August i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
129 
TEA PLUCKING: FINE AND MEDIUM: 
PUTTING BOTH TO THE TEBT AND THE KESULTS. 
We have been favoured with a statement of 
the experience of a gentleman with a keen in- 
terest in this question and who, as a business man, 
has been working in connection with two well- 
known upcountry planters in certain experiments 
o test 'fine' and 'medium' plucking and manu- 
facture These experiments can scarcely yet be 
said to be completed; but so_ far, the result,— 
when reduced to rupees, which is after all the only 
satisfactory test-is decidedly in favour of medium 
plucking. Indeed in the case of two estates (one in 
Dolosbage and one in Ambagamuwa) the finer pluck- 
ing, although certainly a loss of 30 to 35 per cent 
in yield, has scarcely increased the average price 
one cent. The weak points about the experiments 
is first, the difficulty of valuing the tea for compari- 
son with the old style of plucking, and second, the 
uncertainty as to whether there will be a per- 
manent loss of 30 to 35 per cent or whether the 
trees will adjust themselves to the new style ot 
plucking. One of the planters concerned thinks 
the latter ; the other is doubtful. The uncertainty 
in value arises from the present irregularity of the 
market, and there have been some most extraordinary 
discrepancies between the local opinions and those 
of the London market. It is the opinion of some 
that it is possible to make the finest tea from any 
estate if planters only pluck fine enough ; but this is 
not the case : and it will, we suspect, be found that 
each estate must experiment for itself. In most cases 
400 lb. (medium plucking) can be plucked for the 
same money as 300 lb. fine. It would there, 
fore appear that the extra 100 lb. costs nothing 
to pluck and if the planter can manufacture 
it without injuring the quality of his finer leaf, 
he can afford to sell it for the manufacturing 
charges and transport (say 15 .cents) It is therefore 
quite a mistake to imagine that Ceylon Pekoe Sou- 
chong at even 5|d is entailing a loss. 
PLANTING 
PROSPECTS : 
COFFEE 1 
TEA AND 
(By an Old Planter.) 
I am afraid tea is in a bad way, and it will soon be 
a case of the " survival of the fittest." Estates planted 
on new land have the best chance, but those raised 
on old and in maoy cases worn-out coffee estates, with 
the old coffee debt as an additional incubus cannot 
I should think, survive the coming struggle (spell 
struggle with three o's to intensify it !). Most ot the 
D^bula, many of the Dikoya and all the Maskel.ya 
estates I do not characterize as old ; they were not 
in coffee long enough to exhaust the soil, and were, 
moreover, as a rule well drained and hand weeded from 
the commencement : no " mamoty " or karandi 
being permitted to desecrate the humus and scrape 
it away. I am a great believer in the first six 
inches of a soil: to me it seems essential to the 
vigorous growth of a plant, and although tea 
is a' very hardy plant and will grow on soils without 
a particle oF humus, yet to my mind it can never 
have the stamina and sound constitution of the plant 
raised on virgin soil. Stunted in youth it grows up 
like the animal that has been ill-nourished in infancy, 
and any amount of doctoring in after life cannot give 
it what it lost in early life. 
Tom Gray's order to grow a sucker on his cottee 
stumps comes I should think a little too late. Surely 
by this time the tea has possession, and the coffee 
slumps hacked and knocked about so that they can 
bave very little life left i" them. Even if successful, 
cui bono? Leaf-disease will not permit it to bear. 
Some people talk of leaf-disease leaving or becoming 
less virulent. Well, no doubt at times it seems as 
is it had taken its departuro or had satiated its 
17 
" voracious maw ;" but when least expected to thrive it 
IB as fresh and sap-thirsty as ever ! This year I am 
sorry to say some Liberian coffee that I have seen 
in the lowcountry is affected almost as badly as I 
have ever seen it. Coffee raised from the Mysore or 
other strong varieties and grown under shade should 
I think stand a good chance of success. I would not, 
however, plant under the forest shade, but grow suit- 
able trees for the purpose, this would make one quite 
independent of forest land. On the Uva side coffee 
might be grown this way up to 3,500 ft., and on the 
Kandy side up to 2,500 ft. elevation ; higher altitudes 
would hardly give crop enough. I know patches of 
Liberian coffee in the lowcountry under shade which 
crop fairly, and are not much troubled by leaf-disease. 
It would be worth some one's while to try a small ex- 
periment. 
* 
WHAT A SINGLE GRAIN OF RICE 
PRODUCED. 
There came up in my garden in a hole of water, 
may be six inches deep, a single grain of rice. It 
produced more than 90 heads at the first crop and 
over 110 heads for the second crop. The first crop 
was stripped from the heads and the grain poured 
into water and the imperfect grains floated off. Then 
the mass was measured with a spoon. The spoon was 
then filled three times and each spoonful counted by 
itself. The three were then added and an average 
struck. Equal care was bestowed on the second crop. 
The whole number of grains from that one grain I 
found to be 25,706 — Florida Dispatch. 
COFFEE AND TEA. 
CAUSE OP THE CHECKING OF TEA FLOSH — CHANGEABLE 
WEATHER — TEA AND COFFEE IN DIMBULA LOOKING 
WELL — COFFEE AND CINCHONA ON BELGRAVIA — THE 
HOPES OF PLANTERS REST ON TEA — COFFEE LEAF 
DISEASE DUE TO A WORM AT THE ROOTS ! — COFFEE 
IN BRAZIL. 
Nanuoya, 8th July 1889. 
The checking of tea flush in this region to a 
greater extent even than is usual in the South- 
West monsoon seems due this season, not so much 
to rain, which is rather below than above the 
average, but to the prevalence of strong cold winds. 
Wednesday, the 3rd, was a comparatively fine day, 
only 7 cents of rain falling. Next day gave 38 
cents, and Friday, with 60 cents measured, was 
the very type of dreary darkness and cold drizzling 
wind. " Fine planting weather set in," was the 
decision, but even planting was conduoted under 
difficulties. Saturday showed only 6 cents of rain 
against the 60 of the day before, and yesterday 
the reaction was complete to a model Sunday of 
bright cheerful sunshine and warm genial tempe- 
rature. The mountains, forests, patanas, streams 
and cultivated lands looked fresh and beautiful. 
If similar weather continues, it will have the 
opposite effect of trying the plants "put out" and 
of stimulating tea into flush again. Tea looks 
well except that there is more blossom than is 
desirable on fields which were pruned 14 months 
ago, or more, while a few scattered spots have 
been affected by green fly. In some parts of Dim- 
bula coffee is looking well, the fungus not being 
so apparent as the berries. The lower elevations 
are, of course, the more favoured ; but yesterday 
I saw some very fine coffee on Inverness at an 
altitude of 5,300 feet and over. On Wednesday I 
travelled the last portion of the railway journey 
with a planter who had just left Belgravia, 
and he reported a crop of 7 owt. per acre 
on the coffee trees and the proprietor busy 
planting out ledgerianas. Belgravia, it must be 
remembered, had good soil, aspect and elevation 
to begin with, and the effect of the large quantities 
of manure applied to it in the palmy days of the 
