July i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
59 
XLIX. 
Madulkele, 18th May 1889.- 
1. I do notkuow if Mr. Armstrong or any other has 
committed himneif to this statement that the best 
teas are made when the bushes flush best. My ex- 
perience would lead me to believe the reverse, i. c. 
that when growth is slowest and the flush checked 
by cold or wet weather the best teas are then 
manufactured. A correspondent from Matale has, 
however, said very truly that the reason of a belief 
in poorer teas being made from the heaviest flushes 
has to be looked for in the superintendent being 
unable to get round in his usual 7 to 8 days in 
hea vy flushing weather, and the flushes running away 
aud getting bard in consequence. 
2. I have done a lot of manuring during the last 
two years, and find there is no difference in strength or 
flavour between teas from manured or unmanured 
fields. Increased quantity you will always get by 
cultivation. The manures I have experience in, I 
would place in the following order of merit : — ■ 
1st. Cattle-manure and crushed white oastor oake 
mixed and forked in. 
2ud. Cattle manure alone well dusted with powdered 
phosphate of lime to fix the ammonia and make the 
compost distasteful to the omnivorous white-ant. 
3rd. Double kainit (sulphate of potash) by itself 
forked in. 
4th. Castor cake by itself. 
5th. Simple forking. 
I will never apply castor cake by itself again. 
Although you get the flush for the time being, the 
evil after-effects on the frees are most apparent. 
Oastor cake with cattle-manure is very different and 
stands first in my order of merit. Double kainit 
is excellent, gives heavy flushes, trees make lovely 
wood and no evil effects visible. Simply forking 
after first treatment seems to have no effect at all. 
3. Who gets quantity with quality? I fancy I have 
hitherto plucked coarser than anyone in the Island, 
going in properly for quantity without quality. It 
paid me very well to do so till January 1889, when 
the market for coarse teas went all to the bad, and 
I have now had to change my system and go in for 
medium fine plucking. With medium plucking I 
expect to get a yield of over 300 lb. per acre off my 
800 acres, and can place it in London all charges in- 
cluded for 7fd per lb. I do not think finer plucking 
would show any difference in profit to above method. 
The teas would cost more for a certainty, and that 
they would fetch more is an uncertainty. I think 
I'll stick to my pres-ent method and pluck medium 
fine, being content with an average a little above cost 
price for the present. The approaching crisis must 
sweep many away, but I don't think Ceylon will 
suffer as much as others. T. D. 
L. 
Maturata, May 20 th. 
1. I think that the quality of the tea is poorest 
just after pruuing, and vice versa, at its best when the 
bushes have got their matured wood on thera, pro- 
vided you have fine weather. Too much rain gives 
a long joint, and a weak-in-liquor leaf. 
2. Have had no experience on this point. 
3. I believe in medium plucking, say 300 to 350 lb. 
per acre, hard rolling, little fermentation. — Dromio. 
LI. 
Awisawella, 18th May. 
1. I refer solely to the lowcountry. Our trees 
flush most freely when the April rains set in, after 
the drought of February and March, and at this time 
the teas are weak and flavourless. I think this is 
chiefly due to the poorness of ibe sap, though the 
difficulty of obtaining a good wither and fermentation 
may in a measure account for it. 
2. I have no practical experience of the applica- 
tion of manure, but I have found that young vigorous 
bushes in good soil give tea of better flavor and strength 
than similar plants in poorer soil, and that the tea 
ioses its original strength and flavour as the soil becomes 
exhausted. It seems re tsonable to conclude that suit- 
able manures would keep up or restore these. 
3. Growth is so rapid and vigorous and our leaves 
so far apart that we cannot pluck "fine" in the or- 
dinal y sense . we may by getting round quickly pluck 
close and hard ; but I do not think it would perma- 
nently improve the quality of our teas, though it 
might give a larger proportion of finer grades. Atten- 
tion to the health of our trees and medium plucking 
give the best average quality, — we can never compete 
with upcountry teas for flavour and fineness. These 
depend on soil and climate. The lowcountry must 
trust in a great measure to quautity combined with 
cheap production and transport. B. 
ML. 
In the South, May 20th. 
1. I am not able to say whether Mr. Armstrong is 
responsible for the statement " That the quality of 
tea is best when the bushes flush most freely." My 
own experience is that a great flush sent up by rains 
after drought and beat does not turn out such good 
tea as when the bushes are flushing moderately. This 
is especially the case in the lowcountry. From 2,000 ft. 
to 3,000 ft. elevation I never found the difference so 
marked. 
2. I can only give the results of the manuring of 
one small field. The soil was so poor most of what 
should have been the flush only got the length of poor 
feeble banjy. The manure had the effect of making 
it flush fairly and to give good tippy tea which could 
not be got before manuring. The liquor was stronger 
doubtless ; as to the flavour and whether the manuring 
will pay, " judgment reserved for the present." 
3. This is a very important matter, but how quan- 
tity and quality are to be reconciled so as to go 
together " beats me." What might be called a 
fine medium plucking is, I believe, the most profitable ; 
coarse plucking (though not always kept in view) re- 
duces your fine qualities. The prices of all qualities 
are amalgamated in the roller ; consequently the more 
coarse leaf you roll with the fiue, the more you detract 
from the strength and flavour of your broken pekoes 
and pekoes. Though foreign to the inquiry, I would 
here add that nothing reduces the quality and flavour 
of tea equal to blossoming and seed-bearing. On some 
estates where there is much low jat tea, good and care- 
fully made teas are often largely sacrificed by mix- 
ing with tea plucked off the bad jats after they are 
into a mess of blossom buds. W. M. 
LIII. 
Cloudlands, 18th May. 
I am unable to give you any information regarding 
queries No. 1 and 2, and shall confine myself to an- 
sweriug the third and most important question. 
Undoubtedly to make tea pay you must combine 
"quantity with quality." I thought all this was 
satisfactorily settled long ago, and that only a very 
few plucked fiue. That is to say an average of 85 lb 
made tea per acre. It is absurd to imagine that in a 
financial sense this pays, and it never is attempted 
except by two distinct class of planters : — First, by the 
enthusiast, who wishes to see the mark, — and his 
name also — figuring in brokers reports and newspaper 
paragraphs; or, again, by the proprietor who is anxious 
to dispose of his estate, and with that object in view 
gives his superintendent carteblanche to pluck as he 
pleases, and not take quautity into consideration so 
long as lie can "top the market," aud get up the 
name of his property in the vain hope of speedily 
" selling out," The former is soon fouud out and 
becomes a target for ridicule ; whilst the latter never 
deceives anyone except himself. I have been from the 
very beginning a disciple and follower of Mr. James 
Taylor of Loolcondra, who, to my mind, has fully 
and clearly demonstrated the practicableuess of obtain- 
ing " quantity with quality." I know for a fact that 
Mr. Taylor has obtained as high as 360 lb average per 
auiHim from his old tea, aud it 's quite unnecessary 
here to enter into his prices, as they arc well-kuown 
to to those who study the " Market Keports." I 
