836 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Ju^te 1, 1§0S. 
best tea planters in Ceylon. As a matter of fast, 
their arrangement means something more than 
this, since the plantation is baing worked more 
or less under their direction. Tlie plantation in 
question has a yield one is diffident about putting 
down in plain figures. History relates iliat .\us- 
tralians, next toKussians, consume more tea per 
capita than any other people, Even then figures 
connected with the tea trade are staggering, even 
when the said figures are merely those of an indi' 
vidual firm from one single source. The tea from 
this lately acquired plantation is of a character 
that can hardly fail to maintain the reputation 
of the firm dealing witii it. It is no cheaper than 
any other good tea. The fact has been long since 
recognised by every lef el- headed housewife that 
cheap tea is very poor economy. Other house- 
wives have yet to learn that a tea at one and 
ninepence a pound goes twice as far as tea at a 
shilling, beside being infinitely more wholesome 
into the bargain. You may buy tea from this firm 
at as low a figure as prices go in the tea trade, 
but you will do it against the better judgment 
of any educated individual who sells it to you. 
CEYLOX IS BY NO MEANS THE ONLY MARKET 
from which Grriffiths Bros, get their teas. China 
and India furnish their quota, tea from the latter 
place having been practically introduced to Austra- 
lia by this firm. No one tea is universally popular, 
a blend of Chinese and Indian tea commanding a 
better sale than the unmixed tea from either 
country. Beside tea, the firm deals largely with 
coffees and cocoas at its warehouse in Flinders 
Street. Regarding this warehouse, more anon. It 
contains the elements of much interest, and is 
deserving of more attention than can be given it in 
fhe terminal paragraph of a dissertation on a tea 
'louse- 
TEA. GROWING IN VICTORIA. 
.• As a last word on the tea questions I may 
li;!! ynu that the tea plant may be induced to grow 
wHhout any diiiiculty in Victoria. It in doing well 
in Mr Grittiili's garden at Baysvvater, and it makes 
R,,i exceedingly pretty ornamental shrub. Economic 
conJ.itions are against it being grown for com- 
mercial purposes, as the land can probably be 
turned to greater profit by other means. At the 
same time, it is an interesting item to add to your 
garden, the flower as well as the foliage having 
much to reeoinnjend il. —Melbourne Leader, Aprilll . 
<► 
PLANTING JOTTINGS. 
Mid Dimbula, May 1st. — The landscape is 
lookinar green again and tea bushes are bud- 
ding. The 45 day s' drought up to date has made 
SHORTAGE OP PLUSH 
for this month universal. Rainfall for the 
month is 6*70 in., making 13 02 to date, against 
21 -43 last year. 
"The secrets of nature have been opened 
out to us on a thousand lines." Width has 
been given to our intellectual horizon. 
"Those who share the same pursuits are 
drawn in spite of themselves into sympathy 
and goodwill. The acrimony of controversy 
has almost disappeared." So said Froude ! 
Having read with great interest " Agricul- 
tural Ledger No. 1 of 1903" on" "Tea 
Pruning " 1 read with the greater astonish- 
ment your quotation from Indian Gardening 
and Planting. " O. P.'s" remarks on same, 
and his tirade against its worthy authors :— 
" Too evident effort at 
BELITTLING THE MENTAL I«.OP0RTI0NS OF 
THE AVERAGE PLANTER " ! 
. . . "The amazing assumption that 
planters are generally not up to their work" ! 
..." The planter must not be called 
names or have it suggested that he Is an 
amateur at making his bread and butter"!! 
I had read the "Agricultural Ledger" referred 
to without discovering any " evident effort to 
belittle the planter", and I have reread 
the ledger and absolutely f.iil to discover any 
reason for offence. The idea of an Agri- 
cultural Ledger is a great one. The amount 
of good resulting from such a ledger must be 
itninense. Sir George Watt is deserving of 
the planter " sympathy and goodwill " more 
than that of anyone else. That the Ceylon 
planter is not of the type to assign Agri- 
cultural Ledgers to the " obscuricy of dust 
and cobwebs " is evidenced in the present 
keen interest taken in 
MESSRS. G-EORQE STEUART & CO.'S COMPETI" 
TIVE PRUNING ESSAY. 
The scientific side of the case is not only of 
"academic interest to practical men ", but 
has in Ceylon and elsewhere been made the 
basis of much practical experiment. I am 
sure that Sir George Watt in his Agricultural 
Ledger work has the "sympathy and good- 
will " of at least every Ceylon planter. 
One thing given emphasis to in the Observer, 
as if emanating from Sir George Watt, was 
the principle of pruning just above a bud. 
This very point was emphasised by 
Mr Kelway Bamber ten years ago in his 
book of 1893, where he remarks upon the 
difiBoulty of working out such a principle with 
the type of labourer at ths planters' disposal. 
Tiiere is a iriost interesting article on 
"EXPERIMENTAL MANURING" 
in the last issue of " Amatem- Gardening" 
which says the analyses of the ash of plants 
are not an infallible guide. For instance, the 
ash of the turnip contains 50 per cent potash 
and 16 per cent phosphoric acid, which 
would naturally lead one to suppose that a 
heavy dressing of potash manure would 
make an immense difference to the growth — 
whereas experiment shews that phosphates 
have a far greater effect than potash. 
Fourteen years' experience teaches the writer 
that " analyses may be helpful, but care- 
fully conducted experiment is by far the 
truest guide to success." Ceylon tea manuring 
is very largely based on analyses ; and what 
is not based on analyses is merely the adoption 
of some current prescription. ;Mr. W Lennon, 
in his paper oh tea soil cultivation read before 
the " Luxerpore Valley Society of Planters," 
quoted in Indian Gardening A Planting of 
lOth January, stigmatises the sheep like 
tendency of planters intthinking that what is 
good for the goose is good for the gander, 
and emphasises that a \ ariety of soil requires 
a variety of treatment. Perhaps it is not bq 
much a sheep-like tendency, as that most 
planters have not a free hand to " axperi- 
ment " with the tea under their charKe, 
There ought to be special tea laid aside for 
no other purpose than that of " cartfully 
cendutted experiment." 
