Tea. 



MANUAL OF THE NiLAGIRI DISTRICT. 529 



3rd year 120 150 CH. XXIX. 



4th „ 160 ... ... 200 



5th „ ... ... 220 300 



6th „ 250 350 



7th „ 300 350 



Low sheltered sites with good soil and sufficient rainfall will 

 give far greater results than gardens that are less fortunately 

 situated. 



With regard to the manuring of tea estates, we know Manuring. 

 that where suitable manures can be purchased and applied at 

 moderate rates, the yield of gardens has in several instances 

 been more than doubled — in fact, that any advance towards high 

 cultivation is found remunerative. No tract of land can go 

 on steadily year after year yielding up its stores of organic 

 and inorganic matter without becoming in time perfectly sterile, 

 unless some restitution is made. The tea planter cannot avail 

 himself of the rotation of crops, and the maintenance of fertility 

 in his soil must ^Q gathered from extraneous sources. Space 

 will not allow of my dealing with this subject at length in 

 this paper, but a few remarks on the chief constituents of the 

 ash of the leaf of the plant, the manures most suited to supply its 

 demand, and the best methods for their application may be 

 treated of briefly. 



A sample of Nilagiri tea of my own manufacture, kindly 

 analyzed by Professor R. Harvey, of the Madras Medical College, 

 gave the following results : — 



Leaves — 



Moisture lO'lO 



Ash 4-50 



Ash- 

 Potash 30-20 



Phos. acid ... 16-89 



Silica -70 



These are the chief constituents of the soil abstracted by the 

 production of crops of tea, and unless these important elements 

 are in proportion to their exhaustion returned to the soil, a 

 decrease in yield, amounting in the end to absolute sterility, must 

 result. So far as silica is concerned the soil contains, on all good 

 tea lands, an almost permanent supply of this element ; the othei- 

 two, together with various other chemical substances that enter 

 into the composition of the leaf, must be supplied as needed by 

 re<Tular manuring. The substances are found as a rule to a 



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