January 2, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
465 
PLANTING REPORTS FROM THE HILL- 
COUNTRY OF CEYLON. 
TEA FLOUHISHING — ABSENCE OP INSECT AND FUNGAL ENE- 
MIES — THE DEADLY SYMPLOCOS. 
Upper Dimeula, 5th December. 
A long walk through tea, which, in many parts, 
is plentifully interspersed with rows of cinchona 
officinalis, has left on my mind the impression that 
never previously have I seen either plant looking 
so fresh and flourishing, so clean and free from all 
signs of disease, whether of insect or fungus origin. 
Grub, so formidable an enemy of coffee,— only 
second in mischievous effect to Ilcmilcia rastalrix, 
need not even be mentioned amongst the enemies 
of tea. Here there is no sign of grubs or of the parent 
beetles, the cockchafers, flights of which some six 
to eight years ago consisted of tens of thousands, 
and, to use a Yankee expression, " filled the whole 
afternoon full" of humming. Of brown bug and 
the black fungus which ever accompanies it there is 
not a trace, while the green coccus has not, so far 
as I know, ever been seen on tea. Red spider, 
which is pretty plentiful on the neighbouring jungle 
plants and which has been seen on plants cultivated 
in tho garden, has not, as yet, at least attacked 
tea hero, while the small white moth which lays 
its eggs in young leaves, so leading to their curling 
and dying, our chief tea pest of the slightest 
consequence, has for a long period now entirely 
disappeared. So with green fly, and as for helopeltis, 
the one specimen which was recognized under the 
microscope remains unique, 
" None but itself its parallel." 
Tho usual flight of butterflies was seen a few days 
ago, and a few curious butterfly moths have beon 
found in limited localities, but not on the tea, which, 
as I have said, is absolutely free from aerial 
or above-ground enemies. I might write that no 
trace of anything inimical to tea exists here, 
but for the fact that, now at very distant intervals, 
we have proof in the "dying off" of several fine 
tea bushes in particular localities, that our most 
formidable subtorraueau enemies, the poisonous or 
deadly-fungus-producing symplocos-roots are still 
in the ground, and still the cause, in their decay, 
of the death of healthy living tissues. As tea 
estatos advance in age, we hear more and more of 
the mischief arising from leaving in the ground 
tho yam-like roots of this baneful, large-leaved 
jungle tree. The percentage of bushes so destroyed 
on an estate may not be absolutely largo, but 
the gaps created amongst tea, often of mature 
age and in most luxuriant condition, are ugly and 
sources of great annoyance. 
THE SUCCESS OF TEA IN (AMBA0AOT7WA AND TILE KOTA- 
OALOYA VALLEY — GOOD 1'IltCES FOK TEA ESTATES — 
COFFEE AND HATS — TEA ESTIMATES SHOUT — R.UN1 U.L. 
Uri'Eit Dimhula, Dec. 7th. 
Nothing strikes the traveller hithcrwards more 
than the wonderful success of tea in Ambagamuwa, 
and especially in tho Kotagaloya Valley, in which 
district and sub-district coffee proved in so many 
oases n failure, tea flourishes in conditions of soil 
and climate— ferruginous clay, in the one case and 
heavy rainfall in the other— which were adverse, if 
not to tho growth of coffee, yet to its producing 
orops of fruit. Old Ambagamuwa is rapidly passing 
from a scene of abandoned coffee estates to ono of 
luxuriant tea fields, the green of which vies with 
that of the lovely English-like sward of so many 
of its vales and hills and mountain sides. One feels 
a melancholy sensation still to seo plantations 
wline onoe tho coffee smiled now expanses of 
weeds and low bush ; but thore aru views from 
tho train in passing through Ambagamuwa, es- 
pecially when gaps rovcal the opening up of tho 
Kolani Valley uudolhgr " low country," such as can 
0\) 
scarcely be surpassed for beauty. It is the views from 
the Kotagaloya Valley of " the Duke's Nose,'' of 
Talankanda, of the grand Great Western, the ,St, 
Clair Falls, the Kotmale Gap and the Peacock, 
which impart interest to the valley that links 
Dikoya to Dimbula, apart from the fine tea which 
has so rapidly taken the place of coffee of varying 
quality, but generally poor. In passing along the 
valley our attention was attracted to a fine little 
tea estate of 100 acres, for which £7,000, or at 
the rate of £43 15s per acre, had been offered, but 
for which 18,000, or £50 per acre, had been 
demanded. Subsequently we learned that for tea 
land taken for public purposes in Maskeliya over 
R800 per aore had been granted. There is thin 
to be remembered, when a whole estate of mature 
tea is in question, that the amount of capital 
invested in it in the shape of stores and especially 
machinery is much higher than was ordinarily 
the case with coffee property. For coffee a pulper 
sufliced in the shape of machinery, the final pro- 
cesses of cleaning from parchment skin and 
packing being conducted in Colombo. But tea 
must be packed on the estate ready for ship- 
ment, and the leaf must be rolled after wither- 
ing, roasted after fermenting, sifted, sorted, the 
larger leaves cut, finally fired, and packed in lead- 
lined boxes. An estate of any size cannot calcu- 
late on less than £1,000 for store and withering 
lofts and £1,000 more for rollers, driers, sifters 
cutters and power to drive them. For a tea estate 
in full bearing and fully equipped therefore, R500 
an acre or even £50 sterling is a price by no 
means above adequacy. 
I have already spoken of tea and cinchona as 
looking almost perfect. Since writing I have gone 
over the remains of what was once an expanse of 
about 350 acres of fine-looking coffee. On most of 
the trees still in the ground (the tea plants not 
being old enough to suffer injury from them) a 
sucker has been allowed to run up, so as to 
double the orthodox height of 3/ 6/ for a pro- 
perly topped and pruned tree. I know well from 
the experience of several inroads in former years, 
what mischief the coffee or jungle rats can effect, 
by cutting off primaries with their incisors as 
cleanly and completely as if a pruning knife had 
been employed, but until I had ocular demonstration 
yesterday, I had no idea of the climbing powers 
of the rodents. Up to their tops, at 7 feet from 
the ground, tho suckers had been deprived of their 
succulent primaries, or large portions of them. The 
greater proportion of the suckers, however, and in 
some cases the original bushes as well, had a fair 
amount of crop on them in all stages of green, 
yellow, pink and dark red, while blossom promis- 
ing a moderate spring crop showed its snow-whito 
contrasted with the emerald and ru'iy tints of tho 
berries, or beans, or cherries. In planter parlance 
the word "bean" is used only for the separato 
seeds enclosed in "parchment" skin, and it was 
pleasing to see the clean, white beans on the barbecue 
and on the store loft, and to hear that tho sizo 
of the bean and its quality were specially good. 
About 500 bushels have been already gathered, 
and moro than that quantity is still on the trees. 
The rains, therefore, are welcome for filling out 
the coffee beans as well as drawing out tho 
flush of tho tea buds. This, which will prob- 
ably be our last appreciable gathering of coffee, 
is specially welcome this year, when our largo 
supplies of cinchona bark have to be retained for 
a belter market and in face of the certainty that 
I owing to months of unfavourable weather for flash' 
j iog early in the yesir and tho necessity of pruning 
I much larger areas of tea than was anticipated. VG 
} shall bo short of our cstiiuuled out turn of leaf 
