June I, 1889.] TH^ TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
865 
XXVIII. 
Mahaoya, 8th May; 
1. I find that at a medium elevation tea flushes 
best about 6 mos. from pruning. Quality is not ob- 
tainable in very wet weather, but I get the best teas 
immediately after a spell of wet weather, and usually 
the heaviest flushes. At a higher elevation on same 
estate I get the best results as far as quality is con- 
cerned 10-12 mos. from pruning. Plucking " fine " 
you get quality nearly all the year round, wet or 
fine, only if withering space is not stinted. I get bet- 
ter flavour in south-west than south-east monsoon. 
2. A good many manuring experiments have been 
tried on this estate. During wet weather I could not find 
much improvement, if any, in the liquor of leaf, from 
a manured " field;" liquor again from an area where 
castor cake was applied was far ahead of that from an 
unmanured area, it was twice as thick; leaf in the latter 
instance was plucked during dry weather- I don't 
think that flavour can be added unless you pluck 
for it. 
(3.) Where quantity and quality can be got go in 
for fine plucking. 
On some estates quantity can be got without much 
quality: go in for medium plucking. Tnere is quality 
enough in the teas, from off most old coffee soils, 
if we could afford to pluck fine enough for it; but 
we cannot, the best thing we can do under the cir- 
cumstances is to pluck all we can. We may be able 
to pluck finer as the trees age. It is to be hoped 
there will be a smaller stock of " Heathen Chinee " 
at 4d -per lb. in the Loudon warehouses when that 
time comes round. The prices that are given at 
present for fine teas do not encourage growers of 
that staple to hold on as an ensample to others. 
D. M. D. 
XXIX 
7th May 1889. 
1. Bushes flush most freely from 5 to 6 months 
after pruning (time varying according to elevation 
and season). If strength denotes quality of tea, then 
it is at its best at this time, but the flavor goes on 
improving up to 12 months; after this, unless the bushes 
have been assisted by manure or the soil is specially 
good, both strength and flavor fall off. 
2. Application of manure, assuming that it is ap- 
plied soon after pruning has exactly the same effect 
as a heavy pruning in producing a gross sappy leaf, 
and uncil this is worked off by frequent pluckings, 
the quality of the leaf is decidedly not improved. It 
possesses strength but not flavor. Applied at a later 
period, say 5 or 6 months after pruning, it then im- 
proves both the strength and flavor of the tea. 
3. Fine plucking: — I am not at all satisfied on this 
point; but as far as my experience goes at present, I 
should say pluck all you can, so that you manufac- 
ture to secure a price for your teas equal to the London 
weekly average for all Ceylon teas sold. We must 
remember that it is not the first but the third class 
passenger traffic that pays on any railway. 
3,000 Feet Elevation. 
XXX. 
iiookwood, 8th May 1889. 
1. I think quality of tea (make and liquor) is best 
wben (where) the bushes flush most, freely on good 
ripe wood, and provided the weather is not too wet. 
Pruning, when, and how done, affects liquor, more 
perhaps than some people imagine. 
2. Provided the soil is not impoverished, cattle 
manure improves the liquor and yield, and its effects 
last for several years. Castor cake tried in 1880-81 on 
good, soil improved yield — 1 have no data f.jr liquor, — 
and effects lasted for yeai>. 
3. Asa general rule, medium. OS. A. 
xxxr. 
Puii'laluoya, 9th May 1889. 
1. Iam not sure what Mr. Armstrong said; but I 
do recollect when a discussion was taking place some 
time a^u— I think about this time last year — about 
bad prices, it was generally believed by those who kept 
up the correspondence that our worst teas were made 
during the dry months. My own opinion is that the 
flush is best, and the teas made from it best when 
the bushes are in full flushing vigour. " Weakly 
begets weakly and strength begets strength." You 
will, I think, generally find a kind of standard worked 
up to on most estates, and where the plucking is 
always oarried on the same, as a rule, the same quality 
of tea will be made, excepting for 4 months or so 
after pruning. 
2. I cannot at present say whether manuring alters 
or affects the outturn of made teas, but that it in. 
crease the quantity there is no room for a doubt, and 
in Borne cases to a very extraordinary extent. In the 
case of cattle manure the result is permanent; in that 
of artificial one begins reaping the result in a few 
months. 
3. " Exceptional merit " means " exceptional 
plucking," all other phases being equal, but of course 
high cultivation gives you more of it. H. L, B. 
XXXII. 
Lower Dikoya, 10th May. 
1. On this point observation leads me to a 
middle opinion — my belief being that the best tea ia 
made from freely flushed leaf ; avoiding the two ex- 
tremes of rank leaf, the product of excess moisture 
and beat, and feebly grown leaf, which is inclined to 
be tough. 
2 That the quantity of crop can be greatly 
increased requires no proof ; but for quality there 
is less data, as the leaf taken from manured 
fields is seldom kept separate. I have noticed, however, 
on an estate under my observation, where a con- 
siderable amount of mauuriug is done, that the teas 
made fully maintain their place on the market. 
Leaf produced by rich manure must surely contain 
greater strength and less moisture than leaf produced 
by moist forcing weather only. The probable over- 
forcing of the trees and soil by strong artificial manure 
is, of course, another matter not to be treated of 
here. 
3. Coarse plucking will never give a good 
average price ; though no maker ever admits that he 
pluck's fine. Medium plucking, varied according to 
weather, will give both quantity and quality. When 
the weather is open and leaf soft it may be taken a 
little large ; but in high districts, where the young 
leaf is apt to be hardened prematurely by cold morn- 
ing and evening winds, or, at another period, by 
the bleak burst of the monsoon, it is a matter of 
necessity either to pluck it somewhat fine or pluck it 
bangy. D. K. 
XXXIII. 
Pussellawa, 9th May 1889. 
1. My experience is that quality of tea is best 
wben bushes are in good heart and consequently 
flush freely. Being, however, in a district exposed to 
the cold hard 1SI.-E. monsoon my worst flushing 
months are those early in the year when the leaf 
has very little juice, and anything but the gentlest 
rolling results in broken tea. No hard and fast rule 
can be laid down for Ceylon on the point in question. 
What suits one district is poison to another. 
2. Have only tried cattle manure, the effect 
of which on tea good and bad is most encouraging. 
Pity it is so expensive. A neighbour of large 
experience as a tea planter has tried artificial 
manures, and his opinion is that though these with- 
out doubt increase yield; but he is sceptical as to their 
improving quality, ia in fact inclined to think that 
they do the revere Someone of your correspon- 
dents suggested" bones ": surely these would give us 
seed. 
3. Fine or coarse plucking or high prices vs. 
yield, as a rule, but not quite so, as some few 
soils won't give quality pluck you ever so fine, and 
some give good tea with coarser than medium 
plucking. It is sweet to see one's self hiuh up in thu 
Lane whi n that blue papsr (you so kindly 6eud 
us gratia) comes in, but does this pay the proprietor 
Mark the difference in prices from estates managed 
by their proprietors now and a year ago. It strikes 
