86 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 18S5. 



croppy as is its wont. There ia no argument against it 

 here, 



I hear Udapafsellawa is asserting herself. Poor 

 coffee ! art thou altogether rejected ? 



In Mysore, looking across the Maidun, you can 

 make out the locality of the', coffee est;-tea by stretches 

 of what appears to be jungle, so thick i-! the shade. 

 And if the coffee appears to have heavy shade what 

 would be said cf cardamoms where the covering is 

 much heavier ? 



Talking of cardamoms, I have to retract my chaff 

 about " orchards." The figures are startling. Forty 

 acres in Ceylon gi«e about the same yield as three 

 thousand acres in the Mysore Ghats. This will give a 

 profit of over twenty thousand rupees. How about the 

 Ceylon forty acres ? This is another example of 

 stuffing a market. The Ceylon men are again respons- 

 ible. They are not blessed in India, especially in Assam! 



The ditiVrence in yii-ld and prices since both have 

 had the cream skimmed off, say on 3,000 acres, is the 

 difference between a profit of RIOOOOO annually and 

 one-fifth of tl;at sum. The prices have been lowered 

 by the Ceylon buccaneers ! 



I referred above to the Mysore Gh.ats. In the 

 Mysore Gliiits the cardamoms reach the height say of 

 eight feet .ind about the same number of shoots in 

 the stool. In favoured spots the growth exceeds that, 

 and in large areas less favoured the stools are very 

 poor. Now in the Maidan, just on the boundary zone 

 out of the Gliats and out of the true Maidan — between 

 the two where the coffee thrives — you find cardamoms 

 in ravines assume the thick lu-Kuriant appearance of 

 the Malabar cardamom in Otylon, and bearing heavily. 

 They fear however to plant it up the hillsides on 

 account of the drought and because they .ire pleased 

 with the coffee. But why enlarge on this subject ? You 

 get 25,000 piiuuds weight from forty acres and you 

 have brought the market down about our ears I want 

 to see how you are working tea, and I will 

 send you my ideas if they are acceptable. 



Abebdonensls. 



PROGRESS IN TKA MANUFACTURE. 



(To till- Editor of the "Home and Colnilil Mail") 

 All folly aod injustice will be minimised when 

 thorough and official iuvtstigatiou shall have not only 

 formulateil rules for mauufaoture but scales of requis- 

 ites, also standards for out-turn p'ir 1,000 bushes of 

 the various jhals for various sh'j. districts. I say per 

 1,000 bushes a9 acreage too often tellsagainst the planter 

 where vacancies are of abnormal number. A planter 

 can then before taking ocor the . management of a 

 garden, form his own e.stimate, and compare it with 

 that expected of him by the proprietor", and at once 

 protest ou the grounds of officially sanctioned scale, 

 against any improper entry in the proprietors' estimate. 

 Thus it would not be a case of his opinion against that 

 of his predecessor, but that of his predeccs.-or against 

 the scale. Of course, such scale could only be 

 approximate and must be subjict to the average effect 

 of each season's weather over the eub-district in which 

 the garden is situateil, but it would be far nearer a true 

 criterion of a mauagei'a merit than auythiug we at 

 present have, and soma Ii;tlo safi guard to his re- 

 putation. I have said sub-districts because there 

 are too great differences in "Lay" and s lil in whole 

 districts to .allow of one scale being fair to all the 

 gardens in ii. Daiukeling. 

 ^ 



" TEA NOTES." 



IWe slmll shortly pulilish a review of our own of lljis book.— Ed.] 

 Mr. L). U. Traill, of the UalcuUa Adoeriiser Press, 



has just published "Tea Notes," compiled by A. F. 



Dowiiujj, of the ICoriiafuli Association, Chitt.agong. 



The book is a very useful Omnium yalhtram on every 



conceivable subject connected with tea-plants. It deals 



with the chemistry of tea and the advantages of wire 

 netting : the forest trees of Chittagong and Screw 

 threads and shingles : foreign rate of postage and 

 prescriptions of all sorts ; tables of wages, tea returns, 

 waste laud lot^, in short something is said about 

 everything. The subjects are arranged alphabetically 

 and the book is interleaved, so that notes may be added 

 from time to time as may be found needful. Mr. 

 Cowling's Tea Notes should certainly prove a success. 

 Here is what is said regarding soils and manure: — 



We have to consider first, what Soils consist of; 

 second, what the plant takes out of the Soil ; third, 

 what are the constituents of Tea leaves, manufactured 

 tea, tea extracts, spent leaves, and tea ashes ; fourth, 

 what should be done to replace the substances removed 

 from the soil ? All soils consist of organic and inorganic 

 bodies : the latter, the earthy and stony substances ; 

 the former, animal and vegetable matters. 



As a rule, soils contain but a small percentage of 

 vegetable or other organic matter, from three to ten 

 per cent only, — the proportion being easily ascertained 

 by placing a sample of soil over a strong fire, when 

 the organic portion will be more or less readily burnt 

 away, while the residue will represent the inorganic per- 

 centage, which remains fired and permanent iu the fire. 

 The best soil for tea is a strong humus soil, full of 

 organic matter, provided it be friable, that is to say, 

 contain thirty per cent or so of sand. Such soils, 

 however, are scarce, and the bulk of land tak3n up 

 nowa-days for tea is a light loam, containing plenty of 

 sand, with more or less of clay, carbonate of lime, 

 potash, magnesia, and oxide of iron ; while the richer it 

 is in organic matter the better for the growth of the plant. 

 Clayey soils, containing little t<v no lime, and marly or 

 calcareous soils, containing lime in excess, are unsuitable 

 for tea. Clay can with difficulty, and only at heavy ex- 

 pense, be brought to grow tea. Sand, on the other hand, 

 with but moderate manuring can be made a fair yielding 

 soil. Animal manure, however, is now very scarce ; in 

 fact it can hardly be obtained. 



To know what our bushes extract from the soil, it 

 is necessary to be acqu.ainted with the constituents of 

 green tea leaves, manufactured tea, tea extract, the spent 

 leaves, and tea ashes. 



The leaves of the teabush are all that is actually re- 

 moved from the land provided that weeds are buried, 

 which iu every case should h^ returned to the soil to 

 keep up its fertility. The leaves contain a large pro- 

 portion of water which is taken back by the soil 

 from natural sources. All but about !S per cent 

 of this water is driven off in the process of tiring the 

 leaf, the residue, or manufactured tea, consisting of 

 the following substance : — 

 In the extract or soluble part, or Liquor : — 



per cent. 



Dextrine, glucose, gum, principally carbon ... 1 7-55 



Tannin — ... ll-QO 



Theine (the Alkaloid of tea, 2S per cent of 



which is nitrogen) ... ... 2-00 



Nitroyen ... ... G-00 



Potash ^ ... ... 275 



Ammonia ... ... '70 



Chlorine and Sulphuric Acid ... a trace 



Essential Oil ... ... Do. 



And in the spent leaves, or insoluble 



part or outturn:— percent. 



■Water ... ... 5-00 



Woody fibre principally carbon ... 27'00 



Legumen, a nitrogenous protein sub- 

 stance, sometimes called vegetable 

 casein ... ... l^vOO 



Other protein albuminous compounds lll'dO 



lusolublo tannin and insoluble ash... 3-00 



6000 



Total ... 100-00 



Tea, it will thus bo observed, is extraordinarily rich 



in nitrogen, so much so that the fresh leaves contai^ 



