May 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 781 
TEA IN CHINA AND ITS CULTIVA- 
TION, &c. 
March 30. 
Dear Sir,— It may be interesting,' to some of 
your readers to know what Samuel Ball iu his 
took on Caltivation of Tea in China has to say 
incidentally on the effect of manure on the 
lasting qualities of the tea bush. 
In the first place the Chinese did not manure 
the 'black tea,' because for one reason the de- 
mand would not reake it profitable and also 
because as one of these authors says :— ' That 
tea is the most ifragrant which is not manured.' 
They do not manure it, but Mr. Ball goes on 
to quote a Spanish missionary's account of its 
culture :— " Every year in February and August 
the ground is weeded, raking up even the grass, 
When the ground is hilly, and appears exhausted 
and sterile, after having weeded it in February, 
it is usual to go and dig soil from a neighbouring 
mountain and bring it and place it around the 
roots of the shrubs. If this soil be previously 
exposed to the sun or burnt, it improves it.' And 
of such tea he says ' it will last fifty years,' 
With regard to the 'green tea' culture we 
read:— 'The shrubs are manured twice a year, 
in spring and autumn ; the ground weeded and 
turned up about the roots four times a year. 
In about seven years they are cut down, nearly 
close to the ground, to produce an exuberance 
of succulent shoots and leaves ; and in about thirty 
yeart they become useless, when they are rooted up. 
It is impossible scientifically that these tea 
bushes should differ in lasting power intrinsically, 
though of course, the ' green tea ' is grown in 
the soil of the plains and the 'black tea' in 
the meuntainous soil. Yet discarding that factor 
it is shown that the highly manured ' green 
tea' does not last so long as the un manured 
•black tea.' . ^ ^ ■ ^-a 
In reality this is an argument for scientifac 
manuring as against the injurious stimulating 
of the plant with constant applications of ordin- 
ary manure, for the virgin soil from a neigh- 
btturing mountain added to the black tea would 
contain all the good qualities which the soil of 
that district had been chosen for possesssing.— 
Yours, etc., „ , , „ 
[But the difference between "green and "black 
tea is all in the preparation, not in the bushes— 
though perhaps the Chinese make a distinction. 
Ed. T.A.'\ 
PROPOSED PERIODICAL TOURS OF THE 
SCIENTIFIC OFFICERS OF THE R. B. 
GARDENS, 
Planters' Association of Ceylon Kandy, March 30. 
Dkar SiK,— I herein enclose, and would invite 
attention to, letter received from the Director of 
the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, on the 
subject of proposed periodical tours by the new 
scientific officers of his department, which speaks 
for itself. Commending the scheme to cordial 
co-operation by those interested.— I am, dear sir. 
Yours faithfully, A. PHILIP. 
From the Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Peradeniya, to the Secretary, Planters' Associa- 
tion, dated 28th, March, 1900, subject:— 
TOURS OF ENTOMOLOGIST AND MYCOLOGIST. 
gljj^ I have the honour to inform you that the 
periodical tours of the new scientific officers of 
this department will shortly be commenced, and 
to ask your assistance in making them of as 
much value to planters and to the work of the 
officers themselves as possible. It is impossible 
for them to go over every estate looking for 
diseases, and they must depend upon the help of 
the planters for information. I propose that, if 
yoa agree, 1 should give notice to you some 
time in advance of the districts proposed for 
visitation and the approximate dates. If you 
would then be so kind as to inform the local 
Committee, perhaps a meeting could be arranged 
between the travelling officer and the Committee 
to discuss the diseases, etc., prevalent in the dis- 
trict (the Committee having previously collected 
information from the planters of their district), 
At this meeting arrangements could then be made 
for visiting particular estates, and notice given 
to planters as to the movements of the officer 
concerned in the district. 
As a definite instance, I may mention that the 
Entomologist is going to Batticaloa to reach that 
place about April 15th and that ho proposes t® 
visit the Badulla and Passara districts either on 
the outwaid or homeward journey.— I am, sir, 
your obedient servant, 
(Signed) JOHN C. WILLIS, 
Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, 
COCONUT PALM CULTIVATION IN 
CEYLON : 
THE VALUE OF DIFFERENT MANURES; 
THE VALUE OF SALT; DOES ANY 
ESTATE IN CEYLON GIVE 90 
NUTS PER TREE PER ANNUM ? 
April 2. 
Dear Sir,— I have read with very great 
interest Mr, Cochran's most useful paper on 
"Coconuts and Chemistry," (see ptige 764), 
I am sure that all who are interested in the 
cultivation of the coconut palm will appre- 
ciate highly the care and trouble Mr. Cochran 
has taken to place before them, such full 
and valuable information on the subject of 
the proper manures to be used in securing 
the best results in the cropping of their trees, 
Mr. Cochran's analyses being authoritative, 
we cannot do better than to endeavour to 
follow his advice, and to restore to the soil the 
manurial ingredients removed from it in 
crops ot nuts, in the proportions pointed out 
by him. 
I have not much faith in the value of 
cattle-shed manure where the cattle are 
fed only on the gi'ass of the estate, and a 
ot of weeds and grass are thrown in daily 
to swell the bulk ; for, by the time the 
manure is sufficienlily rotted to allow of its 
being applied, it will have lost its most 
valuable constituent, ammonia ; and the 
chief value of what remains will, in my 
opinion, be its mechanical action in the better 
subdivision of the particles of the soil. I should 
not apply manure of this description alone, but 
it would be a useful addition to bones, castor- 
cake, &e. Even the droppings of cnttle, fed largely 
on oil cakes — as in the case of animals used in 
cliekko yards, — loses much of its value after a short 
exposure, and is greatly inferior in results to that 
obtained where cattle are tied direct to the trees 
and the manure dug in so soon as they are 
removed to other trees. The very best results are 
obtained by tying two head of cattle to each tree 
