5i8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
[Feb. I, 1895. 
TEA CULTIVATION BY NATIVES 1 
THE SELLING OP LEAF IN THE CAMPOLA- 
NAWALAPI 1 1 YA VALLEYS. 
It will be remembered that a tew weeks ago 
Mr. J. A. Roberts of Dartry estate, Uaiitpola, 
brought to our notice, a practice at certain factorial 
and depots in Ids neighbourhood ot buying tea leaf 
for cask which he considered to be a strong en- 
couragement to theft from plantations. He gave 
his own experience of out-lying fields whicli bad 
been ruthlessly plucked by thieves, and lie con- 
sidered that simultaneously with the introduc- 
tion of easli purchases, the depredations had 
become more numerous. On inquiry we found 
that a considerable business in burin- leaf existed 
at nearly all the factories and they arc not a lew 
around Oampola ami Naw alapitiya but tb.it 
hitherto the dealing throm/h montbly accounts 
with known residents, was deemed a siillicient cheek 
on the otferihgof .stolen leaf. Very SO0U ue bad a 
call from the "well-known planter -contractor— Mr. 
T. 11. Walker, who did so much to help Mr. 
Waring to construct the Nanuoya -llaputale rail- 
way—and Mr. Walker at once accepted the jjofri- 
tion of the factory-owner who bad introduced 
the so-called new practice of payments in 
cash with checks which he had explained to 
Mr. Roberts, and be challenged us to say 
where he was wrong, maintaining rather that 
his practice was an improvement on the old 
monthly credit one in the interests Of honest 
dealin". The system adopted at his factory 
is to" enter every purchase of leaf in a 
register with the full name and address 
of" the seller and then to pay cash, for the 
leaf delivered, there being native .tea gardens 
to represent every transaction. " Now, if 1 re- 
fuse to pay cash to these small owner- pi tea, 
argued Mr. Walker, "what will happen?— why 
they wilt simply go to the middleman. Gi or A. 
or B. 'Lebbe,' as the case may be, who will at 
once buy for cash without the precaution of 
registration, and then come and sell it on the 
monthly credit system to the factory manager 
without the latter being at all able to tell 
what garden is represented »" Clearly, Mr. .\ alker 
lias here a very strong, if not unanswerable 
argument; So long as his register is carefully 
maintained with the full name and address of 
all sellers, we should certainly say it is better 
in the interests of Mr. Roberts and other planters, 
that his factory should buy for cash direct, 
rather than allow the "Lebbe' middleman do 
so without any register at all. 
Before, however, writing further on the subject, 
we asked Mr. Walker to supply us with a copy 
of his factory "register" so far as the names 
of the native owners of tea gardens selling leaf 
to him was concerned. This he has done and 
in sendinp it on, he writes as follows :— 
" I am of opinion there are more txxa 1,000 acres ot 
small acreages in tea between Karingar.awa, Matale 
Pussellawa and Nawalapitiya. BUSee seeing you m 
Colombo, I have' explained my position to several 
planters and legal gentlemen, none of whom have 
anything to say against my system either legal Ly 
or morally. I forget whetherl told you that the cash 
system has been in vogue for years, the caddee men 
in town buying all they could get and selling it to 
factories at a profit, All I did was to do away with 
these middlemen by buying direct from growers who 
cot the benefit of full prices. This plan suited the 
natives so well that I obtained much leaf and now 
that others have besn t.uight my plan, there is 
much competition. The advance system is nothing 
new for you will no doubt remember the O. ±5. 0. 
cash credits. Even at present the bankers and mer- 
chants advance money against crop and although 
my adwinoes areas rupees compared to pounds, still 
the system ia identica 1 . 
" I have not heard of any green leaf being stolen 
since Mr. Huberts' couiphtiul and do not myself 
think thine ia ain cause ioi alarm, a* certainly the 
game is not worth die candle ; but if there are 
other* fearing these petty thefts I would suggest a 
few respectable persons being Incused in ea<:li town 
to buy green leaf, they being compelled u> keep 
registers ot sellers, guldens, quantity. Ac. My cash 
buying business i» very small, compared with the lest 
— under 10 per tent, and this is paid to small glowers 
who can't wait a mouth for their coin.'' 
The list itself fills us with astonishment as to 
the great spread of tea culture among native* 
of all races in the dampoU and Nawalapitiya 
valleys. Altogether there are '.Hi names in tlti* 
list bum "Aloris Uia* Mass of Cedrawatte 
(garden! in ( himpola C nam booi a" to "Cuua 
Hathana Priest of Pauselawatte in Kobbcwala" 
and from " li. J. Capper of Thololdeniyaw atte, 
(iampola, to the Hon. T. li. l'anal>okke of 
Llpitiyaw atte " ; besides many " Lebbes," " Tam- 
bi.s, " llandas. Arachchis, Kangunis, Ajipu- 
hamis ami Piniianiu, I'akkcer 1 nan — all entered 
with their gardens and villages- -and fully indi- 
cating that not only KandyailB and lowcountry 
Sinhalese, but Tamils, .Moormen. Malays and 
Eurasians are eagerly engaged in the district referred 
to in cultivating tea. where is this to end, 
may well be the question ; paddy fields have 
already been changed into tea gardens and 
splendidly productive of leaf they prove ; and 
altogether it will be observed Mr. T. B. Walker 
estimates 1,000 acres of tea as in native hands 
in small fields or patches, to far as his observa- 
tion at present extends! He further writes: — 
" Natives are extending largely and if you could get 
a list from every factory that receives native leaf, 
you would no doubt be surprised at the number of 
native holdings." 
We have learned quite enough to shew that we 
are face to face with a great native industry 
in our staple — one whicli must shortly ac- 
quire the full importance of the native coffee 
industry of thirty years ago. The latter iu 
its best days — say lSWi 68 — besides meeting con- 
siderable local requirements, (for coffee was drunk 
in every wayside boutique,) showed an export as 
high 'as 218,009 <'wt. per annum The native tea 
industry must certainly, henceforward, be allowed 
for in our estimates and calculations. The cultiva- 
tion is spreading all over Kadugannawa and 
down into the villages by the old coach road 
below the Pass, and thence, we suppose it will 
pass on to Kegalla and the lowcountry. We 
have already mentioned that the natives on the 
Hangwella road, freelj'' grow tea and prepare 
it in some cases by "hand -rolling" for local 
consumption, selling the prepared tea at 25 cents 
per lb. to the boutique-keepers ! 
To return to the tiaiupola and Nawalapitiya 
factories buying leaf for cash, and moreover 
sending out agents and establishing depots for 
! the ] mi chase of such leaf, we can quite understand 
the risk run of encouragement to thieves to pluck 
the outlying fields of exposed plantations ; but 
we are at a loss to see how the needful check 
can be applied beyond the entry in a register 
of all purchases r To drop "cash" purchases 
as Mr. Roberts suggested, would be merely to 
throw the business into the hands of irrespon- 
sible Tamby middlemen whose registers — if they 
kept such at all — would be an utter farce. 
Koy.vl Gardens, Kew, Bulletin of Miscellaneous In- 
formation for November. — Contents : — Tropical Fodder 
Grasses, Decades Kewenses : XL, New Orchids : 11, Pla- 
gue of Caterpillars at Hong Kong, Miscellaneous Notes 
