132 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [August i. 1893. 
♦ 
To tht Editor. 
THK INDIAN TEA CROPS. 
Indian Tea ABEOoiatioo, Calcutta, July 1. 
Dear Sib,— In reply to your favour of the ICth 
ult., I have posted to your address ae reque-ted 
Btatements giving the etatistics you aek for. The 
oomparisoa with past years will be (.iven from let 
April to meet the new conditions. — Yours faithfully, 
W. PARTOHL, AsBt. Seorctary. 
[We wished to know whether any change had 
been made in the Estimate under tlie new arrange- 
ment by which the Season :s counted from 1st 
April. It may be well to repeat the figures Bent 
us for the benefit of our planting readers : — 
Actual Outturn of Croji of 1S02. 
lb. 
Assam 
46,307,348 
Cachar 
J 6,110,506 
Sylhet 
I7,744,.557 
Darjeeling .. .. 
Terai 
6,796,315 
2,807,530 
Dooars , , , , 
14,889,006 
Ohittagong . . 
830,293 
Ohota-Nagpore 
201,328 
Dehra Dun, Kumaon and Kangra 
4,000,000 
Private and Native Gardens 
4,000,000 
113,686,883 
Original Estimate of Crop of 
1893. 
lb. 
Assam 
50,.326,320 
Oachar 
18,216 560 
Sylhet 
20,387,680 
Darjeeling . . 
7,330,430 
Terai 
3,427,200 
Dooars 
16,085,056 
Ohittagong . . 
1,008,000 
Chota-Nagpore 
267,000 
Dehra Dun, Kumaon and Kangra 
4,500,0 0 
Private and Native Gardens 
4,000,000 
125.548,246 
being 11,861,363 lb. over the actual outturn of the 
crop of 1892, but 3| million lb. less than original 
estimate of that crop. Estimating shipments to the 
Colonies and other Ports with local consumption at 
9 millions, there will remain about 116J million lb. 
for export to Great Britain. 
— Ed. T.A.I 
THE FINEST TEA BUSH IN CEYLON- 
July 7th, 1893. 
Dear Sir, — A correspondent in your pi.p'f 
challenged anybody to beat his big tea bush, the 
other day. I do not know what his dimentions 
were, but on thiB estate there is a tree 
13ft. 9in. in diameter 
and over 41ft. in oiroumferecce measured 
last week. What were his dimeusions ? This 
bush waa pruned about 3 mouths ago. S3 that 
its present diameter is imined wood. I have no 
doubt this is the finest bush in Ceylon. 
WALTER W SEVIER. 
[The oballenge came from a Travanoore oorrea- 
pondent to the Observer, was oopi' d into the 
Madras papers, and from there as s.mething new 
into the local " Times " auH other papers ! The 
Travanoore dimensions given were : — ' Diameter 
of plucking surface 9ft. 2^in , height 3ft. 8in., tree 
7 years old," so that it is quite clear the bush 
Mr. Sevier has measured on St. John's, is by far 
the larger ; and probably the rhampion tea tree 
in the island. It ought to be phjlograj hed'. — 
Pd, T.A,'} 
"BIG TEA BUSHES." 
Abbotstord, Nanuoya, July 10. 
Dfar Sib,— I had the pleasure of seeing the Bt. 
John's giant tea tree some three years ago and 
I bad then no doubt it was the largest tea bash 
in Ceylon as it probably is Btill. 
We. on Abbotsford, might have had a look-in 
for premier place had we not circumscribed the 
size of our larger bushes some five or six years ago 
as we found them inconveniently large tor pluck- 
ing purposes. 
I have measured one of our larger bushes today 
and I find it is only 11' 3" x 9' in diameter 
with a circumference of 30 ft. 
The tree has a stem firth of 3C" and is not 
at all a bad specimen, but as it has not been 
pruned for some time, it is not in it with the 
giant of St. John'e. 
We have some enormous masecB formed by root- 
Buckers from the original plant but as these might 
be encouraged in the cour'ie of time to cover aerea, 
I do not think they would te a fair compari»on 
to a trefi ftanding on its own footing as, if I re- 
member rightly, the St. John's tree does. 
These enormous lushes are all very well for 
bringing forwaia like the "big gooBeberries" of 
the season — ao your Travanoore correepondent did 
with his bush (only to be beaten though) ;— but 
for ordinary paying purposes give me a few bondred 
acres of good jat oidinarily siz^d buehea 4 ft. or 
60 across and I don't want anything better or 
bigger.- Yours truly, j. p. 
THE CHAMPION TEA TREE? 
Gailebodde, Galboda, July lOlh, 1898. 
In 'ast evening's issue of the local "Timea" the 
following letter appeared :— 
Sib,— I noticed in the "Times" the other day 
that an ex-Ceylon planter had seen a tea bush io 
Travanoore which mfasured over 9 feet in diame'er 
and wished to know if Oeyh n could beat that. 
There is a tea bush on thia estate, grown from a 
single plant, which measures over 13 feet in dia- 
meSer, and would be more than that had it not 
been pruned lecently.— Yours &n., 
W. WILSON SMITH. 
[In a note the 'Timee" editor askid :— "Now Tra- 
vancore ia ' knocked out,' can any other Ceylon 
estate beat this?" For answer we would refer to 
the letter of Mr. W. W. Sevier of St. John's, which 
appeared iu our issue cf the 8th inst. Mr. Sevier 
tlnre stated that on his estate there was a tree 
13 feet 9 inches diameter and over 41 feet in 
circumference. — Ed. T.A.] 
CEYLON, "A POOR COUNTRY " .—ITS LA- 
TEST STAPLE AND CLIMATE : AND NOT 
THE SCHOOL FOR TROPICAL AGRI- 
CULTURE ; ON COAST ADVANCES 
AND DEMORALIZED LABOUR 
RAILWAY TO INDIA. 
Dimbula, July 1893. 
Dear Sib,—" Cheery Ceylon "—is it ? Pei- 
haps so— to favoured individuals like the talented 
Mr, Clement Soott who came here in the best 
weather, went to see the best tea estates in the best 
climate and sees everything, figuratively speaking, 
on but one side of the shield — on whish is not 
the baser metal. 
Now I like to call a spade— a spade; and a spade 
is a spade — and nothing more. With this premoni- 
tion—may I atk why most psople in writing of 
Ceylon fall into a eort of gaseous, exaggerative or 
