May  x,  1893.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
697 
OUR  STAPLE  PLANTING  INDUSTRY : 
POSITION  AND  PROSPEOT ; ENEMIES  ; 
PRICES  AND  CROPS. 
We  are  not  quite  ready  yet  to  sum  up  the  exact 
statistical  position  of  our  Planting  Industry  : 
further  returns  have  to  come  in  from  several 
districts,  and  the  whole  has  to  be  brought  together, 
analyzed  and  arranged  in  tabular  form.  But  no  one 
can  travel  through  the  heart  of  our  tea  country  at 
the  present  time  or  spend  even  a few  Easter 
holidays  "on  the  hills”  without  hearing  and 
noting  a great  deal  about  the  Enterprise  with 
whioh  the  continuedi  prosperity  of  this  Colony  is 
so  closely  bound  up.  No  one  also  who  has  passed 
through  the  scathing  fire  of  adversity  which  passed 
over  Ceylon  and  her  chief  planting  industry  between 
1877  and  1885  can  ever  ignore  or  forget  the  lesson 
whioh  was,  as  it  were,  then  burnt  into  the  experience 
of  planter,  merchant,'  chetty,  labourer  and  jour- 
nalist alike.  It  is  impossible  in  viewing  the  fresh 
vigorous  appearance  of  our  upland  districts  in  the 
present  day,  not  to  recall  the  same  green  pristine 
vigour  whioh  marked  the  Bhow  of  coffee  bushes 
twenty  or  even  fewer  years  ago.  And  then,  there 
comes  the  inevitable  questioning  as  to  whether 
tea  is  secure  in  its  universal  cultivation  throughout 
the  same  planting  country  against  the  appearance 
and  ravages  of  an  insidious  enemy  such  as  devastated 
coffee  ? Newcomers,  in  the  face  of  the  splendid 
appearance  of  our  plantations,  are  not  troubled  with 
such  thoughts  ; but  they  go  a long  way  in  the  minds 
of  the  English  capitalists,  and  these  are  still 
numerous,  whose  connection  with  the  island  ex- 
tends back  to  the  sixties  and  seventies.  We  do 
not  believe  therefore  in  shirking  any  doubts  raised 
by  past  experience.  We  believe  it  is  far  better 
to  put  and  answer  critioal  or  even  sceptical 
questionings  in  the  bluntest  form  as  to, — 
the  common  though  the  hidden  thought 
of  most  old  Colonists.  It  is,  of  course,  absurd 
to  suppose  that  any  great  agricultural,  and  especi- 
ally tropica],  indus.iy  can  exiBt  without  enemies. 
The  Old  Book  is  still  true  in  its  teaching  : — “ In 
the  sweat  of  thy  face  ehalt  thou  earn  thy 
bread.”  The  latest  issue  of  " The  Indian  Museum 
Notes”  published  by  authority  of  the  Government 
of  India  in  the  Agricultural  Department,  presents 
quite  a formidable  “ Conspectus  of  the  insects 
which  affects  orops  in  India.”  The  total  in 
number  is  no  less  than  240  and  the  proportion 
affecting  tea  and  ooffee  is  considerable.  Person- 
ally, we  have  no  such  dread  in  Ceylon  of  insect 
enemies  as  we  have  of  those  of  a fuDgoid  character. 
There  need  be  no  great  wonder  at  this  after  the 
coffee  experience  of  Hemileia  vastatrix  and  the 
realization  of  the  fact  that  a great  part  of  Ceylon 
with  its  moist  hot  climate  is  a perfeot  paradise 
for  fungi.  The  late  Dr.  Thwaitee,  f.b.s.,  was  in 
his  element  here  1 It  is  always  a relief,  therefore, 
to  lealn  as  we  have  on  the  present  occasion 
that  no  sign  whatever  of  a furgoid  enemy  has 
appeared  in  our  tea  at  low,  medium  or  high  ele- 
vations. But  there  is  surely  a warning  to  be 
given  here  to  Ceylon  tea  planters  about  not  need- 
lessly courting  danger,  especially  in  the  hotter 
and  moister  distriots.  All  agricultural  and  horti- 
cultural authorities  agree  as  to  the  risk  attending 
the  deoay  of  vegetable  matter  above  ground  in 
reference  to  the  fostering  and  development  of 
fungi.  If  we  had  the  power,  we  would  make  it 
incumbent  on  every  tea  plantation  proprietor  in 
the  island  to  bury  his  prunings,  and  for  segregation, 
as  much  as  anything  else,  to  plant  a certain  propor- 
sion  of  timber  aDd  fuel  trees  on  his  tea-fields,  more 
or  less  according  to  the  forest  tt servo  he  had  to  show. 
We  need  not  say  that  tea  iu  Ceylon  is  no  more  free 
from  insect  enemies  than  it  is  in  India ; but  in 
the  cultivation  of  trees  we  enoourage  the  location 
of  birds,  often  very  efficient  enemies  of  trouble- 
some insect  peats.  A planter  with  large  experi. 
ence  in  a district  of  medium  elevation  told  us 
yesterday  how  he  has  encouraged  with  success, 
the  small  black  ants  often  found  in  swarms  on 
estates,  to  eat  up  soale  insects.  In  this  way  he 
has  seen  partial  developments  of  green  bug  on  tea 
aa  well  as  coffee  (it  attaeks  everything  in  faot  with 
a white  flower  : cinchona,  lime,  orange,  guava,  jas- 
mine and  gardenia)  stopped  and  cleared  off  by  the 
advance  of  the  minute  black  ants  whioh  eagerly 
feed  on  the  enemy  1 That  inseat  pests  oan  even 
now  prove  troublesome  and  seriously  injurious  to  our 
tea  in  Ceylon,  is  undoubted.  We  do  not  hear  so 
much  of  red  spider  as  of  the  other  insect  pest  so 
well  described  by  Mr.  E.  E.  Green  and  which  is  so 
partial  to  the  young  buds  ooming  on  after  a pruning. 
In  this  it  shows  a strange  peculiarity,— attacking 
young  vigorous  tea,  while  never  seen  on  bushes 
whioh  might  be  said  to  be  temporarily  exhausted 
through  a too  long  continuance  of  pluoking  with- 
out pruning.  The  oontrast  given  to  us  the  other 
day  of  two  fields  in  a high  distriot,  was  a striking 
one  : — the  one  of  tea  just  “ ooming  away  ” after 
pruning,  but  devastated  by  the  mite;  while  the 
other  adjaoent  although  it  looked  almost  neglected, 
through  the  bushes  having  “run”  too  loDg,  was 
without  a sign  of  the  pest.  The  effectual  cure  so 
far  for  this  enemy  and  other  insect  troubles  has 
been  a good  shower  or  at  least  a steady  downpour 
of  rain,  no  uncommon  ocourrence  fortunately  in 
most  of  our  tea  districts 
Heavy  rain  it  appears  has  hitherto  been  suffi- 
cient to  sweep  away  the  most  persistent  of  our 
inseot  enemies  on  tea.  Will  it  always  be  so  ? 
is  the  question  of  the  doubter,  who  may  be  on 
the  same  platfoim  as  the  friend  who  observed 
to  us  the  other  day  that  he  notioed  Tea  Companies 
afforded  a convenient  means  to  many  of  our  oldest 
and  Bbrewdest  tea  planters  for  arranging  that  ail  their 
“ eggs  should  not  be  in  one  basket.”  We  oan  only 
think  well  of  the  planter,  or  any  other  man, 
who  dees  all  in  his  power  to  guard  against  such 
an  arrangement  of  his  eggs,  that  is  bis 
capital ! Tea  under  favourable  circumstanoes,  is 
undoubtedly  a good — a splendid — investment  ; but 
to  prevent  the  eggs  being  in  one  basket,  and  to 
ensure  the  stability  of  the  Planting  Industry  and 
the  continuance  of  even  moderate  prosperity  for 
the  Colony,  local  capitalists  should  endeavour 
to  have  an  interest  in  cacao,  in  Liberian  coffee,  in 
cardamoms,  and  also  in  coconuts. 
Nevertheless,  we  fear  there  is  Btill  more  land 
being  opened  with  tea  in  the  island  than  in  all 
the  other  products  put  together.  We  cannot  point 
this  time  to  any  new  district  carved  out  of  forest  or 
chena  or  patana  land,  nor  to  any  very  extensive  dear* 
ings  ; but  we  euspeot  when  we  oome  to  sum  up 
the  total  of  the  different  additions, — corner  clear- 
ings, or  fields  to  round  off  ("  is  it  not  a little 
one  ”?)—  made  both  up  and  down  country  to  ex- 
isting plantations,  that  the  area  planted  since  our 
last  tabulating  of  the  figures  will  be  very  con- 
siderable—more  so  perhaps  than  most  planters  or 
merobants  imagine. 
And  this  naturally  brings  us  to  the  question  of  tea 
crops  and  prioes.  We  were  asked  the  other  day, 
how  it  came  about  that  the  prices  and  averages 
for  the  teas  of  a oertain  favorite  upland  division,’ 
had  been  falling  off  of  late?  We  understood  that 
the  fall  was  out  of  proportion  even  to  the  general 
disfavour  in  which  our  fine  teas  have  been  held 
in  London.  We  do  not  know  if  the  answer  is  to  ba 
found  iu  the  faot  that  our  present  trip  has  clearly 
