226 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



too weak to drag a hoe, although a good pony was quite equal to the 

 work, so put in a pair of bullocks. The bullocks and hoe take up 

 between them three rows of Tea at once, the bullocks on each outside 

 row and the hoe in the centre one. A boy walking up the centre row 

 leads the bullocks, which are harnessed to the hoe in the same manner 

 as bullocks are harnessed to the country ploughs, but with longer 

 julas of course. These hoes are, I find, useless during wet weather, as 

 they clog dreadfully, but during hot dry weather they are invaluable. 

 What we now want is a machine that, either by bullock, horse, or 

 steam power, will do our deep hoeing as well as the light hoe does the 

 light hoeing. This is a matter which I consider of vital interest to 

 owners and shareholders, as, unless in these days of very low prices 

 we can reduce the cost of production considerably, we cannot hope 

 that Tea will pay a fair interest on the money expended, and great 



length of time lost in getting up a garden. 



NIL DESPERANDUM. 



In the above, two bullocks to drag the plough or digger 

 are evidently contemplated. My experience is, that two 

 draught cattle cannot be used, simply because there is not 

 room for them between the lines of Tea,* If animal power 

 is used, it must be a single bullock alone. How to harness 

 a single bullock to the plough is the question. A collar with 

 a hinge below, which allows it to open at top, may be put 

 on from below, and then the sides fastened together at the 

 top. But I advise another plan, which I have seen most 

 successfully practised in Austria. The traces, joining 

 together, and thus becoming one behind the bullock, are 

 fastened to the horns, and tightly connected with a leather 

 pad across the animal's forehead. The bullock thus pulls 

 by his head, and I am sure he can pull in no more efficient 

 or easier way to himself. Bullocks in pairs, or singly, are 

 thus harnessed for plough work in Austria, and I have seen 

 single animals dragging ploughs of much greater weight and 

 power than we should require in our Tea gardens. 



* " Nil Desperandum " takes up three spaces one bullock in each 

 outside space and the hoe in the centre. I don't like the plan. It could not be 

 done where the tea plants are high. 



