370 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 2, 1885. 



ness of such eituationa is altogetlier beside the 

 qxiestion." „ ^, , i n* t 



Ami then follows a quotation of Colonel Moneys 

 long exploded fallacy, untrue almost everi/ichcre 

 in Ceylon : — " A really pleasant climate cannot be 

 a good one for tea." 



We need not tell our readers that tea is grown, 

 and with profit, on such estates as Tukvar in 

 the Darjiling district, up to and above 5,000 feet, 

 and experience on the place where we now write 

 has more than confirmed our contention, that it 

 tea could be well and profitably grown at 3,000 

 feet altitude in 27° north latitude, in the heart 

 of a great continent and on the sides of the 

 vast mountain range which is named " the abode 

 of snow," the cultivation might safely be earned 

 to twice 3,000 feet in an insular locality only 

 7° from the equator. We felt sure in our theory, 

 and we feel more than satisfied with an ex- 

 perience, which is not ours alone, but that of 

 Inverness, Dessford, Calsay, and many other places, 

 which are situated in " the bleak, exposed portion 

 of Upper Lindula," as much as is the property 

 specially sought to be depreciated. The owners 

 of tea estates up the Ramboda Pass can speak 

 for themselves and defend tlieir interests so wantonly 

 assailed to gratify personal spite, but as regards 

 tea in " the bleak, exposed portions of Upper 

 Lindula," we know that visitors to Abbotsford are 

 loud in their admiration of the tea on the higher 

 fields from 5,400 to 6,000 feet altitude, from which 

 rich pluckings of flush are now being taken ; but 

 we are quite contented to refer to Calsay, with a 

 similar altitude and higher up the " bleak" valley, 

 wliere results and prospects have demanded 

 the erection of new buildings and machinery, just 

 as here we are preparing room for produce 

 which next year is likely to approach 150,000 or 

 even 200,000 lb. of made tea. So much for the 

 performance of " bleak, exposed Upper Lin- 

 dula " The true and honest statement about 

 tea in Ceylon is, that, while the plant flourishes 

 at low elevations, it flourishes also at altitudes 

 up to the verge of 7,000 feet above sea-level, 

 and that not in genial Uva alone, for Oliphant 

 estate is in the district of "bleak, exposed 

 Upper Lindula." But " the pity of it, oh lago, 

 is that the statement is embalmed m " Ihe lea 

 Planter's Vade Mecum" as a true and honest 

 ri'presentation, by a Ceylon authority, of "Tea 

 Climates in Ceylon." Ceylon readers can make 

 the correction for themselves, but Indian planters 

 and others, who do not know the value of the 

 authority quoted in the " Vade Mecum," will accept 

 gross misrepresentation as truth. From where 1 

 write I look up over an expanse of thousands of acres 

 of forest, rising from " bleak, exposed Upper Lin- 

 dula" to the sides of Kirigalpotta and Totapala, 

 a large portion of which can be successfully 

 cultivated with tea, if only some fuel can be 

 found for the Nanuoya-Haputale railway, which 

 will enable Government to set the mountain forests 

 free to healthy and profitable enterprise. But, if 

 the ci-deviiiit editor is to be believed, it would be 

 equally " a fatal mistake" to grow tea along the 

 railway line, as, in his opinion, it would be to 

 make the railway on which Uva depends not only for 

 revival but for very existence. I believe that the 

 railway will bo made, and that profitable tea 

 cultivEUion will follow its course, until the fields 

 of " bleak" Lindula are joined m one bright 

 chain to those of genial Uva. 



Oct. 15th. 



The intense heat, succeeding to the dense mists 

 and pretty copious rainfall, which ended with the 

 niglit of the 10th, is Laving the effect which might 



be anticipated on vegetation generally, but especi- 

 ally on tea. A long walk through fields of the 

 plant this morning was most interesting. I read 

 last evening in the " Tea Planter's Vade Mecum," 

 that the varieties of hj-brid tea amount to one 

 hundred, and of these we have a good proportion. 

 Our intelligent Tamil conductor confirmed this 

 morning the opinion which the Europeans con- 

 nected with this estate have long held, that the 

 largest leaved bushes are by no means the best 

 yielders of flush. What we desiderate is a bush 

 with a wide, dense surface of long and pointed 

 leaves. On one twig of such a bush Ahira this 

 morning counted a dozen leaf shoots and 

 remarked: "If all the bushes were like this, 

 1,000 lb. per acre would be regularly gathered." The 

 end bud or tip of such plants is possessed of con- 

 centrated strength, such as is not to be found in 

 the very large-leaved plants, even when the latter show 

 "tip," which some of them seldom do. Ventur- 

 ing to differ from Col. Money on this question 

 as on that of tea cUmate, I have always held 

 that the introduction of China seed by Mr. Fortune 

 into India, in Lord William Bentinck's time, and 

 the resulting hybrid between the Assam and the 

 China plants, was fortunate instead of the reverse. 

 Pure Assam indigenous for low elevations, by all 

 means, but for all altitudes above 3,000 feet I 

 suspect good hybrid is best. 



Since yesterday our Excelsior worked alone, has 

 been finishing off rolls of 250 lb. of withered tea 

 leaf, in forty minutes and in excellent style, with 

 no tinge of dark colour. I have no doubt 

 that, ere long, we can regularly accomplish the 

 full load of 320 lb. I take this opportunity 

 of correcting an error into which I fell in 

 previous communications, in dividing withered leaf 

 by four for made tea. That rule applies to green 

 leaf as gathered, which loses one-fourth of its 

 weight in moisture in the process of withering. 

 300 lb. of withered tea represents 100 of the finished 

 article. 



THE VICTORIAN 



BI DK. J. E. 



taylor, f.g.s., f.l.s 

 "science gossip." 



FORESTS. 



EDITOU OP 



My English agricultural friends know little or 

 nothing of the hard labour and great expenditure 

 requisite to keep an Australian " station " in good 

 condition. One of the squatters with whom I stayed 

 (and whose station is by no means the largest) 

 told me he had fenced no less than 100 miles of 

 it, and that it had cost him £80 a mile. 



Our route to the forest lay along grassy, unused, 

 one-chain roads, along which v.'aggons and other 

 vehicles were in the habit of winding their devious 

 ways. In many places it was a euphemistic form 

 of speech to call them roads, for they differed from 

 the rest of the country in nowise, except the rough 

 fencing on either side, (iumtrees, dead and living, 

 and also abundance of tree stumps, of all sizes 

 and in all positions, crowded the " road," along 

 which, I hope, few people are obliged to travel by 

 night. Processions of dead trees — studies in black 

 and white — seemed to pass us by as we drove along. 

 They are the scarred remnants of bush fires, and 

 they alone arc sufficient to mark the road. Flocks 

 of brilliant green parakeets rise up from beneath 

 our horses' feet, lovely lowry, rosella, and 151ne 

 Mountain parrots flash across us in the sunshine 

 like living gems, crowds of cockatoo parrots (eorella) 

 soar above our heads; numbers of white, sulphur- 

 crested cockatoos screech as if a screeching match 

 were on, and every bird was confident of winning. 

 They fly from dead gumtree to dead gumtree, and 



