99 
No. II. 
Dear Sir,— Your printer's imp, in altering my 
signature from " Old Land" into " Old Hand," 
has spoilt iti significance and taken much from 
the laison d'etre of the letter iteelf. If " W, A. T." 
should cut up, and want to know in what he had 
given ofi°nce, let him explain what he meant by 
"the sellers not liking to erne fonvard and say 
Ob, mine is a poor worn-out old article" &a. &o. 
With every ocfiee estate in the island turned into 
tea he should go about to the different District 
Associations and say this in person. Why, some of 
the largest and best paying tea estates were onoe 
abandoned coffee estates.too poor for the cultivation 
of that product ! 
Against this we have some tea estates formed out 
of the finest virgin forest land. With these teas 
before us for comparison why need we go back " eight 
years" ? I know tea-land paying very well whose 
general level is from one to two feet below the level 
it was at in coffee days. Such hard land may dis- 
appoint its owpecs {the sellers) in "quantity," but as 
regards "quality," (the point under diBCUSsion), that 
is another matter. Probably the old lend has often 
the best of it, notwithstanding W, A. T.'s new dis- 
covery of very old formula. 
I need not trouble you again on this subject. 
OLD LAND. 
No. III. 
Deae Sie,— I have just read the letter so in- 
scribed, and signed " W. A. T." One would think 
the ecience oE " Agricultural Chemistry " had only 
just beamed upon the intelligence of this writer, 
or does he think that the world is as slow 
as hims'ilf? The prmoiple he enunciates in half- 
a-dozan words in the closing lines of his letter 
is already as old as the hills. I learnt it in 
my earliest school-days, and Liebig had established 
it years and years before that, in volumes of 
encyclopedian capacity; and it has been doing 
duty all these years ever sinoe like the alphabet 
in school?,— yet here we have it trotted out again 
as an object lesson for the planters of Ceylon I 
It is getting rather stale as a mere fact in 
science ; but in connection with tea, "W. A. T." is 
no authority whatever. Other minds can see some 
eonneetion between new soil, old soil and the 
quantity and quality of tea ; but with more oom- 
plioationsthan "W. A. T.'s " very rudimentary dis- 
coveiy in 1893 discloses. Evidently the "Philpot's" 
of Mincing Lane are unable to see much con- 
nection, for to them the fine lea of virgin soil 
is worth no more than the make from old land, 
as you, Sir, recently pointed out. Let this point 
—to which attention has been drawn by so many- 
be settled, before we need pay much attention to 
amateur chemists like ' W. A. T." We do not listen 
with much patience to Mr. John Hughes him 
self, because we think he needs practical as 
well a3 scientific-— or mere laboratory— knowledge, 
which only a residence in Ceylon can give him. 
But to have such stale old lessons preached at 
US by mere Daniels suddenly come to judgment, 
mere newly-read-up amateurs, is slightly irritating. 
A good many points have to be settled and known 
before even a trained scientist can ppeuk with 
unhtsitating authority upon a mere chemicp.l analysis 
of the mn,cl6 leaf. Chemical equivalents are so 
a most miraculously tine that a mere re arrangement 
of the molecules consisting of the same elements 
will constitute a ntw product. If " W. A. T." 
has virgin soil let him be thankful if his prices 
Btttisfy him; but what he wants to know is some- 
thiog yery mu«i) (baa the mere A B C 
cultivation which everybody knows already, or think 
they know. But quality as well as quantity depend 
upon more considerations than enter into the 
philosophy of " W. A. T." No chemist, by a mere 
analysis, can lay his finger on any constituent and 
say: "The absence of thi?, or excess of that, is the 
cause of deterioration.'' Without its proper food 
in sufficient quantities, neither tea nor any other 
plant will grow at all. So long as the tea bush 
produces leaf that is essentially "tea," end the 
loss it produces in the proper climate, the stronger 
infusion it is supposed by practical men to make. 
" W. A. T." 's whole letter is weak and jumpy. A 
chemical analysis is one thing, but to interpret 
that analysis, an iinmense amount of jjractioal 
experience is required. OLD HAND. 
No. IV. 
Sib, — My attention has been drawn to a letter in 
your paper signed by "Old Hand." "Old Hand" iaa 
clever man — in his own estimation— and it is cer- 
tainly a great f ity for his own sake that he cannot 
come forward openly and plainly — and if he is bereft 
of reason, a little of that commodity as well— and 
give us some information worth having instead of a 
volume of sneers which are generally a sign of weak- 
ness in the upper storey. He sneers at Mr. .John 
Hughes and I am not surprised, as a man of " Old 
Hand" 's scientific attainments can afford to sneer at 
'•a???/ one." "Old Hand" reasons like a man who 
turns over the foundation stone of an intended 
building and then turns round and says, — " hang 
it, I don't call that a house, it is only 
the ' rM.dimentarij stages ' of one and you are a 
mete Daniel at builaing." "Old Hand" states that ha 
learnt that soils deteriorated, when he was a school 
boy and that the fact was estab'ished years and years 
ago by Liebig, and as my statemert was of a similBr 
nature and nothing more, "Old Hand" has noihing to 
refute. I am quite aware and I presume every one 
else who has paid ettention to the matter that no 
chemist by a mere analysis, can lay his finger on 
any constituents and say, — I'he absence of this, or 
the fxcees of that, is the cause of deterioration ; but 
an analyst can easily furniBh ub with the constituents 
of a good sample of tea and those of a poor one, 
as well as the respective Eoils in which they were 
grown and having obtained these particulars in many 
and various ways, a thorough practical man versed well 
in Agricultural Chemistry would be able to tell na 
what we might add to our foils to procure a 
favourable result. "Old Hand ' savs that without 
its proper food in BuflBoient quantities tea will not 
grow ; granted : what can we do better than find out 
the right food ? And we must search further than 
this palm-fringel and tea-topped island to find the 
right man to do so. The testimony of experienced 
tea tasters is worthlesss to determine whethfr our 
teas have deteriorated in qualify or not, for by changing 
the style of plucking we can turn out the finest of teas 
and the worst of teas from the same Jield of bushes Rhd 
if the Mincing Lane people have had reason to 
complain about the quality of Ceylon teas it is 
because they have reoeiveJ coarser samples. What 
we require now in Cpylon is a mnn to make searching 
chemical tests of high and low grown teas, of 
good and of poor, and the respective soils that the 
analysed teas have grown in and then and not until, 
can we make a further move. This will take lime 
and perhaps year?, but ceverthelees it is a matter 
well wcriby of the attention of Tea Planters and 
if " Old Hand" who admits that our EOils are getting 
exhausted will come forward, or anyone else, and give 
UB some more information which will lend to some 
practical steps being taken to better our condition 
he will receive the thanks that he will merit from bis 
brother planters. — Yours trulj', AV. A. T. 
P. &'. — I can asssure "Old Hand " that my ploce ia 
IV wQia-out gld thop like hii ok/u 
