August i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
THROUGH THE TEA DISTRICTS. 
FROM NDWARA ELIYA via WATAWALA AND GINICiATHENA 
GAP TO YATIYANTOTA, AND BACK Dirt AMBEI'XTSSA AND 
KANDY. 
[The following account of a trip through Tea 
districts has been lying in type for some time, 
waiting a fitting opportunity to appear, which 
seemed as if it would never come.] 
It has been remarked in connection with the 
interesting analysis of Ceylon tea sales in Mincing 
Lane for 18.%, presented by Messrs. Wilson, Smithett 
& Co., that the average price realised for Kelani 
Valley and Nuwara Eliya teas was the same. 
Considering that the altitude of the two districts 
differs by from 5,000 to over 6,000 feet, this re- 
sult is doubtless rather surprising. But it is in 
reality far too early in the history of our tea 
districts to make comparisons which can be of 
any practical value. In both the districts named, 
for instance, there are so many clearings which 
last year gave their first crops of tea, and tea 
prepared after a primitive fashion, or at least 
without the aid of machinery, that it would be 
premature to rank the average quality of the teas 
by last year's prices. Flavour and delicacy in 
teas are associated with high elevation, but so 
many other contingencies operate, that we may 
often find low elevation compensated for even in 
these respects by countervailing advantages. The 
character of the " jat " of the tea grown has 
always been deemed an important factor ; but it 
is now generally believed that too much may be 
made of " jat," especially in the case of high 
districts where a hardy A.ssam hybrid and in 
some cases a good China seem to prosper best 
all the year round. From these, of course, may 
come teas of delicate flavour, and, I believe, Mr. 
A. H. Thompson, of the well-known firm of Lon- 
don Tea Brokers, on his visit to Ceylon some time 
ago, congratulated Mr. Rossiter on the quality of 
his Fairyland and Hazelwood (Nuwara Eliva) garden 
teas approaching closely to that of Darjiling teas. 
Perhaps such ought to be marked " Darjiling- 
Ceylon," in order to be classed separately and 
receive due attention. Practically, the factor which 
most planters at present deem of importance 
to secure due preparation and due quality 
in their teas, is " plenty of power " to 
secure thoroughly adequate not to say hard 
" rolling." Mr. Gow used to dwell much on the 
" fermentation '' or rather the chemical change 
in the leaf, as the most important process with 
reference to the quality and price of Ceylon and 
Indian teas ; but I suspect most of our planters 
would say : — " Give me power and good machinery 
for a thoroughly satisfactory roll and I 'm not 
afraid in any of the other processes, — with due 
means and attention, of course, — of failing to do 
full justice to my tea." 
These reflections would, however, perhaps better 
follow, rather than precede, a short account of the 
trip described in my heading. To begin with the 
Nuwara Eliya district, there can be no doubt of the 
successful growth of tea at these, the highest 
elevations in Ceylon. Apart from Mr. Rossiter's 
older fields, there can be seen on Portswood and 
Pedro— both Mr. Grinlinton and Capt. Bayley 
having taken special pains — ns promising tea as 
could bo desired. The only risk may be found, 
as I said before, in the very goodness of the 
jut of tea planted ; but the soil is exceptionally 
lino and the plantations well sheltered. Further 
on in IMapussellawa there is tea (lushing and 
bearing satisfactorily at as high an elevation as 
any in Xiuv.u a Klliya, except it be Oliphant. I refer 
to n portion oi St. Margaret's and Goatfell- estates. 
The top fields of Abbotsford too — reaching as they 
do to 6,000 feet — may be taken as encouragement, 
the appearance and yield of tea there surprising 
even Assam visitors. It would be interesting to 
know how the yield of leaf from Mr. Rossiter's field of 
' China ' compares, acre for acre, with that from 
his 'Assam hybrid' garden, and also how both 
compare in resisting frost. Several flushes have been 
lost on fields in the neighbourhood of Nuwara Eliya, 
during the recent season, but this visitation, for 
February, is declared by old residents to be quite ex- 
ceptional. In connection with " Baker's Farm " Mar- 
gastotte, there are some very fine tea clearings, and 
one or two little gardens on the wayside to Hakgala 
are but the precursors of many such which we 
may anticipate in this neighbourhood and on ta 
Wilson's Bungalow as well as throughout Upper 
Uva — tea gardens probably taking the place of the 
once famous coffee ' watties ' and even, higher up, of 
the no longer successful potato planting. It is 
strange how, of recent years, neither change of 
seed, nor site, nor the utmost attention in manuring 
and tillage, can secure a successful potato field 
in the neighbourhood of Nuwara Eliya. 
The first, or last, tea appertaining to the Nuwara 
Eliya district on the way to the railway, is that 
of "The Scrubs" on the side of " One Tree Hill," 
and very promising is the growth and appear- 
ance. The new tea store is a prominent object 
not far from the roadside, while on the opposite 
and farther side of the lake, the smaller Naseby 
store for a little tea totum running up and over 
the hill sides may be noticed. Here tea has pro- 
spered in the open as well as under cinchona, 
though on flat pieces frost has touched up the 
bushes this year, especially those of the finer jat. 
In one rather marshy corner, after the sharp at- 
tack of one night (February 5th), the display of 
colour — from bright yellow to the deepest bronze 
— over a cluster of tea bushes was as varied and 
attractive as on the tops of the adjacent jungle! 
There is only a short period of the year when 
such liability is incurred up here, and that period 
may, we suppose, be usually regarded as the time 
for resting — wintering — the tea bushes. Seeing 
that the fine basin of forestland from the bound- 
ary of "The Scrubs" nearly to Messrs. Cross and 
Eallardie's property at Nanuoya station is claimed 
by the representatives of Sir Edward Barnes, we 
may any day see it cleared and planted for tea 
and cinchona — a great loss to the "amenities" of 
the drive between the Sanatorium and the rail- 
way Station to which this forest so largely contrib- 
utes. There will always, however, be a considerable 
fringe, we should suppose, of the forest too high or too 
important for shelter to be felled, and that will be 
of interest to the visitors by way of contrast to the 
cultivated vegetation below, while the Nanuoya 
itself in its rapid descent over rocky cascades, by 
fernclad glade and anon through deep, black pools, 
will always be "a thing of beauty and a joy for 
ever." And yet, this stream in its upper reaohes may 
be shorn of some of its proportions ; for, with tho 
consent of the Government, the proprietors and 
manager of Abbotsford are even now endeavouring 
to secure a share of the water from a point 
below the " Lady's Waterfall." The levels are 
being tested, and it shows the importance 
attached to plenty of motive power (especially 
water) for driving tea-preparing machinery when it 
should be proposed to incur the very considerable 
expense of cutting a channel for six miles between 
the estate aud the point named along, at some 
points, rocky and precipitous mountain sides. 
The fear is however that the levels will not per- 
mit of the diversion of the water. The condition 
attached by Government is that tho water, after 
