THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE 



Tropical Agriculturist and Magazine of the C. A. 8. 



Compiled and Edited by A. M. & J. FERGUSON. 



No. 3.] SEPTEMBER, 1910. [Vor,. VII. 



A GOOD TIME FOR TEA. 



IS CEYLON DOING ITS DUTY AS A 

 TEA-PRODUCING COUNTRY? 



There seems to be a consensus of opinion 

 among authorities in the British Metropolis as 

 well as in Russia, in Calcutta, Australia and 

 America, that there is a good time for the 

 producers of tea ; and that it is Northern India 

 producers who must, in the immediate future, 

 reap most of the harvest. They have the biggest 

 area of youug planted tea coming into bearing, 

 they have extensive areas of good land ready 

 to plant, and there is no difficulty in com- 

 manding the needful labour. Above all, they 

 have (to their bad or good fortune) no temp- 

 tation to divert their energy, capital or labour, 

 to the product which has told, and is going to 

 toll, on the tea industry in Ceylon, Southern 

 India and even Java. The great Dutch depen- 

 dency is now accepted as likely to continue only 

 a minor tea-growing country — notwithstanding 

 its splendid soil and cheap, abundant labour ; 

 and still more that its produce, more and more 

 should find its own fairly profitable market not 

 only in Holland, but in adjacent provinces of 

 Germany, Denmark and even Belgium. Sugar, 

 tobacco, and even rubber are regarded far more 

 profitable and attractive products to cultivate 

 and extend in Java. Ceylon and Southern India 

 are in the same way as planting countries 

 divided in attention between tea and rubber. 

 But there is the special embargo which " alti- 

 tude " places on rubber, so that tea and tea 

 alone can be attended to and extended above 

 3,000 if not 2,000 feet above sea level, wherever 

 there are reserves, in either Ceylon or Southern 

 India. Unfortunately the reserves in private 

 hands are very limited, and the "5,000 feet" 

 rule of the Colonial Office against sale of any 



34 



more forest land seems to stop development in 

 the hill-country of Ceylon. We have urged that 

 the rule might be modified and relaxed in the 

 case of " patana " grass land — some of it well- 

 fitted to grow tea— with conditions as to planting 

 a belt of trees alongside every stream and spe- 

 cially every source, and the conservation of any 

 big trees already growing. But apart from this 

 part of the country, is there no opening for 

 increasing the area under tea in the divisions 

 of middle altitudes, but especially in the low- 

 country itself ? If there is to be a set-back to 

 rubber, sooner or later, it will be wise and pru- 

 dent for planters to see to it that more tea 

 fields should be planted ; and should not the 

 authorities —Assistant Agents and Headmen — 

 induce native owners of suitable pieces of land 

 to clear and plant the tea shrub, if only to sell 

 their leaf to be manufactured, or to prepare it, 

 coarsely perhaps, to meet the demand of the 

 village bazaar. In any case, it will be a pity 

 if the production of tea in Ceylon becomes a 

 diminishing rather than an increasing factor, 

 and with a good market, the encouragement to 

 more liberal cultivation on existing plantations 

 may be one means to add to crops. In this 

 connection we have lately heard a report that 

 a prominent Ratnapura planter is shortly re- 

 turning from home to open 15,000 acres in tea 

 for a well-known Tea and Rubber Company in 

 Ratnapura District, This would be "extension" 

 with a vengeance ; but we have not been able 

 to confirm the information, in the right quarter 

 in Colombo. 



We have also in this issus to direct attention to 

 extracts we publish elsewhere from the Note by 

 the Indian Director of Commercial Intelligence 

 on the Production of Tea in India in 1909, 

 showing an acreage increased by 7,000— or barely 

 1± per cent ; while output rose by 16 million 

 lb.— or over 6£ per cent. 



