•704 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. \AmiL 1, 1908. 
PEIZE ESSAYS FOR TEA PLANTER : 
THEORETICAL POINTS IN TEA 
CULTIVATION. 
The present age is not one which desires 
to obtain its knowledge through laborious 
research nor time-consuming experiment ; 
but rather at second-hand in the concen- 
trated form of hand books and manuals. 
It matters not what aspect of truth with 
which the seekers desire to acquaint them- 
selves, whether it be philosophy, theology, 
or history, the reading public demands its 
pabulum in a nutshell, and craves for 
mental stimulation in the form of literary 
tabloids No province of literature exists 
without these royal roads to learning, and 
any student of fair capacity, can, by 
walking therein, cram a subject so success- 
fully, as to make a very fair show, indeed, 
when he goes up for his examination. The 
result to the student may not exactly be 
what is meant by education, and to the man 
who stops at that point, who is content 
with a pass, and the smattering of know- 
ledge he possesses, the benefits he has re- 
eeived are questionable. If, however, he is 
bent on widening his horizon, and recognises 
that education here ends only with life, 
the suj^erficial knowledge which these rough 
sketch-plans afford, is not without its value 
when later on he labours to fill in the 
details for himself. To know the headlands 
may not mean an accurate knowledge of 
the coast ; but it is useful in this way that 
you can locate your position, very nearly, and 
are not wholly at yovir wit's end as to what 
next to do. Tropical agriculture is not 
different from other studies in the demand 
for hand-books, and when any special 
culture bids fair to draw to its cultivation 
the iLO.iey and brains of the West, the 
creation of a new manual is assured. The 
continued issue from the Observer press of 
complete treatises on almost every brand 
of tropical planting enterprise, and the 
steady call from all parts of the world for. 
these cultural guide books, are evidence 
enough that they supply a needed want, 
and have a wide and appreciative public- 
But to attain to the full measure of their 
usefulness, the reader must be genei'ally 
informed on tropical agriculture, and the 
wider his knowledge and experience, the 
more highly appreciated is the special 
manual. Tlie Planters' Association— during 
its literary age— added considerably to the 
stock of tabulated information available for 
the outdoor worker in the tropics, and we 
suppose we may take, <as evidence of 
the dawn of happier and better times, the 
readiness of the Committee today to accept 
the onerous task of adjudicating the merits 
of the Planting Essays to be sent in, in 
competition for Messrs. George Steuart & 
Co.'b handsome K500 prize. The principal 
point which the essayist will have to deal 
with is Pruning, and on this subjert there 
■will be ample scope for the ingenious 
mind. It will be hard, however, to make 
the theme intelligible or of much practical 
value without the aid of illustrations, but 
if these are empl6yed " he that reads may 
run." In the February number of Country 
Life in America, there is an article on Pruning, 
which, however, refers to the garden, and 
not to a tea estate ; but the principles which 
guide the cultivator when he desires to 
bring, say, a peach or a cherry tree into 
prime condition, do not differ in any way 
from those which obtain when the planter 
has a field of tea requiring the knife. 
" Before one prunes a plant " says the 
American writer " he (sic) should know why 
he (sic) prunes it." That statement may at 
once be .accepted as the theoretical stand- 
point of the scientific cultivator. To suc- 
cessfully treat and advise on such a subject 
as Tea Pruning— where the plant thrives 
from sea-board to a six thousand feet 
elevation — it is clear that no rough and 
ready rule of thumb will avail ; and 
when we add j^t, exposure, soil fertility, 
and the health conditions of the bush itself, 
a very complicated problem is evolved 
calling for special directions, which may 
modify any general principles before formu- 
lated. Root Pruning, which in Arboricultur* 
is about as important as branch pruning, 
is a dark subject yet as regards tea ; 
certainly what root pruning the tea bush 
gets, is done in a rough, blind and un- 
intentional fashion ; the tool, a mamotie, or 
a digging fork ; and the rule of guidance, 
blind chance. Koots get cut in manuring 
operations, but the man has yet to arise 
who has made the root-pruning of tea a 
study and who can guide his brother- 
planters in the matter. He may make his 
advent among the coming essayists, and he 
is certain to be hailed when he appears 
above the horizon. In the early days of 
coflfee-leaf disease, when no one would 
credit that what was in process before their 
eyes was a tragedy — the ruin of an industry, 
there were several men who claimed to 
have discovered a cure which, alas ! on 
trials made, came to nothing. Some followed 
well-known remedial lines, but a few 
originals struck out in a wild way, A 
German chemist poulticed the stem of the 
trees with mud and carbolic, and the trees died! 
Another, an eccentric Frenchman, would 
have built a miniature paddy field around 
each indiviflual plant. After a trial of 
his system in several parts of the country, 
and no beneficial results obtained, he still 
lost neither heart, enthusiasm nor resource. 
" The roots of the tea wanted attention,' 
he said, " have them imcovered and white- 
washed and recovered afresh and then " — 
here his eyes blazed and rolled in the fine 
frenay ot the prophetic soul, — " mon Dieu, 
you will see !" Nobody ever did see ; for 
men were sick .at heart, and felt that to 
have decorated the roots with ribbons of 
the newest Parisian shade would have 
salted the tail of the de.adly fungus as 
effectually as white-wash could have done, 
and been very much more artistic. The 
next coming authority on root ciilture who 
is to appear amongst us will be— let us 
trust— of a sane mind, and be able to give 
a reason for the hope that is in him, 
without requiring to fall back on Gallic 
hysterics, or the heroics of the Teuton. The 
