January i, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
4^5 
CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT : 
A VARIETY OF ADVICE ON THE PRESENT KEEPING 
QUALITIES OP THE TEA AS COMPARED WITH THE PAST 
— AN INGENIOUS MANAGER — THE SUPERIORITY OF 
LOCAL CIGAR MAKERS OVER TOBACCO PLANTERS— MANU- 
FACTURE OF CIGARS IN COLOMBO — TOBACCO PIONEERS 
WANTING LONG EXPERIENCE TO STUDY THE FERMENTA- 
TION OF THE LEAF— ONE FOR " OLD COLONIST." 
11th Deoomber, 1888. 
I wouder if our teas keep bettor now than 
formerly ? We have had lots of advice on the 
matter, and there were those who would have been 
pleased to have been able to work up a scare on tho 
hoad of a supposed evanescence of its distinguish- 
ing features, and nip in the bud the growth of 
popular favour, which had set in strongly in the 
direotion of our new product. Public and privato 
advices alike have drawn attention to a non-stay- 
ing quality; the tea, they tell us, "goes off" 
after a time. Dealers don't like this, for the publio 
demand, they said was certain to go off too. 
Somehow or another we have heard nothing of 
late of this fatal weakness: whether it is that the 
market is not depressed enough, and the soul of the 
planter is not in that state of meek preparedness 
for being " sat on," which always follows sanctified 
af'rliotion : or that in the face of the growing deliveries, 
and other too manifest evidences of a popular liking, 
to harp on the old string won't do. I don't for 
a moment funcy we are now perfect tea-makers, 
or even the class next to that known in Scot- 
land as the " by-ordiner-extraordiner." Yet some- 
how in spite of a non-slaying quality said to be 
a speciality of the Ceylon tea, it makes its way. 
But it was not to praise our noble selves that 
I write. 1 was rather filled with gratitude 
towards those, who, when every decent attempt 
was made to give our produot a bad name, 
stepped boldly forward and told us how to cure 
it. Too rapid liring, you will remember, was the 
Him and substance of the accumulated wisdom of 
our home advisers, the brokers. There was that 
fellow with the scientific bent, who brought the 
microscope to bear on the prepared leaf, and 
lomul out that tho cells in the centre were not 
bo well cooked as the outside, and after that — well 
we were "shut up." We did not feel that we 
could discuss with a man who had his eye on 
a miscroscopio lens on any kind of level terms at 
all, and lot us hope we were content with his 
ruling, acceptod his advice, and fired our teas well. 
But it is so dillicult to hit the golden mean : 
brokers and tea tasters alone do it, the planter never. 
If the latter did, the end of the world would have 
come for the others, and those words of dignilied 
wisdom, which are to be found written in publio 
circulars and private reports, and to whioh wo all 
look up, would for ever cease. It is well, therefore, 
that the planter has been imperfectly fashioned, and 
will ever remain imperfect. 
1 have a specimen of this imporfeotion now bofore 
me, in tho shape of a written howl of indignation 
against a London broker's report on a late shipment 
of tea. 1 won't quote the howl, but when I say that 
the planter feeb that ho can only ad( quately deal 
with the report in question, aftor ho has had a little 
time to extend his vocabulary of bad language, ho 
is already a master of Tamil abuso, and knows 
English Billingsgate fairly well, tho state of things 
may be eoneoived. The cause oi offuncc is that the 
teas reported on are all said — butter quote the ori- 
ginal — "Dry liquor, too lon< tired " t I There is a j 
apeoial note at tin- end recommending tho Loudon 
house, to advise their Ceylon friends not to tiro their 
M SO long ! I ! 
The planter wants to make something out of this — 
nays thnt these tea ,v> i. Rneoifclrr ftrod to remedy 
6'J 
the great evil of not keeping drc, &c, but that 
is too like posing, and " piling the agony." 
Without any glorification to the planter, or even an 
acceptance of statement, the thing is complete 
enough. 
The rush of leaf showed too clearly that a new 
roller must be got. But such machines in these 
days of sterling quotations mean a lot of rupees, 
and the estate exchequer could not at the time 
very well stand the strain. The manager was 
disheartened ; he did not like to oome out with a 
low average, and was sure to for want of rolling 
power, so being imaginative, and a man of resource 
he set his brains aworking, and hit at last on an 
ingenious plan which was to get him the needed 
maohine, without entrenchment on his funds. Hie 
suggestion was to advertise in the looal papers 
wanted a "little giant" for his lccep\ That 
fellow is sure to get on. 
However successful our tobacoo planters may 
yet hope to become, local cigar makers have already 
made their mark, and it will take a a good deal to 
beat them. 
The following is the label on a box of cigars, manu- 
factured in Colombo by a native firm, and which 
I bought yesterday. The cigars are good : 
" Comparison is the true test of quality : 
If you want a perfect smoke, try our 
No. 1 (Patent.) 
A boquet of roses, a nice leisure hour cigar, 
mixture of Java, Pondicherry, Dindigal, with Trichy 
tobacco, dipped in coconut and rosr water: fine 
amma with the accompanying qualities of real 
Havanna. Gives the scent of rose after soft smo- 
king. Aids in promoting health. Manufactured 
' by &c. &o." 
'•A. F." writing from Sumatra the other day 
holds out a cheering prospect for our tobacco 
pioneers, when he says that the fermentation of 
the leaf can only be learned by experience ; " but 
an experience requiring the closest study and at- 
tention of at least four or five years." Has " A. 
F." ever heard of the coconut and rose water 
treatment? I fancy not; it's a Ceylon dodge. 
When your correspondent has become what he 
would call an experienced Sumatra tobacco planter, 
bo will have to trot back to Ceylon for the 
latest methods, unless he wants to be a learner 
all his life, he should not wait away too long. 
Coconut and rose water are not the only things 
that will be tried here ! 
A man anxious to turn the honest penny has 
carefully preserved that copy of the Obncrrer in 
which "Old Colonist" asks for reports on several 
estates, as to what they are doing on tea. He 
is ready to supply the reports in question, but 
wants to know who is to pay him. He is sure that 
" Old Colonist," when a Visiting Agent, did not do 
much in the estate reporting way without getting 
an equivalent in ooiu, and he would beg to say 
that although muoh of the old order has changed, 
reports that are worth anything have still a market 
value. I need hardly say that the man referred 
to is a Scot, and comes from Aberdeen. 
Peppercorn. 
TEA IN AMERICA. 
(From the Indian PfanforV Gazette, Nov. 27th.) 
The " Peripatetic Planter" has kindly sent \i* the 
followiug extracts from a letter from mi old "Dooara" 
, Planter:— 
New York, Oof. 188$ 
" 1 have been now noarly three month* here ami am 
ably to (five yon seine i lea of the ten lr.. le of Auiwrirn 
more (HirtirtiUrly .New York, ami as you askivl me to 
writo you on tin' subject, 1 n, a ilo myself tile pleasure 
ThroiiK'li my brother's illttuviu-u, 1 have bwn inlr.sliu'. 
