Nov. 1,1898. 1 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
3^5 
A TEA PRUNING EXPERIMENT 
AND ITS RESULTS. 
[Tlie following paper nmsb be regarded as of 
pei-manent value in giving a faithful report of 
actual experience in regard to the pruning of 
tea grown at a medium elevation and in an 
old cofl'ee district. R-oseneath, the plantation 
referred to, grew coffee, we suppose, for nearly 
40 years before its fields were turned into tea. 
The property is now to be taken over by the 
Kaudy Municipality to be gradually turned into 
a forest with quick-growing trees and added to the 
reservation around the Water Supply Reservoir 
for the town. The Manager of Koserieath takes 
charge of his own tea estate in the Knuckles : 
but before leaving he has been good enough to 
place before us his experience of a systeni of 
pruning which some authorities would consider 
too frequent in its operation if not too severe. 
—Ed. T.A.] 
Wl)en I last had the pleasure to see you, Mr? 
Editor, we had a talk about Tea Pruning. I 
told you of my experiment here and the results ; 
and now tiiat ' this property is changing hands- 
passing to the ICandy Municipal Council— and 
my coiinection with it ceasing, it might be well 
to put on record what has been done, and the 
outcome so far. For those who do not know the 
estate I may say that parS of ic might have been 
opened fifty years ago ; that for the first twenty 
years there were few or no drains : that it has a 
poor quartz hungry soil, and but for the liberal 
and enlightened policy of its proprietors who iiave 
always allowed steady manuring, it wauld long 
ago have lapsed into thin scrub or weakly mana 
grass. It has been kept alive and going by 
Kandy rubbish, and now that this savoury ferti- 
lizer is to go elsewhere, and the tea now gro>ving 
is to work out its own destiny unaided, 1 expect 
it will be short-lived. The " City Fathers" have 
taken the property to their bosom— a dignilied 
and hallowed resting place ! What I have done 
in the way of pruning is what I hold will help 
similarly situated estaces, medium elevation 2,400 
feet with old coilee land, undistinctive teas, and 
low yields. There are numerous properties of tliis 
ki,nl— "bound to go to the wall" so it is said— 
and it is to prevent if possible this heart-break- 
ing process, by showing a way to a considerable 
saving in working, that I send you what has 
been done here. 
I used to prune my tea every 18 months. In 
1894 I had come down to 15 months. Since 
the beginning of 1895 the whole estate has been 
pruned yearly. The daily averages of leaf fathered 
per cooly for these years are as follows :— 
1894 pruning every 15 months ... lb. 15-09 
1895 do 12 do ... 17 00 
1896 do do do ... „ 2009 
1897 do do do ... ,, 2101 
This makes cheap working. I may say I went 
round every 10 days. What was beginning to 
impress me most was the stcadincfs caul rcr/ularili/ 
(/f' the /iw/i.— no big rushes and no lean months. 
In 1897 the months which were under 20 lb. 
average were January 18'09 and August 19 09; the 
two highest were April 22 07 ; November 22-04. 
The pruning w-as a light pruning costing rather 
less than R4 an acre. I had a small ganu of 
experts who ilid little else. Supplied with decent 
knives they linislied their task by :{ i).m. I found 
that after jiruning 1 had to tip for the Jirst time 
iu ftbout tw« iiiontUs, 
The teas made got fair prices, considering the 
medium plucking and the elevation. Last year, 
for instance, the average for the ivhole crop sold 
was 84£: cents. 
I have often been told that 1 would ruin niy 
tea by'the plan 1 have adopted. It is possible ; 
but who has the experience to speak, and on 
what other authority are they entitled to speak 2 
Why should 18 months' pruning be considered 
safe and 12 months unsafe'? It's a thing that 
has to be tested. How was the nran regarded 
who lirst advocated and applied the knife vigo- 
rously to roses? Is it not an axionr in grape- 
growing countries that you should never prune 
your own vine; but get another to do it, that 
the plant may get the thorough treatment it 
needs 
Anyhow if the medium properties are "bound 
to go to the wall," as some ®f them are being 
worked at present, might they not go in on the 
chance of surviving the yearly pruning, lessen 
their cost of production, and give a wider field 
for generalizing on the merits and effects of 
quick and light pruning ? Better to die with the 
old pluck at the tore, and ready to grasp at 
every advantage before the fatal plunge is taken, 
than doing nothing, or at best a hum drum fol- 
lowing of the leader to possible disaster. I have 
seen numbers of places where the returns wereshort 
— the plucking average too low for anytliing 
— and the leaf gathered, bangy abomination 
most of it — which with an earlier application of 
the knife would have done ever so much better. 
I don't claim all the advantages to the pruning : 
it produced the leaf, but it had to be plucked 
and I was blessed with a really hard-working 
lot of coolies and an exceptionally energetic Con- 
ductor to run them. He takes a lot of the 
credit, classes himself in a new order of merit, 
that of being 7wt "a half-past six feller," which 
I presume stands for u]) to-date with us. Doubt- 
less there is also a hidden allusion to the lazy 
cooly late for muster. The manuring too has 
played a part, but I generally think of that as 
only bringing up the soil which obtains here, to 
a fair average elsewhere. 
Roseneath, Oct. 4, 1893. J. L. D. 
INDIAN TEA CROP. 
A EBDUCTION OF 4i MILLION LB. 
The Indian Tea Association's revised estimate 
of this season's crop — see page 340 for de- 
tails — now puts the total outturn at 154,167,877 
lb., as compared with the lirst estimate of 
158, 681, .312 lb. The shipments to America, the 
Colonies and other ports, with local consumption, 
making up 18 million pounds, will leave 1.36| 
million ])ounds for export to Great Britain. 
Tills makes a total reduction of about 12 million 
lb. in the Estimated Indian and Ceylon Tea Crops 
for 1898, while the total shipments to the United 
Kingdom will scarcely exceed — if indeed they 
reach — those of 1897. 
CoFFKE Blight in Burma.— News from Toun- 
goo says that blight is working great destruc- 
tion amongst the coll'ee plantations there, all tho 
gardens north of ].,eiklito being badly damaged, 
while those nearer Toungoo are now- showing signs 
of being all'ected. Sulphur is wanted as a preven- 
tive, but the provisions of the Arms Act put seri- 
ous dillicullies in ihe way of planters securing 
a supply from Kanj^'oou, 
