Feb. 1907. j 



7.7 



Edible Products. 



It will be noticed that half an acre is the minimum size of each plot. We 

 intend, in nearly all field experiments for the future, to keep to this size. It 

 contains, usually, roughly, a thousand plants — a number which is quite few enough 

 to do away with individual variations in the bushes. At ' the same time, with 

 an acreage of much more than an acre it is difficult to get a sufficient area of 

 even soil or even tea for many plots. But half an acre in the season gives from 

 thirty to sixty pounds of leaf or more per plucking, a quantity which is, hence, 

 enough to weigh without difficulty. The plots are always divided by a row of 

 unpruned bushes, thus rendering the boundaries of the plots absolutely distinct. 

 These unpruned bushes will be kept to a height of, say, four feet. 



EXPERIMENTS ON GREEN MANURING. 



While speaking of manures.it will be well to insist on the importance of 

 experiments with " green manures," This method of manuring as is well known, 

 consists of growing a crop of some sort, usually a leguminous crop, among the tea 

 and hoeing the plant into the laud when it has grown to a sufficient size. With us 

 in North India, mati-kalai (Phaseolus sp) has been almost exclusively used ; in 

 Ceylon, Crotalaria Striata— a plant apparently not cultivated in the Indian tea 

 districts — , and ground nuts have been found of greatest advantage for this purpose. 

 There is also another type of green manure, which consists of growing a more or 

 less permanent bush or tree among the tea and hoeing in primings from this 

 bush or tree at intervals during the year. In India the boga medeloa (Tephrosia 

 Candida) has been chiefly employed ; in Ceylon, the dadap (Erythrima sp) is being 

 introduced. It is obvious that these may or may not be the best, and it is intended 

 from time to time to try any green manures which offer in the hopes of discovering 

 something which will do better than any of the above. In 1905, half-acre plots 

 have been set out to test the relative value of arahar (Cajanus indicus) mati-kalai 

 (Phaseolus mungo), Crotalaria Striata, d/iamc/ira(Sesbaniaaculeata,)and groundnuts 

 and it seems likely that already one or two of these crops will prove better than 

 those hitherto sown for the purpose. 



As has already been said, it is hoped in the near future to make careful 

 tests with bones, in various forms, but it has not been found feasible to take these 

 in hand during the present season. 



We can pass over more shortly some of the purely agricultural questions 

 which it is the intention to study at Heeleaka when time and space allow. Such are 

 questions of the water in the soil and drainage ; questions of cultivation, the 

 amount, time, and depth of tillage, the advantage of a growth of jungle and what 

 weeds are favourable or reverse. 



But there are special agricultural matters affecting tea such as pruning and plucking 

 on which definite well founded results are of importance. 



PRUNING EXPERIMENTS. 



In connection with pruning, there still remains very much difference of opinion 

 as to the method which gives the best result. Shall we clean out all the small twigs 

 from the bushes ; shall the sides be cut as close as the centres ; shall the new wood be 

 cut as short as possible or left several inches in length; shall pruning be carried 

 out early, as early in the season as possible ; or be deferred as late as may be ?— these 

 are some of the questions on which the best of planters differ in opinion. In order 

 to commence this study we have laid out during the present season, six plots, each 

 an acre in extent, and have light pruned them as follows : 



No. 1 and 6 are treated according to the custom of the district with only 

 slight cleaning out of twiggy growth, removal of weak side shoots 

 and trailing branches. 



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