^8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURI 



Qin 



[May I, 1886. 



interested, and be assured that they will carry to a 

 successful issue the work so well begun. Alnady Uva 

 Tea has been well received in the market, and the 

 first planted clearing, not yet 3 years old at an elev- 

 ation of 4,000 feet, is said to have produced its 400 

 lbs. made Tea per acre. .Surely this should convince 

 every one that Uva is a district well suited for Tea. 

 Uva, however, is a very extensive district, and its 

 climate is as varied as the district is large. Lower 

 Uva in many places is dry and arid ; towards Katara- 

 gama and Hambantota, the country is arid and covered 

 with a growth of thorny Cactus, and water during 

 the dry season is nowhere to be found. The hill 

 districts, on the other hand, have abundance of rain, 

 varying from 70 ° to 120 = , and this rainfall is as a 

 rule well distributed. The whole of the Naminacooly 

 range has an abundant rainfall, and rarely suffers 

 from drought, even during the dry season. The range 

 starting from Haputale Pass to Hakgala under Tota- 

 pella has a more constant rainfall than Naminacooly, 

 and although the rain may not fall in very heavy 

 showers, it is perhaps better distributed than in any 

 Uva district, as the South-west monsoon rains, attracted 

 by Totapella and other high mountains, are blown 

 over the range and fall in mild showers aloug the 

 face of the hills, whilst a little lower down the pata- 

 uas on the plain are parched with drought. The whole 

 of the Haputale range has plenty of rain from Uva 

 to Kandapola, and from the top of the I'ass to the 

 Sabaragamuwa boundary at Halpe of landslip notoriety, 

 and the Madulsinia range from Passara to furthest 

 Uva has one of the best climates in Uva. Monara- 

 gala also attracts rain freely. The district* or portions 

 of the Uva district most likely to suffer from drought 

 are low lying valleys like Passara, Bulatwatte, the 

 Angodde Valley, the base of the Madulsinia hills 

 below Lunugala, the valley of the Ooma Oya, the 

 country below Haldummulle and below Lemastota 

 and between Lemastota and AVellawaya and about 

 the bottom of the fjlla Pass ; also the base of the 

 Hewa Eliya range facing the low country on both 

 sides. All these places mentioned suffer during the 

 months of June, .July and August from drought and 

 from intense heat radiated from the plains below; 

 and if Tea fail anywhere it will be in localities hke 

 these : but I am not prepared to say that Tea will 

 fail there, for I am aware that in India the Tea plant 

 will endure not only a three months' drought, but a 

 dry heat even more intense than we have in any of 

 the places mentioned ; and it is generally, I may say 

 always, in places where drought is most severe, that 

 the growth is correspondingly great on all plants strong 

 enough to withstand the ilrought. Now Tea is a 

 plant peculiarly a<lapted to withstand drought, inas- 

 much as it has two distinct systems of roots. The 

 top roots I have seen 6 and 8 feet down in a stiff 

 clay, whilst the surface soil to a depth of IS inches, 

 if well forked, is literally matted with fine rootlets. 

 I am not prepared to say that the lower valleys will 

 not grow Tea remuneratively under these conditions, 

 but there is no doubt that the higb districts whieb 

 have beeu so remunerative in Coffee will prove equally 

 so in Tea. The seasons in Uva are more distinctly 

 marked tbau in the Kandyan districts, and there are 

 two distinct seasons of growth corresponding with the 

 change of nmnsoon. The South-west monsoon is com- 

 paratively mild, but during the months of April, j\[ay 

 and ,Iune, we have what are called tbe spring rains, 

 corresponding with the breaking of the little mon- 

 soon on the Kaiuly side and the regular South-wist 

 monsoon. The rains are not continuous, but fall in 

 refreshing showers, and the growth of all vegetatiiKi 

 is most rapid, far more so than in a continuous' 

 wet climate. During the months of .lune, .fnly aiul 

 August vegetation ceases. These are the monlbs when 

 Nature seems to rest. The heat is great, ami the 

 drought often severe, though heavy dovs fall at 

 night, anil occasional thunder showers keep plants 

 from suffering excessively. About the IStli or 20th 

 of August a few heavy thunder showers generally fall, 

 which bring out our heaviest Coffee blossoms, and 

 iu September the rains are frequent and heavy 

 enough to thoroughly saturate the soil, and vegetation 



takes another start and iu a week the whole country 

 is green. November and December are the wettest 

 months of the year, and the growth on Teii or Coffee 

 continues till about the end of December, wheu veget- 

 ation again ceases from cold and wet during January. 

 February is usually a dry, cold month with little 

 growth on anything, but with the month of March a 

 few thunder showers u.snally fall, the air is not so 

 dry and cold, and vegetation again starts and con- 

 tinues till again checked by the dry months of July 

 and August. It will, therefore, be seen that iu Uva 

 there are two distinct seasons of growth, and two 

 seasons of rest caused by drought or cold. These 

 seasons of rest will not only enable the Tea Planter 

 to time his pruning with judgment, but will really 

 benefit the Tea plant. The season for plucking will 

 be fully eight months, viz, from March to the end 

 of June, and again from the first of September to the end 

 of December. Many planters, however, will be found 

 to pluck well into the dry months. Tea plucked during 

 dry weather being the strongest and the finest, if a 

 tlush is plucked no matter how dry the weather, un- 

 less the plant is absolutely withered up. Nature will 

 always make an effort to renew itself, and it is these 

 short fine flushes which give tbe most exquisite Teas, 

 The sap is inspissated, aud the liow sluggish, but tjie 

 whole essence of the plant seems to be concentrated 

 into a small space. In wet weather wiih a strong 

 growth, especially after pruning, the sap is weak and 

 watery, and the "liquor" is poor and has little 

 strength. I do nut propose here to go into the matter 

 of cultivation or preparation or Tea in Uva, but the 

 planter mil soon find out what is the best system to 

 adopt ; but Uva has every thing necessary in soil and clim- 

 ate to produce the very finest Tea the world can produce. 

 I have frequently been asked, ^Vill the Uva Pata- 

 nas grow Te&Y My answer is double: Yes aud no. 

 It must be understood that there are two perfectly 

 different kinds, of patana in Uva; the one is natural 

 pataua, as to the origin or cause of which there is 

 great diversity of opinion ; the other is cultivated land 

 allowed to go to grass. To me there seems to have 

 beeu two causes at work. In one case, such as the 

 Nuwara Eliya patanas, the Hortou Plains and other 

 similar patana, there can be no doubt as to their 

 origin — they are simply the bottmn of a lake upheaved 

 at some remote period. You have the black mouM 

 with a fine strata of water worn gravel underlying 

 it on a bed of impervious clay. Trees will not natur- 

 ally grow on soil like this till treated with lime. 

 These patanas are almost identical with the great 

 American Prairies. We have other patana, frequently 

 small patches surrounded by forest and covered with 

 short grass and ground orchids. These patanas are 

 either caused by absolute poverty of soil, or m.ay be 

 from some deleterious substance in the soil. I attri- 

 bute it in some cases to a mineral oxide. I am not 

 geologist enough to enter iuto this question further 

 than to say that I have seen a most deleterious 

 oxide and in great abundance in the patana soils of 

 Uva said to be a black oxide of manganese. By far 

 the largest portion of the Uva patanas have at one 

 time been forest and have been under cultivation. 

 The whole of the interior basin from Wilson's Bunga- 

 low to Haputale, and from Wellamade to Bandara- 

 woIIh and round Fort Macdonalil has all been cultiv- 

 ated, and where not too much wind blown is capable 

 of cultivation now or of being re-forested. The Eleph- 

 ant Piiiins in Uda Pussellawa have been cultivated 

 every inch of them. Old Rambokpotte Uatemaliat- 

 maya once told me that be recollected when the whole 

 of the Kidap,aiu" Pa.ss from Taldeniya to Badnlla was 

 all fori.it., and the Koskelle patanas and the hills round 

 BaduUa were to a great extent covered with forest. 

 There is .an immense acreage of patana in Uva cap- 

 able of prolitablr Tea cultivation — and a still larger 

 acreage capable of being re-forested at a comparatively 

 small cost. Re-foresting the couutry would probablj' 

 greatly improve the climate, apart from the value of 

 the timber, aud the value of successful Tea cultivation 

 on the waste patana cannot be over-estimated. Each 

 Tea estate might re-forest enough patana to supply 

 fuel.— James Irvine.— Loeal "Advertiser." 



