750 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTUELST, [May 1, 1900. 
TEA ON LOOLECONDERA— ABOUT 
THE OLDEST IN CEYLON : 
INTERESTING PARTICULARS. 
Loolecondera Estate, Deltota, March 23. 
Dear Sir,— The Observe)- of 13th imd 16th 
instant containing an article (page 697) and a 
letter (page 708) referring incidentally to Loole- 
condera, which yon sent me I found most 
interesting. 
With regard to the second heading of your 
article " Is it well to niaiuire Tea on Virgin 
Soil ?" I would say " Certainly not ;" hut the 
yield and quality of the leaf will depend in 
a great measure on careful and systematic 
pruning, and of course weeding; and as to 
burying prunings as far as my experience 
goes nothing is gaiiied hy burying them. 
1 would prefer to leave such on the surface 
to shade the ground immediately after 
pruning and thus lessen ;the shock to the 
trees in being pruned and denuded of shade 
at the same time. The prunings being left on 
the surface also prevent and arrest wash and 
help to form new surface soil. 
The old ]00 acres last year gave a yield of 
450 lb. made tea jjer acre, though 20 acres 
of it were pruned down. The yield would, i 
believe, be much larger were it not for the 
extraordinarily high winds which prevail here 
throughout the S.-W. monsoon. 
As to the remark of "Old Hand," about 
there being no virgin soil here, besides the 
100 acres referred to, which was planted with 
tea,— some 120 acres of forest and 75 acres 
scrub and patana have been planted with tea 
here since lS9i, beside the old coffee and 
cinchona land, — Yours faithfully, 
G. F. DEANE. 
COFFEE AND TEA— AND A HIGHER 
CURRENCY : 
EVIL TIMES APPROACHING IN INDIA ? 
Coonoor, Nilgiris, March 16. 
Sir,— On the 28th of last montli you did 
me the honour to publish a letter on "Labour 
in India and Ceylon" in which I pointed out 
that, from the increasing population and 
the corresponding increase in the cost aris 
ing from famines, the Indian Government 
must sooner or later be involved in financial 
difficulties, and that it was certain that in 
that case the Government would seek relief, 
as it did before, by forcing up the exchange 
in order to lessen its payments for home 
charges. When remarking upon my foreeast 
'you say that you "can scarcely believe this," 
but that it is not only possible but probable, 
is evident from the statement of the Indian 
Finance Minister when introdvicing the Cur- 
rency Bill— June 189.3, and I may remind your 
readers that he then said "it is not intended 
to do more at ji'i'esent (the italics are mine) 
than aim at a rate of Is 4d," so that it is 
clear that the Government contemplated a 
higher rate than Is 4d in the future, and 
that too without the pressure of any severe 
financial emergencies. That such emergencies 
must arise sooner or later is evident, when 
we come to consider that we ha ve a rapidly 
increasing population and diminishing means 
of employment which must, before many 
years goby still further diminish, as the re- 
maining railways and large irrigation works 
are completed. It is then not only possible, 
but in the highest degree probable, and 
many will be inclined to say certain, that 
the producers of India and Ceylon may at 
no distant time have to face a Is 6d ex- 
change, or even more, and it is to provide 
against such a crushing calamity that I 
suggest that such an amount of 
bounty should be granted as will 
us in the same position in competing with 
our rivals in the other silver-using countries 
that we enjoyed before the closing of the 
mints. But you think that there would not 
be the least hope of obtaining bounties in 
" the planters' interest." As to this remark 
1 should entirely agree, were the planters 
interests' solely concerned, because the Gov- 
ernment of India has hitherto not only shown 
an utter disregard of planters' interests ; but, 
as I could amply prove were I not afraid 
of unduly encroaching on your space, taken 
pains to refuse them a hearing as regards 
those ])oints which most conclusively show 
the evils arising from the currency policy. 
But whei^e the interests of the cooly are 
concerned, when his wages are being re- 
duced, and when even at reduced wages 
tliere are diminished numbers employed, and 
therefore the certainty of increased cost to 
the Government in time of famine, it is a 
different affair altogether. Unless the planters 
are placed on a footing of security there can 
be no security for the labourer. ' That is an 
argument which the Government will and 
must listen to. Formerly the planters stood 
firmly on an automatic currency which 
placed him on even terms with his competi- 
tors in the other silver using countries, 
Whereas now he is at the mercy of Govern- 
ment officials whD have already placed a 
burden of 25 to 30 per cent on the back of 
the px'oducers. and who, as we have seen, 
will in all probability increase the burden 
by still further forcing up the rate of ex- 
change. What the effect of this must 
sooner or later be in the case of tea 
we can see by the effects produced in the 
case of coffee. We cannot, of course, prove 
the fact scientifically. In such matters we 
can only be guided by reasonable probabi- 
lities in making our deduction from the 
facts. We know it to be a fact that our 
coffee difficulties have mainly arisen from 
an immense over-production in South 
America and other silver-using countries. 
We also know it to be a fact that this over- 
production has arisen from the large 
breadths of coffee planted in the year of, 
and the year following, the passing of the 
Currency Act. It is therefore perfectly rea- 
sonable to conclude that just as coffee ex- 
tensions would have been stimulated here, 
had the Governments of our rival manipu- 
lated their currencies, so as to confer on 
us superior exchange advantage, so has th« 
action of the Indian Government stimu- 
lated extensions in the other silver-using 
countries. Now let us suppose these com- 
peting countries had been growing tea as 
well as coffee, is it not evident that the tea 
industry of Ceylon and India will be in- 
volved in all the difficulties that have over- 
taken coffee ? But wherever coffee can be 
grown tea can be raised, and it is more than 
probable, or I may say certain, that tea 
will be raised in Mexico and the other 
countries which now coinpete with us as 
regards coffee, seeing that our Government 
has given them, by its currency policy, 
