July i, iSSj.] 



THE TROPICAL AGKICULTURIST. 



akme woulil be against tho pi'ofitiible iiitroiluctiou of the 

 tea plant, wliich I have no doubt it will be as any tlrou^ht 

 is j>rejudiciiil to tea. "Without c^utiunal moisture, the tva 

 plaut will not hixuriato to satisty the wants of tho Enrop- 

 ean system of plucUiug, aud what we prune for, i. e., plenty 

 of yonnii and healthy growth which cannot but give plenty 

 of leaf if the climate is suitable. Every leaf or halt-leaf 

 left on the shoot plucked to send from the axis of that 

 leaf a bud which should devtlope in 36 to 42 days into 

 healthy and large vigorous shoots now ready tor plucking, 

 and which ought to be a shade harder plucked tb;in its 

 parent, and so on in succession with every noiv flush 

 uutil the Hushes begin to get stunted which will then 

 necessitate prunmg. A Ceylon eott'ee planter now residing 

 here asked me not long since, why it was the tea 

 plant did not flush in Johore so regular ;:ud so continu- 

 ous as he had seen it do in Ceylon? ItolJ him I thought 

 it was because the interval between the rain was by far 

 too long, kc.f and when it did rain it came down in such 

 torrents and lasted such a short time, the soil whioh is 

 very stiff and hard had not time to benefit from the 

 showers ; being mostly liilly here, such heavy showers run 

 off as fast as it rained, and from its hard dry state through 

 continuous dry weather and nature of the soil sudden 

 showers had not time to percolate. A really pleasant climate 

 cannot be a good one for tea — Indian experience. [Contra- 

 dicted by Ceylon experience I — Ed. J 



Soil. — I have visited several estates in this neigh- 

 bourhood, coffee &c., and I find there is a great 

 sameness throughout, too much of this red stiff 

 soilandtoo muchiucliued to cake and split. What little 

 good soil there is I find very shallow, so much so iu some 

 places that after holing laud on a moderate slope a few 

 of the showers we are accustomed to here and the sub- 

 soil (i. e. clay) is laid bare exposing a stiff hard clay 

 almost impenetrable, where I found instead of the taproot 

 of some tea plants going straight down they went straight 

 along its surface, a circumstance I never saw happen to 

 a tea plant root all the time I have been in India. Tea 

 thrives best in a light loose friable soil : the spongioles 

 or ends of the feeding roots are very tender and cannot 

 penetrate any other. It is a well known fact there is more 

 nourishment in stitfer soils, but for this reason the tea plant 

 cannot take advantage of it. It was long believed that tea 

 would thrive best on poor soil, but thank goodness that idea 

 has long been exploded but not before thousands of pounds 

 had been wasted. Thegronth of the tea plant here as far 

 as good is concerned, is, I must say, very rapid in Johore. 

 A three-year old plant has a stem as thick and in every 

 way equally as large as a five-year old plant gr^wn in 

 Assam; but this system of judging tea plants, as is generally 

 known amongst tea planters, is a very fallacious teit. 



Tea. — As regards the quality of tea manufactured i n 

 Johore there is no disputing the fact good tea can be made. 

 As a convincing proof, I manufactured quantities of tea 

 at ditterent times and sent samples to tea. tasters in Cal- 

 cutta ; better reports and valuations I couhl not have expected; 

 much better in eveiy respect than what we usually get 

 on teas I have sent at times from Assam. I shall be happy 

 to show you the valuations whm I next visit Singayoie. 

 Unfortunately that is no criterion to go by, The tea- 

 plant will not flush the same as it does in Afsam or Ooylon. 

 I thought it Wit simply sulking (a term we use iu Assam 

 very much when a flush is long in growing), but no, it is | 

 worse than that. A week or two after the first plucking 

 what appears to be a nice flush from the axis of each leaf 

 left on the stem that has had tho tip and oiie-and.half or 

 two leaves taken from it I found at nearly every axis 

 seed developing not only that but the old leaves to start 

 growing afresh. I felt quite mystified : t such a freak and 

 could not determine the cause as yet : on asking tlie con- 

 ductor if ever he saw that happen before he said 'yes '; such 

 being the case tea-planting in .lohore'is, I may say, not 

 worth the candle. What is wanted before tea can pay in 

 Johore is a rapid succession of healthy flushes, and from my 

 experience and that of others to get this, the long and the 

 short of it is, it is simply a moral impossibility. 



Labour. — When we come to consider the large amount 

 of labour required to work a tea plantation, it is 

 certain facilities for it are a sine qua iwn to 

 success. With the present state of affairs the labour 

 ef Johore i, i. CUuesti ftud Javauose with line or two Malaga 



now and again, really cannot bo depended on, and the class 

 of Chinese to be picked up are of the very worst kind. At 

 the most they^ will only work 20 days each man per mouth. 

 If a mauager^ys too much to them to spite him they 

 will wait until he gets a flush of leaf that he wants to 

 take off quick, thou iu a body they will refuse to work 

 unless they get an increase of pay, making this tho would- 

 be reason and leave the garden leaving the mandoro to 

 receive their pay for the days worked. This actually hap- 

 pened to two estate managers here. They tried this gaino 

 on with me, but I soon put a stop to it. I took the two 

 ringleaders before the police authorities and put a stop to 

 this nonsense. I am glad to say it had the ilesired eiteet. 

 I did not punish them, but simply showed them I could. 

 After that I had more coolies than I wanted and in con- 

 sequence had to refuse many work. Coolies are not he 

 had under 25 cents (equal to about Is) per day for Chinese, 

 20 cents (or about lOJ) per day for Java|coolies, Malays §8 

 ^ American dollars) per month, very scarce. They cannot be 

 got to engage for moreaian a month, and iu consequence 

 every mouth coolies are changing more or less. This constant 

 changing is the source of great anoyance and inconvenience 

 which the planter of Johore (tea as well as colfee) knows to 

 their very great cost and trouble. More in my next.— 

 Yours truly , W. H.G. 



TEA DRYING AND NO. 3 SIEOCCO. 



Davidson's No. 3 Sirocco.— Mr. Jamea Blackett 

 of Doteloya, Doloabage, recently reported to Messrs. 

 W. H. Davies & Co. as follows :—" The two No. 

 3 Siroccos that I have at work on Pen-y-lan and 

 Doteloya estates, I urn out 80 lb of dry tea per hour 

 without any ditliculty whatever. Both of them are 

 in pits and the heat not allowed to come quite up to 

 270 degrees." 



15th June 1SS5. 



Dear Sir, — Referring to Mr. Janes Biackett's note to 

 Messrs. W. H. Davies & Co. anent the No 3 Sirocco, it 

 strikes me there is something very ambiguous in the 

 wording of it. Messrs. Davies & Co. contend that tlie No. 3 

 Sirocco will fire properly 80 lb. of made tea per hour, 

 »nd looking casually at what Mr. Blackett writes, a per- 

 son would think that be confirms this ; but what I wish 

 to know is, does Mr. Blackett get f(7o/i of his No. 3 Siroccos 

 to tura out SO lb. of dry tea per hour working at 270° ? 

 or does he mean that the outturn of Xhe tiro Siroccos com- 

 bined is 80 lb. per hour V I have a No. 3 Sirocco and 

 working it at 260°, it burns my tea. I have heard of tho 

 same happening on two other estates where the Nn. 3 

 Sirocco is used. I suppose in my case it may be attributed 

 to my ignorance as to tho proper way to work the Sirocco ; 

 up to date my results with the No, 3 have been unsatis- 

 factory. I am making some changes in my way of work- 

 ing tlie machine and am hopeful of better result.". — Yours 

 faithfully, K. 



TEA-PREPARATION I A WITHERING REBUKE, 



Ainbagamuwa, 16 h Jutie 1886. 



Dear Sir, — The remarks of " A Practical Proprietor " 

 (p. 44) appear to me far from practical. He is oharly dis» 

 covered for this once iu a somewhat steamy atnio- 

 sphere of fpeculation, when he goes floundenn;; about 

 among pails and pans of hot-water, calico (!) trays and 

 Turkish baths, iu a dense vapour of theoretical tea- 

 making. 



In solemnly and decisively pronouncing hia opinion 

 against withering by liot-air, it is stated that ho 

 has the high sanction of " commonscnse and scieutilic 

 grounds." The latter has been however studiously 

 withheld from us and the former does not appear to 

 me to corriepond with that of tea-ni.iker8 iu gujuial, 

 who take advant.igo of their Sirocco heat, and iWuiicc 

 heat, day after day, for the purpose of withering their 



leaf. The objection to hot-air i.s sla'ed as follows : 



,' Because, in drying this way the juices of the haves 

 are extracted," — this is one objection ; " the juices 

 are extracted," — what next ?—" and the leaf would be- 

 come harsh and would not roll well." Did e\cr a 

 teR-iuan hear of auytliiu^' like thU 7 uheightcued temper^ 



