February, 1910,] 



118 



Edible Products. 



the Americau cowboy's dancing saloon— 

 "Don't shoot at the pianist, he is doing 

 his best." Even a yOung assistant of the 

 Luskerpore Valley is said to have de- 

 clared that indnlgences ought to be 

 granted on special occasions, and that 

 this rule should not be held as arbitrary 

 when a particularly dull and prosy 

 essay was to be read by a boss manager. 

 Under the heading of " Minutes of 

 meetings and discussions, papers and 

 communications " we find interesting 

 reading in the shape of various prac- 

 tical papers by members of the Associ- 

 ation—" Unpruned Tea "; " The Annual 

 Accounts of a Tea Estate " ; " Manuring 

 as a remedy for the deterioration of 

 tea " ; " Sorting and grading teas for the 

 London market"; "Erection of Iron- 

 framed buildings on Tea Estates," etc., 

 etc All these subjects are undoubtedly 

 interesting to the planter, and when a 

 number of planters join together and 

 form a social club where they can meet 

 periodically and discuss topics of common 

 interest it will be found that a number 

 of questions can be referred with 

 advantage to expert authorities and the 

 answers communicated in this way to a 

 larger unmber than is now the case. It 

 would keep planters in touch with each 

 other and the scientific department of 

 the Indian Tea Association to the mutual 

 advantage of all. 



According to "Arboriculturist" there 

 would appear to be a want of knowledge 

 generally amongst planters regarding 

 arboriculture. Arboriculture is a very 

 big subject, so big in fact that there 

 is no one human brain capable of 

 thoroughly grasping it in all its details 

 and ramifications. It is even a greater 

 and wider subject than agriculture itself. 

 But, withal, the contention is that the 

 tea-planter is a thorough arboriculturist 

 in his own special line. He is a specialist 

 and knows all there is to know at pre- 

 sent regarding the special "arbor" 

 which he grows and in which he is vitally 

 interested. He has been taught and 

 preached at for years by experts regard- 

 ing the way he ought to treat his tea 

 plant. Moreover, his Association is in 

 possession of an experimental garden in 

 charge of expert scientists. He pro- 

 bably will learn more as time goes on, 

 and in twenty years hence, through the 

 accumulation of knowledge and expe- 

 rience, he will know more than he does 

 now. but that in no way detracts from 

 the fact of his being an arboriculturist 

 at present, and a specialist at that. The 

 writer is still under the impression that 

 the tea planter, taking him generally, 

 knows more about arboriculture than 

 he knows about the first principles of 

 agriculture. For instance, there was 

 15 



only one paper read in 1906 to the 

 Luskerpore Tea Planters' Society which 

 touched upon agriculture, and that 

 was " Manuring as a remedy for the 

 deterioration of Tea." " Arboriculturist" 

 said in his letter that if we consulted 

 any of the back journals of the Lusker- 

 pore Tea Planters ' Society we would see 

 that the members had far passed the 

 primary stages of agriculture. 



If we may take extracts from this 

 paper, which, as has been pointed out 

 above, is the only one available, the 

 conclusion must be arrived at that 

 if the members of the Luskerpore 

 Tea Planters' Society have passed the 

 primary stages of agriculture, they must 

 have passed over them. For instance, it 

 is stated in the article referred to that 

 "the nitrogen required for the plant is 

 so small that this element is supplied 

 more or less by the atmosphere and the 

 rains"! Again, "Nitrogen is more a 

 stimulant than a plant food " ! Now 

 nitrogen is the most important element 

 of plant food and is the one most 

 deficient in India. As stated in the article 

 10 maunds of tea remove 36 lbs, of 

 nitrogen. But from^ all that is known 

 we get no more than 5 lbs. annually per 

 acre from the atmosphere and rain, and, 

 according to long continued experiments 

 carefully carried out, we lose this 

 amount, at the very least, in drainage 

 waters. The amount of combined nitro- 

 gen we receive from the air is derived 

 from many sources. Lightning causes a 

 little of the free nitrogen to combine, 

 forming oxides of nitrogen. Fermenting 

 organic substances give off ammonia 

 which goes into the air. When fuel is 

 burned, a small portion of the combined 

 nitrogen is given off as ammonia in the 

 smoke. Particles of organic matter are 

 carried by the wind and some of these 

 contain nitrogen. But, from all these 

 sources combined, we receive at an 

 average no more than 5 lbs. annually per 

 acre. We might go on right through the 

 paper in question and still further pull 

 it to pieces, but we think enough has 

 been shown to prove that the members 

 of the Luskerpore Tea Planters ' Society 

 would do well to add some elementary 

 books on agricultural chemistry and 

 first principles of agriculture to their 

 library. When a whole association of 

 planters sit quietly and absorb such a 

 statement as the above without a single 

 dissentient voice, it is ample evidence 

 that the audience is as ignorant of the 

 subject as the author of the paper him- 

 self, and the only conclusion that we can 

 come to is that, although they may 

 have passed the primary stage they can- 

 not have been well grounded in them, or 

 they would not be floundering so lamen- 



