October i, 1S85.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



281 



found the best. The chests are light and the tares are 

 even, and good as our Ceylou chests are, the Japanese 

 are better and cheaper. Cejlon made half chests need 

 not be hooped; chests must be. Japanese chests of any 

 size will not require hooping, another advantage they 

 have. 



Marking. — Do not write a book on the sides of your 

 chests, as is sometimis seen. On the lid have your 

 gardeu No. ;ind shipping mark, say initials of con- 

 signee in diamond, with Loudon underneath ; in front 

 have Xo. corresponding to that on lid, and garden 

 mark; at back have class of tea and uett weight ouly, 

 the other two sides plain. Wa are advised to make 

 our breaks us large as possible to get full value for 

 our teas, and we are told that the sale of breaks of 

 under S chests or half chests or 20 boxes are post- 

 poned till after the general sales, when the best 

 buyers will have left the room. With youug gardens 

 then, after picking out red leaf, I would break all teas 

 through No. 8, dust and ship as pekoe souchong ; 

 put congou and red leaf through the breaking ma- 

 chine and after mixing ship as broken tea. 



Bulkini/. — If this is done at the factory and it will be a 

 saving if it can be done, " factory bulked " should be 

 stencilled above the class of tea i"u the chest. Bulk- 

 ing must be done after final tiring, and the teas thus 

 packed cool, a slight disadvantage, but not so great 

 perhaps as the teas suffer in being bulked at the docks. 

 To bulk then, have aU your siroccos at work, throw 

 your tea as fired into one large heap ou the floor 

 and as soon as any one class of tea is finished firing rake 

 out the heap well over the floor, say 3 in. thick, then 

 heap again, the cooly working from the centre to- 

 war ;< bim, forming a ring round him, the cooly then 

 leivcs tjB ring, again piles the tea in a heap, and 

 again rakes it out and heaps, when the bulking will be 

 finished and tea ready to pack. 



I have purposely in this paper, so far, omitted all 

 mention of cost; of the works touched on. AVe have 

 these so often given us before, I would but have 

 wasted your time in again going into them. I may 

 however briefly state, that ga.-deus in full bearing 

 can put their teas f. o. h. at Colombo at from 27 cents 

 to 86 cents per lb., that with careful management and 

 with good machinery, on an ordinary average gardeu 

 you may positively count on being able to ship your 

 teas at 30 cents per lb. In August 188.3 when 1 had the 

 honor of reading a paper on tea before the Dikoya 

 Planters' Association, I then estimated cost f. o. b. 

 making every and ample allowance at 39 rents, and 

 stated it w.as more than I should allow at a yield of 

 400 lb. per acre, and it is 3 cent,< per lb. over what you 

 will find tea need cost you. With regard to yield a 

 garden giving an average" 5 ield of 300 lb. per acre will 

 found to be more uncommon than one giving 500 lb. as 

 an average at 6 years upwards. Lunger experience has 

 shown us that there is not eo much difference in yield 

 between the lowcountry and the hills. Hill tea is slower 

 at first, but wherever it has soil to work on it will be 

 found I think at 5 to 6 years and upwards ei|ual to any 

 tea of the same age in the lowcountry, and when we 

 put our millions of lb. before the market our hill 

 flivorwill go for .something depend upon it, where all 

 is good, comparisons arc odious, so no more of this. 



To revert again for one moment to factory and 

 machinery. Having formed your garden, spend your 

 utmost farthing in erecting a large and commodious 

 factory, with ample machinery, and it will all be returned 

 to you one hundredfold. You may begin your factory 

 as soon after your planting is done as you like, and 

 you must begin at the end of your first yeir, money 

 is always of object so it is not to be supposed yuu are 

 to badd the whole of your factory right off. Adopt- 

 ing the plan I have suggested you would begin then 

 with a building say Sti ft. in length by 2A ft. wi.le, 

 with two upper floors. Your bottom pillars would be 

 12 ft. high by 2 ft., on them 18 in. pillars 8 ft. high and on 

 the top door poets fi in. by Bin. to support the wall-plate. 

 The two upper floors can be walled by either weather- 

 boards, or wattle and daub plastered inside and outside 

 with lime. The bottom floor is walled with a tem- 

 porary wattle and daub wall weather-boarded outside. 

 36 



AVhen the time comes to add the wings both weather- 

 boards and windows can be used for them, so there is no 

 waste. Here is the foundation of our permanent factory 

 then — to bt added to as more space is wanted 

 or as funds allow. If you have a good coffee store 

 which can be converted into a factory by all means let 

 this be doue, but if your store is not a permanent one, 

 and you can do without it pull it down, and use what 

 timber you can for your factory. Temporary factories 

 are most unsatisfactory things : an actual waste of 

 money in themselves, and perhaps losing your pence 

 per III, ou your teas. If then you cannot begin your 

 factory on a proper basis sell your leaf till you can. 



In deciding on your machinery it must be borne in 

 mind that to finish your work in daylight you are 

 working your roller 5 to 6 hours not 10, and your driers 

 also half time. Estimate then what you want and 

 multiply by two— the same with withering space. A 

 few large flushes come upon us and we cannot avail 

 ourselves of them as we ought, for Mant of space. 

 K1,000 or so spent in more withering room 

 will be represented in the gain on tea both by quantity 

 and market value in one month perhaps or even less. 

 Money if it can be spared will be well .spent in the 

 purchase of a small circular saw for cutting firewood 

 into lengths without waste, among which firewood alas ! 

 comes our coffee trees, just too long in many cases for 

 the sirocco, and they are tough subjects for the axe. 

 In clearing out your coffee do not burn the trees to 

 waste, as I have seen done, merely to clear the land in 

 a hurry, but stack them for firewood, or for making 

 charcoal. Do not aim at making too fine teas. It is 

 pleasing to see an out-of-the-way average, but what 

 does it mean ? Too tine plucking, costly, and result- 

 ing in injury to the bush, a less yield which with 

 heavier cost, quite I think, outbalances enhanced value, 

 a large yield with good medium teas fetching a fair 

 average value at from Is 3d to Is 6d will pay better and 

 keep our bushes healthy and everlasting. I have seen, 

 we have all seen, young bushes plucked to death, to 

 give fine teas. How can these bushes ever develop 

 themselves and give us the cover we should get. Apart 

 from the injury to our bushes, and as I do not be- 

 lieve a low yield and high price pays as well as a high 

 yield and lower prices, why educate the public taste 

 up to a standard which we will not be able to main- 

 tain as time goes on, both on account of impoverishing 

 the husband — with no coffee to rob of its labor insuffi- 

 ciency of pluckers. Let our standard be an all round 

 average according to the richness of our soil and suit- 

 ability of our climate at from Is 3d to Is 6d per lb. 

 and we will have no cause to grumble, I can assure you, 

 with our tea gardens a permanency. 



And, now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I must close. 

 As you are aware in a paper of this kind, it is impossible 

 to enter fully into the subjects you were gooil enough 

 to ask me to bring before you, as time is insufficient. 

 I Tru^t however I have said enough to be of some as- 

 sistance to those wh» require it, and thanking you for 

 the honor you have done me in asking me here today, 

 I leave my humble effort in your hands. 



0. Speaeman Aemstkonq. 



Tea is .jAJtAicA. — By the way Mr. D. Morris is very 

 hopeful of making Jamaica a tea-pro iucer. He has 4,000 

 plants in bearing in one of the Government Gartlens 

 under his charge, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, and a 

 sample of made tea which he sent home recentlv has bf en 

 very favourably reported on by Messrs. Geo. "White ^ Co., 

 who valued it at fr^'in IsGd to ls8d per lb. Jlr. Morris 

 estimatt s that by the labour of boys and girls tea can 

 be ])roducod in Jamaica, so as to he laid down in 

 TiOndon at 7d jier lb., but experienced planters would, I 

 fancy, add considerably to this, if they were to revise 

 the calculation in detail. Mr. Morris thinks that .Tamaica 

 may occujty her.«elf for some time to come with sup- 

 plying the local consumption, and that of other A\'est 

 India colonies, without competing in the London market. 

 He is planting out 15 acres on the Government cin- 

 chona estates with tea, so as to test it ou a commercial 

 scale. — London Cor. 



