383 



Edible Products. 



There are two main types of pepper vines — Kalluvalli and Balamcottah. 

 Of these Kalluvalli is the universal favourite. It is a hardier plant and measure 

 for measure, its produce weighs more than that of Balamcottah. To distinguish 

 the one type from the other is a delicate task. Kalluvalli leaves are uniform in size, 

 of a deep green, standing erect and not drooping as in the Balamcottah. The 

 seeds are thickly set, bigger in size, and a darker green than those of the Balam- 

 cottah. The leaves of the latter are bigger than those of the Kalluvalli and light 

 green in colour. Both these main types have several subordinate varieties. — 

 Madras Mail. 



Tea Cultivation. 



THE EFFECT OF BURYING ORGANIC MATTER ON THE QUALITY 



OF TEA. 



At the recent Annual General Meeting of the shareholders of the Ceylon Tea 

 Plantations Co., Ltd., held at the London offices of the company, Mr. G. A. Talbot, 

 in seconding the report made an able speech referring to the condition of the com- 

 pany's tea estates in Ceylon and the method of cultivation and manuring adopted. 

 The results show the good effect obtained in the improved vigour and efficiency of 

 the plants and the enhanced quality of the tea manufactured by the systematic 

 burying of organic matter. Mr. Talbot's remarks are reproduced here. 



" In seconding the report, gentlemen, I will endeavour as well as I can to 

 explain to you the condition of the estates and the way we are working them, for on 

 that depends, as you know, the future of the company. I may tell you that it is 

 possible by certain methods of plucking and pruning to keep up the yield and 

 apparently to make a good show on a tea estate, but at the expense of the future, 

 for by these means the bushes diminish in size, and eventually the time comes when 

 you have to face the result. Shareholders, therefore, should take a great interest in 

 this matter, and as they look into the accounts endeavour to discover the way in 

 which their estates are being worked. 



Now the system of this company in the past has been not so much to endea- 

 vour to get a large yield or to increase the output as to keep the estates in a good 

 condition of efficiency and vigour, by restoring to the soil what has been taken out 

 of it. We have done this by using the ordinary manures, such as cake and bone dust 

 and fish manure, to which are added some soluble manures, such as nitrate of potash, 

 and by burying primings and mixing with them some organic matter. This system 

 has so far been successful that we have maintained the yield, and I may tell you, 

 without fear of contradiction, that our estates, as regards vigour and health, are in 

 a better condition than they have been for some time past. Now, this system of 

 burying the prunings and returning the organic matter is by no means universally 

 adopted. It is not very popular, and is not believed in by all. One reason is that 

 there is no immediate result in the increase of the crop, and another is that it entails 

 hard manual labour, and the coolies do not like the work. I may tell you that the 

 labourers in Ceylon are very much the same as they are in other places. They don't 

 choose a place where they are hard-worked, but rather a place where the manual 

 Work is easy, and I wish to testif y to the work that has been done by our staff in this 

 respect. They have never shirked our instructions, and they have fully carried out 

 the programme laid down for the past year, of renovating the soil, which has been 

 one of the chief causes of the success of our working. 



But this burying of organic matter has had another effect besides the one 

 that we first anticipated, of keeping up the bushes ; it has had the effect of improv- 

 ing tl e quality of our tea, for by the digging and tillage necessary the root growth 



