 without raising the bush to an objectionable height. 

 The central shoots being stronger, the flushes will be 

 long-jointed, and a day or two ahead of the outsidea 

 at every round of jjicking, and the bush making 

 every effort to become a tree. Every tea planter aims 

 at getting the outsides of his bushes to grow as 

 strong and vigorous as the inside. To eDsuro this he 

 should cut down his young plants at an early stage 

 and get as many of the side-shoots from the collar 

 of the roots as possible— and if they strike out ad- 

 ditional roots for themselves (which they will do 

 if close to the ground) so much the better. Ho 

 will fiud that his flushing surface and his Hushes 

 will be out of all comparison more equal than by 

 the one clean stem principle. A tea bush should be 

 a cluster of shoots, and not a stem with branches. 

 The forming of young tea plants should be gone about 

 at a much earlier stage than is often the case. The 

 young fields should be gone over with the knife, 

 about, say, nine to eleven months after planting, and 



