July 2, 1887/J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
To the Editor of the "Ceylon Observer." 
THE CHOPPING AND LIFE OF TEA BUSHES. 
26th May. 
Dear Sie, — As an answer to Mr, Anstruther's en- 
quiry, to quote the age of tea bushes in India, is 
to answer the question generally. Much more to 
our particular purpose is it to be informed of the 
oldest bushes under cultivation here. The cultiva- 
tion of the buBhes in India and in Ceylon is not 
analagous. The natural conditions are not identical. 
In India the bushes are said to have a natural rest 
of nearly 6 months' duration. In Ceylon the bushes 
are cropped all the year through, and if during the 
dry weather the bushes cease to flush for 6 weeks, 
long and loud are the cries of the planters. I was 
the first in the island to denounce the barbarous 
treatment bushes receive annually and euphoniously 
termed pruning. I said that continous picking and 
annual hacking are not likely to favour longevity. 
Mr. Armstrong in his last essay is evidently 
of the same opinion, for he says that annual 
topping and pruning once in 2 years, I believe, is 
the best treatment for tea bushes. But the mis- 
chief has already been done. The constitution of 
the bushes has been undermined by early topping, 
early picking and annual hacking. Careful and 
considerate treatment is necessary to overcome 
the evil already done. The " wonderfully recu- 
perative" character of our climate cannot lessen 
the evil that has been done to young and immature 
tea bushes. 
The treatment cinnamon bushes receive is in no 
ene particular similar to that tea bushes receive. 
Tea bushes are topped and their growth stunted 
in direct violation of natural laws. Cinnamon is 
not similarly treated. Tea bushes are stimulated 
to continuously throw out new flushes, which are 
as continuously picked. This is very exhausting to 
the bushes, for scientists have told us during the 
enquiry into leaf disease in coffee, that a crop of 
leaves was as exhausting as a crop of berries. Cin- 
namon receives no such treatment. Tea bushes are 
annually cut down and deprived of all foliage * in 
the responsive action between leaves and roots 
temporarily checked. Cinnamon receives no such 
barbarous and unnatural treatment. In cropping 
cinnamon no natural law is violated. The bushes 
are simply thinned out by the removal of mature 
6ticks. And see the cultivation cinnamon receives. 
All the weeds, leaves and pruning from shade trees 
are buried twice a year, and on a carefully culti- 
vated estate, the holes of the previous year are not 
disturbed in the year following. Of course the 6oil 
is minus the constituents which the cut sticks 
represent, for a cinnamon property is never manured, 
but these constituents have not been determined 
by analjbis and cannot be very much; for properties 
nearly a hundred years old are still cropping 
famously. No sir, the age of cinnamon bushes can 
by no means determine the age of tea bushes, for 
the treatment each receives is widely dissimilar, — 
Yours truly. B. 
[There is no topping of the cinnamon and no 
constant removal ol the leaves, but there is a con- 
tinual removal of coppiced Btems and a continual 
renewal. So that there is some, indeed consider- 
able, unalogy. Tea must no doubt, sooner or later 
be manured, and if abundance of manure can be 
afforded the longevity of the plants can doubtless 
• There are some cases where as a part of the process 
of pruning, the bu>bes are deprived of all foliage, every 
leal being carefully stripped off. But we have never 
hiard otuer than condemnation of euch a proceed- 
in^.— E», 
be largely extended. At the same time, unlike 
berries and hark, the material for leaves comes to 
a large extent, from the atmosphere and Mr. Hughes 
bears testimony to the fact that our rains in Ceylon 
are specially rich in ammonia. — Ed.] 
CHINESE TEA CHESTS. 
Sib, — Do the Chinese tea exporters invariably line 
their cases with lead, or sometimes only with glazed 
paper inside ? The Moormen here, are now purchasing 
freely the inferior teas of our factories for exportation 
to the Coast. They make their own boxes, and line 
them with paper only. I should fancy a good propor- 
tion of the tea gets musty b fore it could reach the con- 
sumer. But the Chinese themselves, as well as the Eu- 
ropean merchants in China, do things more thoroughly. 
I remember, when at home, having got hold of an 
old China tea chest, and, then as it was, I found it 
almost impossible to break it up. Could we not im- 
port some veritable China tea chestB? They are covered 
externally with glazed paper, but is the trade at home 
already accustomed to paper liniDgs made water-tight? 
ENQUIRER. 
[For several years back we have expressed our 
conviction that tea might be safely packed and 
carried in papier miche" boxes, properly made 
(subjected to the greatest pressure) and well glazed 
with some substance capable of resisting damp. 
We are surprised that the invention has been so 
long delayed, while everything else, including 
barrels and even bottles, are made of paper. — Ed.] 
Colombo, 3rd June 1887. 
Deae Sie, — In reply to " Enquirer," China tea pack- 
ages are always lined with lead, the outer wood cases 
and edges being papered and glazed. " Enquirer " is 
quite correct in supposing tea would get musty * being 
packed without lead. 
The Home trade would be very chary of buying tea 
packed in wood without lead and no one conversant 
with tea and the requirements of the trade would think 
of shipping tea without a lead lining to the packages. 
—Yours faithfully, FRANCIS F. STREET. 
THE COFFEE MARKET AND PLANTERS. 
Dear Sir,— An advance — again corroborated by 
Reuter — in Fair Rio at New York of no less than 
33£ per cent, in as many consecutive days, land- 
ing the price at 22 cents on 3rd June as compared 
with 16J cents on 30th April last, has how to be 
chronicled. Considering that the prices wired by 
Reuter in May 1885 and May 188G were 7£ and 
9 cents, respectively, this rapid and truly astonish- 
ing change of front, after so many years of deep 
depression, is, I suppose, unprecedented in the 
annals of the fragrant berry. Some are of opinion 
that the advance cannot be maintained let alone 
continued. On this view of the question Messrs. 
Rucker & Bencraft in their circular of the 18th 
Nov. last, after hinting at unheard of prices as 
likely to be seen later on, wrote as follows: — 
" The ' Bears 1 have had happy experiences during 
the past four or five years, and don't seem to 
take to their new quarters. From an argument, 
atire point of view they seem to have little to 
advance beyond the statement that all estimates 
are nonsense, most especially, moderate or 6mall 
ones, and that every man will now drink hot 
soup and water, instead of coffee at current ruin- 
ous prices." 
The above remarks are premised in the 
eame circular: — " Indeed, it is no exaggeration to 
say, that if the information current prove (nirly 
correct, we are practically jumping from an epoch 
of over-production to one of under-production." 
Has not the time now arrived for Ceylon coffee 
proprietors to bestir themselves and attempt 
* Or very flat and out of condition, — r.r.9, 
