59 



Edible Products. 



commercially unsound. The renovation of old areas by heavy and collar-pruning, 

 though still adopted, and rightly adopted in many cases, has been proved not to 

 apply under all conditions. Manuring is, as yet, in its infancy as a practicable 

 and regular method. The time is therefore opportune for a discussion of the whole 

 question as to the special cause of deteiioration, the signs by which each of them 

 may be recognised, and the methods which have hitherto proved, both in experi- 

 ment and in practice, most competent to stay the decline in the yield and quality 

 of older tea, and of thus maintaining the value of our older areas, 



SIGNS OF DETERIORATION. 



It is not always, however, that the decline in value of a block of tea is 

 recognised until it has already got into a very bad condition. Until recently the 

 keeping of records for each section of a garden was the exception rather than the 

 rule, and. without this, it is almost impossible to recognise the first drop from the 

 original yield. I well remember visiting a garden in one of the districts of Assam 

 some years ago, which had been making brilliantly successful years, and was looked 

 upon as one of the show places of the district in which it lay. The yield had been 

 keeping up, or rather its decline had not been noticed owing to the exceptionally 

 fine returns which were being given by young tea newly in bearing. And yet the 

 bulk of the older tea was undoubtedly rapidly deteriorating. Luckily, the matter 

 was recognised in time, but I quote this as an example of how brilliant results may 

 sometimes hide the commencement of serious mischief. 



But what are the first indications by means of which deterioration in tea 

 may be at once recognised? The resultant loss in yield is usually by no means 

 the first sign, for this can be often maintained by harder or closer plucking or 

 other means for some years after deterioration has set in. Probably the first point 

 noticeable in most cases is the change in colour of the bushes. Thoroughly vigorous 

 tea even if of the light coloured jats, has a darker appearance than unhealthy 

 plant, and the leaves have an oily appearance very difficult to describe but which 

 can hardly be mistaken. Then, too, the whole surface of the tea, at the beginning 

 of the season, seems to be growing ; the outer parts of each bush show that each 

 shoot is throwing out new growth which is itself vigorous and with the oily 

 appearance already stated. On the other hand, if the general colour of the tea 

 in the season is an unhealthy yellow, if the difference between the vigour of the 

 growth (in March or April) at the outside of the bushes and in their centres is 

 great, if the shoots, which do appear quickly cease growing and turn banjhi, then 

 it is time to consider the cause of the decline which has maifestly commenced. In 

 nine cases out of ten tea which presents these signs will, if examined in May 

 or June, be found to be attacked by Red Rust {Cephaletiros virescens), a sure 

 indication of weakness in the bushes all over tea districts. If this is the case, the 

 yellowish colour of the bushes will, at that time of year, be interpersed with many 

 shoots bearing variegated leaves. These shoots are practically always ' banjhi,' and 

 if the second year's wood from which they rise be examined, it will be found almost 

 always to bear the characteristic fruiting organs of the alga which is known as 

 ' red rust.' 



Tea, which has the unhealthy colour just described, and has red rust in 

 any large amount, is evidently beginning to ' go off,' and the result will sooner or later 

 be seen in thin flushes and loss in yield. And in this connection may I enter a plea 

 for the universal adoption of a system of records of the yield of each block at every 

 plucking on all gardens? I know such records are being increasingly adopted, but 

 until this system is universal there is always the chance of a planter or a tea 

 company living in a fool's paradise until a crisis occurs and several unprofitable 

 years follow before the tea is brought into a yielding condition again. Loss in yield 



