March i, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



623 



pie of hundreds, left to grow in the uuiseiy were 

 nearly 11 years old when jihotoRraphed. Econo- 

 mically, it was, ot course, a great mistake, to allow 

 trees, which, planted at good distances apart would 

 have become excellent seed bearers (the jut being 

 first-class) to grow crowded together, but the scenic 

 effect of our tea grove is striking and much ad- • 

 mired by visitors. The trees in the grove have, 

 also, yielded a good deal ot seed and judicious 

 thinning will make them still more productive. The 

 better the jat and the loftier the elevation, the 

 longer do tea trees take m bearing fruit and from 

 the many lhousand.s of intended seed bearers scat- 

 tered over this estate, including 1,000 plants ot 

 Assam hybrid, grown at Hakgala, tor which KlOO 

 were paid some ten years ago, the amount of seed 

 gathered as yet has not been so large as we could 

 wish, last season having been especially disappoint- 

 ing. StiU. many hundreds of thousands of the 

 finest fiusli-yielding plants on the estate are from 

 our own seed, borne by trees S to 10 years old. 

 It seems probable that had we resorted more than 

 we have done to judicious pruning of our first- : 

 class big tea trees, we should have had earlier and 

 larger returns of seed. Almost all tea planters 

 know the vexatious tendency to early and copious i 

 flowering and seeding of interior kinds ot tea, ^ 

 China or hybrids largely partaking of China charao- ! 

 teristics. The lower the altitude at which tea is 

 grown, the more is this tendency apparent and a 

 source of annoyance. The lower the altitude of 

 estates, therefore, the more important is it that 

 the jilt should be " indigeneous," or hybrid closely 

 approaching it. The best for all altitudes, however 

 is first-class hybrid Assam, with a close affinity 

 to indigenous. It may here be mentioned that, in- 

 fluenced by what was observed during a visit to Dar- 

 jiling in JIarch 1876, tea was originally planted 3x3 

 on this mountain estate. But the growth, so much 

 more luxuriant tlian was anticipated, ot the jilants, 

 speedily indicated 1 x 3 as a better distance to allow 

 of careful culture and plucking. On •• lowcountry " 

 estates where the soil is much more liable to the 

 destructive effects of solar combustion, closer plant- 

 ing than even 3x3 is fretjuently resorted to. 



View of •• Knock I'kbkol ' from the Lakelet 

 NEAR THE Old Bunoalow. — But for the rainy and 

 windy weather, this would have come out a fine 

 liicture Not only are the trees swaying to the wind, 

 after the fashion which vexes the soul of a photo- 

 grapher, but the very waters of the lakelet are so 

 rippled, that it requires tlie application ot a magni- 

 fying-glass to reaHze that water exists in the fore- 

 ground, around wliich the graceful banibus, promi- 

 nent in the picture, are grouped. On the very 

 snnniiit ot " Knock Ferrol " (5,200 feet above sea 

 level), the "Giant Bambu" of Burma {Bnmbiisa 

 ijiijuiilea. Wall.; D. ijiiiaiitens, Munro) flourishes, 

 and this noble plant seems to have found a second 

 home in Ceylon. It flourishes not only on the banks 

 ot the JIahav.eliganga, at Peradeniya, where there 

 are magnificent groups at l.OUO feet above sea-level, 

 but in our higher mountain regions at .5,000 teet and 

 over. We have stems which are about 2 feet in girth. 

 The beautiful yellow bambu, so common on low- 

 country river-sides in Ceylon, aUo grows well here 

 at ."S.OOO feet. But Bambusd tinivdinticea, wliich we 

 found in full seed in South Wynaad in 1877, hangs 

 lire at our el vation. On if lowcountry estate it 

 flourished exceedingly, and we were rejoicing in our 

 splendid shelter belts, when we discovered that nothing 

 could gru.v wilhin 20 t'> 30 feet ou each side of the 

 bambus. They were, therefore, cui down and de- 

 strojed. Bambus are amongst the, most gracefuUy 

 beautiful objects in the vegelaDJe world, and they are 

 useful economically, but beyond all other plants we 



know, not excepting even aloes, they are deadly to 

 other vegetation and they ought to he growri by 

 themselves, or on isolated spots where they look 

 well aud do the minimum ot harm. Up the hill 

 side and on the summit, to the lett of the giant 

 bambus, are Australian eiualyijt.i which also, it 

 would be well to cultivate by themselves instead of 

 interspersing them amidst the ccSee and cinchonas. 

 Tea is intolerant ot the presence ot any other plant, 

 and as our tea culture advances, the Australian 

 gums, casuarinas, acacias, itc. must be removed. 

 They will aflord timber and firewood (the blue gum 

 giving good-sized railway sleepers and planks at 10 

 years old) ; but unless an Indian planter is right in 

 tracing tea blight to Toon trees (a very improbable 

 idea) we should prefer growing Cedrela Toona (the 

 red-timbered variety) to any tree we know. As 

 Cniptoiiteria japoiiica has succeeded well at Darji- 

 ling it will probably do well at high elevations in 

 Ceylon ; but the cheapness with which tea boxes can 

 now be obtained from Japan, largely removes the 

 necessity of cultivating timber plants. Witli good 

 lead lining to the tea boxes, the idea of well seasoned 

 and but faintly resinous pine wood tainting tea, 

 seems chimerical. While on the subject of trees, we 

 may mention that in Ceylon as in Assam there is a 

 tree, a large-leaved syiiiplocos, which must be ranked 

 amongst the enemies of the tea tree. Either inher- 

 ently, or evolved in the process of decay, the roots 

 of this tree possess a principle fatally poisonous to 

 tea-bushes growing in their vicinity. Unjileasant 

 gaps occasionally occur in well-matured tea from 

 this cause, while it is not yet certain that Albizzia 

 stij>iihilii is so beneficial to tea cultivation as some 

 Assam planters believe. 



View (down an Estate E.iviNE) of the Valley 



OF DiMBULA, WITH THE GliEAT WeSTEBN MOUNTAIN 



LooMiNii IN THE Mist .\ni) the Line of Railway 

 Scoring its Slde. — The application of a good magni- 

 fying-glass to this picture will shew what a splendid 

 view was rendered imi)ertect by the dense mist, in 

 an interval ot which, less dark than usual, the photo- 

 grai3h was taken by the instantaneous process. 

 The morning train for Colombo, which had just 

 started from Nanuoya (129 miles from Colombo and 

 nearly .'>,300 feet higher in altitude) is shown on the 

 line, one ot the most remarkable mountain railways 

 in the world. It was constructed tor coffee traffic, 

 especially that of Uva, but was opened, so far, in 

 time to aid and receive the benefits ot the rapidly 

 advancing tea enterprize. The scenery viewed from 

 this line, combines all that is beautiful and grand 

 in nature, with the one exception ot lakes, for 

 which the mountain system tlirough which the 

 railway winds is too abrupt. One ot the casc- 

 ades over which the line jiasses rushes down to 

 the right ot the train. The part on which the 

 train is shewn is less than 70 chains direct dis- 

 tance from the spot where the camera was placed. 

 This was at the top of one ot our finest and most 

 characteristic tea ravines, through the centre of 

 which the "bund" stream rushes rapidly down. 

 Up the steep faces ot the hills on each side rise 

 rich fields ot tea, which having, for from 1.5 to 18 

 months, yielded " flush " at the rate ot not less than 

 500 lb. per acre per annum of made tea (2,000 lb. 

 green leaf) were in October in the course of being 

 pruned. To the left will be observed a few mem- 

 bers of a gang of coolies engaged in the operation. 

 The tea bushes in the right are as yet untouched 

 but on the left hand side, had the weather been 

 jiropitious, tlie various stages ot pruning and bury- 

 ing would have been fully apparent, viz ; — 



i. — llie ground streued with the deoris of pruned 

 plants, decaying timber, weeds from the rav-ae.,, 

 &c. ; 2.— The pruninga, decayed timber and weeds 



