KOV. 2, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



315 



No. 3 from Jrd. to Jth at leapt or tliP area must be done 

 yeii^i/, and for the reason I have indicated. I hope 

 "to send you for putilication trials with other kinds of 

 manure, and on pruning and weeding, &c., wh^n 1 oaii 

 get the papers ready. 



Tea planters in Ceylon, as well as in India, owe 

 a debt of gratitude to Mr. Carter for the inform- 

 ation he has furuislied. Of course, manure made 

 on an estate and collected in cattle sheds or other- 

 wise is of great value. But to keep cattle merely 

 for manure and occasional sales for the butcher, 

 is very expensive and can only in rare cases be 

 profitable. When the time to manure tea estates, 

 therefore, arrives, and it will come early in tlte 

 case of old coffee estates, " planted up " with tea, 

 it is well to know that if we can get our old friend 

 ichile castor poonac, at a moderate price, it will 

 furnish just the combination of ammonia and 

 potash desiderated for the growth of flushes of 

 vegetation, while, for the sake of wood as well as 

 leaf, the addition of small quantities of steamed 

 bone-dust or superjdiosphate, would be advisable. 



CEYLON UPCOUN'THY PLANTING EEPOET, 



TEA SEED PL.4NTED AT ST.KKE UXCERT.^INTV OF OUT- 

 TURN — DIFFl:RENT OPINIONS — THE I-IiOSl'El!lTY OF 

 CEVLON DEPENDENT ON THE .PLANTER — THE REAL BACK- 

 BONE — SVl'ERIMTENDENTS' P.W — THE INDIAN SYSTEM 



A GOOD EXAMPLE. 



As to tea seed planted at stake, it is wonderful how 

 well it stands where it is already through, but when 

 it is not above ground it 's a real vexation of spirit : 

 you may speculate till your heart is sick, as to 

 what proportion you will lose, or whether any 

 will come up at all, but, like most forecasts, there 

 is also in this one a vile element of doubt, more 

 than usually tantalizing fronr its instability, and 

 which varies according to the clearness of the 

 skies, or the cloudiness of your own mind. Ordinary 

 speculation is barren enough : but to begin 

 guessing at the probable outurn of tea seed planted 

 at stake with little or no rain for nearly a month is 

 as barren an employment as the wits of man can be 

 set to. And yet a good many of us are at it. 

 " It 's sure to come all right," said one man to me ; 

 " I had some of the seeds examined, and theis 

 are roots six inches long although it has not be- 

 gun to shoot up at ail." There was a kind of 

 comfort in hearing this, but when another man looks 

 even wiser and says : " You don't catch me plant- 

 ing at stake again if I can help it," you feel that 

 a good deal of your former joy has somehow evapor- 

 ated. To bother yourself about it, is a vicious 

 circle to get into, tending (o shorten your days 

 with worry, without increasing in any way the 

 success of the stake-planted clearing. 



Since the evil days of the failure of coffee it has 

 been too clearly demonstrated to every class that 

 the prosperity of the whole island depends on the 

 planter. When he is suffering there is suffering 

 everywhere, when lie is juosperous all the land re- 

 joices. I don't fancy any will gainsay this — 

 the truth is today too patent to all. 



Now the backbone of the planting interests is not 

 the moneyed man, nor the agent who is authorized to 

 fend, nor the in.spector, nor the cooly, but the super- 

 indendent. Without him wliat would liave become of 

 the planting enterprise in Ceylon ? In the worst daj-s 

 of the failure of coffee he clung to his old ship until 

 his allowances had in many cases almost reached 

 the vanishing point. I remember of one man who 

 got so very little at last for his services, that he 

 used to do his work from his verandah of his bun- 

 galow with a field glass in his hand, explaining 

 ■with sorrowful regret that it was the most he 



could do for the pay he got ! I believe he adopted 

 this unique style of service on the grounds of the 

 field-glass being a link connecting liim with happier 

 days when he had the pay of a European gentle- 

 man, instead of that of a native conductor, and 

 he did not like altogether to lose touch of civiliz- 

 ation ! . But he was an exception, and for that reason 

 he is introduced hero ; oiUcrs did good work for 

 very little ami made very little by it, for estates 

 were pretty ma'-h in the position of a man \A\o 

 had unobserved fallen overboard in mi^Vocean and 

 whose shii5 was fast leaving him. 



Again, when the new tea enterpri' e was started the 

 superintendent was read}- to do his best to tiiake 

 it a success, working for bare subsisieuce with the 

 hope that if it turned out a payng spec he too 

 would eventually prosper. Now it, crn.:ot be said 

 that lea docs not pay, and yet I have heard of 

 proprietors who are making very handsome profits 

 indeed, and yet give to tht ir responsible managers 

 a remuneration wliich is miserably mean. I don't 

 believe this sort of thing pays in the long run. 



In Indian tea gardens it has been long recognised 

 that to give the manager a direct interest in the 

 concern is the bc^t thing for all, and this stylo is 

 also being found out to be a good plan for Ceylon. 

 It can be carried out in different ways, by a salary 

 and commission, or simply by a 'percentage on the 

 receipts. I know of one Ceylon proprietor, a gentle- 

 man who knows the v;.lue of the rupee as weU 

 as any man, who likes to have his work 

 done cheaply and well, and who has adopted 

 the Indian system with marked success. Before this 

 he had his managcis on salaries, but somehow 

 his teas did not fetch high prices nor get for his 

 estate a good name. All this, however, was chpuged 

 when the fixed remuneration was dropped and a 

 10 per cent commission on the gross proceeds was 

 awarded to the manager and per cent to the 

 assistant. From that day the qualities of the teas 

 steadily improved, the working was as cheap if 

 not cheaper, and now his mark is rapidly taking 

 a high position in the list of the crack estates. 

 With the results he is perfectly satisfied, his pro- 

 fits have been eonsiderably enhanced, his managers 

 tyork for him with heart and soul, while they 

 themselveB are more than satisfied, having almost 

 doubled their former incomes. 



It is a pleasure to be in a position to record 

 a case of this kind, such a pleasing contrast to 

 the graball meanness of some proprietors who could 

 well afford to he liberal. I can hardly expect that 

 the screws " will see it be to their advantage 

 to adopt a more generous treatment of their men ; 

 still for all that the ijolicy they pursue is a bad 

 one. There are so many ways ojiened for a 

 superintendent who is satisfied to reciprocate in 

 the same kindly spirit in which he has been 

 dealt with, which the under-paid man fails to see, 

 or seeing, fails to avail himself of. — Peppekcoex. 



The Isl.\nd oe Beunion. — The sugar-cane is the 

 principal article of cultivation in the island, tho 

 quantity exported in 1H8.S being Hli.OOO tons. But 

 these are now being replanted, and the exports for 

 IKH.'J were about (iOO tons valued at i.Sa.OOO. 

 Vanilla is also grown in the oastern part of the 

 island, the exports for 1883 amounting to 2;i tons, 

 varying in value from 8s to His a pound accord- 

 ing to the quality. Tobacco, cotton, tea, quinine, 

 silkworms, cocoa, and cloves are also grown, and 

 witliin the last two years experiments in vine- 

 growing have given promise of being very success- 

 ful, — Overland Mail. 



