June 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
845 
ANALYSES OF CEYLON TEA.. 
Mr. John Hughes— the well-known veteran 
Analytical Chemist of Mark Lane,— deserves 
the thanks of all interested in the iea 
Industry of Ceylon for the trouble he has 
taken to arrive at definite results as to the 
requirements of the tea plant. We append 
his very interesting paper and analyses, the 
whole being so clearly put that the youngest 
planter can make no mistake in following 
the investigation and understanding the 
results arrived at. These may be summed 
up briefly as shewing the overwhelming im- 
portance of "potash salts" in any manure 
for tea under ordinary circumstances. (Ur 
course, a soil naturally rich in potash would 
require less and so as to the other consti- 
tuents mentioned). Next to potash in im- 
portance is phosphoric acid in order to 
enable high-priced teas to be produced and 
manufactured, and just as potash and phos- 
phoric acid come first in the mineral or in- 
organic portion of tea, so does nitrogen 
stand first in respect of the organic needs 
of our staple. In fact to supply nitrogen in 
a slowly available form, Mr. Hughes thinks, 
is probably the first form of manmnng 
required by tea. But we must leave this 
admirably clear and concise paper to speak 
for itself:— 
Now that the necessity of manuring tea 
upon certain Ceylon soils is fully recognised 
and careful inquiry is being directed to the 
selection of the most suitable, and at the 
same time the most economical, materials 
for the purpose, it is very essential to ascertain 
what are the special requirements of tea. 
Indeed, in any attempt to carry out econo- 
mical manuring the requirements of the crop 
should receive as much attention as the 
ability of the soil to supply the same. It 
occurred to the writer that comparative 
analyses of similar kinds of tea grown at 
similar periods of the year and presumably 
under similar conditions of climate, but which 
yielded very opposite market prices, would 
afford some interesting, and possibly useful 
information. At the writer's request, Mr. H. 
K. Rutherford, of the Ceylon Tea Plantations 
Co., Ltd., very kindly supplied six samples 
of broken orange pekoe, the sale room prices 
of which varied from Is 4td for No. 1 to ejd 
for No. 6. The analyses occupied some time 
as it -w&s desirable to determine the propor- 
tions of the four most important plant food 
constituents, namely nitrogen, potash, phos- 
phoric acid and lime, the figures for which, 
together with other details, are contained in 
the following tabulated form. A careful 
examination of these results suggests the 
following remarks :— 
1. The high priced samples Nos. ], 2, and 3 
yielded the most soluble hot water extract 
upon five minutes' infusion : this is only what 
would be naturally expected. 
2. This extract contained, it will be seen, 
most of the mineral constituents and nearly 
the whole of the potash, but rather less than 
half the quantity of the total nitrogen, though 
the proportions soluble in hot water are, it 
will be noticed, much higher in the high- 
priced tea than in the low-priced samples. 
104 
3. A glance at the figures for total 
nitrogen shows the difference in a very 
marked manner. It is curious, however, that 
No. 3, which only fetched Is 2^d per lb., at 
public sale, contained 4'93 nitrogen, while 
No. 1, which was sold at Is i^d, only contained 
4'45 nitrogen, and the same amount was found 
in No. 2 sold at Is 2fd. It is possible that 
No. 3 represents an illustration of defective 
manufacture, because the figures are similar 
for extract in Nos. 3 and 1, namely 45 30 against 
i5'15 ; also the figures for soluble mineral 
matter and soluble potash are in each case 
higher than in No. 1. Possibly, therefore, the 
determination of the percentage of nitrogen 
may be useful in ascertaining whether a low 
market price is due to leaf naturally poor in 
nitrogen or to imperfect manufacture. 
4. The figures for soluble mineral matter 
are generally higher in the high-priced tea ; 
but as regards the total ash constituents, the 
figures ai'e higher in the low-priced tea. 
5. Potash stands out very prominently as 
the dominant element of the minei-al or ash 
constituents of tea, and plainly indicates how 
important it is that potash salts should be 
included in any complete manure for tea 
grown on soils that may be naturally deficient 
m this respect. 
6. Phosphoric acid, though existing in the 
ash in much smaller proportion than potash, 
is evidently more abundant in the high-priced 
tea, the figures being "ST. '92 and '87 against 
•66, "71 and '58 in the low-priced tea. As 
Ceylon hill soils are known to be generally 
poor in phosphoric acid and the better quality 
of tea is shown by these analyses to be much 
richer in phosphoric acid, it follows that 
every complete tea manure should contain 
phosphoric acid in a readly available form, 
and that it should only be omitted when the 
particular soil has been found by careful 
analysis to be naturally well-supplied with 
this constituent, which is evidently so essen- 
tial to perfect production and early maturity. 
If the figures for soluble potash and phosphoric 
acid be added together the total results furnish 
an interesting correspondence with the 
market prices, if the figures for No. 1 be 
excepted, 
Nos. 1 2 3 4 5 6 
Soluble Potash 
Phosphoric Acid 
1-87 2-13 1-92 2-07 
•87 -92 -87 -66 
•71 
1-98 
•58 
2-74 3^05 2^79 2-73 2-69 2^56 
7. Lime appears to exist in smaller pro- 
portion in the high-priced tea and in larger 
proportion in the low-priced samples. 
8. The figures for sand suggest that the 
specimens of tea containing the most quartz 
crystals were grown on soils containing 
much quartz or at least were more exposed 
to wind. 
9. Manganese was present in very marked 
quantity in the hot water extract, and the 
determination of the variation in amount of 
this interesting constituent suggests a subject 
for future investigation. 
10. Finally these analyses plainly show 
that nitrogen is the dominant element of the 
organic portion of tea, just is potash is the 
dominant element of the inorganic or aiineral 
portion of tea. 
Further that the supply of nitrogen in a 
slowly available form is probably the first 
