6o 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July i, 1889. 
am aware of his inherent modesty and great dis- 
inclination to appear in print, at the same time 
cannot help feeling that if you appeal to him on 
behalf of his brother-planters at this serious crisis he 
will readily respond, and give'all the varied exper- 
iences on the subject from his stores of knowledge.* 
Mr. Taylor told me long ago that the secret of 
making good tea consisted in paying attention to the 
pluckers. According as you pluck will be your out- 
turn. And your Bogawantalawa correspondent clearly 
illustrated this important point in a very happy man- 
ner lately. He told us that nine out of ten planters 
thoroughly understood the proper system of plucking 
theoretically ; but alas I how few ever saw it effici- 
ently carried out in the field. That is the key. 
note of success in tea manufacture, viz. careful 
plucking, in fact tea is made or marred in the fluid ; 
and this trite maxim cannot be too strongly impressed 
upon all concerned, and ought to be printed in large 
letters over every factory door throughout the country. 
My own ideas of combining " quantity with quality" 
is, if you secure from 150 to 250 lb. made tea per acre 
from old coffee lauds according to varied circumstan- 
ces, and from 300 to 400 lb. per acre from tea planted 
on virgin soil, — the average price for same, at present 
ruling rates, to come to Is per lb. in London, or, 6ay 
60 cents per lb, laid down in Colombo. From my ex- 
perience they are reasonable and easily obtainable 
figures, provided great care and attention are exercised 
throughout, viz. in pruning, plucking, and manufacture. 
Old Oloudlands. 
LIV. 
1. With smiling weather, but moist enough, and at 
six months to one year after pruning, I have found 
the quality of the made tea best. At first after prun- 
ing, the leaf is too full of watery sap, to give good 
liquor, and it is rank and deficient in flavour. These 
faults may be much mitigated by extra withering, 
which will permit longer and harder rolling or mani- 
pulation, without waste of the cell contents, in which 
are all the elements of the tea. After one year, I think 
there is a falling-off to thinness with medium plucking, 
excepting the last few rounds, when usually all buds 
are harvested before pruning. Pruning may be done 
at intervals of 20 months or so, as two years is some- 
what too long for this elevation. 
2. Manure : bulky stuff, cattle manure, veget- 
able compost, with wood ashes, &c, seems to al- 
most double the yield ; but in the few cases falling 
within my ken, neither the liquor nor flavour of the 
tea had been perceptibly improved. I got the strongest 
and best flavoured tea from a poor jat grown unmanured 
on a sharp ferruginous soil, of course with a 
moderate yield. With present prices manuring must 
be in abeyance, unless under favourable conditions, 
meaning production on the spot, or very cheap trans- 
port. The manures noted may be profitably applied 
by forking in, or in shallow pits, during lulls in 
plucking or other spare time. The aeration of the 
soil by either mode is beneficial. 
3. Medium is likely all round to prove the best, 
with_ either high or low prices. Coarse plucking 
requires no oomment. Good tea cannot be made 
from it. Fine plucking is to be avoided, I thick, for 
the reason that a fairly workable quantity of tea is 
not yielded by the trees in the intervals of pruning. 
Now pruning is a very expensive work, including 
nearly 6 months' loss of yield after each operation. As 
soon as the tree is in order after pruning, with 
fine plucking begins a process of punishment, 
which long before the proper time diminishes the 
yield of leaf to an unprofitable level, leaving the trees 
not unlike good serviceable besoms, stunted and dwarfed 
in growth and not unlikely hurt in vigour for the suc- 
ceeding season ! With medium plucking the tips will be 
as good and nearly as numerous as with the fine. The 
pekoe and pekoe souchong leaf should be rather more 
flavoury the cell contents being more matured, and 
a moderate percentage of souchong does no harm, but 
(shows that the trees are not being overplucked 
* How does " Oloudlands " know that he has not 
taken a part ?— Ed. 
It should be a hard and fast rule for the pluckers, 
what is to be left on the trees, whether 1 leaf, nearly 
at maturity, or more : this according to jat, condition 
of the tree, elevation, weather, &c, will best be found 
out by the manager of the plantation, as no general 
rules can be laid down. I would be inclined to define 
medium plucking, as that which would give 20 per 
cent of orange and broken pekoe from the " bulk " 
with a No. 12 sieve, for that separation (the leaf hav- 
ing been machined, rolled, and fired, and the jat a 
medium Assam hybrid). The lower grades ot the 
remainder will then fall into ordinary proportion. To 
conclude: — This is my " stono to the cairn." Nothing 
new to add, as I agree with the majority of your 
correspondents who have preoeded me on the subject. 
1,600 to 4,500 ft. Elevation. 
LV. 
Yaiiyantota, 20th May. 
1. I cannot say if Mr. Armstrong is responsible 
for the statement, that the quality of tea is best 
when bushes flush most freely ; but my experience of 
7 years' manufacturing tea in the lowcouutry points 
to exactly the reverse. 
2. I have no actual figures to prove that applica- 
tion of manure improves flavor or strength of tea, 
but I am inclined to think it would do both, more es- 
pecially the latter ; at the same time I am not prepared 
to state that the cost of application of manure will 
compensate for the enhanced price which might be 
obtained for the teas from bushes so manured. In the 
experiment carried out on this estate, particulars of 
which appear in " Rutherford's Note Book," the ob- 
ject in view was more to obtain statistics as to yield 
than improvement in quality of tea. 
3. This involves a large question ; and to deal with 
it thoroughly would require an exhaustive treatise; my 
own opinion in as concise a form as possible i3 the 
following : — The main point after all is the balance 
sheet at end of year, showing profit for acre. I 
would deprecate very fine or very coarse plucking, 
the end to be achievtd being to obtain the highest 
price for your teas compatible with placing them in 
the market as cheaply as possible. High-pricsd teas, 
as a rule, mean high cost per lb. of production, and 
low-priced teas the reverse. Hit the happy medium 
from which it will be found the largest profits 
accrue. As I may be misunderstood in what I 
have just written a little explanation is excus- 
able. There are estates which owing to vary- 
ing conditions will not produce as good teas as 
others : in these cases fair comparisons cannot be 
drawn. My remarks apply to estates working 
under parallel circumstances and having about same 
soil, jat &c. You could name, Mr. EJitor, and so 
could I, several properties in Oeylon, the teas from 
which at one period topped the market and have now 
dropped down to the average price: this is due ap- 
parently to one of two causes, — either their bushes 
have deteriorated, and cannot produce as good teas 
as formerly, or these gardens have found it more 
remunerative to produce an average-priced tea at 
a lower cost than a fancy (and necessarily small 
quantity) tea at a heavy cost per lb. I would express 
it as my opinion that the first of these two reasons 
is the cause. 
In expressing the foregoing as the results of my 
own observations, which I may remark have been 
almost entirely confined to the lowcouutry (Kelani 
Valley), I do not for a moment lay them down as in- 
fallible dictums, and am entirely adverse to drawing 
upon myself a heap of scathing or ungenerous criti- 
cisms; but simply as requested state what I have 
found to be the most paying method of " Tea Cul- 
ture and Preparation." Your inquiries are certainly 
practical, and I trust my answers may be found the 
same. F. T.T. 
LVI. 
Dikoya, 18th May 1889. 
1. Provided the bushes are in a healthy condition, 
my opinion is that the quality of the tea is best from 
6 to 12 months after pruning. 
