474 
THE TROPICAL AGRiCULTURiST. [Jan, 1, 1900. 
Vessel, where it is kejat in motion until it granu- 
lates into a solid mass of raw sugar, and is used 
ih this state by the natives in the East or sold 
to refiners and brewers. 
The advantages claimed for this process are 
that no molasses are produced, that tlie sugar 
will give a high recovery, and with the low 
temperature at which the juice is treated in the 
triple effel and in Miller's patent granulators 
there will be less loss from inversion, as com- 
pared with the present system of making Musco- 
vado sugar on the copper wall with open evapo- 
ration. Also the process is simple, as no vacuum 
pans nor centrifugals are required. 
The late hurricane in Porto Rico caused great 
damage to all tlie sugar estates in that island, 
and a number of the estates were levelled to 
the ground. Three of these damaged estates are 
now being amalgamated to make a central sugar 
factory, and the work has been entrusted to 
Messrs. M'Onie, Harvey and Company, (Limited). 
The success of this new venture may induce 
other planters to do likewise. 
A DAY'S WOKK ON A CEYLON 
TEA ESTATE. 
" Master, Wake ! Master, Wake ! " This com- 
bined with a tremendous banking, announced 
that another day's work was beginning and that 
my worthy appu (cook) was endeavouring to awal;e 
nie to a sense of my many duties. Having eaten 
early breakfast, or rather conhned myself to a 
slice of jjineapple, as eating anything at that hour 
5-30— is always to me impossible, and walked to 
the factoiy (the place where the green tea leaf is 
converted into the saleable article) about 200 
yards from my bungalow, I found most of the 
coolies already assembled, and others being 
hurried along by the kanganis (native overseers) 
to the mustering ground. '1 he first thing on these 
occasions is to make oneself heard, and iiaving 
succeeded, with the help of tlie conductor (the 
head native overseei-, usually English speaking), 
in this, the next thing is to tell off the diffeient 
gangs to their various works. This is frequently 
a work of extreme difficulty, as the coolies often 
like some work very much better than others, and 
the way they can slip from one gang to another 
wit'iout being seen is wonderful. And then there 
are the ladies to contend against little kntties 
(native girls) of most innocent appearance, sv\ear- 
ing hat their feet are full of thorns and tliat they 
cannot work today, or that thei,r great uncle died 
in the night and they must have three days' 
mourning with unlimited rice that he may be 
properly buried so that the various devils cannot 
get at hini. 
NATIVE FUNERALS ARE IN THIS COUNTRY 
made an occasion of great feasting, generally ending 
in all parties getting very drunk and indulging in a 
free fight, thus paving the way for another 
funeral. However, after a great deal of shouting 
and an occasional mild use of the stick, though 
this is to be deprecated, all are got into working 
order and marched off to various parts of the 
estate in charge of their respective kanganies. 
Tlien there i.-: time to light the first pipe of the 
day and try to remember how many mistakes you 
have made at the muster in sending large gangs 
of coolies to works that only require a few, and 
vice versa. 
This train of thought leads on to another, in 
which the likelihoo<l of the manager's liver being 
Bli<'htlyout of order, and the probable consequences 
wl"en he comes on his morning's round to 
the various workn, form a leading part, 
THE manager's LIVER, 
especially if be happens, to be an elderly gentleman 
who has spent some years in the East, is ahvays a 
matter of considei able interest to assistants on tea 
estates. But there is not much time to waste, and as 
a g.mg of men are prm ing a field near, we just 
visit them. This is rather skilled labour, and the 
best coolies are u.'rufi'lly s-elected for it, asagreat 
deal depends on a field being properly pruned. 
Each man lias his line of tea bushes, and they 
are cut down to about ISin. aliove the ground. 
Great care must be taken to make the coolies cut 
the branches off so that when the bush is pruned the 
lops of the cut branches form a level surface, and all 
cross branches and small twigs are or .should betaken 
off. Half the coolies con e to us and say thnt their 
knives are useless, or their hands are hurt, and 
the other half are usually doing very bad work : 
so that we may count on a lively half Iicur with 
tliese gentlemen. Their exctises are wonderful 
and manifold. It is here that an intimate know- 
led^'e of the Tamil language is so useful, as when 
the first coolie conies up with some stupid com- 
](laint, and you are able to draw compaiisons in 
projier coolie Tamil between the man addressing 
you and one who is useless, it serves to deter the 
rest to a great extent. Of course, there are often 
real cases where a man cannot do the work, and if 
so he is sent to the pluckers in the next field. 
Having looked carefully over the pruning, and 
informed any coolie doing bad work of your 
opinion of himself, his father, niotijer, sisters, 
brothers, and ancestors generally, and threatened 
the most awful penalties if he does not mend his 
ways, we proceed to the next field, vihere the 
plucl'.ers are engaged. Here is the main body cf 
the cooliei=, mostly women and lioys and girls 
who are not .^tiong enough to do other woiks, 
but are usually far quicker and handier than men 
at plucking. They all have baskets on their 
shoulders, into which they put the leaf. Only 
the youns shoots are taken, and all coarse leaf 
must be left alone. 
THE KANGANI.S ARE SUPPOSED TO GO 
constantly round to 'see that the baskets 
contain nothing but good leaf, and woe 
betide the unfortu- nate assistant if the mana- 
ger receives a note from tea maker (the 
man in charge of the factory, usually a more 
or less educated native) to say that the day's leaf 
is unsatisfactory. We stay some time with these 
coolies, .as the work has to be carefully looked 
after, and so we go up and down the line of pluc- 
kers, and soon, on looking into the baskets, 
find several faults. Some coolies are 
MISSING GOOD LEAF 
that is, leaving a bush before they have 
taken all the ycning and good leaf from it, or 
putting big, coarse leaves, v/hich have the effect 
of giving the made tea a rank, bitter taste, into 
the baskets. It is a most important thing to see 
that all the flush (young leaf) is taken, as if 
there is any left it stops the young shoots 
sprouting, and instead there is only big, coarse 
the tea maker leaf where, if previously the bush had 
been properly treated, there would be young stuff fit 
for the tea factory. A field takes from ten days to 
three weeks between pluckings, depending on the 
weather and caste of tea. The young shoots are 
very sensitive to climate, and too much dry or 
wet weather is quite enough to stop the flush 
coming on. I am talking, of course, of Ceylon 
only ; it may be different in Assam. 
