238 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1885. 



small consumer. "The Stores" are supposed to make 

 the smallest profit compatible with covering their 

 working expenses; are we, then, forced to conclude that 

 the buyer at the coffee sales is able to make from one 

 hundred to one hundred and fifty per cent on his 

 bargain, and if he does not, who does? And why, more- 

 over, should not this magnificent difference go to the 

 producer, or at leastj be divided between him and the 

 consumer r' The tea-planters, who are just as badly 

 situated, liave made an effort in London to reach the 

 consumer direct. The scheme, although, as far as we can 

 hear, not very heartily supported, has met with some 

 success, and should, we think, be joined in by all classes 

 of Indian planters. Both coast agents and planters 

 would also find it to their advantage to endeavour to lift 

 them.=elvos out of the groove in which they have been 

 running for so long. Produce need not as a matter of 

 course be shipped to London ; if a better market offers 

 elsewhere, it should be sent there direct, instead of in 

 the roundabout way it now reaches it. Planters should, 

 above all, try to take a more cheerful view of their 

 position than they u.sually appear to do judging from 

 the letters that we publish. They should lose no oppor- 

 tunity of pushing their respective districts and products. 

 An opportunity for an advertisement on a very large 

 scale will shortly be given them in the forthcoming Indian 

 and Colonial Exhibition, where we trust that our various 

 planting districts will be found well represented. The 

 time for preparation is none too long, and the Secretaries 

 of Associations ought to bestir themselves. We believe 

 that the Government is willing to give assistance in for- 

 warding exhibits, and in securing space. In spite of Board 

 schools and higher education, our tea and coffee districts 

 are no more than names — if even that— to nine-tenths 

 of the inhabitants of Great Britain, and nothing that may 

 make them better known to the investor should be 

 neglected. There has never been a time when more 

 capital was seeking an outlet. People who are rushing 

 to put large sums into places like Florida and Texas, 

 where they will have to work like slaves for years, should 

 surely have their attention directed to thi'< country, 

 where labour is cheap and abundant, wliere they would 

 be under British rule, and where they can Ijuy cultivated 

 land for less than they have to pay to "land graljbers" 

 for jungle in Florida. 



PLANTING NOTES FROM UVA, CEYLON. 



WEATHER AND CKOPS— BAD AND GOOD PRUNING— TKANS- 



POKT — HAPUTALE TEA— HIGU PillCED PATANA 



ILLEGAL SPORT. 



Haputale, 18th Aug. 1885. 

 The month of July was fine and dry up here, and 

 passed with bright sunshine and very little rain,^ 

 scarcely an inch of rainfall durmg the entire month 

 above the Pass, which led us to hope that the mat- 

 uring of young wood on the coffee bushes would lead 

 to another good crop next year. Unfortunately, how- 

 ever, two or three tliuuderstorms, accompanied by hail 

 and lightning during the first week of August, and 

 a continuance of wet weather, rather damped our hopes 

 and reduced our expectations. A small blossom has 

 been out during the last few days, but tho appearance 

 of spike for the big .\ugust and September blossom is 

 very backward, and, unless there is at least another 

 month of very dry weather to ripen up the young wood 

 and cause it to blossom, the prospect for next year 

 is not so very cheering. The coffee bushes.are looking 

 in very good trim, and not much punished after the 

 late heavy crop. Unfortunately also for good blossoms, 

 leaf-disease is very bad and pretty prevalent through- 

 out the district at present. Pruning is being proceeded 

 with rapidly, and a better style of pruning and the 

 use of the knife more liberally adopted on many 

 estates than was the fashion of late years ; still there 

 are some people who stick to the wretched plan of 

 "docking primaries" and " knife-handling " as it is 

 called, which means picking out the most insig'nificant 

 quantity of old superfiuous wood with the knife, and 

 leavinn- everything that is likely to bear crop on the 

 tr. IS, "which has a very untidy and unsymmetrical 

 look ; it is easy to learn a bad system of pruuiug, and 



once taught to S. D.'s and coolies they never unleara 

 it. Some people, I know, are models of "knife-handlers " 

 and a zigzag fashion of pruning, allowing cross wood 

 in all directions, bending twigs back and planting their 

 trees iu a most uncouth manner. It seems to please 

 them to have lots of wood on trees, forgetting that 

 in order to get crop, especially at high elevations, 

 plentiy of light and sunshine should penetrate tho 

 trees to ripen wood and produce crop. Some dull-heads 

 will never learn a better, once they have been taught 

 a bad style of pruning. Transport of crop to Colombo 

 via Katnapura has been actively going on, and some 

 estate stores are empty, having finished the dispatch of 

 every particle of crop, including dried cherry and clean 

 coffee. Cattle-disease along the road has been less 

 prevalent and carts have been plentiful, but, owing to 

 the Badulla planters having raised the rate of hire, 

 cartmen and carts have been crowding down to Demodar 

 and Badulla. I hear the rates given at these places 

 are 70 and 75 cents per bushel respectively. The 

 planters down there excuse themselves for raising the 

 rates of hire, in consequence of an incautious state- 

 ment of a correspondent from Haputale stating that a, 

 proprietor up here was offering " one rupee per bushel " 

 to get off all his crop. I cannot find out who this 

 long-pursed gentleman is, and fear the correspondent 

 most have drawn on his imagination. Hapootella and 

 Sherwood estates have comj^leted the dispatch of some 

 17,000 bushels perchment from the top of the Pass, 

 at the rate of 50 cents per bushel parchment, and iu 

 no instance gave a higher rate this season. Carts 

 have been passing down to Badulla by hundreds and 

 loailing down there at 70 and 75 cents per bushel, and 

 only a few have missed the opportunity, and now have 

 any bushels in store here. The European firm at Hal- 

 dummuUa who has the greatest share of supplying 

 rice and transporting crop, and who did so well in past 

 seasons, were quite unprepared for this large crop, and 

 the unexpected outbreak of cattle-disease ; but I hear 

 they are trj-ing to meet the demand for carts and 

 offering £1250 additional hire per cart to bring up rice 

 from Colombo — which latter commodity is going up in 

 price, I see. Some people employ chetty contractors 

 to supply their estates with rice and transport crop, 

 but these chetties are failing in their contracts, and 

 not keeping up to engagements. Why people employ 

 these wily fellows I can't see. Generally they are up to 

 some dodges, bribing kanganies to accept inferior rice for 

 their coolies and " not let master know anythiug about 

 it," and " scrimshanking " with the parchment en route, 

 for which they are always buying garden parchment and 

 hght coffee, which they resell to the cartmen very cheaply. 

 Tbose people who have a likingi for or " are under oblig- 

 ation" to these wily "cusses" will be sold in the long run» 

 Since date of my last I have been over at Gonamotava 

 estate seeing the manipulation and manufacture of tea 

 by Mr. T. W. Hills,5who has had both Indian and Ceylon 

 experience as a " tea-man." As far as I could judge, 

 and in the opinion of some other gentlemen qualified 

 to express an opinion, the tea manufactured by Mr. Hills 

 was as well-made, fine-flavoured and as ^ood a sample 

 of tea, as any we had seen in the island. So much for 

 Uva tea. Thousands of acres are being planted with 

 this product, and, if the prices at home only keep np, 

 many acres of Uva patanas will be flourishing tea 

 gardens. This reminds me of Mr. Challiuor's lucky p'a- 

 chase of the excellent piece of patana land between 

 Kahagalla and Koehampton estates, 40 acres, for K2,020, 

 or R50-50 per acre; so you see the bleak and barren 

 patanas on the Haputale Pass are not so worthless 

 after all, and there are hundreds and thousands of 

 acres of such lanil still to be had for tea cultivation 

 in Uva. The hailstorm about the beginning of the 

 month was chiefly confined to the] patanas between this 

 and Bandarawela. The hail stones were about the size 

 of one's thumb nail and oval shaped. During one of the 

 thunderstorms 12 head of cattle were killed on Nahakcttia 

 estate, so I heai-d. Two inquests are reported from near 

 Walawe, one on the body of a Bengali tailor stabbed to 

 death by a iroman for"bis interfering in a quarrel she 

 was having with his wife ; the other inquest was on 

 the body of a Tamil man, who blew off his hand and other- 



