346 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November r, 1888. 
TEA PLANTING IN ASSAM AND CEYLON : 
A COSMOPOLITAN'S VIEWS OF MEN AND METHODS. 
Mr. John Greig, junior, of the firm of Messrs. 
John Greig & Co., patentees and tea machinery 
manufacturers, Eegent Works, Edinburgh, is at 
present staying in Colombo, and as a man who has 
travelled over and had practical experience in 
nearly every one of the tea districts of the world, 
we thought it worth while interviewing him. He 
first came out to the East in 1865, having pre- 
viously been a mechanical engineer, draftsman, &c. 
Then he passed his examination as a civil engineer 
and came out to Bombay and Goa as an irrigation 
engineer in the service of the Hon. Eustumjee Jam- 
setjee Jeejeebhoy. He occupied this position for 
about two years, and afterwards was appointed 
general superintendent for another period 
of ten years. During this time he had a 
good deal of experience in the planting 
of various products in different parts of India. 
Then a Government notification appeared asking 
inventors to try their genius on a machine for 
cleaning China grass fibre, and a prize of £5,000 
was offered. Mr. Greig entered into the competi- 
tion, and went home to see his machine perfected, 
winning a prize of B.15,000. He then went into the 
North of Assam as a tea planter for Major 
Eckford, e.e., and continued there for five years 
as general manager. 
In answer to our interviewer Mr. Greig said, that 
generally speaking, the methods of cultivating tea 
in Assam are similar to those in Ceylon, with 
only minor differences. The growth is slower in 
this colony than in Assam for the greater part of 
the year. In the latter place they get a very heavy 
rainfall in March, April, May, June and July, and then 
it continues to gradually diminish till September. 
Then the cold season sets in, and the tea bushes 
begin to harden, and the quantity plucked becomes 
less and less every day, until the bushes are, to use 
a colloquial term, " shut up " about the end of 
October, the leaf being no longer soft and succu- 
lent. Consequently it is not worth plucking. 
November, December, January and February 
are nice months as far as the climate for man 
is concerned, but they are bad for tea flushing. 
When the tea becomes " shut up," then comes the 
time of preparation for next year. First there is the 
hoeing to be done, and it is deep hoeing, said Mr. 
Greig, compared to the practice in Ceylon. The 
hoes are about 9 inches long, and they are sup- 
posed to be dug to the hilt in the soil. Next the 
pruning. The top pruning is done by women with 
long curved knives. These knives are slashed 
across the bush, and owing to the shape of the 
knife and the slide of the cut it is cut quite 
clean. The stick pruning is done by men. Some 
of the stems are four or five inches thick on the 
indigenous gardens, and are often cut with an 
axe. The tea bushes throughout Assam grow 
much higher than in Ceylon and are trained 
broader. Then, of course, advantage is taken 
of the cold weather, when the tea is not flush- 
ing, to repair all the houses and roads. The 
bamboo trays for withering have to be renewed, 
and the matting for the floors and general pur- 
poses has to be seen to. No tea is plucked again 
till March or even April, but as soon as the rain 
comes then comes the flush. But the plucking 
varies in different parts of India. In the Terai 
and Darjeeling district they can go on plucking 
till New Year's day, and they do not begin again 
till May or June. They pluck coarser in Assam 
than in Ceylon, because they want to get on as 
much soft leaf from the bush as they can. This 
practice, unless the leaf is separated in the factory 
when it ia in either a flat or a half-rolled 
state, certainly reduces the quality, but it in- 
creases the quantity. Assam teas, as a rule, 
are stronger than Ceylon teas, the leaf being 
softer and more velvety. They also require less 
rolling. Both teas fetch much about the same 
prices now in individual instances, but it greatly 
depends upon whether a person goes in for quantity ; 
or quality ; of course quantity with quality is what 
they all want. But in Assam there is less atten- 
tion paid to quality, provided they get the quantity 
whereas in Ceylon quality is more sought after. 
"Then when all our young teas are a little 
older we shall have the advantage over Assam," 
said the interviewer. 
"Oh, no," continued Mr. Greig, "the quality is 
sure to go down when the quantity increases. 
Already it is seen that as soon as the quantities 
begin to increase the qualities go down." 
In answer to further questions Mr. Greig said : 
" The machinery used is much about the same, but 
they get through a greater amount of work with 
fewer rollers in Assam. This is because each batch 
of leaf that is put to the machine is only rolled 
20 or 25 minutes, whereas here they roll it an hour 
or one hour and a-half. In India they only roll 
till the leaf is twisted up. They have what is 
called a high-class hybrid in Assam, and that is 
a very soft leaf, and produces strong liquor without 
much rolling. The Ceylon people were not gener- 
ally ab'.e to buy the pure indigenous seed because 
of their losses consequent upon the failure of 
coffee. In fact, a great deal of it is the common 
China plant. But they were fortunate in their 
poverty in getting that low class, because about 
that time flavour was more specially required. 
For the last 8 years flavour has been in greater 
demand. A low class hybrid gives the flavour, and 
they get the strength by longer rolling, which breaks 
all the ceil?, and gives out a stronger tea than it 
otherwise would do. In most of the estates in Assam 
there are some China tea bushes, except on the hills, 
and on the hills they are purely indigenous." 
Continuing, in reply to other interrogations, 
Mr. Greig said it struck him that Ceylon planters 
let their bushes stand so long without topping 
that they got " shut up with crows' feet." The 
long hooked Assam knife was just the thing for 
taking off these crows' feet. They cut the bush 
as flat as a table. Mr. Greig does not consider 
that Ceylon estates are old enough for much stick 
pruning. The cells of the upright stems are still 
quite open, and he thinks that topping and quill 
ling the bushes are all that is required for years 
to come. He thinks that many estates would be 
better if the ground were forked all over, thus 
raising the soil to let the air get in about the 
roots. All the Darjeeling districts are forked, and 
Darjeeling is a district exactly like the hill dis- 
tricts of Ceylon. There they find a great benefit 
from forking. In Assam, without hoeing, which 
serves the same purpose as forking in Darjeeling, 
the produce of the estates would be almost ml. 
As a rule neither of these things is done in 
Ceylon — only in one or two isolated cases. Mr. Greig 
thinks they also plant too close in Ceylon, and pluck 
too early. Instead of beginning to pluck when tea 
is three years old they pluck when it is hardly 
two ; and thus keep the bush too much dwarfed.* 
He aho thinks there is too much "grab" here. 
Our planters are in too great a hurry to re- 
alise their money. In planting Mr. Greig does not 
consider that they hole deep enough in Ceylon. If 
they would go in for large and deep holing in 
places where it can be done the cost would repay 
ts If three times ove r. The lining of estates is 
* In Assam the age is counted from the nursery : in 
Ceylon from planting out. — Ed. 
