792 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat i, 1889. 
deficiency of salt in the soil. He says the habit is not 
peculiar to inland districts. 
Without journeying with him to his ancestral home 
in " the premier coconut growing district of Ceylon " to 
see the mighty giauts of 100 years old with their 
branches closely packed in a whorl so as to support 
the bunches of fruit or the trees from "2 to 10 
years old" with their branches so well spaced out as 
not to afford support to the bunches the older trees 
bear, let us saunter down to a more accessible quarter — 
the Cinnamon Gardens of Colombo. "Well, what do you 
see here, ' A.B.O ' "? 
The large and in some cases enormous bunches with 
artificial supports ? " No " you say. Why not ? Has 
Dame Nature arranged the branches of the young trees 
here closely and in a whorl, foreseeing the difficulty 
people residing in the metropolis will have in receiving 
props ? Will I be permitted to express my opinion ? 
It is that a " little salt" I want in everything that has 
rendered soluble the silicates in the soil ? These being 
taken up by the roots and assimilated by the tree have 
tended to stiffen and toughen the stems of the coconut 
bunches amongst other parts of the tree. At least 
thit:s my opinion. — Truly yours, B. 
HOW TO AID THE CEYLON TEA PLANTEE : 
A BUSINESS EXAMPLE WORTHY OF 
BEING COPIED. 
Dear Sir, — We have taken ten shares in the 
Ceylon Planters' American Tea Company, Limited. 
As business men we think all who can for the 
prosperity of Ceylon should do likewise more or 
less. Prosperity to the planting community means 
prosperity to us. We hope every firm in Ceylon 
will take shares, and make the Company a suc- 
cess. " Why not send the forms to every firm in 
the island."— Yours faithfully, W, J. & Co. 
TEA PLUCKING : PINE AND OTHERWISE. 
April 19th, 1889. 
Dear Sir,— There is no doubt that fine plucking, 
such as Mr. Armstrong advises, i. e., two entire 
leaves and the tip (leaving on the shoot one full 
leaf for the next shoot and the seed leaf) pays 
best. By this method one gets three flushes the 
one month and four the next.* If coarse plucking 
is gone in for, the shoot must be allowed to 
grow higher to take, say three leaves and the 
tip, leaving, as in fine plucking, one leaf and 
seed leaf. In the latter case, there are two 
flushes the one month and three the succeeding 
one; so that really the quantity of fine crops almost 
equals that of coarse tea. Prom my own ex- 
perience the proportion is as near as possible as 
eight is to ten. 
When manufacturing coarse plucked, the finer 
leaves get crushed to a certain extent by the coarser 
ones, and the firing is not so even ; again in sifting, 
the fine teas get " grayed (sic)" by the coarser. 
There is another objection to coarse leaves ; I 
feel almost certain that they contain some object- 
tionable chemical substances, which the softer ones 
do not possess, and these obnoxious juices, getting 
mixed with those of the finer leaves, deteriorate 
them. 
Then again, the extra quantity of tea, though 
small necessitates more boxes, lead, solder, nails, 
fuel, withering-room, outlay on plucking, rolling, 
firing, sifting, transport, &c. 
The wither of coarse is never so even as that 
of fine leaf. 
As an experiment, let anyone pluck off the 
same field on the same day 100 lb. of two leaves 
and the tip, and make it against 100 lb of three leaves 
it will be found that the finer grades of 2 leaves 
and the tip ; compare the result in the cup, after 
Bifling off B. Pekoes, Pekoes, and Pekoe SouchongB: 
1 9 thin fine enough ? Most estates at present follow the 
"fii.e" rule above quoted.— Ed. 
and tip lot will be fur superior in appearance and 
liquor and fetch proportionately a much higher 
price, which price will more than make up for 
the loss in quantity. 
To conclude, I may mention that with fine 
plucking on an estate I had charge of, the made 
teas fetched Is 5d and Is Od per pound; but dircct ! y 
the proprietor instructed me to get in more le at, 
that is to pluck coarser, the prices fell down to 
about Is ! and the quantity as near as I coul 1 
make it (on comparison with previous year's return) 
over fine plucking, was only about 20 per cent 
Compare 100,000 lb. coarse tea at Is against 
80,000 lb. fine tea at Is 3d.* QUALITY. 
MANUFACTURE OF "OOLONGS" AND GREEN 
TEAS IN CEYLON-AND THE AMERICAN 
MARKET. 
Dear Sir, — With reference to your editorial re- 
marks regarding the sale of the little lot of 
"oolong" tea I made last Christmas when I visited 
the estate, the result «as so far satisfactory as showing 
that that description can easily ba made here if 
there is a market for it. 
I have, however, been warned by a gentleman of 
great experience, that years ago the manufacture 
of oolongs was tried in Assam, and abandoned, 
because it was found when the tea got to England, 
there was no sale for it. It will not therefore do 
to raise hopes founded on a small experimental 
trial, which may have been competed for et the 
sale more as a curiosity than for its intrinsic value. 
Last week we made a larger break, with the 
view of testing the market better, but for a variety 
of reasons the utmost caution will have to be 
exercised in making f-hipments, as we may easily 
fall out of the frying pan into the fire. 
America is no doubt the propn- market for green 
teas. The difficulty is to get American vessels to 
convey shipments, without sending them via Japan. 
Have the promoters of the Company formed to pui-h 
the consumption of Ceylon tea in America tnken 
this difficulty in hand ? — Yours truly, C. S. 
TEA INFUSION. 
26th Apiil 1889. 
Sir, — I have tried tea with 3 minutes' infusion — 
" Glenugie " tea. It is simply beautiful and very 
different from a 5 minutes' infusion (of the same 
tea) which extracted too much of the " tannin." Of 
course a little more tea is necessary, but it is 
wiser to incur that trifling expense rather than 
by not doing so, to be made ill and have to pay 
doctor's fees. If the proper duration of infusion 
of British-grown tea was more generally known and 
acted upon, the makers of three minute sand 
glasses would, I opine, soon be doing a roaring 
business. The sooner it takes place the better for 
the stomachs of the millions now persistently 
poisoning themselves with TANNIN. 
The Travancore Paper Mills. — The construction 
of the Travancore Paper Mills at Poonaloor near 
Quilon has been suspended for a fortnight on 
account of cholera which was raging there in the 
cooly lines in very severe epidemic form. Although 
Mr. Lucas, the Superintendent, tried his utmost 
to allay the panic, yet he was reluctantly com- 
pelled to suspend work. Mr. Lucas is trying his 
best, assisted by his staff, to complete the Bund- 
works before the setting in of the monsoon. We 
think that Messers. Cameron, Chisholm & Co. 
should insist on the Travancore Government to 
maintain an hospital or a Dispensary and a police 
Station at the mills. — Madras Times. 
* The gain is of course in the less expense, not in larger 
receipts, — Ed. 
