4 
[JULV 2, 1894. 
different parts of the manufacturing process and 
gave me confidence. • 
" Up till this time all my makings of tea had been 
made with arrangements in the bungalow verandah 
and godowns. But I got a tea house finished soon 
after and regular tea making then became a neces- 
sary part of the working of the estate. Afterwards 
Mr. Jenkins put up a temporary tea house on 
Condegalla which I was surprised to find was a copy 
in all its working parts and arrangements of the 
one I had built which was according to a plan of my 
own and different from the style of Indian tea 
houses, and Mr. Jenkins did not like it when he 
first saw it. , 
" But Mr. Jenkins did not then make as good 
tea as I did. On visiting his tea house I found 
his tea very different from the lot he made with 
me and very different from what I was making; 
and his fermenting which I saw by ramming the 
roll as hard and tight as possible into a box was 
a plan that I had tried in the beginning of my 
experiments, but long before given up as a failure. 
The lot Mr. Jenkins made with me at Loole Con- 
dera was not fermented that way. One day I was 
in the coach going up to Nuwara Eliya with Mr. 
Parsons, Government Aeent of Kandy, and some 
apparently stranger friend of his. Mr. Parsons did 
not know me, but I knew who he was. When we 
were passing the old patch of tea in Condegalla, 
Mr. Pa-sons pointed it out to his friend as being 
tea. His friend then asked if they made tea there. 
Mr. Parsons said : " Yes, they make tea here, but 
they do not make good tea here, the favourite tea 
is made on another estate they call Loole Condera," 
and from other quarters I heard the same. 
"A Mr. Baker, a tea planter from Assam called, 
on me after my original field of Hybrid Tea was 
well grown up and showed me that I had not 
pruned it sufficiently in the pruning I had just 
then finished, and I pruned it all over again. I 
also saw light pruning and heavy cutting down of 
Hybrid tea in the Darjeeling Terrai in 1874 just 
before their plucking season commenced. After- 
wards when Mr. Cameron came and took to visiting 
tea estates I was p'eased to find that his pruning 
so far as I saw of it on Mariawatte seemed to en 
tirely agree with what I had done. 
" But Mr. Cameron started finer plucking than I 
had been doing, and began to top the sale lists 
which I think we began to get about that time or 
very shortly before. When I found this I also 
took to weekly plucking and topped the sale lis*s 
for a time. That finer plucking largely increased 
the selling prices of my tea, and still more largely 
the profit per acre. So I was greatly indebted to 
the example of Mr. Cameron, though I only met 
him two or three times casually about Kandy and 
Gampola. , t 
" Regarding cinchona we were not the first to plant 
a few "trees or even a small patch, but we were the 
first to regularly cultivate a few acres and to test 
the value of the bs,rk in the market, and then to 
start the cultivation on a large scale. Our experiences 
as to raising seedlings in field nurseries, and that 
the bark of diseased trees if taken in time was 
valuable, and so on, must have been useful to others 
who planted later. ... , , 
'■ Looking back to the beginning of our Cinchona 
and Tea experiments and recollecting how little they 
were generally thought of at the time, especially 
by some of my acquaintances whom I most res- 
pected as in various ways superior to myself, and 
now seeing this testimonial, makes me feel that 
the battle is not always to the strongest. The 
first person I believe who thoroughly appreciated 
our experiments and who really foresaw the neces- 
sity of new cultivations in Ceylon was Sir William 
Gregory; and Ceylon Tea is more indebted to Sir 
Wm. Gregory who so patronised it and gave it 
fame than we can ever know. 
"Now I thank all who have helped towards this 
testimonial and the office-bearers of the Planters' 
Association who have taken trouble with it, and 
Mr P K. Shand who as I learned from the news- 
papers took part in initiating the matlcr, and es- 
pecially I thank Mr. Wall who ri'st proposed it 
to the Association in words which are of themselves 
a grand testimoiral, ant who has taken a leading 
interest in it all through. It made me feel con- 
fused and surprised that I should be thought worthy 
of such honour as well as of the kind things said 
of mc at that meeting by its Chairman and Mr. 
W. Mackenzie. 
The Testimonial is not only a valuable one, but 
one of a kind to make me remembered after I am 
not lu re. It will make my name and that of 
Loole Condera live in the history of Ce ylon. 1 shall 
be proud of it though abashed in the receiving of it.' 
We may mention that the only proprietary 
interest in land we can learn Mr. Taylor ever 
had, was in Lover's Leap.Nuwaia Eliya, which 
lie opened as a Cinchona plantation. Mr. John 
Duncan being co- proprietor with himself. But 
after a year or two when mercantile trouble* 
arose in Colombo, the whole plaee wa« taken 
over I y mortgagees at home. 
Little remains to be added. Forty year* of 
continuous plantation work had told on James 
Taylor. The planters' testimonial seemed to 
crown his labours ; but other disappointments due 
to a change in the proprietorship of Loole Con- 
dera told 011 his health and spirits, and he did 
not long survive, the end coming on the 2nd May 
1892, when he had well rounded his fortieth yeai 
in the Island. His remains found a last resting- 
place in the Cemetery at Mahaiyawa, Kandy, 
rather than in the quiet " God's acre" attached 
to the little Deltota Church within sight of 
the plantation on which he had so long laboured, 
and with which James Taylor's name will ever 
be connected : 
"Now t li e labourer's task is over. " 
Above the grave a memorial stone was raised 
bearing the following inscription : — 
IN PIOUS MEMORY 
OF 
JAMES TAYLOK 
OF LOOLECONDERA ESTATE, CKYLON 
THE PIONEER OF THE 
TEA AND CINCHONA ENTERPRISE- 
WHO DIED MAY 2ND 1802 
AGED 57 YEARS. 
THIS STONE WAS ERECTED 
11Y HIS SISTER AND MANY FRIENDS IN CEYLON. 
So passed away a model Ceylon pioneer 
planter, an upright, industrious superintendent and 
good man. Relatives in distant lands had often 
got help from James Taylor who, for years, 
had made an allowance, among the reft, to the 
widow of a brother who died in America. But it is 
for the service rendered to the colony by a series 
of intelligent, careful, and successful experiments 
in the cultivation and preparation of both 
Cinchona and Tea that the name of James Taylor 
of Loole Condera will always be had in remem- 
brance and esteem among the planting community 
of Ceylon. 
