Aua. 1, 1900.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. ]l3 
they are open surface drains and act in the manner 
stated. These, in niy opinion, are the main causes 
of e.xliaustion on reylon te;ir gsinleiis, and is the 
reai^oti why additional fertilisers, cUier than jiniri- 
ings, become necessary in a le>ser or t;reater degree, 
tnrnin;;; on the coniijiuraiion of the tield an i ihe 
nietliod? adopted imniu-'iately after planting, to 
stein ihe wasli of soil as well a; to protecc as 
much as possible this ouzin^' away by the heavy 
rains we are subject to. Old coffee estates, sucli 
as I 'nose 1 spoke of as yieldiiiSf but 300 ib. an 
ar^i'^, ^s•l:i^■b si:fF-.;red from lioth cfluses, besides 
iron! b.'iivy cofTce ci\>ps, could only liave paid as 
tea estates lor t.he last year or two by rho use 
of fertilis rs, and proprietors of sucli would in- 
deed ba short-si.glited to give up their nianurinio; 
operations v\ith the idea of leaving abetter margin 
of )irolit. But there is anotlier class of garden, 
siich as those comprising tt)e Dimbula Valley 
Company's, or, indeed, the bulk of those which 
v.'f>ra in the coffee days called the young districts, 
taken float j'liigie between the years 1865 18S5, 
ami which, owing to leaf disease, iiaJ their coffee 
tiehls dci-.uded of coffee before exhaustion fioni 
croppiiig could take effect, and which by experi- 
ence gained in the older districts, wh.ereV'y protec- 
tion from wash was seen to be imperative, were 
drained, even before planting with coffee, and so 
had their original soil practically untouched when 
the tea, plant YTas substituted for coi'ee. This is 
anoi.her class of garden, requiring different treat- 
meut and justifying a different aim altogether 
from tiiat followed on the older estates. 
THE POLICY OF THE BOARD. 
As this is what tiiust interest you, as proprietors 
of the Dimbula Valley Estates, 1 will now ex- 
plain the jiolicy we liave hitherto followed in culti- 
vating your properties, and which will assuredly 
be followed, if I can iiave my waj, so long as I 
have anything to do with the manageinetit. ll is 
well known tliatif tea hushes ou such gaiclens can 
be ke|it in condition, the more frequently they can 
be plucked the better will be tlie class of tea pro- 
duced. Well, ou - aim is in this direction, and if 
by plucking every eiglith day, or even less, all the 
year round, you can succeed in gettin g a siiong 
and vigorous flush — by helping the bush with ferti- 
lisers — every eight days, instead of, perhaps, every 
tan or tv/elve, y<>u will get, not a laiger C[uantity, 
but the same quantity as if the bush got no assist- 
fl,ncp, but of a much iiigher class of tea. I think 
it would be a great mistake on an estate %\itha 
norma! yield of about 50 " lb. an acre, A%ithout 
assista'ice from manure, to add manure in order 
to g-H, 7001b. or 800 lb. of infeiior tea, which latter 
is perfectly fjos^ible on such estates. Siip))ort your 
bu-hes for quality, not quantity and in doing so 
you will in your prunings return more to the soil 
than is removed in crop. This, gentlemen, is the 
policy wiiich we are carrying out. on your estfites, 
and if the iiropiietors or company who go to sleep 
at such a time as we are iiassing through in tea 
do not wake up, but ado;)t some retrogra<le policy 
such as that a<lvocafed by Messrs. Gow. V7ilson 
and Stanton, woe betide them. You will see that 
our yield 1 ist season was but 512 lbs. per acre, 
whilst it could readily have !)een made one- third 
more. You see, its cost f.o.b. was 2o"77 cents 
i-er lb. You also see our net profits, and can 
(;herefore quite easily jtidge whether tiie policy we 
are carryio.g out is a sonm! one. Iba\e no man- 
ner of dotibt myself, and I am sure the best 
exnertswill agree with me.— Financial Times, 
June 20. 
TEA TRADE OB^ KIUKIANG IN 1899. 
The anntial reports of Mr. T P Hughesj 
Commissioner of Customs at Kiukiang, are 
always worth reading, Mr. Hughes's lon^ ex- 
perience and his habits of observation making 
his remarks on the course of trade as interest- 
ing as the facts on which he oases them. When 
Kitikia,ng was opened to foreigti trade, it was 
prominently a tea f)ort; its prominence in this 
direction dwindled away as the United (States 
took to drinking Jtipanese tea and Great 
Britain Indian and Ceylon tea. But Mr. 
Hughes thinks that the tea business is not 
irretrievably lost. He says : — 
The export of Black Tea iii the year under re- 
view ainounted to 131,14.5 piculs, or more than 
0,000 piculs in excess of the quantity in the pre- 
ceding year which was itself an advance on the 
figures of the year before. Brick Tea has also been 
steadily progressing during the last few years : its 
export in 1897 was 32,839 piculs, in 1S98 it advanced 
to 33,831 piculs, whilst in 1899 it totalled 43,352 
piculs. Green Tea also shows signs of improve- 
ment, but as it chiefly passes through this port 
now to be dealt with at Shanghai, it need not be 
further dwelt upDii here. The reports by experts 
on the Tea market of the year ttnder review are 
not so rose-coloured as our figures might lead one 
to expect. It seems the Keetnuns were not, on 
the whole, as good as in the previous year, whilst 
tiie Ningchows were disappointing, the famous 
Ningchovv district, in fact, being likely to be out- 
done by the preference shown nowadays for t* e 
stronger Hankow Oanfa district Teas. A gentle- 
man well versed in the trade favours me ■with the 
following interesting remarks : — " The demand 
for Indian and Ceylon Teas is growing more and 
more all over the world, and as Chinese teamen 
refuse to introduce nuichinery, it is otily a matter 
of time until the Cliina Tea trade dwindles down 
to a very small item. To an educated palate a 
fine Keemun is much preferable to Ceylon or In- 
diati ; but it is ' strength ' (strong cup) that the 
public now calls for, and the Indian and Ceylon 
Teas supplj' tliis, owing to carefitl cultivation and 
machinerj' preparation. The export of Indian and 
Ceylon i'eas to Rttssia (hitherto China's biggest 
Tea customer) is Increasing by leaps and bounds." 
This authority evidently believes, like many others, 
tliat by the aid of machinery and more 
careful cultivation, tiie Chinese could easily pro- 
duce Tea in abundance, to suit the present taste 
of the public, just as Ceylon and Indian teamen 
do; and it the Government went further and did 
what other Governments, with such an ancient 
and valuable industry to revive and foster, would 
be aliTiost sure to do, namely reduce the export 
taxes and duty, it is, I think, almost certain that 
the Tea export from China would ere long regain 
its old supremacy ; indeed it would be hardly too 
ranch to say, anomalous as it may appear, that 
the very reduction of the Tea duty would, by the 
expansion it would create in the export, before 
long increase the Tea x-evenue, wliilst the aug- 
mented Vv'ealth and prosperity of the producing 
districts would give an iinpetiis and activity to 
general trade which wotrld be far-reaching in its 
effects, and Avould uitimately redoutid to the well- 
being of the Government aaid the countrj'. — N.-C. 
Herald, June 27. 
"Tbe Sulphate of Ammonia" miscon- 
ception, as iintilly described by Mr. Melvilb" 
White, elsewhere, does not reflect credit "ii 
Mr. G. A. Talbot's estimate of the amount 
of commonsense appertaining to his brother- 
planters. To suppose that anyone applied 
this artificial manure by itself for a series 
of years to tea, and that it was to have 
the" same effect as on grass land at home, 
is rather too— too much altogether ! 
