May  r,  1893.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
683 
the  day  we  were  threatened  with  “ overproduction.” 
It  was  said  that  when  our  produce  reached  forty 
millions,  the  limit  of  consump  iou  would  be  attained 
Our  last  year’s  exports  are  seventy  millions.  More 
recently  we  trembled  for  exohange  ; any  serious  altera- 
tion for  the  worse  of  the  position  ot  that  element 
of  our  prosperity  seems  now  as  far  ofl  as  ever.  There 
have  been  giants  in  the  way  oil  along,  and  ample 
room  for  the  anxious  to  despond;  bntiur  feirshave 
n»t  hitherto  been  justified  by  Ihe  nsult  ;and  now  least 
of  all,  one  would  think  is  it  neces?a  y to  raise  phan- 
tom" ones.  Our  policy  has  been  to  advertise,  to 
oourt  publicity,  not  to  work  in  the  dark,  and  if  under 
press  of  no  panic  or  pest,  or  waning  fortune,  we 
overhaul  the  foundation  of  our  prosperity,  there  is 
no  fear  that  the  motives  will  be  understood.  Busi- 
ness men  at  home,  whether  friends  to  Ceylon  for- 
tunes or  otherwise,  watch  our  career  as  critically  as 
we  can  do  ourselves.  They  know  the  risks  of  tropical 
agriculture  as  well  as  we  do,  and  have  learned  them, 
in  common  with  ourselves,  from  the  fate  of  coffee, 
and  also  from  the  vicissitudes  of  tea  in  India. 
There  are  at  all  events  largest  and  most  prosperous 
concerns  now  existing  that  covers  the  ruin  of  more 
than  one  generation  of  shareholders.  Supposing 
that  after  careful  enquiry  we  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  systematic  manuring  is  a necessity  in  order  to 
maintain  the  vigour  of  our  tea-bushes,  this  conclusion 
would  be  accepied  ns  no  admission  of  weakness,  but 
rather  as  an  act  of  prudent  self-preservation. One  article 
say  in  a Money  Market  Review  cutting  up  our 
system  of  cultivation  and  finding  us  unprepared  with  a 
defence,  would  do  more  to  destroy  confidence  and  to 
cause  diversion  of  capital  than  any  amount  of  enquiry 
on  this  side  as  to  how  to  cultivate  so  as  to  Btcure 
the  permanence  of  our  staple.  Depend  upou  it,  men 
at  home  ask  first  “ will  it  pay”,  and  next  “ will  it 
last.”  Directors  of  Indian  c impanics  at  their  annual 
meetings  delight  in  assuring  them  that  in  Oeylon 
it  will  not.  Our  business  in  Oeylon  is  to  neglect  no 
means  for  securing  the  vigour  of  our  bushes — and 
to  see  us  sett'mg  ourselves  resolutely  to  that  task  will 
do  more  to  promote  confidence  than  anything  else 
can.  The  aim  of  my  mo  ion  is,  of  course,  exa- 
mination of  our  present  system  of  cultivation.  Is 
it  iu  accordance  with  the  scient'fic  knowledge  of 
the  day  ? I say  the  time  has  ejme  for  this  en- 
quiry. (1)  Because  we  have  motvv  in  our  pockets 
to  promote  it  if  money  is  neeikd — the  result  of 
good  yield — fair  markets  and  a very  favourable 
condition  of  exchange.  (2)  Because  wo  have  found 
out  the  virtue  at  combination  to  widen  our  markets,  and 
combination,  where  money  is  needed,  is  easy  in  pros- 
perous times,  and  the  reverse  in  times  of  difficulty, 
(3)  Because  this  is  no  season  of  panic  calling  for 
urgent  remodies  ; but  we  can  quietly  and  dispas- 
sionately work  at  an  enquiry  whioh  needs  time  to  be 
effeotual.  Lastly,  there  is  no  time  to  be  lost  in 
getting  enquiry  on  foot.  It  is  easier  to  strengthen 
the  healthy  than  to  cure  the  sickly  tree.  We 
have  brought  science  to  bear  upon  every 
branch  of  our  tea  iudustry,  on  our  machinery, 
our  transport,  and  so  on  ; but  we  have  not  applied 
to  it  bs  a community  for  help  in  the  cultivation  of 
our  bush,  nor  in  the  processes  of  the  manufacture  of  our 
leaf  whioh  are  depended  upon  chemical  changes.  Our 
estates  are  better  drained,  our  bushes  better  pluche  1 
and  our  factories  more  roomy  than  ever  they  were 
before  , but  have  we  got  fnrther  and  seen  if  we  are 
retaining  in  our  soil  the  oosntituents  that  have  given 
our  buBhes  their  first  vigour.  We  do  not  want  now- 
adays to  wait  till  ob serration  shows  U3  that  something 
is  wrong;  if  we  wait  for  that  it  may  be  too  late,  or 
we  may  find  that  we  are  told  then  we  must  replace  them 
at  a heavy,  perhaps  impossible  cost,  what,  spread  over 
a series  ol  years,  would  have  cost  us  little  and 
saved  our  bushes  from  destruction.  This  latter  has 
been  an  accomplished  fact  in  India  — but  as  to  quan- 
tity and  quality  of  teas.  An  expert  called  in  to  pre- 
scribe remedies  for  red  spider  told  them  long  ago  that 
their  soils  were  being  exhausted  by  long  cropping 
without  manure,  and  that  the  pest  was  the  result  of 
their  system  then.  In  the  Indian  Tea  Gazette,  Dr. 
Schrottky  wrote  “ The  greater  portion  of  the  tea 
sent  out  of  India  for  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years,’ 
has  it  not  been  grown  without  a particle  of  manure  ?” 
Has  not  the  soil  of  the  majority  of  tea  gardens  year 
after  year  been  deprived  of  its  mineral  plant  food,  which 
in  the  very  best  soils  seldom  exceeds  10  per  cent  of 
the  whole  ? And  can  one  be  surprised  to 
find  the  plants  every  year  growing  weaker  and 
weaker  ? Do  the  shareholders  in  tea  Companies— 
happily  deluded  by  the  receipt  of  large  dividends 
know  that  these  dividends  are  portion  of  their  capita? 
of  the  concern,  and  that  they  do  not  represent 
their  real  interest,  do  they  know  that  shares— the 
real  value  of  which  is  R100  today  must  next  year 
be  worth  a definito  amount  less  paid  away  in  divi- 
dends— for  do  they  not  sell  in  every  maund  of 
tea  a portion  of  their  garden?  Indian  garden* 
have  mostly  possessed  large  reserves  and  these 
are  being  constantly  draw  upon?”  We  oan’t  do 
that  in  Ceylon.  How  do  you  know  what  propor- 
tion of  our  success  in  tea,  in  the  higher  districts,  we  owe 
to  artificial  manures  already  applied  in  days  of  coffee, 
and  never  drawn  out  by  ooffee  trees  in  the  shape  of 
orop?  I do  not  think  that  the  failure  of  artificial 
manure  to  save  ooffee  can  be  quoted  against  its  use  in 
the  case  of  tea.  When  manure  was  applied  to  coffee, 
leaf  disease  was  already  in  possession,  and  its  nature 
was  such,  that  any  accession  of  vigour  to  the  ooffee 
tree,  meant  accession  of  vigour,  oat  of  ell  propor- 
tion, to  the  fungus  also,  even  so  the  best  culti- 
vated estates  lasted  the  longest— so  that  the  balanoe 
of  evidence  is  iu  favour  of  the  manure.  Applied 
too,  to  tea,  it  is  not  subjeot  to  be  baffled  in  its  aim 
by  adverse  seasons  to  anything  like  the  same  ex- 
tent as  it  was  in  the  case  of  coffee.  Therefore,  for 
the  sake  of  our  cultivation,  I plead  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  analyst  to  prove  to  us  that  our  soils 
are  liable  to  deterioration,  if  science  asserts  they 
are,  and  after  that  to  tell  us  what  to  apply  to 
prevent  it,  and  in  what  quantity,  according  to 
the  individual  requirements  o f estates — so  as  to 
safeguard  us  from  the  very  real  risk  of  over- 
stimulation.  Without  scientific  direction,  experience 
has  already  taught  us  how  dangerous  artificial 
manure  may  be.  For  the  take  of  our  manufacture 
also  urge  the  same  examination.  Brewing  I suppose, 
offers  a close  analogy.  It  is  subject  to  the  same 
risk  of  bad  material,  and  deals  with  the  same 
chemical  processes — fermentation  and  tempera- 
ture. I am  told  that  science  has  revolutionized 
brewing,  and  that  vrhat  used  to  be  determined 
by  taste  and  observation  is  now  determined  by 
analysis,  and  the  thermometer.  Perhaps  some  here 
can  tell  us  if  this  is  trus.  At  all  events,  if  we  do 
give  that  science  an  opportunity  we  Bhall  satisfy 
ourselves  that  we  are  leaving  no  stone  unturned  in 
the  struggle  for  continued  success,  and  if  this 
subject  is  sent  on  to  the  other  Associations  by  youi 
vote  today,  we  shall  have  it  thoroughly  ventilated 
and  a great  mass  of  information,  as  I hope,  added  to 
our  general  stook  of  knowledge. 
AN  AMENDMENT. 
Mr.  W.  Cross  Buchanan  proposed  an  amend- 
ment:— ‘’That  this  Association  does  not  consider 
the  services  of  an  analytical  chemiBt  are  at  present 
required.”  His  reas.n  for  moving  the  above  amend- 
ment was,  that  he  considered  estates  at  present  were 
well  and  profitably  managed,  and  to  change  this 
comfortable  state  of  affairs  by  the  introduction 
of  an  unknown  quantity  in  the  shape  of  “a  man 
of  soienoe  ” was  to  run  the  risk  of  having  our 
estates  scientifically  mismanaged  and  worked  at  a loss. 
Mr.  Ryan  seconded  the  amendment  and  spoke 
at  some  length  on  the  subject,  saying  that  he 
had  paid  considerable  sums  for  analysis  re  tea,  but 
with  no  praodcal  result. 
THE  RESOLUTION  CARRIED. 
Mr.  Buchanan’s  amendment  was  then  put  Is 
the  meeting  and  lost. 
Mr.  Hayes’  resolution  was  then  put  to  the  meet 
ing  and  carried — 7 votes  to  6.  vijtr. 
The  meeting  closed  with  a vote  of  thanks  to  the 
Chairman.  A.  A.  Bowie,  Hon.  Seoy.  DimbulaP.  A, 
