Edible Products. 



126 



[AUGUST, 1909. 



question of the improvement of the soil 

 as a growing medium are characteristic 

 of the interest displayed by intelligent 

 planters of to-day, the same may be said 

 with regard to the botany of the tea 

 bush itself. To the casual observer the 

 tea bush or any other kind of bush in 

 existence consists of a vegetable item of 

 which the greater part, and certainly 

 the more important part, appears above 

 ground, is entirely aud wholly visible to 

 the eye, and has the faculty of produc- 

 ing for the use of mankind certain edible 

 products which are valued in a greater 

 or less degree. It has been recognised 

 by men who have spent the greater part 

 of their lives growing edible products 

 for their fellows, that plants of different 

 descriptions have a tendency to give 

 larger quantities of their individual pro- 

 ducts after subjection to special treat- 

 ment. It has been found that by manur- 

 ing the soil the actual bush or shrub 

 which appears above ground gives a more 

 pronounced growth, or in some cases a 

 crop of finer quality, and it has also been 

 discovered that a certain amount of 

 judicious curtailment of the growing 

 part of a bush will result in a great pro- 

 duction of fruit or flowers or leaves. 

 The study of these questions has led to 

 the foundation of the arts of horticul- 

 ture and arboriculture and various other 

 agricultural systems applied to the pro- 

 duction of flowers in the one case and 

 timber or leaves in another, and fruit in a 

 third. Now these arts have been so 

 developed in course of time that the 

 horticulturist has been enabled to stunt 

 the growing parts of any individual bush 

 in whatever direction he pleases, to 

 induce it to grow that which he specially 

 requires. Not only does he find that by 

 judicious pruning a bush can be forced 

 into channels other than those which 

 nature has laid down for it, but also that 

 by skillful application of different rnanu- 

 rial ingredients he can stimulate the bush 

 in such a way that either quantity or 

 quality is the result, as the case may be. 

 More, it has been found that different 

 kinds of cultivation are applicable to 

 different kinds of fruits and flowers 

 and trees, and the gardener or the 

 arboriculturist cultivates his stock- 

 in-trade for the different purposes 

 accordingly. 



As the process of evolution applied to 

 forestry and market gardening has 

 widened and developed, the planter has 

 worked along similar lines, and in the 

 treatment of the tea bush, both below 

 ground and above, he exercises that 

 skill, which comes after years of experi- 

 ence, in inducing the greatest growth 

 that is compatible with the continued 

 well-being of the tea bush. 



The Roots of the Tea Bush. 



Root development is a question that is 

 closely associated with that of cultiva- 

 tion, and while the planter still exists 

 who pins his faith to cultivation as a 

 surface operation and to mere plucking 

 and pruning as another, the man who is 

 selected for the better charges considers 

 underground growth of his bush in 

 conjunction with its functions, and 

 views all operations above groxind as 

 dependent upon the conditions under- 

 neath. It should be palpable to the 

 veriest tyro that before healthy grow- 

 ing conditions can be established above 

 the surface the feeding arrangements of 

 the plant below the ground must be 

 healthy and vigorous, but this very 

 point is one that is apt to be lost sight of 

 when the great cry is profits, and profits 

 at any cost, The tendency to consider 

 the surface part of a bush as the most 

 important is very great when it is re- 

 membered that all the profits are appa- 

 rently made from the surface part only. 

 Old traditions die hard, but when intel- 

 lect points to what is sound and commer- 

 cially satisfactory in the long run, the 

 needs of the present become more and 

 more sacrificed to prospects of the future, 

 with the result that the permanency of 

 the bush receives proper attention at the 

 hands of the planter. We have always 

 had the keenest scrutiny of the frame- 

 work of the bush from the represen- 

 tatives of Calcutta Houses who have 

 visited the Tea Districts, and while 

 it is quite true that much of the 

 history of what is going on beneath 

 is obvious from surface conditions, that 

 is no reason why the roots should not 

 receive the same careful examination as 

 the branches of a plant. 



The planter of to-day works for a 

 spread and depth of roots, encouraged 

 by artificial means if necessary, that 

 will give him better branches and a 

 more vigorous flow of sap. Given roots 

 in a healthy condition, clean, straight, 

 healthy stems are bound to follow, and 

 with a framework, massive and clean, 

 once established, it is the planters' care 

 to retain it in that condition. 



Pruning, 



We here come to the question of 

 pruning, and it is no exaggeration to 

 say that since the establishment of the 

 Scientific Department the whole system 

 of pruning the tea bush has been revolu- 

 tionised. Pruning was at one time an 

 operation that consisted in the cutting 

 of a bush straight across from a point 

 in the centre, which was decided by the 

 position of the previous year's pruning. 

 This process was continued year by year 

 until the bush became so high that 



