December r, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
387 
Native Coffee ami 1,160 c>vt. Pepper; 1 cwt. Calicut Plan- 
tation Coffee and M7 cwt. Pepper ; 1,234 cwt. Cochin 
Pepper. For Ancona, 200 cwt. 'Tellieherry Pepper and 225 
cwt. Calicut Pepper. l''or Malta, ttH cwt. Tellieherry Pepper. 
For Venice, 255 cwt. Tellieherry Native Coffee. Kor Sue/, 903 
cwt. Tellicherry Native Coffee and 543 cwt. Pepper. For 
iioiuiiay mid other Indian Ports, 129 cwt. Cannanore Native 
Coffee anil 'li.WiW cwt. Pepper, For Turkish, African and 
Arab Ports, 7i>7 ewt, Cannanore Pepper. 
TEA HOLLERS. 
Wynaad, 20th October 1888. 
Sin, — Knowing you always interest yourself in all 
matters regarding planting and the various machi- 
nery dot tea, will you kindly let me know your own as 
well as tho neighbouring planters' opinion re the 
Khun. i.d-Richardson Patent Tea Rolling Machine. 
I have heard a lot about it, but wish to satisfy 
more fully before investing in one. Trusting you 
will exouse trouble, and oblige, as I know no 
one in Ceylon, having got all my experience in 
plantng in the Wynaad.— Yours faithfully. 
W. RYAN. 
[The Kinmond Richardson Tea Roller does not 
appear to be a great favourite in Ceylon, to judge 
by the few at, work ; but in one or two oases 
it has proved very useful. Mr. T. Dickson of 
Lebanon estate, Madulkele, likes it very much for a 
first roll of his tea which he finishes off after- 
wards in a Jackson's roller. — Ed.] 
ON PLANTING: TRANSPLANTERS AND 
BASKETS. 
Dear Sir, — The question of how to have an estate 
without vacancies iu it has occupied the attention of 
tea planters for many years, and since the days of 
Colonel Money's Prize Essay, various schemes have been 
promulgated for planting an estute, Bo that there may 
be no vacancies. 
When once the tea on an estate is established and 
the bushes two years old ami upwards, tho difficulty of 
gel tint,' a supply to start almost amounts to impossibility 
by the ordinary methods. 
The system of putting the seeds much wider apart 
in tli.- nursery and planting with a lot of earth round 
tho roots, lias been long in vague ; in some parts of 
India with great success ; in some cases the seeds being 
put in ti inches apart each way iu the nursery. In 
' iylon see, is are usually planted very much closer than 
From \h to "J A inches apart, with a rosult of eco- 
nomy in nursery expenditure and a far larger percen- 
tage of vacuueies in tho held aud cODscqueut loss of 
l • 
'I be I Item ol jimmim: plants into alavaugn holes 
aud git • the coolies a, largo " kauak " of plants to 
do iu a day. enubles Brown to proclaim to tho world 
that hi- -|, ring only cost Ell9'.ll to hole and plant, 
" whereas Jones spent no less than R30 on his 
work," but a difference of 1 00 or more lb. an acre iu 
crop every year will bo some consolation to Jones for 
his spending Kit) more in careful planting to begin 
with 
\\ In ii expensive seed is being purchased my impres- 
sion is, that it would pay iu every case to put out plants 
w Iu) transplanters, or with large balls of earth on tho 
roots I profor the former to the latter «> (1^ pro- 
perly done tho work is cheaper ; and (2) the coolies 
are apt to seize the balls of earth an 1 knead them 
i i I the roots, which throws tho plant-, mouths back 
if tbo nursery ioil is stiff nnil clayey; while if it is 
(snriy the earth is apt to break' off the plants aud 
leave the idols as bare as it they bad been baud-pulled. 
A. 1 Write Ihi., beloro me a piece of tea a few 
sores in . ttrnt 1 ' was put out with a transplanter, 
ami tin- plants adjoining it were larger thnli tin Se 
put out with it; in (act it was because the plnnu 
Mrs tiny that it was unsafe to put them out in 
an t i i her way that it was used and Its use over the 
Whole WM r. fits d oe il mis of < x| so! R2'50 
d I • ifl no aero 
ii ndioiumg tea had 20 per cent of vacancies: 
this tit 1,1 with worsv plants had not 2 por cent, 
while it has given and will continue to give far lar- 
ger crops. 
I planted over 260 acres in this manner during the last 
18 months, and the results well justify the expenditure: 
one field planted with .Sinhalese women at 20 cents 
a day and no pence money, had not 2 per cent of vacan- 
cies in it this year I beiieve, and the cost was only 
R5 an acre over GO acres. The seed was mostly "in- 
digenous, " and cost on estate R90 a maund, giving 
about 10,0(10 plants a maund, so that the plants were 
worth at least IU2-50 per 1,000 and more. 
I do not believe that the average clearing has fewer 
than 20 per cent of vacancies in it; indeed 10 per 
cent the second year is very good. 
And 10 per cent only of vacancies is 330 an aore 
at 12-60 per l,000=to R4T6 saving in plants to begin 
with that more than repays your extra ooat, and your 
tea comes 3 to 6 months sooner into hearing than if 
put in, iu the ordinary way. 
This is the result of my experience after having 
planted moro than 1,000 acres in different ways. 
Filling up vacancies in tea two years and upwards 
old, is a harder nut to crack, as the roots of the 
bushels already established, extract the moisture from 
the ground round the young plants before they are 
established and they droop and die after struggling 
on for some months, in moat eases. The one success- 
ful mode that I have found of supplying vacancies, 
is to use supply baskets, 
I have found them perfectly successful when all 
other plans failed, and instead of going over and 
over the ground year after year with most unsatis- 
factory results, the work can be completed at once 
with uniform success. 
I know of one estate in Dimbala that was partly 
planted with them with magnificent results : — 
The cost of baskets was, say 3,000 
per aero (a. R5.. .. ..R15 
Railfare say Rl . . . . . . 3 
Extra coat of planting, say . . . . 7 per acre. 
R25 
Against this put the coat of 15 per cent at least 
of 3,000 iudigenoua plants .. ,. R7\',o 
Coolies, supplying, &c. .. .. ., 2'50 
Say a saving per acre of .. .. . .RIO'OO 
And we have got a field of tea for Rloper acre extra t> 
months earlier iu bearing and worth at least R100 
more per acre than the adjoining tea. 
With supply baskets available all over the country 
at R5 per 1,000 and say rail-fare 111 per 1.00U, it is 
possible to fill up every vacancy in the country pre- 
suming them to bo 10 per cent at a cost of R3 to K 1 
per acre and 1 fully believe that from the same area 
It) per cent moro crop would be got by so doing. 
1 know one man in tho lowcountry who has 100,000 
plants now in baskets going out, and that thoir uae is 
becoming common both for tea aud fuel treoa, anyone 
would conclude from the truck loads that leave Kalu- 
tara railway station regularly "for the hills. " 
SUPPLY. 
COTTON CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 
Deui Sin,— With reference to cotton cultivation 
in Ceylon, perhaps the following may interest your 
readers. Last Juno I roceived a small bag of Indian 
cotton seed from Mr. Mitchell, and on the 22nd and 
23rd of that month I roughly dibbled it out in 
rows in a new chena clearing on Crystal Ilill estate. 
Tho month of June was showery, but since tho 
planting there has been no rain to speak of to date: 
iu faot as you are aware there has been a hard 
drought. Beyond two rough woedings, it received 
no further euro or attention. Within two months 
from sowing it began to bud freoly; for some time 
back the plants havo boon covorod with blossoms, 
and now (this 2nd Octobor) say somo fourteen weeks 
after sowing, an open boll of ri; I otton hns been 
found. 'Ihe pod is very small ; but whether this is 
duo to tho drought or tho kind of cotton I can't say. 
Anyway the time required for the cultivation 
; -e. in exactly to suit the imrth-tatt monsoon in 
this part of tho ominlrv.— Yours truly, 
A U K. BORBON, 
