March i, 1890.] fUt TROPICAL ASRieULTURlSt, 653 
time, as some of them are eaten by the ryots and 
therefore left to grow for food. rp he soil is not 
touched till a month af:er planting. Cultivation might 
be commenced a fortnight earlier. The ryots fay 
the plants would die if hoed too soon. The fact is 
they want the weeds for purposes above stated. 
Liquid manure is applied to the tobacco plants at 
about five to six weeks from the time of planting. 
Fresh cowdung (200 lb.) is gathered each time some 
days previously and placed near the main channel. This 
is mulched with the hands into the water drawn from 
the well which carries the manure to the plants. This 
manuring is done twice. 
After 1 he plants have been settled for about six weeks, 
or after the first application of liquid manure, the soil 
is chopped and broken. This operation is again re- 
peated when the surface becomes very hard. The ryots 
have no idea of the benefit derived from working the 
soil after each fall of rain and only appear to work 
their lands when it is absolutely necessary and when 
the soil is extremely hard. It then necessarily breaks 
up into lumps and is never in condition. No fresh 
soil is brought from one ridge to another ; only one 
slight ridging up is given. The plant naturally are 
always on one side of the ridge and derive but little 
benefit from the water in the opposite channel. 
The plants are topped wbeu they are 2§ feet high 
and about seven to ten days 1 efore the bud appears. 
The tops are thrown anywhere and those which fall on 
the tobacco leaves, from their extremely gummy nature 
cause the leaves on which they fall to rot. Topping 
the plants so low induces the six or eight leaves lift to 
spread and increase in size, and is usually supposed to 
be conducive to increase of weight of outturn as com- 
pared with that from plants topped higher. 
The plants ripen in ninety to one hundred days, 
and when a few spots have appeared on the lower 
leaves, the plants are cut off close to the ground at about 
5 p. m. These are allowed to remain exposed to the 
night dew, and at daybreak are gathered up and bulked 
into small circular heaps 2 feet bigb, the stalks outwards 
and the tips of the leaves inwards. The same evening 
these heaps are opined again, the plants spread out on 
the ground exposed to the dew and re-bulked the next 
morning again. This is continued till the leaves begin 
to turn yellow. This is usually in about five days. The 
plants are then hung up on horizontal poles with the 
stalks pressed close to each other. The stalks of the 
plants are slightly loosened from each other every 
morning all along the pole. The leaves are cured in fif- 
teen to twenty days from time to hanging up, the colors 
being rusty red, yellow and green. Where the leaves 
have been too closely pressed together, the color is black 
and texture rotten. Rain destroys the color and 
texture, and high winds break and damage the dry 
leaves. 
When the stems of the leaves have become thoroughly 
dry, although the stalks may remain green, the plants 
are taken down and bulked into square heaps, the 
stalks being laid crosswise over each other in alternate 
rows. These heaps are 2 feet or more in height. The 
leaves are not stripped from the stalks, but bulked 
just as they are taken from the pole. This is done in 
the early moruiug when the leaves are supple. These 
bulks are opened and re-bulked every two or three 
days. Tho smell issuing from a newly-opened bulk 
is very offensive, the stalks show eigns of mould and 
the leaves sweat and blacken to such an extent that 
unless great care is taken, the texture of the leaf is 
entirely destrojed. When a blackish color is produced, 
the fermentation is finished and the leaves are stripped 
off tho stalk and tried up into bundles of 50 leaves 
weighing lh to 2 lb. each and baled. 
In many cases a mixture of jaggery and water is 
sprinkled on the leaves after the fermentation is over. 
This gives i he leaves a sour fermented smell and also a 
fictitious texture, as they ou be stretched more easily 
when the jaggery has soaked into them. This however 
disappears after a time. 
The p'Oduce of one aero of tobacco cultivated in the 
abovemeutioued way ranges fiom 800 lb. to 1,000 lb. 
The estimated cost of producing and curing thisorop, 
bused on actuul observation, is as follows: — 
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© 
CEYLON TEA IN GEEMANY. 
{Cony). Tientsin, Bogawantalawa, Feb. 2lst. 
L. "H. Kelly, Esq., 
Chairman of the Tea Fund Committee. 
Dear Sir, — In continuation of my letters to you on 
the subject of tea prospects in Germany, I now send 
you some further remarks. 
You will remember that a request for a grant of tea 
was sent in by me early last year on behalf of Mr. 
Sixths of Bonn. It was decided, though, that, as I was 
shortly about to proceed to Germany myself, advantage 
should be taken of my visit to enquire into the prospects 
of tea on the Continent, and a liberal grant of tea and 
money was made to me for that purpose, it being under- 
stood at the time that I should only make use of the 
grant if I saw that some definite and permanent results 
were to be obtained. 
After visiting Bonn, and hearing all that Mr. 
Sixtus could tell me, I Btayed several weeks at 
Berlin. There I met with several people who had 
visited Ceylon and who were highly impressed with the 
good qualities of our tea, so much so that they expressed 
themselves anxious to see it introduced into Germany. 
They confirmed all that Mr. Sixtus had told me as to 
the disinclination of dealers to bring Ceylon tea into 
public notice, and this was fully borne out by the state- 
ments the dealers themselves made to me, their stereo- 
type reply being, that the public did not ask for Ceylon 
tea and that therefore they did not keep it, also that 
China tea suited the public taste better and was far 
more profitable to themselves. 
The idea of a Ceylon Tea Company, importing direct, 
then occurred to me, and I drew up a prospectus and 
scheme for its establishment and working, which, 
although only privately circulated, was so far approved 
of that nearly £1,000 capital was promised. Before 
bringing out the Company it was felt that a certain 
proportion of the capital should come from the growers 
themselves, as being in the main the most intt resit d 
in the matter. As the American Tea Company was 
just then in a fair way to be tloated,aud as its articles 
of association would, I knew, allow of some of its. 
