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THE TROPICA,!. AGRICULTURIST. [March 1, 1900. 
TEA &c. NOTES FROM WYNAAP. 
[From a Correspondent.) 
Wynaad, Feb. 25. 
FOHMEB CEYT.ON MEN. 
Since yon published your last " Notes " 
from this district, we have lost two of our most 
popular and respected residents, who were 
formerly in your island :— Messrs. Stewart 
Robinson and W Q "Wright. The former 
had gone home for a year, "on private 
affairs," while failing health compelled Mr. 
Wright, to seek, a change to England, under 
medical advice. Both gentlemen took a pro- 
minent part in all local athletic gatherings, 
and their friends look forward to their re- 
turn with favorable anticipations. On the 
other hand, we have had the pleasure of wel- 
coming Mr. W Parry from Ceylon, the pro- 
prietor of the "Sentinel Rock" estate at 
Vellera Mulla. 
" OUR GROWING TEA INDUSTRY " 
in South Wynaad continues to make most 
satisfactory progress, all the clearings planted 
in 1898, having come on extremely well, with 
a minimum of vacancies ; while the lands 
opened in the past monsoon, bid fair to equal 
the former in every particular. Another fine 
factory has been added to those previously 
erected in the country, Messrs. Parry & Co. 
of Madr.is, having added such a building to 
their splendid Pioneer Tea Company's block, 
at Vellera Mulla last season. Dr. George 
Watt, Reporter on Economic Products to the 
Government of India, who paid a brief visit 
to South Wynaad, towards the close of last 
year, was especially impressed with the 
capabilities of the district, in soil and climate, 
for the profitable cultivation of tea, and 
highly eulogised the older fields which 
hd was afJorded an opportunity of inspecting. 
Dr. Watt appears to have formed the 
opinion, that when the older tea already 
opened, as well as that more i-ecently planted 
in Wynaad, reaches full bearing capacity, 
that the average yield will rival the most 
productive tea districts in India ; at the same 
time he is credited with having discovered 
and identified the 206th blight with which 
the tea bushes in Asia is attacked, but up 
to date, local proprietors do not appear to 
have been disquieted by this new enemy, and 
as most of the tea in Wynaad has" been 
planted in detached blocks, with fallow 
lands dove tailed in between the gardens, 
there is reason to assume that an epidemic 
is less likely to overrun the country, than 
where an unbroken stretch of the tea bush 
obtains. 
PRICES. 
At the same time the opinion is held 
by competent judges, that the prices re- 
alised by Wynaad teas, during the last 
12 months, are by no means as satisfac- 
tory, 'd» was to be expected from a country 
which has been so highly eulogised for its 
advantages in the profitable growth of tea. 
In connection with this subject, it is a 
singular coincidence, that the breaks of tea 
hold in London, from gardens under the 
immediate control of Wynaad planter whose 
experience of tea manufacture is covered by 
the la quinquennium, htwe geyierally, not 
invar i'ibly, secured higher prices, at the 
same sales, than the produce of properties, 
solely under the icgis of experienced Ceylon 
tea planters who have settled in this dis- 
trict. The following quotation from a South 
Indian journal conveys a fair impression of 
this subject : — " Wynaad is represented by 
'Chulika,' 'Richmond' and ' Kanombyle,' as 
also by ' Perrengodde,' 'Erramacullee ' and 
' Perindotty.' The first three properties' te.is 
all realized an average of over »d for con- 
siderable breaks, while the latter trio are 
quoted at 6Jd, 6^d and 6Jd respectively. The 
former group are entirely supervised by 
old Wynaadians, while the last-named are 
bossed by Ceylon men." " Perindotty," in 
these figures, boasts "wooden spoon." as its 
produce invariably figures at the foot of the 
lists. But as the managing proprietor, 
who came over here in 1896 publicly asse- 
verates^ that his domain returns an annual 
yield of 500 lb. of made tea per acre, 
which he places I'.o.b. for 4d, and disposes 
of in Mincing Lane for 6id on the average, 
while he successfully "places" all his coarser 
gi'ades of tea locally, amongst native buyers 
at 5 annas per lb., his ambition would ap- 
pear to be satiated and he is to be con- 
gratulated on the result, in so far as his 
own balance-sheet is affected ; but, to the 
dispassionate on looker, it is obvious that as 
long as the public sale-lists of Wynaad teas 
are weighted with produce of the class under 
reference (Perindotty), the average for the 
district works out at a figure, which con- 
veys an imperfect impression of the capa- 
bilities of Wynaad for growing high-class 
teas. A well-known resident in Ceylon, who 
has enjoyed the widest opportunities of 
forming an accurate opinion on these topics, 
holds the view, that under really skilful 
manufacture, Wynaa,d teas should average 
fully 2d per lb. in excess {ot the usual sale 
prices ! In the contiguous Nilgiri district 
of Wynaad, some very fine young tea has 
been planted within the past two years, 
while the older fields have been described 
as equal to anything of the kind in S. India, 
sales from such properties averaging up to 
9d in London. 
HOW TO DEAL WITH LABOtTE. 
There is one point to which the attention 
of Ceylon men, who may contemplate .settling 
in the Wynaad, should be specially invited, 
viz., to the unwisdom of taking the law into 
their own hands, indealing with local labourers 
where the standard of work accomplished by 
the latter falls below what they have been 
accustomed to look for, in your island, 
where the discipline in force is entirely 
different from that ruling in this part of 
India. Irrespective of the view held oy the 
Wynaad planters, that it is distinctly 
cowardly for an Englishman to strike an 
Indian cooly labourer simply lor indifferent 
woik, planters who resort to such drastic 
methods will soon realize that they will 
not merely drive away their labour, but 
lose the capital invested in enlisting such 
people, with the result that their properties 
will be overrun by weeds, and they themselves 
will have earned an equivocal notoriety, 
which is likely to ])rove a formidable handi- 
cap for the residue ot their stay in the country. 
We have a couple of such instances unfor- 
tunately in South Wynaad, to substantiate 
these views, 
