Oct. 1, 1900.] THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. 
225 
conclusively that it is a great mistake. "Only," your 
managers have said : " It inust be done. " I want 
to prove it need not be done. If any of the 84 
planters who wrote in 1897 will take up this subject, 
they should not only say whether cutting down is 
or is not advisable, hnt they should state what method 
should be adopted to prevent the necessity. My 
system of pruning is as follows :— First year half the 
garden is pruned to pencil size, i.e., all wood under three- 
eighths of an inch is cut out ; new wood over that size is 
left about one to three inches in length ; the rest of the 
garden is left unpruned. The second year this plot is left 
unpruned. The third year it is pruned lightly, merely 
cut across about three inches over last pruning. The 
fourth year it isleft unpruned. Thefifth year it is again 
pruned to pencil size. And so on, but at each pruning, 
when the bush is fully e.Kposed, old wood is cut out, 
if found not to have made good growth during the 
two years from the last pruning." I have found this 
plan to answer for ten years, and as far as I can 
see it will answer for ever. After pruning I pluck 
for six months to a standard of two feet — nothing below 
that level is taken, so that the small bushes can 
have a chance of growing and the sides of the big 
bushes are allowed to extend. This growth below 
two-foot level supplies roots with all they require in 
the way of leaf to return sap for the wood. I fancy 
that a root cannot grow in size until it has got sap 
returned from the leaves. And if it cannot grow in size 
it cannot grow ic length and go and fetch food 
from farther off or deeper down. Supposing the roots 
to have exhausted the soil, you will not get them 
to give fresh growth even if you cut the bushes down. 
If we come to examine the causes of the supposed 
necessity for cutting down, I think it will be found 
iu the desire for getting the greatest immediate 
return without consideriug the future benefit of the 
estate. It takes a long time to seriously injure the 
tea bushes, and probably no one manager has ever 
watched the decadence of an estate, and ascribed 
it to the harm done by " cutting down. " Nor as 
far as I know has any estate escaped from cutting 
down for a period of 20 years. If there is such an 
estate it could be used to back up my theory. If 
a discussion and expression of opinion can be re- 
started, it would be well to find out whether pre- 
sent-day planters acknowledge or deny that the tea 
bush can renew itself indefinitely from suckers 
thrown out direct from the roots. Wy theory is 
that suckers are not formed until the roots become 
too much for the upper growth. By judicious prun- 
ing and allowing sufficient leaf to the bush, it will 
grow roots in proportion to the growth above grouud ; 
when some of the branches get too old and hide- 
bound to allow the sap to pass freely, a sucker is 
formed to take up the surplus sap. The old branches 
should then be removed so that all the sap can go 
to nourish the suckers and supply good leaf from it. 
But when a bush is cut down the roots do all 
they can to send out new shoots throunh the old 
channels. The roots are much too large for the new 
plant, and they cannot grow in size because there 
is not enough growth o£ leaf left by the pluckers 
to supply them aU with sap. Some of them die 
out or become dormant, and come into use again 
when the bush has increased sufficiently in size and 
has enough leaf left on it to send down the sap. 
Of course an excessive yield would sooner exhaust 
the soil, but no one would object to exhaust the 
soil by this channel, and he would have enough 
money to restore enough to the soil to maintain 
the yield of leaf. I think that the time has come 
to settle the question because iho jiennanence of 
an estate has become one of prime importance. In 
former times when dividends were larger and easier 
to get the future was disregarded. It has probably 
become an accepted belief that every estate must 
deteriorate, but I deny it emphatically, and it will 
certainly add to the value of an estate if it can 
be proved that its yielding life can be indefinitely 
prolonged by judicious treatment, and that when the 
yield falls off from actual exhaustion of the soil it 
can be kept up by replaciug the wanting constituents. 
There are many trees whose life under suitable 
conditions runs to thousands of years. 
Tea is not old enough yet to state definitely that 
a bush must die within a stated period. It seems 
to have the^power of reproduciug itself indefinitely, 
and I think that this power should be used, and 
that the growth should not be forced by cutting 
down. This matter of cutting down tea is entirely 
one to be guided by the proprietors. 
The planter may persuade the proprietor that 
cutting down is necessary, but he does not explain 
that this step will cause only immediate yield at 
the cost of the future effioieny of the estate. The 
proprietor, not knowing better, consents. He finds 
that the yield improves for a time, but again falls off. 
This recurs until the estate cannot respond ; it is 
sold, and that is the end of it. 
Machinery nmst wear out, and money is written 
off year by year for depreciation ; equally tea bushes 
imist wear out unless money is given year by year 
for more careful pruning, and they can be made to 
renew themselves year by year. 
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN 
GREATER BRITAIN. 
PAPER READ BEFORE THE FOREIGN AND 
COLONIAL SECTION OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS, ON 
TUESDAY.tlFEBRUARY 27, 1900. 
By R. Hedger Wallace. 
(Continued from pacje 152.) 
As regards the rest of the African Continent, 
there only remains for me to mention that practical 
agriculture is taught in the Mission schools at the 
Gold Coast. Boys from the Government schools are 
also trained at a model farm. There is, further 
on the West Coast, a scheme of agricultural in- 
struction formulated, covering three years, by which, 
beginning with a year's work at a local Botanic 
Station, a selected pupil then proceeds for a year's 
work in Jamaica, and finishes his final year at Kew 
Gardens. 
Coming nearer home, at Malta agriculture ia not 
taught in the primary schools, but the Third Eeading 
Book coutains short lessons on Agriculture. Beyond 
this, agricultural education does not seem to receive 
any support. Cyprus also does not seem to have made 
any provision for affording instruction in agriculture. 
The aid may be given indirectly, however, for in 
1896 Mr. Gennadius, who was formerly Agricultural 
Adviser to the Greek Government, was appointed 
Director of Agriculture in this colony. 
In making this survey, I have now journeyed right 
round the world, followiog the common flag of 
Greater Britain. Our position in this country is, 
however, a peculiar one, iu respect to agricultural 
ea.i atiou and many other things, for we are both 
a great Colonial Power and, at the same time, an 
assertive Free Trade nation. This, therefore, invalid- 
ates any useful comparison being made between 
ourselves and other nations, and such I do not in- 
tend to make. A witty writer has said that our 
population is brought up " upon grammar and ready- 
made goods." In Greater Britain these "ready- 
mades " of whatever nature are not so easily 
obtainable as here, for it must be borne in mind 
that in young countries the division of labour is not 
so complete as in the older ones, and, therefore, 
every man, in some slight degree, is a jack-of-all- 
trades. The two golden rules of colonial life being 
that a man should be prepared and willing to do 
anything ; and, if yon want a thing done, do it 
yourself. 
I think it will be admitted that even the little 
information I have been able to present in thjg 
