August i, 1889.I THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
i39 
lost. — The "Planting Molesworth " says :— 100 lb. 
leaf should wither down to 75 lb. which should 
give 25 lb. tea. Eutherford's Planting Manual 100 lb. 
Bhould wither down to 67 lb. In the Indian Plan? 
ter's Gazette, taken in T. A., August 1887, it says : — 
Be careful not to over wither ; better to be a little 
under done. In the latter case you lose a few tips 
and get some broken tea, but you save the liquor, 
while in the former esse all the strength has gone 
and you get a hard dry brassy liquor. 
On Firing this is what different people say : — 
(1) Keep the tea over these tires (choolas) until 
thoroughly fired, i. e. until all the moisture is 
completely expelled and the tea is perfectly dry and 
crisp. — (See Planters' Gazette). 
(2) When teas are properly fired they should feel 
crisp to the touch and when bent resume their shape. 
(3) Mr. Gepp before the P. A. at either Dikoya, 
Dimbula, or Maskeliya, said: — Tea should be fired till 
they have a taste of fire, bu not burnt. 
(4) Messrs. Wilson, Srmthett & Co. in one of 
their circulars say: — 'The great fault in Ceylon manu- 
facture is that the tea is too much fired and quite 
unlike the best China teas which feel quite spongy 
to the touch. 
Should tea be sifted while being fired ? This is 
always done when firing over choolas, and why should 
it not be done when firing in siroccos, as it stands 
to reason, that if the tea is taken out when the 
small leaf is sufficiently fired the large leaf will be 
insufficiently done, and vice versa. 
If as many persons answer these questions as the 
previous ones, all the letters should be printed in 
pamphlet form and should command a ready sale, 
and these letters from people living under such 
different climates, with regard to rainfall, altitude, 
will be far more valuable than any work on tea 
planting and manufacture, ever published before. 
At present a man, say, lives in the lowcountry and 
is sent to a high district, he will fail if he tries the 
same style of plucking in one as he did in the 
other, &c. B. 
TEA YIELD ON OLD LANDS: 
PEACTICAL QUESTIONS. 
Colombo, 15th July 1889. 
Dear Sir, — All interested in the cultivation of 
the staple product of the island are deeply grateful 
to the many gentlemen who gave their opinions in 
answer to the three questions put by one of them- 
selves with reference to the culture of tea. The 
kindly manner in which they replied, leads me to 
hope for further information, in the form of 
answers to the following questions with reference 
to tea planted in old coffee lands : — 
1st. What do you consider the average age of 
the tea from which first pluckings have been taken ? 
2nd. What do you consider the average increase 
during the second year's plucking over that of the 
first year's ? 
3rd. What is the average increase of the 3rd 
year's plucking over that of the 2nd year's yield ? 
4th. What is the average increase of the 4th 
year's plucking over that of the 3rd year's yield ? 
6th. What is the average increase of the 5th 
year's plucking over that of the 4th year's yield. 
6th. At what age do you consider tea in such 
lands in full bearing ? 
I do not ask these questions out of mere curiosity, 
but from a sincere desire for information, as the 
question has arisen whether tea at the present 
prices can be grown on old coffee lands to pay, 
and the answers to these questions might materially 
aid those who may have grave doubts a3 to whether 
it is wise to persist in the cultivation of tea which 
apparently takes much longer time to come into 
bearing than was contemplated,— Yours truly, W. 
P. S.— The answers, if any of your friends will 
kindly reply might take the following form : — 
1st crop from 2| to 3 years from planting, 
was equal to say 1,000 lb 
2nd „ 4 years old „ „ 3,0001b or 300 p.c. advance 
3rd „ 5 „ „ „ 4,000 lb or 33^- „ „ 
4th „ 6 „ „ „ 6,000 lb or 50 „ „ 
5th „ 7 „ „ „ 7,500 lb or 25 „ „ 
6 th 
7th 
It is not necessary to give the exaot crops so 
long as the proportions between the years are main- 
tained. — W. 
The Good prom Agri-Horticultural Shows 
is well though only partially discribed by a 
Matara correspondent to the "Examiner" as follows: — 
" Progress in agriculture or trade stimulated only by 
such small prizes as these Shows can afford to offer, 
must necessarily at first be slow. If they can only be 
continued till the exhibitors realized that the actual 
prize they may gain is but a fractional part of the 
reward that their industry or skill will secure for them, 
in a very few years the rate of progression being geo- 
metrical, will be very evident. Neither your space nor 
patience would allow me to enter into detail in proving 
that good results are being secured, so I will mere- 
ly give iustences of one or two facts which indi- 
cate an appreciation of the benefits gained by get- 
ting a prize at a Show. Should you come as a 
visitor to the district and wish to buy curious of local 
manufacture, the Rest House Keeper will pro- 
bably mention ' Matara baskets,' and of the old women 
who produced them for inspection the one who can dan- 
gle before your eyes the ' Certificate of award' granted 
her at the last Exhibition, will stand in silence and treat 
with the supreme contempt of superiority the clamour 
of her less fortunate competitors. Should, however, you 
be of a more utilitarian disposition and require mats, 
matting, or lace, the manufacturers will take an honest 
pride in showing yon either the Silver Medal or the Cer- 
tificate which their skill and industry have gained them. 
Or, again, should you be commercially inclined and 
visit the traders in Citronella and Coconut Oils, you 
will certainly be told by the holder of last year's medal 
of the purity and superiority of his oil — qualities for 
which his medal is some sort of guarantee, which he 
has been 'cute enough to realise and will probably 
make you pay something extra for." 
Coffee Leaf Disease. — In the Indische Mer- 
cuur of 22nd June Mr. van Gorkom, the f o rmer d irector 
of the Government cinchona plantations in Java, 
writes on the subject of Dr. Burck's recent in- 
quiries into the cause and treatment of coffee 
leaf disease. We learn that Dr. Burck, noticing 
that in Java (as in Ceylon) the disease was viru- 
lent in the west monsoon, while during the dry 
weather it practically disappeared, oame to the 
conclusion that the spores of hemileia needed an 
abundance of moisture in order to develop; and 
after many experiments he recommends the fol- 
lowing in the way of prevention or cure, viz. the 
formation of high thick belts of trees on the 
western side of plantations which will oheok the 
spores carried by the wind ; the watering of plants 
in the nurseries with tobacco water and the sur- 
rounding of them with high belts of trees ; and the 
removal of diseased portions of leaves by means of 
an instrument which he has invented (this 
superseding his former plan of pricking the 
infected leaves with a needle dipped in sulphuric 
acid). The conditions under which the spores 
germinate are said by Dr. Burck to be — water in 
fluid form, oxygen, and more or less complete 
darkness. The effect of the sunlight is to kill the 
spores by depriving them of water. We believe 
that a detailed report by Dr. Burck on his ex- 
periments is to appear shortly. 
