July i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



S3 



neeessity be injurious. Pickaxing, forking, or digging 

 of any kind would hurry ou the growth of tea, and 

 pruning should be early attended to. But ou these 

 subjects we will devote separate articles and revise 

 the pamphlet on tea cultivation and manufacture in 

 Assam in a series of new letters on a subject now 

 intereeting all classes of our Ceylon community and 

 brother planters in Southern India. When in Assam in 

 187G the tea planters said it was no use our attempt- 

 ing to grow tea in Ceylon, that tea would not thrive 

 inaide 15° lat. N. of the equator, and they forgot 

 that the elevation of our Ceylon mountains com- 

 pensated for deliciency of the North latitude. 



In fact without minciug matters with our friends 

 in Assam and other tea-producing parts of India we 

 in Ceylon are likely to profit by their experience, 

 especially in the perfection reached in tea machinery. 

 The tea planter of tlie old school was of opinion 

 that tea could only be made with the aid of char- 

 coal and heavy reserves of forest were left to pro- 

 vide wood for charcoal burning. "What will you do 

 for wood ? " said a tea planter of Assam. The quantity 

 required is tnormous ! Wl'at have we now? "The 

 Sirocco " and other improved tea-driers exploding 

 the idea of charcoal and its fumes as an actual 

 necessity for tea manufacture. Improvement in tea 

 machinery is reaching such a pitch, that by and bye 

 we shall probably see the green leaf going in at one 

 end and coming out made pekoe souchong at the 

 other, like the pigs at Chicago having their re- 

 spective throats cut at one end and coming out bacon 

 and hams ! Fancy the plodding Assam tea planter 

 with his chulahs and charcoal ever dreaming of Ceylcn 

 competing with him with all the means and appliances of 

 modern mechanical improvements. We must not crow 

 over the success of Ceylon as a tea-producing 

 country on a large scale unless care be taken to 

 make our tea an loell to compete with India and China. 

 There is danger of overproduction in this article 

 the same as in coffee and cinchona, and to protect 

 ourselves from future loss, the quality of Ceylon 

 tea must eclipse the "Indian maike " and the cun- 

 ning manipulation of the "heathen Chinee" It is 

 gratif>ing to know that Chinese supplies have fallen 

 off iibonc 50,000,000 of lb. corresponding with the 

 steady increase of Indian tea which rose from 1876 

 to 18S4, say in eight years, to more than doiih/c ! 

 Ceylon in ihe same way will gradually increase 

 year by year until we catch up to India's supply. 

 The capabilities of Ceylon as a tea-growing country 

 are long past the experimental stage, and a taste for 

 Ceylon tea has sprung up in all parts of the United 

 Kingdom. We must watch jealously that inferior teas 

 are not palmfd off on the English public as Ceylon- 

 grown teas. It was whispered to me on the way out 

 trom England that a certain individual in London 

 had been victimizing Ceylon's reputation by selling 

 rubbish from India as a Cejdon-made tea. If this sort 

 of thing is persisted in, Ceylon will not hold her 

 own, and I would suggest that an agent be appointed 

 to watch the interests of Ceylon planters and merchants, 

 and if necessary prosecute an offender of the kind 

 above described— perhaps a warning would he sufficient. 

 Meanwhile Ceylon tea hears a high character and is 

 now sold all over London — wholesale and retail. 



Now comes the question of how much tea we can 

 produce. One hundred thousand acres at three hund- 

 red pounds per acre will be no less a quantity than 

 thirty millions of pounds within the next three or 

 four years. Xow double the area, aud say 'JOO.OOO 

 acres. We find we can produce sixty millions of tea in 

 about si.\ years' time. What a prospect //" Ihr prices 

 keep vj' ! The estim.ate is rea'-ionable enougTi.* We 

 shall be running neck and neck with all India ; and 



Too sanguine, io our opinion, — £p. 



when the worn out Assam planter comes to see how 

 we are getting on, he will in all probability transfer 

 his capital to Ceylon, where we possess climate, 

 suitable soil, elevation to 7,000 feet railway trans- 

 port to tfie sea-borde, aud all improvements in tea 

 machinery. 



Why is Ceylon tea preferred to China and Indian 

 teas ? The reason given is before it combines the two 

 in flavour and strength, and docs away with blending 

 China and Indian. 



The great di.strict of Pimbula includinr; the 

 Agras aud Liudula promises to contribute largely 

 with thirteen thousand acres already _ planted. 

 Machinery has already been introduced into this 

 district, rolling machines, ".=!iroccos" aud sifting 

 apparatus. We enter an old coffee store and lind it 

 converted into a tea-house, with fixtures for the 

 withering trays, shelves for the tasting cups, large bins 

 for storing the different qualities of tea from " pekoe " 

 down to " faunings," Peeping into a side room, we 

 find a lot of happy-lookiug podiyans using No. S, 

 No. 10 and No. 12 sieves, and down below we find car- 

 penters making tea boxes. On one estate here maybe 

 seen tea making, coffee curing, and cinchona baling 

 all going on at one aud the same time ! 



" Things are lool;ing vp" (as an old Uva planter used 

 to remark), and we are glad to hear that Uva is 

 commencing to grow the coming product tea, aud 5U0 

 acres are planted at Spring Valley. 



Abbotsford takes the lead and was lately making one 

 thousand pounds of tea a day. Anyone who has had the 

 advant.age of a visit to Abbotsford estate and seen 

 the giant growth of tea left as seed-bearers would at 

 once proclaim Ceylon the home of the tea plant. The tea 

 factory at Abbotsford is supplied with rollers, 

 Siroccos and sifters, and it is a pleasure to see how 

 quickly our Southern Indian coolies have grasped the 

 7nodus operandi : they seem to like it better than 

 exposure to all weathers in the coffee field, though 

 perhaps the stupid ones will have to work 

 outside as usual gathering the leaf. Mr. _A. 

 M. Ferguson junior is willing and obliging 

 in giving hia visitors all information regarding lea 

 cultivation and manufacturing on Abbotsford estate, 

 and Mr. A. M. Ferguson, C. M o., the proprietor of 

 the property, deserves all the success of being fu-st 

 in the field in Dimbula with large returns. The 

 editors of the Ceylon Observer advocated new pro- 

 ducts and railway extension, and, now that the 

 former are being harvested and the railway is 

 opened, things will daily improve and more th.-m 

 thanks are due to the Messrs. Ferguson of the 

 Ceylon Obsirve.r standing to their guns under a 

 heavy fire of slinldny fish, for everybody knows that 

 there were more people ready to eoy Ceylon was 

 hopelessly ruined than the far-seeing few who predicted 

 " a good time coming boys, wait a little longer. 

 There is a marked improvement in the prople 

 of England, less heavy drinliny, and, if the Gov- 

 ernment rerluce iustead of increase the duty on tea, 

 the consumption of the article will greatly in- 

 crease. Our Australian colonies will doubtless in time 

 discontinue importing Chinese teas. 



Next to the operations on Abbotsford estate, Lindoola 

 estate is well-known as ft progressing factory where 

 everything is c.irried on in a husincss-liko manner: 

 leaf purchased from a.ljoining est.ates, and upwards 

 of one thousand pounds of leaf manufactured daily. 

 Then comes Calsay estate under the supervision of 

 Mr. Scott, who received his training as a tea maker 

 under Mr. Taylor of Loolcondura in Ilewaheta, 1 

 intend to visit that estate soon and report progress 

 with Mr. Scott's permission. 



Much can be written on the subject of jats. Neatly 

 every estate has got a mixture of jats &c., and wo aro 



