28 TEA 



CHAPTER VII 



LIFE ON A CEYLON TEA PLANTATION (continued) 



We now begin to climb, and for the next four hours 

 we are never beyond arm's reach of a tea-bush. During 

 this time we see the plant in numerous stages of growth, 

 learn much about the way in which it is cultivated, and 

 watch the gathering in of the harvest. 



Close by the nurseries, we come upon a plot of old 

 bushes, which have been pruned. The pruning opera- 

 tion is a most important part of tea-cultivation. The 

 tea-plant is naturally inclined to grow up into a tree 

 from about 15 to 30 feet high. It is pruned — 



To keep it from becoming too tall for the leaves to 

 be easily reached by people standing on the ground. 



To encourage it to produce leaves rather than wood, 

 and to induce a fresh shoot of leaves to sprout quickly 

 from a bough that has had its head nipped off. 



The first pruning is generally done when the plants 

 are about 2 feet high ; they are then about two years 

 old, and have taken firm root in the spot to which they 

 were transferred from the nursery when they were 

 from six to eight months of age. Henceforth they are 

 generally pruned about once a year, so as to keep them 

 from 2 to 3 feet high. The operation affects the circu- 

 lation of the sap ; by cutting down the centre stem, the 

 sap is diverted into side branches, which are thus given 

 so much vital energy to produce leaves that not only is 

 the plucking surface of the bush increased, but when the 

 tender top of a shoot is taken, in due course, by the 

 pluckers, a fresh shoot sprouts from the decapitated one. 



The particular plot which led us to talk about 



