CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 127 



CHAPTER IX 



July 6th. — I have just returned from a visit of 

 a few days to a very fine tea estate in the Matale 

 district. You will have some idea of the magni- 

 tude of the operations carried on there, when I 

 tell you that lately fifty thousand pounds of made 

 tea was turned out in three weeks. It has 

 the finest factory I have yet seen ; and here 

 I was introduced for the first time to a machine 

 called a packer, which by dint of a judicious 

 shaking motion packs the tea into Its box more 

 evenly and firmly than can be done by human 

 agency ; with the additional advantage of 

 greater cleanliness, for the old method was for 

 the coolies to pack the tea, pressing it down 

 with their hands, and even sometimes, in the 

 larger boxes, with their feet. 



The neighbourhood of Matale is very 

 beautiful. The town lies at the foot of a 

 precipitous mountain which appears to be the 

 end spur of a range of hills trending away to 

 the south west. On its heights are several tea 



