March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



6x7 



NOTES OX 28 PHOTOGBAPHS, ILLUSTBATIVE 

 OF THE CULTURE OF COFFEE, CINCHONA, 

 TEA AND EXOTIC TniBER AND ORNA- 

 MENTAL TREES, ON A MOUNTAIN 

 ESTATE IN CEYLON. 



SEVT TO TBE CSIAN AKD COLONIAL EXHIBITION OF 



1886.] 

 With the belief that some of the information 

 embodied in the notes may be useful to iilaiiters 

 and generally interesting, they are now publiBhed-^ 



GEXEKAL DESCRIPTIOX. 



The estate in question is at loo high an altitude, 

 4,600 to 6,100 feet, for the cultivation of cacao 

 and cardamoms. The so-called Arabian coffee 

 would have succeeded well here, up to 5,000 feet, 

 but for the effects of Hemileia i(istalri.c which 

 appeared on Ceylon coffee in May 18011 ; cinchona, 

 from first to last, has, with all its capriciousness, 

 yielded very good returns ; but on this estate as on 

 the vast majority of Ceylon plantations, Tk.v is 

 the culture to which aliuost exclusive attention 

 is now devoted and on which justifiable hopes 

 of success are founded. Calculations based on 

 Indian experience led originally to scepticism as 

 to the profitable growth of tea at so high an 

 altitude, but experience on this estate, now reach- 

 ing back to a decade of years, has proved that 

 soil and climate are eminently suitable to the 

 luxuriant growth of " the leaf whhh cheers but 

 not inebriates." and an experienced Visiting Agent 

 who has recently been on the estate has expressly 

 eported that " tea flushes as well here as in the 

 lowcountiy." To account for this result, coumion 

 to plantations in Ceylon of lottier altitudes than this 

 by nearly 1,000 feet, it must be remembered that 

 Ceylon is an island and that a large portion of 

 the mountain zone is not more than 7' north of 

 the eijuator. The estate is almost exactly on the 

 seventh parallel, and the effects of the warm, 

 moist insular climate is that a position at .5,000 

 feet here has a higher mean temperature than 

 places little more than half that altitude 20° 

 farther north, in Darjeehng. The much more equal 

 distribution of the rainfall, and the absence of 

 drought, frost and hail storms, also tell in favour 

 of Ceylon. The mean temperatures of the estate 

 (formed entirely out of woodland, so that radiation 

 of heat and evaporation are much less than from 

 the damp (rrass land of the Plain of Nuwara Eliya, 

 •2 miles off in direct distance and (i,200 feet above 

 Bea-level) var>' from C,r,' at the lowest limit to 60° 

 at the highest. The mean temperature at the new 

 bnngalow, 'i.SOO feet high but sheltered by a grove 

 of exotic trees, is between HI" and 62". Fires OJB 

 enjoyable, however, for a considerable portion oj 

 the year, tbe temperature going down to 50" at 

 night, while the mid-day lieat rarely exceeds 80°. 

 The rainlall averages about UO inches, of which 

 3ti fall in the south-west monsoon months, .Tune 

 and .July, but rarely has a rainless month been 

 known and even when rain is not deposited a con- 

 siderable quantity of moisture is suspended in the 

 air. The difference of altitude on this estate is such 

 (1,400 feet), that sometimes, halfan-hour's walk is 

 sufiioicnt to exchange dense mist on the upper 

 portion lor bright sunshine on the lower. The 

 estate being situated on the western side of the 

 great central table-land of Nuwara Eliya, the 

 " dividing range" between the western and eastern 

 sections of the mountain system is deluged with 

 rain, as already stated, in the summer months, 

 while about ten miles away in direct distance, estates 

 on the Haputale range, in Uva, are, at tlie same 

 period, babking in nninterrupted brightness. The 

 most rainy sfiason on the eastern side of the 

 78 



mountain system is in the north-east monsoon 

 months. Tea is a plant so cosmopolitan in its 

 habits, that it promises to succeed equally well in 

 the comparatively dry climate of Uva, as amidst the 

 abounding moisture of ■' the young districts" and 

 old Ambagamuwa with its 200 to 2riO inches of rain- 

 fall. If we take the region over which estates are 

 scattered as bounded by Nalanda on the north, 

 Morawak Korale on the south, Monaragala on the 

 east, and Awisawella on the west, this mountain 

 plantation, with other estates around Nuwara Eliya, 

 is as nearly central to the whole area as any locality 

 possibly can be. What is wanted, not only in 

 justice to Uva, but to make Nuwara Eliya the true 

 centre of the plantation regions of Ceylon, is, that 

 the railway should be extended across " summit 

 level, ' (about 6,200 feet above the sea, or 900 feet 

 higher than it has already attained) to Haputale. 

 Other extensions will follow, embracing, ultimately, 

 the " lowcountry " tea estates. The first coffee nursery 

 was opened on the mountain estate in November 

 1871. The first coffee and cinchonas were "put 

 out " in 1872. The first ornamental plants, near 

 the old bungalow, were planted in ISlii. Scattered 

 tea plants were placed along paths and drains in 

 1871-7'), and in the former year the first tea nursery 

 was formed. Large nurseries of cinchona and Aus- 

 tralian trees followed, and planting was gi'aduaUy 

 carried on, until all but about 70 acres out of .519, 

 stretching a longitudinal distance, over abrupt and 

 swelling mountain features, of beyond two miles, 

 were cleared and cultivated. The succeeding notes 

 bliow how "flic old bungalow," near the Coffee 

 Store, gave place to the "new bungalow" and the 

 Tea Factory. 



At one time time there were 300 acres of fine- 

 looking and promising coffee on the estate, and still 

 there is a large expanse of coffee which is nearly all 

 that could be desired, as far as looks go, but 

 this season we expect to get only 800 bushels of 

 " parchment " instead of 8,000 which we should 

 have had a right to look for had there been no 

 outbreak of leaf-fungus. Besides a good deal of 

 cinchona bark, the fair prospect is that in 1886 

 about 1;10,000 11). of made tea will be harvested 

 and dispatched. At an average of only Is per lb. 

 that would support expenditure, which the trans- 

 ition from coffee to tea renders heavy, and leave 

 a fair balance to the good. To the end of 1885, 

 the expenditure on the estate since the first pur- 

 chase of land in December 1870 will have been 

 about Bl,200 per acre, including E13,.500 contrib- 

 utions to grant-in-aid roads leading to the est.ite 

 and E22,000 on between 40 and 50 miles of 

 specially good estate paths. The difficulty and 

 costliness of " weeding " in tropical agriculture 

 may bo estimated from the fact that E70,000 

 stand against tliis item in the accounts of this 

 estate. When coffee culture was at its highest in 

 Ceylon, it used to be calculated that the removal 

 of one free-seeding weed, nueratnm, cost the planters 

 no less a sum than £300,000 pur annum. Of course 

 the conditions of soil and climate which favour the 

 luxuriant growth of the cultivated plants are equally 

 promotive of thi^ growth of weeds amongst which 

 "escapes" of flowering plants from gardens, form 

 a considerable contingent. But there is reason to 

 believe that land planted with tea can be weeded 

 at considerably less expense than the constant 

 hand-weeding of coffee necessitated. Of the total 

 expenditure on the estate under notice, two thirds 

 or more have been returned in produce, notwith- 

 standing the inadequate crops from ccffee. For 

 (the balance, besides an excellent bungalow, good 

 cooly lines, coffee and tea stores and machinery, 

 the tea store very large and tbe tea machinery 



