Dec. 1,11903.) THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
395 
, A NEW TEXT BOOK ON TEA. 
The new text book " Indian Tea ,it8 Culture 
and Manufacture" by Mr. Claud Bald, which 
has just been issued from the press of Messrs. 
Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta, [and is 
on sale at this office] in a well got 
up volume. The priming is clear; the illus- 
trations excellent ; the arrangement good ; 
and there is a copious index which is always 
a comfort. The author's aim is to present 
the budding Indian tea planter with a trade 
handbook, which may be referred to with 
confidence in cases of difficulty— a light to 
lighten his darkness, in fact — and he further 
hopes tliat even such exalted people, as Dir- 
ectors, Managing Agsnts, &c , may find it 
useful as a book of reference "with regard 
to the various operations in field and fac- 
tory." The anchor makes no claim to ori- 
ginality, deprecates criticism on minor points, 
on the plea that "it is impossible for all 
to think alike" on the best methods for the 
cultivation and manufacture of tea ; has 
evidently drawn much on his personal ex- 
perience ; and is prepared to advise on a 
very wide range of subjects. The table of 
contents indicates that the author is quite 
an admirable Crichton in planting matters 
for besides the ordinary A.B.C. of planting 
roatine, common to tea planting all over 
the world, there are special chapters on 
Landslips, Restoration of Deteriorated areas, 
Forestry, some Indications of Quality, Build- 
ings. Machinery, Railways and Tramwnys, 
Accounts ; a.nd— last of all— The Cooly. With- 
out inehiding the appendix and index, there 
are but 276 pages into which to cram the 
information deemed desirable, and that what 
is given should be scrappy is natural enough. 
Spite of the extensive survey which is taken, 
the book is parochial after all. " Indian 
Tea" is its title, and Indian tea is its theme. 
Much— very much — of what is said has no 
interest or bearing save for Indian tea 
planters, and those who cultivate the shrub 
in other lands, will have pages to skip. 
Nevertheless it is impossible to read the book 
without profit, for however foreign much of 
the matter may be, and only adapted for a 
special environment it has the good quality 
of being conducive to thou 'lit. We may 
wonder at the ways of Indii::i tea men, and 
question their methods ; but here and there 
" Wrinkles " may be picked u]', and our own 
system improved on. When Ceylon is 
referred to, we at times get news. The 
Draining on Ceylon tea estates is thus des- 
cribed :— "'I'he di'ains running at intervals 
across the hill with cnfch pits nt suitable distances 
for gathering silt, this being periodically 
cleared out and can'ied back to the land "! 
The chapter on Pruning is naturally read 
with avidity. We ar^ not yet in possession of 
the prize-essays which are to register the 
high-water mark of the colony's present 
"knowledge, and give confidence and light 
to those planters who have hitherto 
followed the rule of thumb without 
having any good reason to give for their 
■'ptoceilure. In the absence of these en- 
•li'thtening documents, Mr. Claud Bald's 
manifesto for the time being take.s its place, 
and he has much to say on the matter. 
50 
We confess, however, to be somewhat stag- 
gered at his theory of prunmg. "The 
primary object of Pruning,'' he says, " is to 
change the form which the plant would 
naturally take, and so tinn it into a low 
bush instead of a tree "! The Indian scientific 
tea authorities. Sir G. Watt and Mr. H. H. 
Mann, cannot have been studied when a 
crude dictum of this kind was given to the 
world. The primary object of pruning is 
really to keep the tree in an abnormal con- 
dition, producing a continuous leaf crop, and 
preventing the bearing of flowers and fruit 
which is the natural consummation of a 
plant's life. That, we take it, is the common 
sense view of the thing, and has besides 
received the suffrages of science. An author, 
however, may be quite wrong in his theory, 
yet get good results worthy of noting from 
his practical work ; and in the chapter on 
Pruning from Mr, Bald's pen, much may 
be learned. It is pleasing to .»ee that while 
our author gives in his adhesion to the desir 
ability of the individual bush treatment — so 
mnch|insisted on by the Indian scientific teaex- 
perts, yet he knows its utter impracticabilty, 
and discards it as unworkable. When discussing 
the height a tea tree should be topped when 
it is cut down for the first time, how the 
stem should be treated, and the side branches 
trimmed he adds this further advice :—" The 
wounds" — knife wounds, we presume— "should 
be slightly slanting and facing the north, 
or on the side remote from the direct rays 
of the sun " ! Now that is a fine cryptic 
sentence. We have said before that Mr. 
Bald s book was one conducive to thought, 
and in the face of the above who can deny 
it. We know we have wrestled with the 
enigma and tried to wring from this dark 
saying a meaning of some kind, but we 
have failed, and pass it on, more in sorrow 
than in anger, to our planting readers ! 
What call the thing mean, and why face 
the north ? The north has long been a 
region of mystery and influence. Sir Thomas 
Browne, we know, combated in his " Vulgar 
Errcrs " the belief that a corpse always 
floated with its head towards the north, 
and we have met and heard of people whose 
rules for healthy living included sleeping 
with their heads toward the north ; but 
the one was a superstition, and the other 
the fancy of an eccentric. How to prune 
"slightly slanting and facing the north " is 
a puzzle we give up. Altiiough Mr. Claud 
Bald's book may not be likely to take a place 
among the scientific authorities on tea 
culture, to which men of all lands will 
confidently appeal, it has a niche of its own 
lower down, and in a way as u.«eful. We 
can recommend it to the notice of planters 
for this humbler service, and as a work 
containing much varied and valuable 
information. 
RUBBER PLANTING IN THE MALAY 
STATES. 
AN INTAKES I ING INTEHVIKW. 
Tlie cultivation ui rui^hev in the Fefleialed 
M;ilay States is of sucli glowing importance and 
of considerable interest In Ceylon planters and 
otiheis financially interested in rubber pvodnctiou, 
