9 8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1889. 
To the Editor. 
TEA CULTURE AND PBEPABATION : — 
EXPEBIMENTS IN MANURING TEA. 
Brunswiok estate, Maskeliya, June 3rd, 1889. 
Dear Sir, — I am sorry that I have been so long 
in answering your questions re " Tea Culture and 
Preparation," especially as the information I am 
now able to give about manuring might have made 
" Praotical Planter " oome to a different conclusion 
in his able letter in your issue of the 30th ult. 
I now enclose report and valuations of tea 
made from leaf taken from bushes in every respect 
similar, except that 
No. 1 (808) was manured with cattle manure from 
6 to 9 months ago (£ a basket to a bush), applied 
in shallow holes between every four bushes. 
No. 2 (809) was manured with castor cake and 
crushed bones 4 to 6 months ago, at a cost of E40 
per acre (| bones to § castor cake) forked in up 
every other line. 
No. 3 (810) was from unmanured bushes from 
the same field on Brunswick estate, Maskeliya. 
The yield of leaf is much greater from the 
manured than from the unmanured fields, which 
proves conclusively that it does pay me to manure. 
This may not apply to other districts, or other 
soils : everyone should try for themselves, on a 
small scale at first. I enclose replies to your 
questions re " Tea Culture and Preparation," which 
1 trust may be of value to my fellow planters. 
—I am, yours faithfully, A. E. WEIGHT. 
3d to4d. 
£d to Is Id. 
8d to 84d. 
808. Colombo, 25th May 1889. 
A. E. Wright, Esq.j Brunswick. 
Samples No. 1. 
Broken Pekoe.— Blackish, little brown- 
ish, small, even tippy leaf. Liquor good I 
body, fine quality and flavour. 
Inf used leaf bright. 
Pekoe. — Blackish, little brownish, \ 
well twisted leaf some ends. Liquor I 
good body and quality. f 18 '■ 
Infused leaf bright a little greenish. J 
Pekoe Souchong.— Blackish, brownish,' 
rather even twisted leaf. Liquor fair body, 
good quality and flavour. 
Infused leaf fairly bright a little greenish., 
809. Colombo, 25th May 1889. 
A. E. Wright, Esq., Brunswick. 
Samples No. 2. 
Broken Pekoe.— Blackish, little brown- » 
ish, even twisted leaf, fair show of tip. { j B 2( j t 0 3d 
Liquor good body, quality and flavour. ( 
lafused leaf bright. " ' 
Pekoe.— Blackish, little brownish, rather even \ 
well twisted leaf some ends. Liquor fair body, I 1 a 
good quality and flavour. f 
Infused leaf bright, a little greenish. J 
Pekoe Souchong.— Blackish, little brownish 1 } 
rather even twisted leaf. Liquor fair body, l 3a, 
good quality and flavour. J 
Infused leaf fairly bright, a little greenish. ' 
810. Colombo, 25th May 1889. 
A.E.Wright, Esq., Brunswick. 
Samples No. 3. 
Broken Pekoe. — Blackish, little brown--] 
iah, fairly even leaf fair show of tip. 
Liquor good body, quality and flavour. ( Is Id to 2d. 
Infused leaf bright. 
Pekoe.— Blackish, little brownish, welh 
twisted leaf some ends. Liquor good! 
quality and flavour, rather soft, a little^ Hid to Is. 
thin. 
Infused leaf bright a little greenish 
> : 1 
(is: 
Pekoe Souchong.— Blaokish, little brownish^ 
rather even twisted leaf. Liquor good quality ( 7£d. 
and flavour a little soft, rather thin. i 
Infused leaf fairly bright, a little greenish. J 
All these teas have good quality and flavour. Iu 
point of merit they stand as numbered. 
Whittall & Co., per Jas. A. Henderson. 
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. 
1. I am not aware that Mr. Armstrong is re- 
sponsible for the statement "that the quality of 
the tea is best when the bushes flush most freely ; 
but if he is, I do not think he is far wrong, if 
from leaf plucked, 6 to 12 months after pruning, 
and the weather is favourable for a natural wither. 
2. I think that manure improves both flavour 
and strength and increases quantity. 
3. I believe in medium fine plucking (i.e., the 
bud and two leaves, leaving one leaf and the dummy) 
and plucking round your estate from 8 to 10 days, 
and think it has yet to be proved that this sys- 
tem will very much reduce the yield per acre, if 
at all. A. E. Wright. 
3rd June 1889. 
THE GEEEN BUG ON COFFEE AND 
KEEOSENE EMULSION. 
Eton, Pundaluoya, 4th June 1889. 
Dear Sir, — I have just seen Mr. Cotes' letter in 
your issue of 31st ult. I have been corresponding 
on this subjeot with Prof. Eiley (of the U, S. 
Department of Agriculture) for some months. I 
wrote to him by the last mail telling him that, 
although I felt sure from small experiments of my 
own, that the kerosene emulsion would effectually 
destroy the bug, there were serious difficulties in 
the way of its extensive employment ; the 
chief of these being the cost of application. In 
common with all liquid remedies, the cost of 
transport would, I fear, be prohibitive. The 
treatment is doubtless suitable for the fiat orange 
plantations of Florida where it is extensively and 
successfully employed, reservoir carts being used 
for the purpose. But here on our steep hill-sides 
the liquid apparatus must necessarily be transported 
by hand. 
It is doubtful whether a single application would 
be sufficient. Anyone who has paid attention to 
the subject cannot have failed to notice how rapidly 
the pest spreads over fields where a few weeks 
previously not a single insect could be found. The 
kerosene treatment is not prophylactic, but acts 
only on the insects with which it comes in contact. 
Again — united action would be necessary. It would 
be useless for one proprietor to clear his estate of the 
pest if his neighbour refused to do the same. And 
even should this difficulty be overcome, it would 
be practically impossible to disinfect the many in- 
digenous plants and trees that at present act as 
reservoirs of this omnivorous insect. 
It might possibly pay to preserve by this method 
exceptionally good fields in favorable positions, but 
every other coffee tree on the estate would have to 
be ruthlessly exterminated. 
Under separate cover I forward some of the U. S. 
Agricultural Department's publications which will 
give you further particulars about the manufacture 
and application of the kerosene emulsion. On p. 94 
of ' Insects affecting the Orange' you will find a 
formula for the mixture, and on p. 101 a description 
of the best methods of application. Figures and des- 
criptions of recent improvements in spray-producing 
nozzles are given on p. 263 of ' Insect Life.' The 
nozzle is a most essential part of the apparatus, not 
only for the sake of economy, but because the finely 
divided spray forms a perfect mist which settles 
evenly on every part of the tree. 
