and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society • 



89 



TEA PLANTING IN JAVA. 



We direct attention to the following very 

 interesting and important letter from Mr. Noel 

 Bingley which enters fully into the present 

 condition and prospects of the Tea-planting 

 industry in Java. It will be remembered that 

 Mr. Tomlinson, a young planter (an English- 

 man), sent us (see page 499 Vol. XXX.) the 

 wonderful results from what is universally 

 admitted to be the richest Tea plantation 

 in Java, and he pretty well indicated that 

 there were other estates in the neighbour- 

 hood nearly as good. Now it is to correct the 

 impression such a statement may have made 

 that Mr. Bingley writes ; and he furnishes 

 authentic particulars for some nine typical 

 estates, including '■ Malabar," and shows how 

 immense is the gap between that premier 

 property and the next to it in "nett profits,-" 

 'profits and dividend to shareholders.' Malabar 

 is in fact, three times as profitable as the best 

 of its rivals (although the yield per acre does 

 not differ so much) and seven times as rich as the 

 average of the eight other properties. Still, Mr. 

 Bingley's figures, especially foi the yield of tea 

 per acre, are exceptionally interesting and the 

 comparisons he makes with Ceylon — which he 

 has visited more than once — and on the different 

 modes of cultivation, are both suggestive and in- 

 structive. It will be seen that leaving out 

 Malabar with its abnormal yield of 1,082 lb. per 

 acre and " No. 2," with 992 lb., the crop of 

 the other seven estates is very ordinary, the 

 maximum being only 549 and the average 476 

 lb. per acre. The explanation of dividends 

 up to 28 and 18 per cent with such yields 

 must be found in cheap labour and an eco- 

 nomical system of working in every way, and 

 as to this Mr. Bingley's letter offers important 

 explanations. We have next to consider the 

 development of the export trade in Java tea. 

 This has been from 10,282,206 lb. in 1895 to 

 27,595,449 lb. in 1907. Nothing alarming for a 

 period covering 13 years, although apparently 

 1908 is to show a considerable increase, unless 

 the first four months are the best for tea 

 cropping, since Mr. Bingley gives 12,194,749 

 lb. as shipped for January- April of this year. 

 There can be no doubt that with her excep- 

 tionally fine soil and abundant labour, Java 

 has great advantages both as a tea and rubber 

 growing country ; and it is no wonder that 

 British capital has begun to flow in so freely 

 in view of the liberal views of the Dutch 

 Government towards foreign owners or share- 

 holders in such estates. 



Java, June 8th. 



Dear Sir, — Having read with interest Mr. 

 Tomlinson's letter in your Weekly Edition of 

 April 30th under above heading, giving the 

 figures of the Malabar Tea Estate tor 1907 book- 

 year, as also your article and a letter signed 

 "Planter" in same paper, both referring to 

 above figures, I think accompanying table, 

 giving comparative figures of nine well-known 

 Tea estates in Java, may be of interest to some 

 of your readers. 



I have omitted from this list several well- 

 known estates, where the cultivation of Cin- 

 chona is combined with that of Tea, in order to 



make a better comparison of the results of what 

 are purely Tea estates in Java with ditto in 

 Ceylon. 



These figures are taken from the latest Annual 

 Reports available, and I may add that the first 

 six estates on my list would be included in 

 any selection of the best ten Tea estates in Java, 

 whilst the 3 last are also good average estates, 

 and fairly represent the rank and file. 



Especially interesting are the figures of Crop 

 per acre, from which will be seen that the 

 Malabar figures you published are quite ab- 

 normal, eveu for Java, and that, with the 

 exception of estate No. 2, which adjoins it, 

 none in this list, or as far as I know in Java, are 

 "in the same street," the average crop per acre 

 working out 600 lb. inclusive of No. 1 (Malabar) 

 or 480 lb. exclusive of it, against an average in 

 the statement you published of l, | l 82 per acre all 

 round on Malabar, or 1.559 lb. for 7 year old 

 gardens, which most of the tea on several of the 

 estates on this list must certainly be. 



The query expressed in your article on this 

 subject as to whether there are, or are ever 

 likely to be, many " Malabars " in Java, is to the 

 point, in spite of the statement in the letter un- 

 der review that " there are many other estates 

 run on Dutch lines (in contradistinction to the 

 accepted Ceylon method of cultivation and manu- 

 facture) which show nearly as wonderful results." 

 If there are, I don't know them; whilst as regards > 

 the suggested comparison in above extract I can 

 only say (without in any way wishing to depre- 

 ciate or belittle the well-known excellent man- 

 agomentof " Malabar" and, in fact, of the majo- 

 rity of the well-known tea estates in Java) that 

 if the ''rough and ready" system of pruning and 

 plucking (especially "tipping') which were a 

 few years ago almost universal, and are still pre- 

 valent on very many of the Java Tea Estates, 

 had been indulged in on the steep and compara- 

 tively poor soils of Dikoya and Maskeliya, J 

 fancy a large proportion of the Ceylon Estates I 

 have in my mind's eye would have ceased to pro - 

 duce anything at ail, or return any dividend 

 whatever, a long time before this. 



It is not the thousaud odd lb. per acre of 

 tea grown in Java at 5,000 ft. elevation, fiom the 

 best Assam jats procurable, on what is practi- 

 cally a fiat plateau of the most fertile soil 

 to be found even in this country of rich 

 soils, that I find deserving of wonder; but 

 rather the average crops obtained from many 

 estates I know of in Ceylon, planted on steep 

 washed land, with a soil that one would not 

 consider tea soil at all in Java — aud the same 

 applies to the satisfactory, and on the whole 

 consistent, dividends which the Companies 

 owning such estates seem to be able to pay their 

 shareholders. 



This is entirely due to and only possible be- 

 cause of the "accepted methods of Ceylon culti- 

 vation,'' the absence of which, "in contradis- 

 tinction to the methods on estates run on Dutch 

 lines," the letter of your correspondent seems to 

 suggest accounts for the results that Malabar 

 and other Java estates can shew. 



No one who has ever visited the tea districts 

 of Ceylon, and compared the soils and the 

 system of cultivation there with the same in 

 Java, could fail, I think, to come to the same 



.12; 



