May i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
735 
A NEW TEA FIBM IN COLOMBO. 
A well-known and enterprising Fooohow Tea 
firm — Messrs. Bathgate, Pim & Co. — have opened a 
branch under Mr. F. F. Street's management in 
Colombo. Messrs. Bathgate, Pim & Co. were one of the 
first China houses to open a branch in Calcutta and 
now they do ua this honour in Colombo — one among 
many signs that Ceylon with Indian tea is about to 
supersede the China article in Western trade. 
A TBIP TO THE INDIAN TEA D1STEIOTS- 
Mr. MaitlaDd Kirwan had a pleasant and no 
doubt, profitable visit to India. His travels through 
the Terai, DarjeeliDg &c, were productive of much 
useful information. There is no doubt, he says, 
that " the Dooars" is the coming tea district of 
India : climate, Boil and lay of land all most 
favorable to tea cultivation. His attention was 
drawn " to the grave damage caused by the ravages 
of mosquito blight, which appears to have played 
havoo in the most distressing manner on various 
tea estates and for which no cure has as yet been 
found. This pest is I believe known in Ceylon, 
but so far has done little or no harm. Forewarned 
however is forearmed, and planters ought not to 
treat this pest however Elight at present, with 
indifference."— Mr. J. Maitland Kirwan purposes 
returning home by the " Bengal" on 26th ins't. 
PLANTING IN TEAVANCOEE. 
HE. H. DRUMMOND DEANE'b TRIP TO TEAVANCOEE — FROM 
ALLEPPY TO THE ESTATES — TEA — COFFEE (UNDER 
SHADE) — CINCHONA — LABOUE — MANURE — ROADS — NUT- 
MEGS AND SPICE, CLOVES AND CACAO CULTIVATION. 
Having during a short but most interesting visit 
o Peermaad district in Travancore been enabled to 
see a little of the tea and coffee industry of the 
place, it may interest some of your readers to have 
a short account of what I saw. 
The journey from Alleppy to Kotium is done by 
boat very comfortably taking about six hours, and 
the country on either side of the canal is most 
fertile. " Kotium" is a pretty place but very hot 
and apparently inhabited by a perfect colony of 
missionaries of all denominations. From Kotium to 
Mondakayam,the resthouse at foot of the ghaut, is 32 
miles over a road with littlo if any trace, but 
straight up or down hill as the case may be, chena 
cultivation prevailing on either side of the road- 
The journey is far from a pleasant one, being done 
in tho small bullock carta of the country, at an 
average speed of 2 V miles per hour. Thn rest- 
houses at Alleppy, Kotium, Walrua and Monda- 
kayam being all mere shells of buildings with a few 
chairs, and wooden bedsteads, but no mattresses, 
nor pillows &o. nor baths arc provided nor even lights, 
and of food nothing except curry and eggs is pro- 
curable, and no drink except water. From Monda- 
kayam I had the loan ol a pony and rode up 
tho ghaut 13 miles to tho Pass of Peermaad and 
then about four miles on to Bon Ami estate — where I 
was most hespitably entertained by Mr. and Mrs. 
Parker. I had every opportunity given me for seeing 
tho tea and coffee industry of tho country, and 
must premise by saying how extremely pleased I 
was with tho fine soil and splendid growth to be 
met with on most of tho estates in this district. 
Among others Bon Ami estate with 100 acres of 
fine tea and Penshursb adjoining it with some 200 
acres of tea would be hard to beat in the Central 
province, one of the clearings on the latter place 
of "indigenous" being a perfect picture of jat 
and growth. On Twyford estate I passed through 
fine coffee but did not see the tea clearings. 
Mai Malle has splendid soil and a capital 
growth of tea, though not quite as good a jat as 
that on Bon Ami or Penshurst. 
On Glen Mary, the growth of the tea is sp'endid, 
though the bushes seem allowed to grow as they 
please ; the cinchona suocimbra is magnificent. 
Woolberaine has a little fine coffee left, but 
I saw no signs of tea. The rainfall on these places 
is I am told from 200 to 220 inches and elevation 
from 3,500 to 4,000, feet but it seemed to me much 
hotter than it would be at the same elevation in 
Ceylon and the jungle much heavier and more 
tropical in appearance ; the average yields quoted 
me were from 350 to 550 lb. an acre for young to 
old tea and I should think most of these estates 
will easily average 5C0 lb. an acre when in full 
bearing. I next visited The Mount estate, 16 
miles further on, and stayed there with Mr. Dighton 
some days, the elevation being from 3,200 to about 
2,500 feet, the soil simply magnificent, deep loam ; 
rainfall about 120 inches, here there is still fine 
coffee and another 100 acres of magnificent junglo 
are about to be op ned with it. The tea is very 
fine indeed, a goode medium hybrid jat ; and cin- 
chona grows splendidly. 
Pakanam lower down still, I did not see, 
but everyone sings its praises as a colfee es- 
tate; the proprietor, Mr. Goldie, is an ex-Ceylon 
planter, and the coffee is grown under shade, 
the crop this last season being 6 cwt. an acre— 
the rainfall here being only some 70 inches. Tea 
does not do as well for want of rain, and Mr. Goldie 
has abandoned an experimental clearing of 50 acres 
and is going on opening up colfee under shade. 
Manure is obtainable to any extent, there being 
thousands of acres of good grass land and thousands 
of head of cattle are driven up yearly from the 
lowcountry and for a nominal sum any planter 
can get any number of cattle into his sheds for 
some six weeks or so in the year, many planters 
keep large herds of their own as they can graze 
their cattle free anywhere, and the cost to purchase 
per head is trifling, some 15s on an average, and in 
nearly every case all the coffee is cattle-manured 
yearly as a matter of course. Labor is plentiful and 
cheap and admirably suited for coffee cultivation, 
the average being some 27c to 28c. all round 
including head money to kanganies &c, but it has 
this drawback that when the rice crops ripen the 
bulk of the coolies go off to their villages and 
cannot bo induced to stay against their will ; 
however good the flush on the tea may be. The 
country round Peermaad is an enormous tract of 
mountainous but rich grass land, the forest beiDg 
in small belts called sholas, and I saw very few 
largo tracts of tea or coffee ; as a rule tho clearings 
are from 10 to 50 or 100 acres, then grass land, then 
a bit of jungle and so on, and almost all the forest 
is in hollows nicely sheltered and not at all steep, 
the grasa land on the other hand being very steep 
indeed generally oulminating in rocky cliffs. Iioads — 
of theso sullieiently good for transport purposes, 
there aro ample, but very rough, none o£ them being 
metalled, E150 per mile being allowed for upkeep 
and about El, 500 per mile for construction I was 
told. The carts used are very light with very largo 
wheels and tak« about 5 cwt. for a load each. I 
was unable to go to the Quilon side, but was told 
that tho growth and jat of tea on tho property 
of the Nagamally Oo. was all that oould bo 
