January i, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



481 



THE PRUNING OF TEA IN CEYLON. 

 Jlr. I-oj^an of Assam and Wr. Teaie of the 

 Nilgais — gentlemen who are largely interested in 

 tea and who, between them, make up about tifty 

 years' experience of planting, — have just made a 

 round of some of the principal Ceylon districts. 

 They first visited Udagama, in the Galle district, 

 and neither with the tea nor the soil there, were 

 ihey much impressed, and they began to think 

 that they had made a mistake in intermitting their 

 voyage to Madras and Calcutta, for all that Ceylon 

 had to show them. But the trip to the Central 

 Province altered this opinion. They travelled up 

 by railway to Nanuoya, and making Nuwara Ehya 

 their headquarters for a few days, they visited 

 all the tea and cinchona plantations available in 

 the neighbourhood, being much pleased on the 

 whole with what they saw. Separating here, one 

 visitor travelled down by way of Udapussellawa, 

 Maturata and l>eltota, while the other took Dimbula, 

 Ambivganuiwa and the fartanied Mariawatte plant- 

 ation more at leisure. Mariawatte would undoubted- 

 ly be considered an exceptionally fine tea-garden 

 anywhere ; but Messrs. Teare and Logan have 

 some home truths to tell us which it is well we 

 and Ceylon tea cultivators generally should examine. 

 They do not consider that as respects economy 

 of labour Ceylon has any advantage to show over 

 the avei-age Indian tea districts. Mr. Logan gives 

 ICi.T a head as the first price ijaid for coolies in- 

 dentured for live years, and who if well treated 

 usually go on for another five years, their wages 

 being R-j a mouth or say with bounty R5i to 

 RC) ; while in Ceylon our average must be nearer 

 RS to RIO for monthly wages. So in respect of 

 cost of transport, our visitors will not admit we 

 have an advantage considering the greater cheap- 

 ness of railway and river transport in India, while 

 freights to London positively average less from 

 Calcutta, than from Colombo. The only admitted 

 gain of Ceylon is in respect of a fortnight in time. 

 But we should scarcely mention in this prominent 

 way the visit of the above two experienced Indian 

 tea planters, were it not far the serious warning 

 they have tendered to us as respects the system of 

 pruning they found almost Universally observed 

 during their trip. Messrs. Teare and Logan call 

 it destruction, and ruinous to the tea-bush, and 

 that a very tew years will afford sufficient proof. 

 The Lnckinipore Company was instanced as one 

 case where tea gardens had been pruned after the 

 present Ceylon fashion up to about the time the 

 late "Mr. W. Cameron" came to Ceylon, with 

 the result that for five or six years heavy crops 

 and splendid dividends were relized ; but then came 

 the reaction and a blank with a debit account for 

 several years, and only after very careful nursing 

 did the trees come round. The strange part is 

 that while Messrs. Teare and Logan condenm 

 nearly all the pruning they saw, they both declare 

 that nothing can be better than the advice and 

 instruction given on this subject by Mr. C. S. 

 Armstrong in the pamphlet republished at this 

 ofKcc. Can it be true that our tea-planters, as a 

 rule, refuse to follow Mr. Armstrong's teaching 

 as regards the pruning of their tea bushes ? 

 61 



JOTTINGS OF A .TOURNEY UPCOUNTRY, 

 CEYLON. 

 The tea in .\uibagamuwa being now planted will 

 no doubt do well, but at present, in passing through, 

 many places look red and bare through the rooting 

 out of the cotlee ere the tea is planted. This may 

 be the better way, but is it a shock to sse tho 

 tea IS months old and gradually prune down the 

 coll'ee, and only remove altogether when the tea again 

 make the hillsides green, and it is a shock 

 where you knew good-looking coffee had been of old 

 now to see bare acres. Coffee up to Dimbula 

 through the Kotagaloya valley seems wretched, but 

 so]ne estates with tea growing well underneath looks 

 like business still. On Craigie Lea a lot of tine 

 young tea is coming on round and above where the 

 resthouse was, and it is being extended ; and on 

 Forest Creek there is good young tea among tho 

 cofl'ee in the _lield by the church, and many acres 

 being planted. At that end of the valley Mount 

 Vernon tops the coffee in look and crop facile 

 priiiccps. St. Andrew's has 'a lot of good young 

 tea also, and a coffee crop. As one ascends the 

 valleys coffee improves towards Lindula and Agraa, 

 though crops don't seem too abundant ; and at the 

 farthest point reached that way the coffee looked 

 really ijood. Tea of about the same age seemed to 

 be on every estate, but men there seem loath to prune 

 and shape extremely big bushes: why, can't tell 1 Up 

 to the end of railway coffee looks seedy, although 

 the best crop I saw anywhere was on Louisa I 

 think, at any rate, under Mr. Mackie's charge, and 

 the portion I saw had really a fine crop.— A'c^nMi' 

 Valley K. C. B. 



"*■ : 



EXPERIMENTAL CULTIVATION OF PEARL 

 OYSTERS. 

 Captain Donnan's report is to the following 

 eft'ect : — 



" I regret to say that out of 12,000 oysters 

 placed in the experimental tank on the reel off 

 Silavatturai in March last, I found only 21 re- 

 maining alive. Some of the oysters may have been 

 washed out of the tank by the S.W. monsoon sea, 

 as it was not completely sheltered from the wash 

 of the waves, but the bulk of them have, I be- 

 lieve, died off and been destroyed by some fish 

 preying upon them. About 100 dead shells were 

 found in the bottom of the tank, many of which 

 bore evidence of having been bored through and 

 nibbled away. It is just possible that some fish 

 may have got into the tank and preyed upon the 

 oysters either by getting over the coral barrier 

 around it, which would be slightly under water at 

 high-water, or through the interstices of the coral 

 underneath. 



" The experiment so far has been a failure, 

 which may be attributable to four causes : 1st, 

 overcrowding the oysters in the tank ; 2nd, 

 deficiency of nourishment in water so near the 

 'surface : Hvd, destruction by fish which had got 

 into the tank and preyed upon them ; Ith, by 

 excessive agitation of tlie water in the tank dur- 

 ing the S.W. monsoon sea; or pi-obably to all 

 these causes combined. 



" I shall try tho experiment again in March 

 next in a tank to be made on a more sheltered 

 part of the reef, with the embankments raised 

 above water and fewer oysters jilaced on it." 

 Wc are glad to sec that Capt. Donnan means 

 to persevere in experiments which, notwithstand- 

 ing previous failures here and off tho coast of 

 Southern India, are, wc cannot doubt, destined 

 in the end to be successful. There are many ap- 

 pliances of modern science, such as the electric 

 light which could be applied and whioh it would pay 



