and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



403 



Clearings have been known to cost KlO per 

 mensem per acre for nine months to keep 

 the weeds down. Had there been a suffi- 

 cient labour force from the time of open- 

 ing to weed the whole clearing, R2 per 

 acre per mensem would have been ample ; and 

 when clean, the monthly weeding expenditure 

 might then be reduced to about one rupee per 

 acre— giving little trouble and more profit if on 

 contract. The proposal to weed 3 ft. round the 

 plant has cost many thousands of rupees to 

 many a Company and rubber planter, short of 

 labour, tempted to open more land and try 

 this system thinking it would answer, it cer- 

 tainly looked cheaper and thus suited them ; 

 but if there be one man in Ceylon, who has 

 tried it and considers it better than clean 

 weeding, I have yet to make his acquaintance, 

 E'or cover and soil preservation, dadap appears 

 to be the favourite. Between every line of rub- 

 ber, have one or two lines of dadap, and in 

 less than three years they will cover the ground, 

 and the loppings and foliage will do more 

 to improving the soil and increasing the 

 girth of the rubber plants than any natural 

 grass cover, were it possible to grow it without 

 weeds. Between Galboda and Nawalapitiya 

 travellers by rail have an opportunity of seeing 

 several plots of land belonging to the Forest 

 Department, planted with a view to growing 

 trees, and the plants have all been allowed to 

 tight their way upwards, surrounded by under- 

 growth no forester ever planted. Alongside 

 in the tea, and some in swamps, are blue gums 

 planted about the same distance apart, of much 

 better growth and said to be younger, but clean 

 weeded. Grevillea fuel clearings allowed to get 

 into weeds after the first year, grow lanky, if 

 they grow at all, but if kept clean, by an occa- 

 sional weeding they become large trees in com- 

 parison. Weed clean from the first month of 

 the clearing — three times in two months if 

 necessary, certainly monthly. The Superinten- 

 dent, who can get "his contractors to weed three 

 times in two months at the monthly rate, will 

 have no trouble in keeping his estate clean ; and 

 the contractors will make a larger profit than if 

 they weeded only once a month. — Yours faith- 

 fully, 



JAMES WESTLAND. 



TEA IN INDIA. 



MR. COTTON'S ANNUAL REVIEW— 1907 -8 



Great care is taken in compiling, the statistics 

 of the Tea Industry in Northern India. We find 

 that 927 tea estates in Assam and subsidiary 

 districts comprise in all 1,359, 920 acres — of which 

 428,962 acres were cultivated in the past year, 

 but only 110,492 gave crop, there being about 

 18,500 acres of young tea. The newly planted land 

 during 1907 was only equal to 10,137 acres, but 

 against this 4,771 acres of old tea were aban- 

 doned. This does not indicate much enterprise 

 in the face of an exceptionally good year, as Mr. 

 Cotton reports in his Annual Keview of the 

 Trade of India, 1907-8, which has just come to 

 hand. We give the main portion of this Keview 

 so far as it boars on tea, as of special interest to 



Ceylon merchants and planters. The points to 

 note are that "coarse plucking," which prevailed 

 during most of 1907, is now gradually being aban- 

 doned, and that the consumption oft ea all over 

 Indiais increasing, "tea shops" beinga common 

 feature in bazaars. Would that they super- 

 seded the arrack taverns all over Ceylon ! The 

 Russian market has become of great importance 

 to India, and mention is made of transhipment 

 as itis now,of Indian tea at Colombo being saved, 

 by the special line of steamers from Calcutta to 

 Vladivostock just started. " A vigorous medical 

 campaign against beer and coffee " in Germany 

 is likely to give an impetus to tea consumption. 

 Ceylon's attention to rubber (60,000 acres tea 

 and rubber mixed) is regarded as likely to 

 affect her production, so there is clearly room 

 for some more planting of tea in our island 

 during the next few years. Calcutta, like Col- 

 ombo, is superseding Mincing Lane for tea sales, 

 and prices have steadily increased. For 1907, 

 the total area under tea in all India is given at 

 536,652 acres yielding 248,020,398 1b., of which 

 865,648 lb. was exported by land and 235,422,376 

 lb. by sea ; and with this by way of contrast we 

 may state that Ceylon with 392,000 acres gave a 

 total export of 182,023,732 lb. in 1907. 



ALL ABOUT TEA IN INDIA. 



(From Annual Bevieiu for 100/ '-OS by Mr, 

 Cotton, I. C. S.) 

 Tea. — The Indian Tea trade has enjoyed an- 

 other prosperous year. The world's consumption 

 has apparently caught up supply, and every- 

 thing points to its increasing in the future 

 at a corresponding ratio. The only disquiet- 

 ing features of the year's trading were the 

 temporary inflation of values for lower grades 

 of leaf, which have appreciated by 70 per cent 

 since 1906, at the expense of the better teas, and 

 complaints of a general decline in quality, but 

 the principal excuse for coarse plucking has 

 been removed now that the market seems to 

 have recovered its sense of proportion. In any 

 event India could not hope to have benefited 

 long by the extravagant rates for her poorer 

 stuff for they would have provoked the competi- 

 tion of the cheaper China teas, and encouraged 

 increased cultivation in Java. 



the advance in consumption, which followed 

 the reduction of the import duty in the United 

 Kingdon to 5d per lb, has been maintained. 

 Internal absorption is increasing, and tea shops 

 are now a common feature of many bazaars, 

 particularly in Southern India, but it ia in the 

 expansion of the Continental markets that the 

 prospects of the Indian industry centre, and of 

 these the Russian market in particular is shew- 

 ing remarkable development. The following 

 table illustrates in the last three calendar years, 

 compared with the year 1890, the astonishing 

 growth in absorption of teas from India and 

 Ceylon on the Continent : — 



lb. 



1890 14,001,S24 

 1905 129,884,250 

 1900 162,461,824 

 1907 (ustimtUecl) 171,500,001) 



