8 4 6 
THE f ROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [June i, 1888. 
CEYLON UPOOUNTRY PLANTING BEPORT. 
TEA AND LABOUR IN THE KELANI VALLEY — THE ' NATIVE 
BOY ' PLENTIFUL — ' CEYLON ' A NAME TO CONJUBE 
WITH — DEMAND FOB TEA-PLANTS — NUTMEG CULTI- 
VATION. 
The rush of flush which followed the rains, was 
checked too soon in some districts for the plant- 
er's liking. The rain that had fallen did not sup- 
ply moisture enough, and the first effort which the 
trees made to reclothe themselves, and which glad- 
dened and wakened us up, seemed to have fully 
exhausted all the virtue the rain had brought. We 
were back again at a standstill. Now, however, 
we are in for it again, for showers have been 
scudding about, and a fresh renewal of life is visible 
everywhere. With a see-saw like this going on, 
we are interested in learning the different con- 
ditions which obtain in other districts, and what 
we hear of Kelani makes us perhaps a little en- 
vious. There the tea has flushed with a squalid 
prodigality. You get invitations to come on with 
ooolies, and you will get as much leaf as you like 
to pluck for nothing, and be able to sell it at the 
highest market rate. 
One man guaranteed two thousand pounds a day, 
and would be glad to see you take it away, just 
that the trees might be kept in order ; the labour 
force being unable to get over the ground in any- 
thing like time, so that fields had to be abandoned 
pro tern. I don't know if anyone has responded 
to the invitations to come down and enjoy the fruit 
of other men's labours, but the liberality displayed 
is somewhat unique. It points, however, to the 
weakness of Kelani labour. I fancy there will be 
very few, if indeed any district in Ceylon with a 
record like the above, and it is well that it should 
be so. The labour question in the Kelani Valley 
is every day becoming more and more serious. 
Rl.OOO advanced for about thirty men, and the 
planter ready to do it again, is a pretty high tide 
so very early. You can't get the same work out of 
the cooly as they used to do there , and as for holing 
end draining, Eamasami has a most decided ob- 
jection to tackling hard work of that kind in such 
hut climates, especially when hands for plucking are 
at a premium, and rival kanganies bidding all round. 
How in all the world the land advertised for sale 
is ever to be opened, with things as they are 
at present, is a problem which wants looking into, 
and may be commended to the prayerful con- 
sideration of intending buyers. Many experienced 
men on the spot, who have clearings on hand 
now, find opening work very arduous indeed, even 
with a fair labour force to fall back upon, and 
don't come much speed even with that. 
The "native boy" for the home tea shop seems 
to be very plentiful in the island, seeing that as 
many as two hundred applied to a late advertise- 
ment, all anxious and willing to try their luck 
in the West. It was not that the wages offered 
were very excessive, for they were not that : rather 
I should say, the spirit of enterprize and a wish 
to see about them. It is to be hoped that at home 
they will be a success as an importation, and that 
the tea house will flourish. 
Ceylon is now evidently a name to conjure with, 
and all kinds of wares, from crockeky to braces, 
seem to take better with the public, if the magic 
word has been spread as a protection over the 
articles in question. We have all known of this 
as being existent for some time now at home. 
But the circle widens, and I hear from a cor- 
respondent in Melbourne that they are selling there 
a " Ceylon dinner set," which is described as " a 
horribly ugly affair of the old willow style ; a dark- 
blue pattern on a white ground. It is certainly 
00 credit to thi colony it is named after," It ii 
rather humbling to have the name of our little 
island thus degraded. 
The inquiries for tea plants have begun, and it 
would seem as if there was to be a good demand, 
more perhaps than there are nurseries to supply. 
Prices are as usual various, but those who have 
really good plants to sell ready for the S. W. don't 
think B9 and more a thousand too much to ask. 
During the drought there was an appearance of 
a considerable number of tea trees on most estates 
having succumbed, but although there have been 
losses all over, still they have not been at all so severe 
as was at first conjectured, the rains having 
brought round very many that looked all but dead. 
There are few estates, however, which have not more 
or less supplying to do, and I would conclude that 
the demand for plants will be a brisk one. 
Among other things which have suffered from the 
dry season, is the nutmeo. The drought has been 
harder on :t even than wind could be, and 
although the trees are somewhat pulling themselves 
together now, they have a good deal to make up, 
and have still a shabby appearance. As for fruit, 
so much fell during the warm weather in an imma- 
ture oondition, that now, when the best months of 
the year have oome, there is little to be got. Nut- 
meg planting still goes on in a quiet way, but the 
slow growth of the tree is apt to discourage the 
grower, especially the European one, who wants 
quick returns if by any means possible. 
Peppercorn. 
NOTES ON PBODUCE AND FINANCE. 
The columns of the Grocer contain several letters on 
the subject of blended tea, the main idea being 
whether the grocer himself should blend his tea to suit 
the requirements of his trade or purchsse it after 
it has been blended. The answer to this question, 
one would say, entirely depends upon the amount of 
experienee of tea possessed by the grocer. If the 
retailer knew something about tea, he would be in 
a position to blend ; if his knowledge of the grocery 
trade did not include an education in tea, his blends 
might he after the style of the mixtures about which 
the juryman chemist in Pickwick was apprehensive 
when he left his boy all alone in the shop. As a 
correspondent of the Grocer points out, " It is much 
more satisfactory to buy teas and mix them to suit 
your own trade, than to trust a stranger who knows 
or cares little of the taste of your customers. In or- 
der, however, to enable retailers to blend teas pro- 
perly, it is necessary that they should know how 
to do it. Is this knowledge attainable by the 
average grooer ? Assuredly it is. There are some 
men of vitiated taste to whom any amount of 
training is altogether useless ; but by one possessed 
of an ordinary palate, the art may be acquired 
if he takes for his motto — Buy with caution, blend 
with care. There are three causes, at least^ which 
have helped to divert the tea trade from its pro- 
per channel, and these are ignorance, prejudice, 
and carelessness. I have often wondered at the small 
stock of knowledge which a number of both whole- 
sale dealers and retailers have regarding an article 
which they arehandling daily and hourly. A partner in 
a London tea firm called on me lately, when I in- 
quired for a sample of Saryune Kaisow. He gave me 
a sample, and on returning to know the result of 
competition I told him his tea was not a Saryune 
at all. "Ob, yes," be said, "it is a Ching Wo Sar- 
yune." The same ignorance prevails, to a great extent 
in the commercial community. There are a few who 
have a knowledge of tea, but the larger number know 
little, if anything, respecting the characters of the 
various districts of India and China, or of the kinds 
suitable for blending. The retail trade, as far I could 
ever learn, are affected in the same way. The ma- 
jority buy so much Assam, Moiling, and Kaisow, 
without ascertaining anything »s to now they will 
