September, 1910.] 



207 



Edible Products. 



packing ; a large quantity is then fed 

 into rotating cylinder with varying 

 sizes of wire mesh, which sorts the dry 

 leaf according to size, the smaller leaves 

 being the finest. It has been the custom 

 to call the various sizes by fancy 

 Chinese names Pekoe, Souchong, etc. - 

 which are useless for purpose of classific- 

 ation, there being no standard by which 

 to fix the terms. The tea is then packed, 

 either in lead-lined chests, in tins or in 

 lead packets, and is ready for market. 



IMPORTS OF TEA SEED. 



By T. Petch. 

 As tea in the low country and at 

 medium elevations in Ceylon has been 

 largely interplanted with Hevea, it has 

 become usual to state at the annual 

 meetings of Tea companies that there 

 will soon be a falling off in the amount 

 of tea produced by the Colony. The 

 interplanted area is now reckoned at 

 75,000 acres, but much of this, probably 

 the major part, is at medium elevations 

 where the growth of Hevea is so slow 

 that it cannot have much effect on the 

 tea for many years. Even in the low 

 country there are few estates on which 

 the Hevea has injured the tea up to the 

 present. 



The following table of imports and 

 exports of tea seed shows that the 

 probable shortage is being liberally 

 discounted. 





Imports. 



Exports. 



Balance. 





cwts. 



cwts. 



cwts. 



1900 



526! 



359 



+ 167^ 



1901 



57 



145 



— 88 



1902 



68 



83 



- 15 



1903 



173 



138 



+ 35 



1904 



320 



266 



+ 56 



1905 



175 



171 



+ 4 



1906 



161 



304 . 



— 143 



1907 



819 



397 



+ 422 



1908 



1935 



164 



+ 1771 



1909 



1657 



344 



+ 1313 



It will be seen from this that in the 

 last three years the colony has gained 

 3506 cwts of tea seed, or sufficient to 

 plant up about 14,000 acres. Moreover, 

 all the marketable tea seed of the Island 

 has been gathered together during the 

 same period. 



THE INDIAN TEA INDUSTRY. 



The "Albizzia Stipulata" 

 (Sau Tree). 



(From the Indian Agriculturist, Vol, 

 XXXV,, No. 7, July 1, 1910.) 



The need of this tree sometimes takes a 

 long time to germinate. This very much 

 depends on the age of the seed and the 



season it is put in the nursery. Old seed 

 of any kind always take longer to germi- 

 nate than fresh seed, and, if it is put in 

 the ground a month of two before its 

 germinating season, it will take still 

 longer. Of course, if the seed is sound it 

 will come away sooner or later. Soaked 

 seed will germinate in a few days ; the 

 process of soaking is a stage in erer- 

 minatiou. Nurseries have beeu known 

 to fail with soaked seed, but the reason 

 was perfectly simple ; the seed was quite 

 good, but it was put in a dry nursery and 

 got no wate>- afterwards. If the seed had 

 not been soaked it would have lain dor- 

 mant until rain fell ; but as absorption 

 of water is the first stage of germination, 

 when once the germ of life is quickened 

 iuto growth there must be no check, or 

 the embryo collapses at once. The malt- 

 ing of barley is just as good an illustra- 

 tion of this as we can get. The " Sau " 

 seed is so small that it is often considered 

 a nuisance to handle, and, instead of 

 taking the little extra trouble of putting 

 the seed in the nurseries at proper dis- 

 tances apart, it is thought good enough 

 to broadcast it. The writer has seen it 

 done several ways, and if a nursery is to 

 be used at all, certainly it is well worth 

 the trouble of taking as much care and 

 giving it as good a chance in every way 

 as is usually done with tea seed. The 

 young " Sau" seedlings can be taken up 

 and dibbled in, and although they will 

 in most cases drop their leaves and the 

 wood will die almost down to the surface 

 of* the soil, it will sprout away at the neck 

 again. But the plants lose a lot of time 

 through this, and the roots are almost 

 sure to get twisted and cramped in 

 the planting, and when the roots are 

 " bunched " the plant takes a long time 

 to pull itself round and even then seldom 

 makes a satisfactory shade tree. Plant- 

 ing the tree at stake is not a favourite 

 method owing to a number of causes 

 which would appear all to contribute a 

 little towards failure. The writer has 

 tried this way, but must confess to fail- 

 ure also. Still, by all accounts, it has 

 been tried with success, and when this 

 can be achieved with certainty it is un- 

 doubtedly the preferable method. The 

 modus operandi to insure success has 

 been explained as follows :— The holes to 

 be made all ready and filled with fresh 

 soil made tolerably firm and smooth at 

 the top. Every hole to be provided with 

 a hoopa all ready for placing over the 

 seed at once. The seed must be soaked 

 in water for two or three days. By this 

 time the seed will be on the point of 

 bursting, and, if put in the soil right 

 away, the plumule will be well above 

 ground in a few days. All the work 

 of making the holes and hoopas ready 



