Feb. I, 1886.} 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



527 



♦ 



To the Edilor of the " Ceylon Observer." 



PLANTING IN THE LOW COUNTBY IN 



CEYLON: THE IDAGAMA PLANTING 



DISTEICT : TEA AND OTHER 



PRODUCTS.— IN ANSWER 



TO CRITICISM. 



Udagama, 15th Dec. 1885. 



De.U! Sir., — I am quite certain it is as little 

 their intention as youv.si, and I therefore would not 

 wish to trouble you now were it not that formiii. 

 the tirst subject of remark in your leader of the 

 10th inst. on an interview with two entitled tea 

 authorities from India, what is said regarding our 

 district may be likely to unfairly prejudice outside 

 opinion against a neighbourhood, where planting 

 has yet been attempted in it, only now passing 

 through the universal transition era of tea for 

 coffee, be it " Arabiea" or •' Liberian." This 

 largely due to the fact (which alone, by the way, 

 fonus rather a suliicient argument against any- 

 thing said) that the latter, though it be little to 

 boast of, has proved, with us at least, a greater 

 success than in most other districts. Were there 

 an extensive acreage of tea here, as in the Kelani 

 Valley, already in bearing, it would be nuite im- 

 material ; practical results, as in their case, would 

 be amply sutlicient to refute criticism ; but mean- 

 while, and until the district has assumed its certain 

 destiny, it is as well to be candid and speak the 

 truth. We cannot afford to have capital un- 

 deservedly frightened away : on the contrary, what 

 of all things we want is that investors should 

 tind their way here, nor could they do better. Having 

 had the pleasure of a visit from Messrs. Logan 

 and Teare, it is but polite and just, I should say, 

 to believe that their opinion is fully as valuable as 

 the opinion of any experienced Indian teaplanter 

 on Ceylon as a tea country, and tea in Ceylon 

 under the varied conditions, from those pertaining 

 to the regions of natural ice, to a perennial hum- 

 idity, but that Assam can boast of for six months 

 only, and has practically to bemoan the absence 

 for the rest of the year, despite the refuted argu- 

 ment for a period of hibernation as natural and 

 necessary. As for drawing invidious comparisons 

 between the various districts where all are so good, 

 I have not a thought or wish, but it is only fair 

 to remark as a point your friends seem to have 

 overlooked entirely, that it is, as to the possession 

 of this unvaried condition of heat and moisture — 

 elimate, in fact — that this district or rather, I 

 should say. section of the island, extending over 

 a large area, not strictly at the coast, but from 

 some distance inland from Galle. can probably 

 claim priority. As for soil : it has never been 

 argued that the surface soil here can compare 

 with much of the ground upcountry — only, that 

 we generally possess a free and deep subsoil, 

 strongly impregnated with iron. Ground, \n fact, 

 that, taken on an average, will compare favour- 

 ably with that of any other lowcountry district, 

 where the climate is also suitable for tea. And on 

 this point, I think, you will accept the opinion of so 



pood an authority as Mr. , though I do not 



feel entitled to give his name publicly, a» worth 

 more than that of any passing visitor. He inde- 

 pendently noticed, which I take to be one of the 

 main points of consideration for tea, this depth of 

 free soil, and it is fully borne out by the distance 

 down to which tree roots can be found extending. 



There is. in I'dagama. but a small and scattered 

 area of old bushes at present, that have most 

 of tliem been allowed to run up for seed, but 



which, taking them all in all, will, I think, com- 

 pare well witli any others similarly conditioned 

 in the island, of a like age ; and it was, in fact 

 the absence of pruned bushes to judge from, that 

 -.cally disappointed your friends in their visit. 

 With the growth of the only last year's clearing — 

 opened under a certain order, and, most of it, 

 not planted till December with plants from seed 

 (partly Abbotsford) not sown till June — they 

 expressed themselves especially pleased with. What 

 they, or rather Mr. Logan, did not seem to like, 

 as a new experience to him from the stoneless 

 alluvial tiats of Assam, was the steep ground, and 

 especially rocky nature of this particular clearing. 

 As for " iiuality of leaf " : I have a favorable report 

 by Messrs. Forljes <fc Walker on a few lb. made 

 experimentally with a solitary No. 8 sieve, 

 over an amateur oven. As with other lowcovmtry 

 teas, it shows, you will notice, the pronounced 

 strength and flavour, that — according to a gentle- 

 man (a planter of full experience) I happened to 

 hear discuss the subject lately, largely and, I be- 

 lieve, equally interested in tea at both high and low 

 elevations, and who, therefore, must be taken as an 

 impartial authority — is likely in the long run to give 

 the advantage in price and fixed demand to the latter. 

 His verdict was, that, though a superior delicacy of 

 flavor, though comparative lack of strength and 

 body, in the high -grown teas may find them now, 

 and, at tirst. slightly higher prices amongst con- 

 noisseurs who will pay, their number is not suf- 

 ficiently legion to absorb more than a limited 

 quantity, and, as a tea to satisfy a wholesale 

 democracy it needs the strength and pungency the 

 lowcountry leaf excels in. As for the opinions of 

 Messrs. Logan and Teare, coming one from the 

 Neilgherries and the* other from Assam, they can 

 hardly be coupled as one — rather amusingly 

 shown on an appeal by one to the other, after 

 pruning a sample bush, as to whether his friend 

 did not think " that about right ? " in tho re- 

 ply that it was, except that for himself " he would 

 cut a little lower, as his women would be hardly 

 tail enough to do the plucking otherwise "I On 

 subsequent measure, though still a tall tree, it 

 hardly argues well for the standard of labor 

 procurable ! and this brings in a point : whilst 

 arguing comparative cost of labor in Ceylon and 

 Assam Mr. Logan seems, in speaking to you, to 

 have used a discreet silence on, or rather his 

 lack of knowledge prevented a very material com- 

 parison being drawn. Though granting his figures 

 as to their actual wages, his admission when here, as 

 I gathered it, that Is per lb. is their lowest rate 

 of production, sets aside all argument of com- 

 parison under the headings collectively that go 

 to make up our respective totals of cost. But on the one 

 question only, however much there be, we may think, 

 we have reason to complain of. it only needs but a 

 few words on the subject, to gather the Gov- 

 ernment begotten paralysis under which, as a 

 fact, they are prostrated in Assam as regards 

 their labor. The hand of Government, in a 

 manner no Ceylon Governor or Government would 

 think of, in everythmg, adding supplementary 

 items of cost under almost every heading in 

 which labor forms a part, and its beneticont 

 influence extended to save the coolies from kill- 

 ing themselves in any other employment than 

 sleeping or eating their heads off. At least so, 

 I confess, I concluded on being told th.it (i plants, 

 ball planted (take it at (ifl as mislicard, though 

 I think not I), was a day's task ! this being 

 elicited on looking over a nursery the fine plants 

 in which attracted attention ; and which, by the 

 way, are now going in, largely k ball plants, 



