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Edible Products. 



factory, though in one or two minor points certain benefits were obtained. 

 The same negative results are again, I understand, being shown by the experimental 

 plots, as far at least as the improvement of quality by the use of certain mixtures 

 containing an excess of any one or two ingredients are concerned. Yet the 

 process of manuring for quality is in principle a simple one. It consists firstly 

 in the application of suitable manure mixtures, of a well compounded character, 

 containing — in proper proportion — the more essential fertilising ingredients, as 

 required by the tea bush. Secondly, in the application of such in sufficient 

 quantity, and at the proper periods to induce a free and healthy growth of 

 the tea, so as to enable a reasonable crop to be harvested from large, well- 

 grown and leafy bushes, and to minimise as far as may be possible the percentage 

 of useless tipping leaf, while building up and preserving the natural vigour of 

 the trees. 



The effect of such manuring is to increase enormously the natural dress- 

 ing of organic matter given to the ground at each recurring pruning, to strengthen 

 and develop the frames and the pruning wood of the tea, and to more than 

 cover the cost of the application, not by a large increase in crop, but by a 

 decided rise in prices, owing to the higher intrinsic quality of the leaf. 



In certain cases difficulties do, of course, arise, which may entail manuring 

 for quantity at first, especially where the frames of the trees have been allowed 

 to get into a hardened or diseased condition? sufficient to necessitate "down 

 pruning," or where the crop is so short that an economical limit in the cost 

 of production cannot be attained without raising the yield; but for most well 

 cultivated estates, where the bushes are healthy and properly developed, it 

 would unquestionably be to their advantage to aim rather at improving the 

 quality of their teas, under the system outlined above, by means of artificial 

 manure than to manure so as to increase their total crop. This policy, if generally 

 adopted, would have a most appreciable effect in minimising the danger of an 

 oversupply of tea during the next few years, and thus by securing a stronger 

 market for our staple, benefit the entire planting interest of the island. 



HENRY M. ALLEYN. 



—Local Press. 



