Jan. 1, 1904.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUKIST. 
^69 
country and low-country rubber will continue to 
look as promising as it does at present. Other 
men here are not likely to let such a letter as this 
pass, and ib may possibly raise such a nest of 
hornets abouc the ears of your informants as will 
stiug them in places that are unprotected and do 
them more harm than it can possibly do to the 
owners of good low-country land. 
Take for instance one part of the statement as 
follows : — ' Klang is a heavy undraiued deep soil 
by the coast and is excellent for coffee, but is not 
so suitable for rubber as the up-country districts, 
&c.'— All land is undrained untilit has beendrained; 
and land undrained and uudrainable is neither 
suitable forcoffee or rubber, and men who have tried 
to grow either on it deserve the consequences. Yet 
one Estate in the Klang District with a main 
drain 26 feet wide and 10 feet deep ab its mouth 
and 45 miles of all sorts of smaller drains, gave a 
large profit last year, and supported 600 acres of 
Rubber, 400 acres of which is over 5 years old 
beside opening a 100 acre clearing in Coffee 7 x 7 
and liubber 14x14. Can this land be bad or un- 
suitable for Para Kubber ? Again ' deep soil by the 
coast' Men who took up land sufficiently near the 
coast as to be affected by high tides and salt water 
should hare planted coconuts in it : bub many of 
the Klang Estates are miles away from the coast, 
some as much as 15 miles. 
I now quote some paragraphs from Brazil Diplo- 
matic and Consular Keports : — 
' Trade of Para and the District for the year 1897-' 
Page 26. 
1. Habit of Para. — ' The localities where Rubber 
trees thrive best are on islands, and low ground near 
rivers, where tho banks are periodically inundated.' 
' Ground that has no drainage is not suitable to the 
tree.' 
2. EicHEST Zones. — ' The Richest Zones as at 
present known are along the banks of all the Southern 
tributaries of the Biver Amazon's, and on the Islands 
in the main stream and near Para,' ' The most 
prolific part is on the River Aquiry or Acre, one of 
the tributaries of the River Pnras.' The Northern 
tributaries of the Amazon's do not produce much 
Rubber. Of those the River Negro produces the most 
and &c.' ' The River Branco yields very little Rubber 
and the upper part runs through pasture lands and 
high ground (no donbt of a considerable elevation) 
which is not suitable for good Rubber.' 
3. Rainfall. — ' The rainfall during 1897 amounted 
to 115 inches. Rain fell during 291 days and the 
maximum during one day amounted to three inches,' 
4. Height. — ' It grows to a height of 60 feet,' 
5. Leaves.—' The leaves are trifoliate.' 
6. Plo'wers, FnuiTS and Seeds. — ' The seeds should 
be planted as soon as possible as they soon lose 
their vitality,' 
No doubt the high ground that the Consul writes 
of in the upper reaches of an enormous river like 
tho Amazon, is land of a considerable elevation,- 
and I think Mr Parry has mis-named the land 
here planted with Para as hill land. They should 
be called Low-country hills which have an 
elevation of, in most cases, not more than 100 feeb 
from sea-level, like Seremban Company's land, aud 
this land has proved itself to yield well — trees 
twelve years old having averaged 8 lb each. It is 
no pleasure to me to have to write this letter, and I 
om sorry that my friend Mr Parry should have 
been tempted to lend his name in the way he did 
to such a production as the paragraph headed ' The 
Klang and Up-Country land.' — Yours faithfully, 
W. W. BAILEY. 
A FORWARD POLICY ON CEYLON TEA 
ESTATES IMPERATIVE. 
IP PROPRIETORS AND SHAREHOLDERS 
REQUIRE EVEN ANNUAL PROFITS. 
Dikoya, Nov. 27. 
Sir, — How truly refreshing it is to read the 
remarks which fell from the lips of the Chairman 
at the Kintyre Tea Estates Company's meeting 
held in London on 26lh October, 1903. The mora 
so, when we consider how much this particular 
gentleman has been held up to everyone in and 
out of Ceylon as a model in the management of 
tea estates — praise, perhaps merited during a period 
such as we experienced between 1886 — 1897. How 
long cheap work and want of proper systems of 
cultivation of estates would last was apparently a 
matter never thought out, before cheap work, 
generally, was so widelyadoptedon the estates under 
the management of the gentleman referred to. The 
following paragraph in the proceedings of the 
meeting alluded to, must have produced many a 
smile in Ceylon ; for what planter has advocated 
more widely cheap work on tea estates and 
laughed to scorn anyone who ventured to sug- 
gest years ago that tea must be cultivated and 
properly worked if it was to yield even crops and 
maintain its wood, prevent decline in quality and 
be kept strong enough to resist pests— than the 
very man who now has turned roun(l to the other 
quarter of the compass and poses that he has 
brought forward a new policy that many, ages ago, 
foresaw would become imperative, bub were 
prevented from carrying out, by the powers that- 
be ;— The paragraph referred to above runs as fol- 
lows : — " I must remind you that 600 lb. an acre 
is a heavy crop for any plant to produce annually 
aud if that yield is to be maintained more culti- 
vation must be done than to estates that yield 
400 Ib. an acre. Perhaps in the past our 
advisers in Ceylon have uob kept this sufficiently 
in view and they have produced our tea too cheaply, 
if I may use the expression." I would ask you 
Mr. Editor, together, with your sensible and 
practical readers, to consider these phrases ; and 
say if you think I am wrong when I submit that 
those remarks, are a direct slur on the practical 
men in Ceylon ; who have often vainly tried to 
impress on people directing afiairs in London and 
elsewhere, how short-sighted ib was in many cases 
to reduce expenditure on tea estates in the past 
and that the time would assuredly arrive when 
such a policy would be lamented ; but was such 
warning heeded ? In most cases I think, I can safely - 
say ' no"; and now what do we find 1 Estates going 
back year after year and people at home just) 
beginning to rouse themselves from years of 
slumber and commencing to realise at last, 
the weak and impracticable policy pursued for 
■ears, I ask what has really happened during 
the past few years ? Am I wrong in saying that 
Managing Directors and others have worried their 
Ceylon Managers about decimal points in the 
cost of production ? They in turn have passed it on 
to their Superintendents who have been compelled 
to accept inferior work to keep within the limit of 
cost allowed and has often resulted in change of 
superintendence, loss of labour, bad name on the 
Coast, preventing immigration and heaps of other 
influences — too numerous to mention individually, 
for they would fill a fair-sized book. Shareholders 
have little conception of the grossly bad methods 
adopted by many, of their Directors .and in sonig 
