July  i,  1892O 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST 
43 
last  topic  that  I should  like,  with  your  permission, 
to  occupy  some  portion  of  your  space. 
Though  tea  had  been  planted  in  the  hill  country 
of  Ceylon  about  thirty  years  ago,  yet  so  recently  as 
1875  the  total  area  cultivated  was  only  about  1,000 
acres,  and  the  rush  into  planting  did  not  commence 
until  after  1880,  the  area  planted  exceeding  100,000 
acres  in  1885,  while  now  I estimate,  from 
the  returns  compiled  by  me  for  the  latest  “ Ceylon 
Handbook  and  Directory,”  that  not  less  than 
255,000  acres  are  covered  by  the  tea  plant.  In  the 
same  way,  our  tea  exports  continued  small  up  to 
1886,  when  they  reached  nearly  8,000,000  lb.,  the 
increase  being  very  rapid  every  year  thereafter,  so 
that,  in  round  figures,  the  annual  totals  have  reached 
14.000. 000  lb.,  24,000,000  lb.,  34,500,000  lb  , and 
46.000. 000  lb.  respectively ; while  last  year  we  sent 
away  more  than  68,000,000  lb.,  and  this  may  be 
exceeded  by  10,000,000  lb.  to  12,000,000  lb.  in  the 
present  year.  Personally,  I have]  had  thirty  years’ 
experience  as  a resident  in  Ceylon ; I have  constantly 
watched  its  planting  industries,  and  have  paid  more 
attention  than  anyone  else  to  its  agricultural 
statistics.  The  wonder  to  us  all  now  is  that  we  did 
not  find  out  twenty  or  thirty  years  earlier  how 
admirably  adapted  Ceylon  was  to  become  a great 
tea-growing  county,  how  much  better,  for  instance, 
the  Ceylon  climate  and  soil  are  for  the  growth  of  tea 
than  coffee,  which  continued  to  be  our  staple  for 
forty  years,  and  howmuch  hardier  and  more  adaptable 
to  varying  conditions  of  altitude  and  soil  the  tea 
plant  is  than  almost  any  other  tropical  or  sirb- 
tropical  plant  that  can  be  named.  The  moist  south- 
western zone  of  Ceylon,  with  its  comparatively  high 
range  of  temperature,  affords  an  almost  perfect  home 
for  the  tea  plant,  with  itsleaf-yielding  crops — a habitat 
almost  as  suitable  as  its  original  one  between  Assam 
and  China,  and  one  in  which,  so  far  as  we  in  Ceylon 
can  judge,  it  is  likely  to  continue  to  grow  and 
flourish,  as  long  as  even  our  several  cultivated  palms.* 
Tea  grows  with  wonderful  vigour  in  Ceylon,  from 
the  south-west  coast  districts  up  to  plantations  6,500  ft. 
above  sea  level.  As  a rule,  the  higher  we  go  the  finer 
and  more  delicate  are  the  teas  produced,  but  the  less 
crop  per  acre ; the  lower  we  go  the  stronger,  and 
perhaps  coarser,  the  product,  but  the  heavier  the  crop 
return.  There  are  frequent  exceptions  to  this,  as  to 
most  generalising  rules,  the  heavy  crops  of  fine  teas 
yielded  in  plantations  above  4,000  ft.  or  4,500  ft.  having 
of  recent  years  astonished  all  concerned. 
So  much  I have  ventured  to  put  down  by  way  of  in- 
troduction towards  an  understanding  of  the  conditions 
attending  our  tea  planting  enterprise.  Now,  the  cry 
raised  by  Mr.  Hawes  about  instability  at  this  time  is 
by  no  means  a new  one  j it  was  one  of  the  earliest 
advanced  by  Indian  planting  critics  when  Ceylon  tea 
began  to  come  into  notice.  I have  had  Indian  planting 
visitors  in  my  Colombo  office  so  far  back  as  1886-87 
who,  after  an  inspection  of  our  planting  districts,  de- 
clared, very  much  in  the  words  now  used,  that  Ceylon 
planters  were  over-plucking  and  forcing  their  tea 
bushes,  and  that  they  (the  visitors)  were  convinced 
there  was  no  stability  about  the  enterprise.  This  re- 
minds me  of  a Canton  merchant  who  would  scarcely 
allow  me  to  mention  Ceylon  tea  when  I visited  him  in 
1884,  en  route  to  Japan  and  America,  but  who, 
three  years  afterwards,  wrote  apologising,  because 
he  had  realised  that  Ceylon  tea  was  to  be  the  great 
tea  of  the  future,  and  he  felt  bound  to  turn  his 
attention  to  it  more  than  any  other.  We  had  not 
much  to  say  in  reply  to  our  critics,  save  that  our 
instructors,  our  “ guides,  philosophers  and  friends,” 
m the  arts  of  plucking  and  pruning  tea  were  ex- 
perienced Indian  planters,  and  that  Ceylon  planters, 
* Our  Siohaleee  agriculturists  (many  of  them  shrewd, 
observant  men)  at  an  early  date  in  the  tea  era  ex- 
pressed themselves  astonished  at  the  hardiness  of  the 
tea  shrub  as  compared  with  the  aoffee  bush -the 
latter  chiefly  a surface  feeder,  while  tea  sends  its 
ro°ts  f.ar  down,  like  ’‘a  regular  jungle  plant,”  as  they 
oalled  it.  Of  course,  cheaper  iabour  and  transport 
are  indispensable  conditions  to  success  in  the  cultivation 
Of  tea. 
above  any  in  the  world,  were  ready  to  profit  by 
good  advice,  example,  and  experiment.  Hut  since 
that  time  we  have  been  able  to  turn  the  tables  on 
our  critics,  and  to  call  their  attention  to  facts  which 
may  well  make  them  pause.  It  is,  however,  not  so 
much  the  experience  of  an  additional  six  or  seven 
years — though  that  may  count  for  a good  deal — 
but  we  have  altogether  enough  of  typical  planta- 
tion fields  in  regular  cultivation  and  cropping  for 
nearly  twenty-five  years  to  point  to  as  constituting 
an  object  lesson  from  which  much  may  be  learned. 
There  is,  for  instance,  the  oldest  field  in  Loolecondura 
plantation,  some  20  acres  cleared  and  planted  by 
Mr.  Taylor  in  1867,  and  which  has  been  plucked 
regularly  ever  since  it  came  into  bearing,  with  the 
usual  intervals  for  pruning,  Ac. 
Now,  I have  for  some  years  back  applied  to  Mr. 
Taylor  for  an  annual  report  on  the  condition  of 
the  tea  in  this  field,  as  one  of  the  oldest  in 
Ceylon.  In  1888,  for  instance,  Mr.  Taylor  reported 
the  twenty-year-old  bushes  to  be  very  vigorous,  and 
last  year  (1891),  when  I made  the  latest  inquiry,  Mr. 
Taylor  wrote  to  me : “ The  field  is  as  good  as  ever, 
giving  about  the  same  crops ; it  was  manured  once 
only  with  castor  cake  in  the  beginning  of  1885.”  I 
may  be  told  “ one  swallow  does  not  make  a summer,” 
and  that  Mr.  Taylor  is  probably  more  careful  in  his 
cultivation  and  plucking  than  most  Ceylon  planters ; 
but,  though  there  is,  perhaps,  no  other  case  in  the 
island  so  old  and  so  reliable  in  its  information,  yet 
there  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  appearance  of  our  tea  fields  generally, 
or  in  the  yield  of  crop — I shall  come  to  quality — to 
justify  doubts  as  to  the  stability  of  the  Ceylon  tea- 
planting industry.  As  to  heavy  yields  of  crop,  I may 
give  the  case  of  the  Mariawatte  plantation  (of  the 
Ceylon  Tea  Plantations  Company),  situated  lower 
down  than  Loolecondura.  Here  the  original  104  acres 
were  planted  in  1879,  and  the  returns  of  crop  in  made 
tea,  as  recorded  by  me  in  the  “ Planting  Directory  ” 
from  the  manager’s  reports,  run  as  follow: — 
Per  acre.  Maunds 
lb.  (about). 
1884  Tea  5 years  old  ...  1,042  ...  13 
1885  „ 6 „ ...  1,178  ...  14J 
1886  „ 7 „ ...  1,059  ...  13 
1887  „ 8 1,126  ...  14 
1888  „ 9 „ ...  1,035  ...  13 
1889  „ 10  „ ...  1,106  ...  13| 
1890  „ 11  „ ...  1,347  ...  16| 
1891  „ 12  „ (Not  got  figures  by  me,  but 
fully  up  to  average.)* 
In  1891  I was  told  no  manure  had  been  applied  to 
the  above  tea  for  two  years.  This  particular  field 
affords  an  admirable  lay  of  land — comparatively  flat 
for  tea;  but  over  the  whole  plantation  of  over  400 
acres  the  average  crop  in  1890  was  757  lb.  per  acre 
in  bearing.  Of  course,  such  returns  are  far  above  the 
average  for  all  the  Ceylon  plantations ; indeed  , if, 
over  the  whole  255,000  acres  now  planted,  we  only  get 
half  this  return  per  acre  average,  it  will  mean  a crop, 
when  all  is  in  bearing,  not  far  short  of  100,000,0001b. 
One  reliable  planting  report,  written  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  year,  described  Ceylon  plantations  as 
“ everywhere  looking  in  good  heart.” 
But  now  as  to  quality.  It  is  quite  true  that  many 
plantations  in  their  early  years  send  home  better  teas 
than  they  do  later  on ; but  I think  Mr.  Hawes  will 
find,  on  more  careful  inquiry  and  study  of  the  ques- 
tion, that  the  explanation  has  nothing  to  do  with 
“the  stability  of  the  industry,”  or  with  the  soil,  or 
even  the  mode  of  planting.  There  may  be  a little 
allowance  made  for  aroma  for  the  first  few  crops 
off  virgin  soil ; but  far  more  is  due,  in  the  case  of 
fine  teas  coming  from  plantations  in  their  younger 
years,  to  the  great  and  deliberate  attention  which 
the  planter  and  his  staff  can  give  to  the  compara- 
tively trifling  crops  of  the  first  few  seasons.  It  is 
when  the  rush  of  “ flush  ” commences  from  big 
healthy,  vigorous  bushes,  and  all  the  resources  of  the 
* Since  received  from  Mr.  Rutherford: — In  3891 
Tea  12  years  old  gave  1,157  lb  per  acre,  about 
14§  mauuds.  The  whole  estate  gave  an  average  of  866  IbJ 
per  aore. 
