Jan.  2,  1893.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
477 
grow  on  yonr  land  to  Government,  who  sell  it  and 
give  you  one*third  of  the  price.  They,  however, 
give  a small  advance  first.  Upon  the  cardamom  hills 
the  ground  is  worked  by  ryots  from  the  low  country  ; 
these  men  cultivate  and  give  it  up  to  the  Sircar, 
getting  payment  in  the  same  way ; they  weed  it 
cnee  a year  and  then  pick  the  crop,  if  they  want 
seed  they  buy  it  from  the  Sircar.  I believe  the 
Sircar  has  no  idea  as  to  the  aoreage  in  cultivation  ; 
the  gardens  extend  parallel  with  the  British  boundary 
for  about  80  miles,  and  there  is  a Sircar  official 
(European)  in  charge.  Peons  are  left  at  various 
watch  stations  at  the  heads  of  passes  to  prevent  theft, 
and  a oertBin  number  of  the  Maharajah’s  army  are 
sent  off  every  year  to  protect  the  crop  when  it  is 
handed  into  the  store,  and  to  assist  in  the  protection, 
generally,  of  the  Sircar  interests.  But  what  an  ex- 
traordinary idea  these  monopolies  are.  Go  into  a 
cardamom  garden  here,  and  you  will  see  the  plants 
growing  luxuriantly,  it  is  true,  but  irregularly,  and 
uncared  for,  to  the  last  degree;  especially  does  this 
strike  you  before  the  annual  weeding  1 No  one  goes 
near  them  for  months,  and  elephants  live  in  them  for 
weeks  together.  I suppose  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  10  acres  of  cardamom  in  Ceylon  cultivated,  give 
the  equivalent  of  50  under  this  system  ; and  what  an 
inducement  to  theft ! when  a man  knows  that  all  he 
can  take  away,  or  have  taken  away,  realises  thrice 
as  much  as  what  he  gives  up. 
I wonder  how  many  people  there  are  in  India  who 
have  any  idea  of  the  wealth  of  Travancore  in  the 
matter  of  timber  ? Sawyers  are  conservative,  and  if 
you  put  them  to  saw  timber  in  any  100  aores  of 
untouched  forest,  will  in  a brief  space  declare  it  is 
all  finished,  that  is  because  they  know  about  10 
trees  their  ancestors  have  always  sawn,  and  of  which 
about  one-third  are  rather  inferior  timber.  And  as 
a matter  of  fact,  there  are  probably  about  50  kinds 
in  any  fiir  forest  that  make  excellent  timber,  some 
for  one  work,  some  for  another. 
I believe  there  is  nothing  they  will  not  do  within 
their  limited  art,  to  prove  that  any  new  wood  is  ever 
tolerable.  I believe  there  are  in  Travancore  some 
400  odd  different  trees,  and  I do  not  suppose  that 
anyone  not  in  the  forest  department  knows  more 
than  20  of  them.  The  hillmen  are  just  as  ignorant; 
in  fact,  their  knowledge  extends  only  to  what  they 
call,  good  honey  trees,  i.e.,  trees  the  bees  seleot  for 
their  hives,  and  these,  except  those  favoured  by 
the  big  bee,  which  bites  most  disagreeably,  of  course 
are  only  hollow  ones.  The  big  bee  called  in  Ceylon 
the  Batnbara  bee,  has,  I believe,  there  been  captured 
and  taken  to  Europe.  But  I never  heard  if  anything 
came  of  the  experiment. 
By  the  way,  we  have  been  inflicted  with  an  extra- 
ordinary little  caterpillar  who  coils  himself  round 
the  young  shoots  of  the  tea  leaf  and  twists  two  or 
three  of  the  tenderest  shoots  into  a little  nest ; he 
is  never  over  quarter  of  an  inch  long.  When  small 
he  is  the  colour  of  a maggot,  but  when  full  grown 
developes  into  a blaok  sort  of  beast.  I do  not 
know  what  he  hatches  out  into,  but  probably  it 
is  a fort  of  fly  ; that  is  a question  I have  not  seen 
solved  yet ; and  the  idea  is  he  is  a produot  of  the 
wet  weather  and  will  die  off  in  the  dry  ; this  may 
be  the  case, but  last  year  I only  noticed  a small  number, 
and  this  3 ear  I have  seen  thousands ; in  fact,  during 
September,  one  or  two  flashes  have  been  reluced  15 
per.  cent,  by  it.  So  this  looks  as  though  it  at  aDy 
rate  does  not  die  out  in  the  dry  weather,  and  as  I 
have  seen  op  a single  bush  as  many  as  a dozen  of 
these  little  poochies,  it  may  be  very  serious  certainly 
if  only  a small  percentage  hatched  out  and  laid  a few 
hundred  eggs,  in  another  year  we  shall  run  the  chance 
of  having  something  very  like  a plague.  I wonder 
if  any  of  your  readers  interested  in  planting  have  come 
across  them  in  other  parts  ? Except  for  this  animal  we 
are  very  free  of  tea  ills.  I wonder  how  long  it  will  last  ? 
There  is  a good  deal  of  barking  Cinchona  going  on 
in  the  district,  and  as  this  product  if  by  itself  does 
no  harm  and  does  not  cost  1 anna  a lb.  to  har- 
vest and  put  on  the  coas1,  it  will  be  a nice  little  ad- 
dition to  places  whioh  have  it.  But  though  exports 
have  gone  down,  the  prioe  is  absurdly  low,  and  is,  I 
suppose,  likely  to  keep  to.  It  is  wonderful  what  an 
enormous  sum,  freight  and  selling  charges  amount  to 
in  this  product.  Ordinary  bark  fetching  3d  a lb.  has 
a deduction  of  over  Id.  always  to  be  made  for  these 
charges,  whilst  quill  bark,  which  of  course  has  to  be 
packed  in  cases,  will  cost  quite  50  per  oent.,  that  is  if 
it  does  Dot  fetch  over  6d  a lb.  ; this  takes  away  a good 
deal  of  the  margin,  and  in  faot  it  is  only  the  ridiou- 
lously  small  amount  it  takes  to  harvest  and  get  it 
down  that  makes  barking  pay  at  all.  Ceylon  reports 
are  very  good,  I fee  the  average  for  tea  is  higher 
now,  than  it  has  been  for  18  months. — M.  Times,  Nov.  3. 
THE  FUTURE  OF  TEA  IN  CEYLON. 
A successful  tea  planter,  who  has  closely  watched 
our  industry  from  the  beginning,  writes  : — 
“I  never  felt  more  satisfied  or  convinced  about  the 
permaDenoy  of  tea  than  I do  at  the  present  time. 
If  tea  not  ODly  grows  but  yields  3001b.  to  400  lb.  per 
acre  in  land  that  was  in  cofFe  for  30  years  or  m ore 
what  is  likely  to  be  the  length  of  life  of  the  plan 
iu  new  land  carefully  dr  lined  and  cultivated  from 
the  first.  In  Darjiling  t.vo  years  ago,  I asked  poor 
Curtis,  themanager  of  Tukvar  (sincedead)',  to  show  me 
his  oldest  tea.  We  went  to  a certain  field,  and  I said 
! What  is  the  age  of  this  ?’  ‘Well’  he  replied,  ‘I  have 
been  here  18  years  ; my  predecessor  15,  and  when 
he  came  it  was  old  tea  !” — and  this  planted  on  land 
as  steep  as  Uamboda  Pass,  bat  a peculiar  soft  mioa- 
looking  sort  of  soil  being  free  from  stone  and  grit 
and  no  wash  visible;  wash  in  steep  stony  lands  is 
the  thing  to  be  dreaded.” 
A well-known  Dimbula  planter  writes  s — 
“ We  are  gettiug  a good  oover  of  tea  in  Dimbnia  ; 
and  as  you  will  see  by  the  tea  sale  lists  good  average 
prioes.  The  yield  varies  considerably  from  400  lb. 
made  an  acre  up  to  600  lb.  to  700  lb.;  but  400  to 
600  lb.  may  now  be  put  down  as  the  average  yield 
of  the  whole  district  in  bearing.  I am  assisting  in 
collecting  figures  for  the  estimate  from  the  island 
for  the  coming  year.” 
A planter  in  a high  distriot  beyond  Nuwara  Eliya 
writes 
“ As  10  tea,  some  of  the  best  paying  estates  don't 
give  more  than  300  lb.  per  aore,  but  they  get  price, 
but  all  the  low-priced  places  can’t  go  on,  I should 
think  on  less  than  3001b.,  and  I don’t  think  it 
will  pay  to  manure.  There  is  no  doubt,  that  a 
great  deal  of  unsuitable  laud  is  planted  and  it 
won’t  pay  to  work  it.  Tea  is  a wonderful  weed,  but 
even  tea  can’t  do  well  everywhere.” 
TEA  IN  EASTERN  HAPUTALE. 
An  old  planter  writes  : — 
“ Tea  is  doing  very  well  in  Haputale,  and  as  far 
as  anyone  can  see  at  present,  will  be  permanent, 
barring  visitations  of  pests  as  yet  unknown,  such 
as  bug  which  extinguished  coffee.  Last  year  hopes 
were  high  that  there  was  to  be  a revival  of  coffee, 
prices  being  so  good,  the  little  that  was  left  was 
cultivated  with  great  care,  pruned,  and  in  some 
cases  manured,  and  all  for  what  ; the  worst  attack 
of  bug  I have  seen  for  many  years,  and  crops 
woefully  short.  There  are  exceptional  fields  in  the 
district  where  bug  is  not  so  bad,  and  crops  are 
fair  ; these  are  few  and  far  between.  The  appearance 
of  coffee  in  this  district  at  least  is  not  very  en- 
couraging ; some  of  the  best  fields  may  give  a crop 
or  two  ; the  results  of  the  season  will  convince 
most  men  that  all  coffee  must  give  way  to  the  new 
Queen  Tea  at  no  distant  date.  Uva-grown  tea 
will  hold  its  own  so  far  as  quality  is  concerned, 
and  with  the  railway  to  Haputale  approaching  com- 
pletion, it  will  not  be  so  heavily  handicapped  in 
the  way  of  transport,  although  it  can  never  com- 
plete with  the  Kelaui  Valley  for  instance,  in  cost 
of  transport.  Still  there  are  not  a few  estates  in 
i Uva  that  will  run  them  yery  close  in  yield  per  acre, 
