??8 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
f June  i,  1893. 
average  season  in  Ceylon  is  not  much  above  five 
hundred  millions  (this  was  in  contrast  with  B ue 
Book  returns  which  gave  954  millions  for  1890  1) 
the  greater  portion  being  used  lor  the  food  of 
the  people.”  Where  we  slightly  d'ffcr  from  our 
esteemed  correspondent  is  in  the  number  of  trees:  he 
gives  36  millions  ; we  estimated  45  millions  as  an 
approximative  number,  beoause  of  the  very  large 
total  in  crowded  native  gardens  which  scarcely 
bear  at  all  and  so  reduce  the  average  for  the 
island,  much  below,  we  fear,  the  20  nuts  per  tree. 
Indeed,  it  will  be  seen  that  comparing  tbe  totil 
area  and  averare  orop  of  nuts,  it  works  out  to 
less  than  1,000  nuts  per  acre  which  at  70  trees 
to  the  acre  would  only  give  an  average  of  14 
nuts  per  tree  all  over  ; but  knowing  how  natives 
crowd  in  tries,  we  should  te  inclined  to  count 
75  trees  p r acre.  These,  wo  believe  are  the 
test  approximations  that  can  be  made  for  the 
present  : — 
THE  COCONUT  TALM  INDUSTRY  OF  CEYLON. 
Total  area  cultivated  = 550,000  acres. 
Total  number  of  palms 
old,  full  bearing,  young  &c. — 42,000,000  trees. 
Total  yield  of  nuts  in  a 
good  average  year  =550,000,000  No. 
Used  for  Manufacturing 
and  Export  purposes  = 275,000,000  No. 
,,  for  local  food  and 
drinking  purposes  — 275,000,000  No. 
TEA  AND  COFFEE  CROPS AND  THE  SOIL. 
Mr.  John  Hughes  senda  us  the  further  long 
instalment  of  bis  valuable  and  interesting  investi- 
gations into  the  constituents  of  tea  With  reference 
to  the  requirements  of  the  soil,  which  we  print 
today.  It  will  be  observed  that  he  also  institutes 
comparisons  between  analyses  of  tea,  coffee  and 
sugar;  and  though  the  last-mentioned  is  in  an 
entirely  different  category,  yet  the  comparative 
results  obtained  in  respect  of  our  old  and  new 
staple?  are  so  startling  as  to  call  for,  in  cur 
opinion,  tbe  special  attention  of  our  planting  com- 
munity. Mr.  Hughes  himself  in  forwarding  the 
paper,  modestly  write  s : — 
“I  enclose  you  my  concluding  paper  on  the  com- 
parative analyses  of  Indian,  Ceylon  and  China  tea, 
and  hope  your  readers  will  he  interested  in  the  re- 
sults which  I think  open  up  new  views  in  regard 
to  the  production  and  relative  market  value  of  the 
different  qualities  of  tea. 
“Some  Ceylon  men  to  whom  I have  shown  the 
tabulated  results,  appeared  to  be  much  interested 
and  think  that  they  suggest  future  research  as  being 
of  real  practical  use  especially  to  the  planter,  for 
the  London  broker  has  simply  to  sell  what  has  been 
manufactured  and  shipped  home.f 
It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Hughes  insists,  as 
the  result  of  his  analyses,  on  the  fact  that,  taking 
the  same  quantity  of  made  tea  as  of  marketable 
coffee,  the  former  (tea)  removes  from  the  soil  nearly 
three  times  as  muoh  nitrogen  and  nearly  twice 
as  much  mineral  matter  as  does  coffee  ! This 
ie  very  extraordinary  in  view  of  what  some  of  our 
older  tea  gardens  have  continued  to  do  for  a long 
series  of  years  without  the  aid  of  manure.  We 
have  quoted  LooleCondera  before  as  one  of  the  oldest 
of  tea  estates,  and  one  which  we  Buppose  haB 
had  very  little,  if  any,  manuring  for  the  twenty- 
five  years  of  its  existence  and  yet  we  have  not  heard 
that  its  crop  bearing  has  fallen  off  in  quantity 
or  quality.  There  are  some  other  illustrations 
which  might  be  adduced.  True  Mr.  Hughes  sup- 
plies part  of  tbe  explanation  by  telling  us  how 
the  requisite  supply  of  nitrogen  may  be  got  from 
the  air  and  from  rain  ; but  this  does  not  apply 
to  the  equally,  or  more,  important  mineral  matter. 
On  the  oiiir  hand,  there  is  no  question  of  tbe 
great  benefit  that  tea  fields  in  different  districts— in 
Matale  as  tbe  Damto  lagalle  experiments  show, 
in  Mariawatte,  in  the  K.  A.  W.  group  and  else- 
where—have  derived  from  judicious  and  even  liberal 
manuring.  Surely  then,  the  time  has  come  for  tbe 
Planters’  Association  to  cause  some  systematic  mquiry 
lobe  male  into  what  has  already  been  done  in  this 
direction,  ai  d to  what  more  may  be  done  in  view 
of  Mr.  Hughes’  investigations,  We  give  Mr.  Hughes’ 
paper  as  follows  : — 
COMPARATIVE  ANALYSES  OF  INDIAN, 
CEYLON  AND  CHINA  TEA. 
In  order  to  make  these  Analyses  more  complete, 
as  well  as  for  the  purpose  of  showing  to  what  extent 
tea  may  be  regarded  as  an  exhausting  crop  if  con- 
tinuously plucked,  the  composition  of  the  mineral 
matters  including  the  figures  for  soluble  and  insoluble 
ash  are  fully  extended  in  table  3. 
In  preparing  this  table,  it  may  be  useful  to  mention 
that  instead  of  giving  the  percentage  composition  of 
the  ash  which  is  rather  likely  to  confuse  the  general 
reader,  it  has  been  thought  more  satisfactory  to  state 
the  results  obtained  from  the  analysis  of  a 1U0  parts 
of  the  tea  itself. 
By  this  arrangement  anyone  can  see  at  a glance 
how  much  is  organic  matter  (or  matter  destructible 
by  heat)  and  how  much  is  mineral  matter  (or  matter 
which  remains  after  incineration). 
The  proportion  of  nitrogen  is  also  stated  so  that 
the  nitrogenous  character  of  the  organic  matter  may 
be  noted.  Of  the  various  constituents  which  comprise 
the  ash  or  mineral  portion,  potash  is  by  far  the 
most  important,  and  occurs  it  will  be  noticed  in 
pretty  equal  quantity  in  all  six  specimens,  in  round 
numbers  more  than  J of  the  total  ash  consists  of 
potash  ; indeed  if  the  carbonic  acid  of  the  ash  be 
deducted,  the  potash  amounts  to  quite  | of  the  total 
mineral  matters. 
This  fact  naturally  suggests  the  immense  importance 
of  a good  supply  of  potash  in  an  available  form 
suitable  for  rapid  assimilation,  and  it  may  therefore 
be  fairly  predicted  that  the  permanence  of  a tea 
estate  will  largely  depend  upon  the  natural  richness 
of  the  soil  in  available  potash. 
Indeed,  these  analyses  have  suggested  to  the  writer 
the  possible  explanation  of  patana  soils  being  incapable 
of  producing  forest,  namely  their  poverty  in  potash  aDd 
phosphoric  acid. 
In  these  results  it  will  be  noticed  that  phosphoric 
acid  occurs  in  the  largest  proportion  in  samples  1,  3 
and  6 which  respectively  were  sold  for  Is  3d,  ll£d 
and  Is  7d;andno  doubt  the  relatively  large  quantity 
of  soluDle  ash  which  it  will  be  remembered  was  re- 
ferred to  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  paper  is  made  up 
by  tbe  presence  of  increased  proportions  of  potash 
and  phosphoric  acid. 
At  the  same  time  it  is  practically  important  to 
observe  that  lime  is  less  abundant  in  1,  3 and  5,  and 
more  abundant  in  2,  4 and  6,  the  samples  which  were 
sold  for  7^d,  7|d  and  6Jd  respectively. 
Sulphuric  acid  occurs  in  very  uniform  quantity  in 
all  six  samples  and  as  regards  the  figures  for  sand,  it 
will  be  interesting  to  notice  that  the  two  Ceylon  teas 
are  decidedly  freer  from  this  gritty  constituent  than 
the  Indian  and  China  specimens. 
Manganese  was  present  in  appreciable  quantity  in 
all  the  samples,  being  largest  in  the  Indian  and  Ceylon 
and  least  noticeable  in  the  China  lots. 
In  order  that  planters  may  compare  the  composition 
of  Ceylon  tea  with  that  of  Ceylon  coffee,  table  IV. 
has  been  added  which  gives  in  a manner  allowing  of 
easy  comparison,  the  composition  of  some  parchment 
coffee  sent  to  the  writer  from  Badulla  during  his 
residence  in  Colombo  in  1878  and  the  original  analysis 
1 of  which  appears  o»  page  110  of  h s official  Report, 
