Nov. 1> 1900.] 
THE TEOPICaL 
AGRICULTURISt. 
313 
COFFEE IN DAYS OF OLD IN CEYLOxS. 
(By a Coffee Planter of the ''Forties".) 
Dublin, Sept. 4. 
I read the Overland Observer and find allu- 
sions therein to things tliat draw nie back to the 
good old times wlien in full vigour I roamed over 
the hills looking- after coolies, engaged in holing, 
lining, and jjlanting. My lirst experience was 
on " Alpittykande," the property of Kobert Craig 
and " iVIahaleecuuibura," the property of Post- 
master-General Lee and Mr. Saunders of the 
Customs. In those days when forest lands could 
be got at 5s the acre, many of the Civil Servants 
invested and some made money. 
My object in writing this note was on seeing 
" ALPITTYKANDE' 
mentioned, in a late issue of the Observer. I 
well recollect when I traced a path from the 
Monument and had it widened out to 
run "pack bullocks," for I did not like my 
men to be beasts of burden. Subsequently 
the track was extended to Ganipola, and as this 
track .succeeded well, a deputation ot the 
Superintendents waited on me from the other 
side of tlie main road, asking m to trace a path 
to their estates. These were the firsts private roads 
in the Kadugauawa district, and to show their 
value " Alpittykande," Mr. Craig's property, sold 
lor £12,001', Messrs. Lee and Saunders were 
offered £33,000 by the same purchaser, but refused 
and subsequently lost in the disastrous years 
1845-1846 and 1847, when I gave a bushel of parch- 
ment for a bushel inferior rice. 
Well, to return to 
COBFEE 
which was ruined by hoe and scraper, I must 
bear record to the only practical Planter I ever 
met in Ceylon (George Crosbie). After he had 
planted " Bowhill,'" near Nawalapitiya, he never 
allowed hoe or scraper to be used by any of the 
weeding gangs : instant dismissal was the punieh- 
inent of any infringement. The conseq^uence of 
his wise rule was a growth of moss all over the 
planted portion, and in seasons when shorthanded 
lie had the berry picked from under the trees and 
cleaned at his store, such coffee realising 5s per 
cwt. more than parchment cleaned at Colombo. 
After his death new-fangled ideas were intro- 
duced, hoe and scraper came into requisition and 
soon the soil which " G C" tried to secure for the 
nourishment of the coiiee tree was running off as 
pea-soup to enrich lowlying paddy fields ; the 
trees roots exposed and gradual decay. For ten 
years the average of Bowhill was 10 cwt. 1 qr. 
151b. per acre ; after the new change it dropped oft' 
to 9 cwt. 7 qr. 5 lb. and 3 cwt. jier acre and even- 
tually like all estates similarly treated, became 
Avorthless. Poverty brought disease which like 
any other plague extends and lays hold of good and 
bad. In this case, however, there was no remedy, 
for as coflee is a surface feeder and the soil which 
should be strictly conserved was wasted. The soil 
on Ceylon hills is light, and never can lie replaced 
by any artificial nianure, and to keep cattle is 
unproductive, as 1 know by experience. I never 
saw a coolie drop his basket of manure beside a 
tree that had to be holed to receive it, but I said 
there goes 3s. 
How far 
TEA 
will pay I have no opinion to offer as I never was 
. engaged in its culture. It is a sliiub that will grow 
from Pidvu'utalagaila to the Fort of Galle, and 
40 
from what little experience I gleaned from a re- 
lative modern machinery has not added to the 
flavour of tea. I recollect the small plot Mr, 
Grant had on the load from Nuwara Eliya to 
Kandy which was cured by hand labour, and 
certainly «o«e of the machine-cured tek can at all 
come up to it in ; flavour. Mr. G. always sold his 
at three rupees a lb. and I would give that amount 
in preference to Is of the present stuff sold 
under the name of Tea. The Beaulys of Dublin 
have still a small quantity of tea, part of a cargo 
that they had from Cliina about 50 years ago. On 
State days they regale friends (they belong to 
the Society of Friends) and no greater treat could 
be offered. This particular tea was hand-cured. 
K. 
— —— • 
CEYLON PLANTERS' RUBBER 
SYNDICATE, LD, 
This is the title of a proposecl Company of 
which the memorandum aird articles of 
Association appeared in a recent Gazette, 
The object is to acquire lands in the Malay 
Peninsrrla or elsewhere for the purpose of 
producing: rubber, tea, coffee, cinchona, 
cacoa, cardamoms, rhea, ramie, plants, trees, 
etc., and the nominal capital is R90,000 
divided into 180 shares of R.500 each. The 
signatories are : — A R Wilson-Wood, Kota- 
gala ; W H Aitken, Dikoya ; Wm. P 
Halliley, Nanuoyti ; P J Gaisford, Talawa- 
kele ; Prior S Palmer, Dimbula ; Ernest 
Hamilton, Dolosbage ; and Harry Whithamj 
Dolosbage. 
EXPERIMENTAL TEA CULTIVATION IN 
SOUTH CAROLINA. 
la the last report of the British Consul at Charles- 
ton a section is devoted to describing the resnlta of 
experiments in tea growing in the State. At Snmmer- 
ville the experiments began about ten years ago. At 
the beginning they were conducted on a small scale, 
but they have been gradually increased, until now 
over 50 acres have been planted with tea. When the 
plants arrive at full bearing tlie yield should be at 
least 10,000 lb. of high-grade tea annually, and this, 
it is supposed, will suffice to show conclusively whether 
tea may be profitably grown under existing local con- 
ditions of climate, soil, &o. The problem of pro- 
viding cheap labour for gathering the leaf was solved 
by training a band of negro children. The South 
Fraser tea garden, containing a little over two acres, 
has done very well so far. The bushes were raised 
from seed planted in 1892, produced from a celebrated 
garden near Hang-chao. This tea is not exported from 
China, as it co=;ts about 6s 6d per lb. at Hang-chaUa 
The Summerville garden is in very good condition, the 
unsuccessful plants amounting to about 4 per cent 
only, and visitors acquainted with Oriental gardens 
have expressed surprise at its luxuriant and uniform 
growth, comparing favourably with similar gardens in 
the East. The bushes are thick, somewhat low in 
growth, and globular in form, the leaf, as a rule, 
being rather small and quite tender, and adapted for 
the manufacture of either green or black tea. Tha 
soil is a clay loam, with a stiff, dry .subsoil ; it has 
been heavily enriched every spring with a high-grade 
fertilizer at the rate of GOO lb, to the acre, and tha 
yield of dry tea last year reached 500 lb. per acre, 
while fevv gardens in China yield over 200 lb. Tha 
1803 crop amounted to 3,000 lb. in all, and was sold at 
a profit of about 25 per cent. The black tea produced 
there baa a distinctly characteristic tiavour, and, lika 
p^me of the choicer Orientj^l teab, its licjuor has motj 
