i8o THE TROPICAL 
Given that we could do eo, it would stimulate 
consumption. 
The question is easily settled and we cin 
within one year ascertain whether 
1st. We cau imitate the teas preferred by 
new markets. 
2nd. Whether this imitition will be acoepted. 
3rd. Whether this line ia worth goiug on with. 
Some one once said to me and it ia true : " There 
is very little margin now between our Broken 
PekoeB and our broken teas." But if our common 
teas could go to America and shovo out 6ay 20 
millions of China tea then there woul J be a much 
better margin. 
I think myself that I would rather imitate com- 
mon China tea than try to make strong A'sam 
tea. To do tho first we could take a good many 
leaves on a shoot roll and fire it anyhow (a3 they 
probably do in China ; we could send it away dry 
to the local market which is more than is done 
in China) in feet it does not seem hard in any way; 
for I believe that our bushes are up to making 5d. 
China tea, if we can find out the necessa y operation. 
But the other attempt ! I ! I have to pluck a fine 2 
leaves and a bud to make tea eqivalent in strength 
to the tea made in Assam from the third loaf. Aseum 
Pekoe Souchong rivals my Flowery-Orange Pekoe. 
It is humiliating, but it is a stern fact. 
Having made your tea to suit the consumer, 
there would be nothing mora valuable than 
the drums and bonuses. In fact we might 
give away whole pounds of tea, without losing 
much money. What do you say to sending out 
free tea to the Coxeyites, or the Chioago wreckers ? 
Some of them will gst work and tben they would 
buy our tea. I am at present engaged in a dis- 
cussion on the " Flavour in Ten." I say that it can 
be got (where present) and developed by methods 
of manufacture ; well I really think that the 
gardens which fail to m>iko " strong tea " now- 
a-days might attain to Flavour if they adopted 
methods of manufacture, which wouli turn out 
teas similar to the China teas. For few of our 
tea gardens are so utterly abandoned as to possess 
neither Streng h nor Flavour. But it is very easy 
to extinguish all Flavour in the attempt to attain 
Strength, where it does not exist. 
I fancy that the worst China teas are not really 
bad, but become so from neglect and insufficient 
ouring. The item of final firing is serious when you 
have to carry a pound of tea for many thousands 
of miles for 4 pence. DoeB the fault of bad tea 
lie with the tea bushes ? When you come to con- 
sider it, this is a very vital question, for there is 
no remedy exoept through manure. And then if you 
can't manure you must " go out." And really it 
would be a good riddance. 
You oan readily discover whether the fault is in 
the leaf, for it is almost certain that you have 
within a day's journey some estate that is doiDg 
better. Then send some of your leaf to that estate 
at any cost, and if no more can be done with it 
there than " in situ," the garden had better be 
manured or abandoned. 
If the fault is not in the leaf, then it lies in the 
system of manufacture, or in insufficient accommo- 
dation. 
Bad tea has to be sold. It has to absorb good tea 
and make a compound whioh all know only too 
well. It would be polioy (and good charity) to point 
out to the erring ones where their fault lies. 
That's all I have to say. Let Assam go on in its 
proud career and let Darji!ing flourish exceedingly, 
but to those of sixpenny and lower averages 
I would say, let us imitate China instead of 
Assam. 1874. 
AGRICULTURIST. [Sept. I, 1894. 
PS. — How is this as a *' Prize EsEay "? 
[Our correspondent es a cloEe reader of oar 
peter should have seen long ago that we bava 
had the best possible assurance— naiinly from the 
experts of the large wholesale boutes in Chicago 
and New York — that there is no need to altar 
the make of Ceylon teas. This was farther 
proved by- the Chicago Exhibition and, later, at 
the San Francisco Exposition. We want to win 
the Americans from au inferior anl often bad, 
to a superior article, and the process has beguo, 
and all that is wanted to hasten it ia a proper 
system of adve Using. — Ed. T.A.] 
TEA PLUCKING; WHOLE LEAF Vi. 
HALF-LEAF PLUCKING :— NO. I. 
July 30. 
Dear Sib, — Plucking to the half-leaf, or 
" shoulder plucking" as it is generally called, 
gives a larger yield by about 25 per cent, but tba 
fiu.h therefrom at certain periods of the year is 
not so strong and healthy as when the full leaf 
is left. 
Bushes pluck' d to the "shoulder" do not, aa 
a rule, run > long from pruning as with the 
fall leaf plucking. The quality cf tea resulting 
from the whole leaf system is better than when 
the entire } leaf ia taken for very obvious reasons — 
it's a caae of 2 and the bud, instead of 2j| and 
the bud ; but as a matter of fact there are several 
places in D.mbula and elsewhere where the shoulder 
system is carried cut with excellent results both 
in respect to quality and yield. In dealing with 
pciirj.a bushes the "shoulder" plucking is better 
than leaving the full leaf. As a general rule it 
may be said that the half-Ieef pluck:ng is the sys- 
te-Ji whii-h should bo tdjpted on t-titts when 
quantity is the chief aim On places where quality 
is considered a matter of first importance pluck to 
the full leaf, and alljw no single or broken leaves 
into the factory. A. B. C. 
No. II. 
July 30th. 
Dead Sib,— In the lowccuntry where the growth is 
rapid and yearly pruning is more or less necessary, 
the balf-leaf system gives, I should say, the largest 
yield; but at higher eievatione the full leaf continued 
for 12 to 18 months even, with a drop on to the 
abortive letf , from time to time, daring the best 
growing months, and when the bush threatens to 
run away, is in my opinion preferable, and will 
I think during p?riois of two years from pruning 
give the largest yield, better tsa on the average, 
and tbe best character of wood to prune on. No 
hard-and-fast rule can be laid down, however, as 
j&t, exposure, and system of cultivation as regards 
pruning and manuring require to be taken into 
account and the bush plucked accordingly. D, 
No. III. 
Deab Sib, — With regara to your questions re 
merits and demerits of continuous whole and half 
leaf plucking, my experience is that over 4,000 ft. 
elevation a continuous whole leaf plucking results 
in increase of quality with very little decrease 
if any in quantity ; whereas at a few hundred 
feet above sea level, exactly the reverse holds good, 
viz. a continuous half leaf plucking results in 
an inarease in quantity and very little if any 
decrease in quality. If this is correct, it should 
follow that at certain intermediate elevations either 
oourse should give the same resulting profit (or 
loss). Whole leaf plucking is less trying to the 
bu=h during a e&ason of drought. 
UPPER DIMBUJun, 
