218 COFFEE AND TEA CULTIVATION. 
allowed to exceed two feet in height. This is as all 
your readers know, considerably less in height than we 
allow the bushes to attain in India. 
‘* Every 40 days they pick what they call a ‘ Big 
Flush,’ but even that they only take the bud and 
the two leaves below it. Twenty days after each 
big flush they take what they designate a ‘ Small 
Flush ’ and at this time they only pick the top leaves 
of any shoots which, from their small size, had escaped 
when the big flush was taken. 
“Thus, in the year,nine large and nine small flushes are 
picked— 18 flushes in all. 
‘** Like the Indian planter, his Java brother calculates 
four pounds of green leaf make pound of tea. 
“* This finishes my description, butI will add a few 
words as to the peculiarities and merits of the systems 
set out above. 
** Why is the liquor of allJava teas undeniably weak? 
Of course I cannot answer this query. It may be 
due to faulty manufacture (though they certainly 
excel wonderfully in ‘ make’); or, can it bedue to the 
fact that the trees are picked all the year round— 
get no resting period ? Ask for opinions on this head 
from your readers, if perchance, any of them have Java 
experience. 
‘In India, in forcing tea climates, I have known 28 
to 30 flushes per annum, against the Java 18. In In- 
dia we generally take more than ‘the bud and two 
leaves,’ and anyhow we take at least this every flush. 
So much would argue a smaller produce per acre than 
is usual in India, and the one fact which would argue 
a larger, viz., that they pick the whole year, is neutral- 
ised when we consider the total number of flushes,— 
in their case 18 in 12 months; in ours, above 25 in 
nine months ! : 
“* To what then is their large produce due? I cannot 
doubt,—I never did doubt,—that even on flat land 
the whole cultivation system, as described, must be 
very efficient, and tend to large produce. The ques- 
tion is, how far labour for it would be available for — 
us in India; and secondly, how far the increased 
produce woold pay for the increased cost of labour ? 
Anyhow, as I said before, it is a thing to be tried. 
I shall try it on a small area of each of the gardens 
I work next year; and I advise your readers to do 
the same. If several do so, and all make known to you 
our experience, we shall arrive at trustworthy conclu- 
sions. 
‘* But the Java facts puzzle me. If the large produce 
is due to improved cultivation (whether heavy and 
special manuring the hole system, or whatever may 
