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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [March i, 1888. 
th« indigenous Or " wild " Assam. As in all hybrids, 
however, there is a wide range of difference between 
plants raised from this hybrid seed. Some are free- 
growing, yn-lding large crops of leaves, amenable to 
cultural operations, and easily adapting themselves 
to local circumstances. Others, on the other hand 
are slow-growing, more apt to yield flowers and 
fruit than large crops of leaves, and easily checked 
by adverse circumstances. To such well-marked 
forms — or what gardeners would call strains" — of 
the tea plants planters apply the term "jat" — an 
Indian word meaning class, race, or kind. It will 
be easily understood that there are possible to 
exist as many "jats" of tea as there are kinds, 
varieties of rice, or of mangoes, or, indeed, of any 
plants that are susceptible of change undtr cultural 
influence or the interference of men by hybridis- 
ing or crossing. The Ceylon planters have been 
greatly assisted by the Botanical Gardens of the Colony, 
the directors of which have throughout consistently 
and us fully supported them, and brought within 
their roach, not only the cinchona and the early 
plants of Assam tea, but in many other ways have 
encouraged the planters in their efforts to promote 
the industries of the Colony. I may add here that 
one of the first samples of Ceylon tea which reached 
this country was sent to Kew in 1867, and was 
very favourably reported upon. I will not now go 
into questions connected with tea in China, Borneo 
or .Jamaica. I may say, however, that I planted a small 
quantity of tea in Jamaica, which has done well. I re- 
ceivd some samples by the last mail, from my successor 
Mr. Fawcett, which I submitted to Messrs. Gow, Wilson 
& Stanton. They reported to me the tea was very good, 
and worth about Is 9d a pound. I am afraid, however, 
that Jamaica will not be able to compete with Ceylon, 
because of the numerous advantages which Ceylon 
possesses. That Colony has a race of planters with 
such wonderful energy — men with so much " go" in 
them — that it is almost impossible for other planters to 
overtake them, favoured as they are, moreover, with 
a magnificent climate, a favourable soil, and large 
labour resources. I desire, in conclusion, to express to 
Mr. Shaud the great pleasure I have derived from hear- 
ing his eloquent Paper this evening. It reminds me of 
addresses 1 have heard from him in c jnuectiun with the 
Planters' Association of Ceylon, and I am glad to say 
neither his eloquence nor his usefulness to his brother 
planters has by any means diminished. His Paper to- 
night shows how thorough au enthusiasm he can rouse, 
even in so domestic a subject as tea. 
Mr. W. Maetin Leake: — lam in an apparent diffi- 
culty. Mr. Shaud, in the appendix to his Paper, takes 
as the first year of a really considerable export of tea 
from Ceylon the year 1880. You, sir, pushing back 
your researches to the more remote date of 1876, have 
told us that in that year the whole tea crop exported 
might have been carried an one man's back. Now, 
I left Ceylon in 1873. I am made to feel q iitean ante- 
diluvian, and it is obvious that if in 1876 a man eould 
carry the whole crop, there could not have been much 
doing in the years preceding 1873. How, then, can I 
have anything to say on the subject P The explanation 
lies in this. Up to that date there were only two of 
us producing tea — the Ceylon Company and ourselves, 
and we had no difficulty in selling all our crops in the 
island at rattling good prices. Mr. Shand has in his 
Paper given a sketch of the early history of tea cul- 
ture in Ceylon — a very impersonal sketch, and one in 
which no names are mentioned. All that I propose 
to do this evening is to amplify this sketch and to 
insert iu it a few names. I have no records, and speak 
only from memory. Mr. Shand correctly fixes 1866 as 
the date when a movement was made in the JEUntujfs' 
Association for the appointment of a commissioner to 
visit and report upon the tea plantations of India. I was 
at that time, and had been for several years Secretary 
of the i/iantera' Association, n.d it was mainly »t 
my instigation that the commissioner was appointed. 
As far as I recollect, the association voted l,00Ur. for 
the purpose, and ihe Government gave a like amount, 
Mr. Arthur Morice was the Commissioner. He was 
absent only a few months. He had a pleasant trip, 
:.ud, as Mr. Shand has said, made a very good report, 
and, I had almost said, there was an end of the 
matter. But more truly it was the beginning of it. 
I meant rather to say that there was no excitement, 
no enthusiasm of any kind, no inkling of the gre.it 
things to come. There is another part of Mr. Shand's 
sketch in which I am indirectly referre t to. He 
states that one of the largest and earliest experiments 
in tea cultivation iu Ceylon was on Loolcondura Estate. 
I was at the time, jointly with my partner, Mr. Har- 
rison — a gentleman known to you, sir, in hia earlier 
days — proprietor of Loolcondura, and it was by us that 
the experiment in question was undertaken. In na- 
ming 1866 as the date when the landed proprietors of 
Ceylon began to turn their attention to new products. 
Mr. Shand has not, I think, gone far enough 
back. I would rather fix 1861 or 1862 as the 
date. A few days ago, while talking over this 
subject, Mr. Shand asked me " How was it we 
came to make this experiment P " I wa9 obliged to 
reply that I didn't know. "Was it mistrust of coffee?" 
he asked. At once I answered, " Certainly not." 
For those were the days, if any, when coffee wa9,iu 
Mr. Shand's words, the most prosperous agricultural 
enterprise that the world had ever seen, and the zenith 
of which he speaks I should date in 1867, from which 
year, though Hemileia vaatatrix was still unheard of, 
the decline was rapid. Casting my memory back du- 
ring the last day or two, I am inclined now to think 
that the true origin of our successful experiments in 
cinchona and tea lies in the fact that, whea first Mr. 
Harrison and I took part in the planting enterprise, 
we were associated with a gentleman — one of those 
who have been so enthusiastically described to you by 
Mr. Morris as having of all in the world the greatest 
amount of " go " — an old Ceylon planter — I refer to 
the late Mr. John Gavin. When we joined him iu 
1862 he had, I remember, a great scheme for plant- 
ing cotton in the eastern lowlands of the island. 
He had arranged for a free grant of land from 
the Government. But talking of planting in the un- 
populated lowlands and securing a grant of land 
was more easy work than carrying out such 
a scheme — as anyone who knows the country will 
tell you. Besides, about that time, the cinchona plant 
was introduced by the Government into their gardens, 
and our attention was at once turned to that culti- 
vation, which has from the first been a complete 
agricultural success. Mr. Gavin left Ceylon iu 1863, 
but we had imbibed from him the planting spirit, 
and about 1865 we were planting Chiua tea. Thus 
the experiment in the cultivation of the Assam tea 
plant was in truth only one in a series of experiments. 
In 1866, after Mr. Morice's visit to India, we im- 
ported the seed of that plant from Calcutta, and a 
beginning was made of that great enterprise of which 
we have had a full account tonight. We received 
great assistanee throughout from the Government 
of Ceylon, and we were especially indebted for advice 
and help to my good old friend, the late Mr. G. H. 
K. Thwaites, of Peradeniya Gardens. I cannot con- 
clude without a few words about one who, though 
spoken of by Mr. Sband, is not mentioned by name 
— I mean Mr. James Taylor, the Manager of Lool- 
condura estate. You have heard what Mr. Morris 
had to say about him. Speaking perhaps with more 
knowledge, as having been associated with him in his 
work for some twelve years, I can endorse all that 
has been said about him. Without James Taylor we 
could have done nothing. He is a man who, of all 
whom I have known, is the most entirely devoted 
to his work. Self-advancement has been, I believe, 
as nothing in his eyes. He has cared for his work, 
and for that only. Here lies the root of the wonder- 
ful success attained. I would add that though Lool- 
coudura had been selected as the es'ate most suitable 
for cinchona cultivation, it was not so in the case of 
tea. Mr. Taylor had shown what he was capable of 
in the matter of the cinchona. And it was therefore 
without hesitation that we entrusted the tea experi- 
ment to his care. How fully that course has been 
justified you have hoard tonight. 
Mr. J. L. Bjgden (Natal) I must confess I am not 
a tea planter myself, though I have some acquaintance 
