• Feb. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
531 
THE SCIENTIFIC CULTURE OF TEA AND 
ITS CRITICS. 
It is extremely like " teaching one s grand- 
mother how to suck eggs," to find onr 
evening contemporary attempting to instruct 
veteran planters and visiting agents in the 
rudiments of their profession ! The process 
also of trying to discredit and repress 
scientific cultivation in respect of our Tea 
planting industry, so frequently attempted 
in the same columns, bears a close resem- 
blance to Dame Partington's vain attempts 
to drive back the Atlantic ! Cultivation 
according to scientific principles is ack- 
nowleged to be the only means to main- 
tain and render permanent — rather than to 
injure or destroy— an agricultural industry. 
The existence of Rothamstead and the life- 
history of Sir John Lawes and Sir Henry 
Gilbert testify to this fact, and it is eminently 
satisfactory to know that Mr. Joseph Fraser 
has returned from his visits to Rothamstead 
and from interviews with the greatest agri- 
cultural authorities of the age with a clearer 
grasp of the principles and means to be 
followed ; but without any conviction as to 
mistakes in the past, such as Mr. G. A. 
albot supposed he had discovered. It is 
abundantly evident that tea on oM coffee 
land may as well be abandoned if it is not 
liberally supplied with fertilizers and nutri- 
ment ; while it is quite as evident that 
tea on many younger estates with poor 
soil, must be aided judiciously and scientific- 
ally if its heart is to be maintained. 
That means the use of " forcing manures " 
according to the ordinary but ignorant 
crit'C. " Give a dog a bad name and you 
may at once hang him" is the equivalent 
Tulgar adage. But by following scientific 
teaching and at the same time watching 
the result of experiments — " science with 
practice " in other words— the planter can 
settle for himself what is best for his 
plantation, his tea bush and his pocket. 
This is exactly what has been done, for 
instance, on Damboolagalla and Pitakande. 
These est<ates are, we suppose, open for 
inspection — we write without any communi- 
cation from Mr. Fraser who has a far 
greater stake in the permanent health and 
prosperity of the Ceylon Tea Industry than 
most of his critics, and who has verified 
again and again the truth of the adage that 
V *' the proof of the pudding is in the eating 
thereof," while he can show his tea to be 
- in better heart and greater vigour now 
than when lie commenced his operations. 
But does all this not mean an encourage- 
ment to overproduction, and especially to 
the overproduction of cheap teas ? We 
answer by enquiring who can be more in- 
terested in doing the right thing for him- 
self, or for his employers or Directors, than 
the average Ceylon planter. He is by no 
means the shortsighted worker or downright 
idiot that some people would think him to 
be. Last year, it paid well to manufac- 
ture an abundance of tea of a cheap gi'ade ; 
j^nd this year the same course bein^ fol- 
lowed, a similar good return might have 
been experienced, were ic not that Indian 
planters (see the editorial from a Calcutta 
authority we gave yesterday) abandoned 
their usual course and, thinking to follow 
the example of Ceylon, rushed at the supply 
of cheap teas, so that the market was en- 
tirely overdone, and the finer teas have 
become scarce in proportion to demand. 
Now, there is the risk of another swing of 
the pendulum ; but the average Ceylon 
planter has a level head and he will give 
due consideration to the best course for him 
to pursue as to "plucking" and "manu- 
facture," while keeping up cultivation and 
utterly ignoring the ignorant or prejudiced 
cry about "forcing manures." Even for 
returns of 450 to 600 lb. an acre, Ceylon tea 
requires a regular supply of fertilizers if 
the bushes are to be kept in heart and not 
worn out prematurely, and we suppose not 
all the critics in the world— even though 
led by a contemporary who knows nothing 
of planting and backed by Mr. G. A. Talbot 
— would keep the Directors and Manager of 
Mariawatte — to take only one instance — 
from following the same course of liberal 
cultivation which they have proved to be 
right, as well as successful, in giving hand- 
some financial returns, for the past eighteen 
years ; and we trow that in point of health 
and vigour, Mariawatte tea will compare 
with any in the island ? 
THE FUTURE OF TEA : 
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE RISK OF 
OVER PRODUCTION. 
The proceedings of the Planters' Assoeia* 
tion in Kandy last month may for once 
be criticised by onlookers as more of aca- 
demic than of practical interest. " What is 
the use," we may be told, "of agitating for 
the removal or reduction of an Imperial 
duty when Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has 
just been assuring a Deputation that there 
was more likelihood of it being increased 
rather than reduced ?" Nevertheless, we con- 
sider Mr. Metcalfe (whom we congratulate on 
a first .appearance and an able maiden speech), 
Mr, Westland and their supporters most 
amply justified in the course they have pur- 
sued. In the first place, the very best way to 
destroy the least chance of an increase in the 
tea duty is to send on Saturday's Resolution 
urging a reduction ; and in the second place, 
even in the present House of Commons, we are 
not sure if the question of reduction were taken 
up on next Budge; by some good speaker 
and leader, that the division would not 
show a very respectable if not considerable 
minority. But most important of all is it 
to begin an agitation now, and to continue 
it at intervals, if fruit is to be borne in 
the Budget of fifteen months hence, or in 
March 1902 when the impost should be re- 
duced not to 4d, but to 3d per lb. So mote 
it be. 
But now to turn from the speeches 
given elsewhere with their serious tone as 
to the risk of over-production and of non- 
Saying prices, we direct atjtention , to the 
eliverance of the Chairman of the Planters' 
