July i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
57 
TEA CULTURE AND PREPARA- 
TION : 
A FEW PRACTICAL INQUIRIES BY A PRACTICAL MAN. 
1. Is not Mr. Armstrong responsible for the state- 
ment that the quality of the tea is best when the 
bushes flush most freely ? 
2. Have you any information to indicate that the 
application of manure improves the flavour or strength 
of the tea ? 
3. A good deal is now being said about fine pluck- 
ing and high prices, but surely the men whoso success 
we should emulate are those who combiue quantity 
with quality ? 
XXXVI. 
Matale East. 
1. With regard to the first inquiry, I am of opinion 
that the best tea is not made when the bushes flush 
most freely. I am rather inclined to think that with 
the exception of first flushes after pruning, our worst 
tea is made then. So far as my observation goes, our 
best tea is made in this district from May to Sept., 
after the big rush of leaf is over in April. 
2. The effect of manure as regards quantity is 
(scarcely questioned: my experience here points to an 
increase of 200 lb made tea within the year, from a 
manure costing B54 per acre. This will pay only so 
long as tea nets 44c per lb, assuming that 17c will 
cover cost of pluoking, manufacture, packing, cases, &c, 
transport and f . o. b. charges. My own impression was, 
from tasting the teas immediately after manufacture, 
that there was a decided improvement in quality equal 
in value to a Id to 1| per lb, but my aecouat sales do 
not support this, and only show an advantage of |d per 
lb. This however is equal to R6 per acre on the in- 
creased yield. 
3. Fine plucking versus medium or coarse is a very 
vexed one. Those estates producing fine-flavoured 
teas with strength combined, such as Hoola, will no 
doubt with fine plucking puy well, but in many cases 
a steady fine flavoured tea is not obtainable, even with 
fine plucking, in which case a medium style seems by 
far the safer course to pursue. 
(Old Ooffee Land.) 
XXXVII. 
Gampola, 11th May. 
1. In February and March, when the trees are 
generally feeling the effects of prolonged drought, 
the quality of our leaf and of the teas made is most 
"undesirable " ; in April after a good deal of rain has 
fallen we get a heavy rush of leaf, which gives a tea 
with a little flavour, but " wanting in the cup," as 
the brokers say, and there is very little improvement 
in the quality till July, when the bushes seem to 
settle down to steady, even flushing. From that time 
up to about the end of January we get teas with 
better strength and flavour. All the above pre- 
supposes the bushes to be in good heart ; I have 
noticed a great falhng-cff in quality of tea from 
bushes plucked for about two years without a 
pruning. 
2. Manure, cattle or artificial, decidedly improves 
the flushing qualities of tea in poor land, and I should 
say it improves the strength, but I think it is very 
doubtful if it improves the flavour. 
3. I think a careful medium plucking pays best: 
fine plucl.ing in my opinion halves the 3 ield here, 
and more than doubles the cost of plucking, besides 
increasing gieutiy the cost per lb. of tea, of every 
other item (if cultivation, without giving a corre- 
sponding increase in value to make up for the lower 
yield. Fine plucking makes the bush sLui up sooni r 
tb;m medium plucking, and necessitates tnore frequent 
piuning. Is it not the case that there has been a 
greater drop in the valine of broken pekoe and 
pekue than in pekoe .souchong ? G. D. J. 
XXXVIII. 
Central Province, 11th May. 
1 have been making tea for the last 10 years, and have 
been at the top of the list and have also been at the 
bottom of tho list, aud my opinion is tins :— . 
1. I am not aware that Mr. Armstrong said this; 
but I am aware that Mr. Armstrong has done a 
great deal to place Ceylon tea in the position it 
now holds ; my owu opinion is that the best tea is 
made when the bushes are not flushing freely. When 
the bushes are flushing too freely the result is more 
like what you get from tippings after pruning. 
2. I have no information gained from practical 
results, but I would think manuring would both im- 
prove quantity and quality, but at present prices I 
would say take what you can get -without manuring. 
3. There is a great deal more that could be said 
about fino plucking and high prices, and this is a 
point which a good many planters differ on. There 
is much to be said on both sides, but as far as I 
can judge it would pay us all best to go in for 
medium plucking and keep up the quality without 
sending in too coarse stuff by doing this. We may 
aim at both quantity and quality, but I defy any 
man who goes in for quality to get quantity too. 
Another mau who prefers quantity cannot possibly get 
quality, so I think the best thing for us all to do 
is to go in for medium. Avoid coarse : we are all in 
the same boat. Practical Planter. 
XXXIX. 
Portswood, 11th May 1889. 
1. I believe dull weather — when the trees are 
not over flushing — gives the best and most flavoury teas. 
2. I am not in a position to answer this, having 
no manured tea ; but digging certainly improves the 
bushes and quality of made tea. 
3. I believe firmly in plucking regularly, and not 
fine. I think plucking to produce about 55 to 60 per 
cent of pekoe the best. E. Gordon G. 
XL. 
Ambagamuwa. 
1. When bushes flush freely the leaf is tender, 
with a minimum percentage ot baugy shoots, and can 
be more easily withered, and therelore makes better 
tea than leaf from a stunted growth due to bad con- 
dition of bushes, bad weather or poor soil. During 
four months following a heavy pruning the bushes 
flush too freely and the leaf gives a poor liquor.' I 
consider bushes to be flushing freely when they do 
not show bangy before the third leaf. 
2. Application of manure to poor soil corrects the 
stunted growth of the bushes, making them flush 
more freely and give better leaf. Manure undoubtedly 
improves the quality of the tea produced from 
land where the tea at seven years old does not give 
more than 250 lb. of tea per acre with medium plucking. 
When manure is applied to tea on good soil the 
leaf gives a poorer liquor only for a short period, whilst 
the manure is most active and producing leaf similar 
to that after a heavy pruning. Carter's experiments with 
manure in Ohittagong showed that manure improved 
the quality of the tea {T. A. Nov. 1885). 
3. Very fine plucking as carried out on some 
estates consists in taking only the bud and the 
partially developed leaf attached. This gives broken 
orange and orange pekoe only. Fine plucking, as 
done on perhaps a third of Ceylon estates, is 
the same as very fine plucking with the addi- 
tion of half the next leaf, that is, half the pekoe 
leaf. Medium pluoking may be said to consist 
in taking either the same as in fine plucking mixed 
with a similar proportion of bud, two leaves and a 
half, or just the bud and two leaves. Medium coarse 
plucking is, either taking the bud and three leaves at- 
tached mixed with some bud and only two leaves 
attached ; or a mixture of bud, two leaves and a 
half, and bud, three leaves and a half. This gives 
about 50 per cent of true pekoo souchong, broken 
tea aud dust. Very fine plucking gives fa ncy 
teas and fancy prices which however can only be se- 
cure 1 for a limited quantity. There should be more d is- 
crimination between fancy or fine teas aud fine quality 
teas. What in most cases will pay best is fine quality 
appearing in a large percentage of true pekoe sou- 
chong (not pekoe leaf classed as pekoe souchong as is 
so frequently dono for eclat) carefully manufactured 
