52 THE TROPICAL AGiaCULTUKIST. [July 1, 16'jfe 
INDIAN vs. CEYLON TEA. 
Keutei's Agent in Colombo writes :— " Ilcidy- 
ing to our query an to wliy Indian tea average 
is above Ceylon", our Heail OHice has obtained 
tlie following from yonie of tlie leading London 
brokers : — 
"Messrs. Lloyd and Carter state tliat the average 
quality of liiciian tea is better, and besides wiiicli 
more common tea is sent from Ceylon, and ad<l, 
if it was pluclied liner doubtless it would make 
a difierence.— Messrs. J Joyd Mallieson iS: Co, say 
tliatit is simply a fjuestLon of supply and demand, 
Indian tea beirig naturally stronger (ban Ceylon, 
and therefore more suitable for mixing with the 
weaker kinds, for that reason commands a higher 
price. — Messis. Stenning Inskipp Co. say that 
the Indian tea has been of better quality and 
that the low-country teas sent from Ceyion have 
comprised many of" a very poor quality, also 
adding that Ceylon tea is possibly not plucked 
fine enough and although they say perhaps tiie 
system of manufacture may have somewhat to 
do with it, yet of course the soil &c. arc of 
great importance." 
[There is nothing novel to our planters in the 
above information, although it is courteous of 
Kenter to collect tli3 various opinions. Ceylon, as 
we all know, produces some of the finest and 
some of the poorest teas sent into the London 
market ; and unfortunately rubbish is some- 
times shipped that ought never to leave 
the island, if indeed it should not be burnt. 
-^Ed. T.A,] 

MAINTENANCE OF FERTILITY 
IN TEA SOILS. 
(By M. Kelway Bamber, f.c s.) 
The question of manuring tea and restoring or 
conserving the normal fertility of original soils, both 
in India and Ceylan, is becoming more and more im- 
portant as the available land for planting either 
diminishes in extent or increases in cost, and the 
supply of labour becomes more difficult to obtain, and 
the time must come when the planter's closest atten- 
tion will have to bo turned in that direction. There 
are no doubt many tea estates on which the soil is 
o£ practically inexhaustible fertility, and the tea plant 
on such areas will continue to give a good outturn 
so long as it remains in a healthy condition. But 
outturn is not everything, the quality of the leaf 
being of equal importance in determining the 
value of the tea, and it is more than pro- 
bable that the quality in certain parti- 
culars would tend to diminish, even though quantity 
was maintained. This fact has, indeed, been noticed 
in many instances, and the reason for t)ie deteriora- 
tion can readily be understood when the complex 
nature and the many constitiients of tea are consi- 
dered. It must be remembered that tea differs from 
most crops in the fact that after the leaf is plucked or 
harvested, it has to undergo a process of manufacture 
entailing certain chemical changes or reaction between 
some of its constituents inter sc, and others, 
involving the action of the oxygen of the air. Now 
it can lie readily seen that a deficiency iu the 
leaf of one or more of the constituents which under- 
go this chemical change must affect the finished 
product either by a loss of strength, colour, flavour, 
or any of the other characteristics which go to make 
up a tea of good quality. Such a deficiency may 
easily occur if a single one of its essential consti- 
tuents is taken-from the soil by prolonged plucking 
without being replaced artificially, and although the 
soil substance (mineral or organic) in question may 
be essential for the production of the particular 
compoviiiql in tUe leaf, its absence may be only o£ 
minor importance iu its tS-ict upon the formblion 
of the leaves or Bhoola as a whole, ajid conaequwlly 
on the total outturn. 
There are, however, many estates where tha soils 
are of less depth, and more open and noo-retentive 
in charitcter, and i'. is these which will first demand 
attention if fertility is to be maintaiotd. It is not 
sufficiently recoguiKed that partial sterility of a soil 
may be produced by other means thsn merely re- 
moving the crop without replacing the constiti.eDt6 
willidruwn, mid tbi8 especially iu il tropical climate, 
where the conditions of chemical and bactt^risl acti- 
vity are at a maximum, and the rainfall also is 
unusually cxcesbive. Under these sgenciea soil 
matter, whether mineral or organic, is mere readily 
broken dowu- and rendered ^soluble; in which state 
it is readily carried away by a heavy and cootinuoQi 
fall of rain, unless the soil has the property ot 
absorbing and retaining the matter id solution, a 
peculiarity most wanting iu ^open sandy soils, mainly 
owing to tlie absence of clayay aad humut 
matter, which are the chief absorbenip. This leatore 
of sandy soils will have to be borne in mind, if 
waste of expensive and valuable material is to be 
prevented, and the application of concentrated easily 
soluble manures must be performed with due car*. 
One of the most important factors to be con- 
sidered relating to the mauming of tea, either in 
India or Ceylon is the cost of carriage fiom the 
source to the estate. As a general rule manures 
of any great value are not obtained lo^ly, altliougb 
in some diotricts where certain oil seeds form a 
staple crop, oilcakes are to be had of coneiderable 
feeding or manorial value. Cattle manare is also 
produced in quantity on Eome fstates, but it is 
doubtful whether its direct application to tea 
is an unmixed blessing, as it is more 
than probable a fertile source of introducing 
certain diseises, fungoid or otherwise, to the tea plant, 
especially when the cattle producing it are obtaining 
the bulk of their fodder from the jungle, from which 
most, if not all, tea diseases have originated. The 
general absence of local manure, therefore, makes 
importation essential, and are as distances in those 
countries and freight charges are not particularly low, 
it is necessary to avoid as far as possible the carriage 
of large quantities of inert or usriess material and at the 
same time only to apply those constituents, in which 
the particulars soil in question is deficient, or other- 
wise stands in need. 
We give Mr. Kelway-Bamber a hearty welcome 
to Ceylon where his nante is widely known 
among the tea jdanters through tiie great cir- 
culation of his Ix.ok on " The Clieniistry and 
Agriculture of Tea " which lias taken place 
through the agency of the Observer Ofiice. 
♦ 
TKADE IN THE OLD WORLD. 
"The Early Commerce of Babylon with India." B 
James Kennedy, M.n a.b, (London : Luzac and Co.) 
The study ot the history of commerce is a sub- 
ject of the greatest interest and importance, for 
it was the merchant trader who was the first 
missionary of culture, and who established in the 
great centres of the human race, in past ages, 
exchanges not only of material, but of intellec- 
tual w ealth. The history of civilisation is insepa- 
rably associated with trade inteicoutse between the 
various nation.* of antiquity, and a study of the 
subject proves beyond doubt the fact that peace 
has her victories as well as w.ar. The establish- 
ment of a trade reciprocity with a distant land, 
which resulted in the exchange of commodities, 
the introdtictiou of a common system of writing, 
and a mutual medium of monetary exchange, 
which could only be effected by the trader, was 
a victory far more extensive and lasting in its 
benefit to humanity than the conquest of a capital 
and the deportation of thousands of captives. 
