40§ 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec. 2, 1901. 
PRUNE ONLY HALF THE GARDEN. 
Ceylon gardens prune at long intervals ; they 
always have the bulk of the gavden unpruned at the 
beginning of each year. The unpruned parts yield 
well as soon aa warm weather oo.nes, but the Indian 
gardens, having pruned all the bashes, hive to w.iit 
till April before the bushes yield well. Che maximum 
yield is attained in September and Ootob-;r. Tlie 
Indian offerings in 1900 were greatest in November, 
235,168 cheats, and least in June, 10,543 chests. The 
Ceylon heaviest was in June, 162,562, and the least in 
July 66,954. That means that Ceylon had the run 
of the market in June, when Indians were practically 
unobtainable. The remedy is, as stated above, to 
prune only half the garden, the other half can either 
be left entirely unpruned or merely tipped, an inch 
or two only of growth being removed. The unpruned 
parts will give more leaf from February to June, and 
less from June to November, so that the total yield 
will be the same but more evenly distributed over the 
yeai". 
I do not wish to claim too many advantages for 
this system, but there is one more vvhicli I think of 
great importance, and that is allowing the nno wood 
to grow for tieo yer.rs instead of one. It gets stronger 
and will send out stronger shoots. There is one 
danger in not pruning a plot for two year,-, but I 
do not know how it would affect the low lying 
districts. In the second year after pruning the bushes 
may die back in a severe drought. The U'-'W flush 
will start from lower down, leaving dead twigs above. 
This will certainly affect the yield of the early part 
o£ the season, but I doubt whether i'} would injure 
the bush permanently, or even reduce the total yield 
in that season. 
Each writer on pruning advocates the oommon- 
aense system of clearing out old wood, and depre- 
cates the entire cutting down of the bushes. But in 
practice the advantage of this system must be clearly 
seeil, and up to this time the advantage has been 
hidden by the urgency of getting in the largest pos- 
sible yield. The advantage of this system is, of 
course, not visible until it has been carried out for 
several years, and the bushes have been proved to 
remain in good condition, As a rule, the manager 
of an estate cannot wait ; he is forced by the proprie- 
tors to gather in the largest possible crop with the least 
possible expenditure. The system I have proposed 
would consist of three different sorts of pruning. 
Firstly, one-half the garden would be only light 
tipped, and would cost very little ; secondly, one half 
the garden would be thoroughly pruned ; thirdly, the 
old wood should be cleaned out of (secondly) the 
the pruned bushes, which are then open to inspec- 
tion, as they are quite bare of leaf or twigs. The 
cost of these three operations should not be more 
than that of an ordinary pruning of the whole garden. 
But the value of the system cannot be 'proved for 
ii year or so. I myself am convinced of the value 
gf it, both in theory and in practice, but the 
j,ardens I work are in an isolated district, and the 
i_iOnditions of climate are quite different from those 
f the plains gardens. Cbota Nagpur is 2,000 ft. 
^levation, rainfall from 35 to 85 in. April, May, and 
part of June are very hot and dry, and the bushes are 
dormant at that time (if no rain has fallen) as well as 
from December to March. We prune from May 1, 
and get it done early in June, and we prune only half 
the area. But besides the off time in the cold weather, 
the pruned bushes take two months to start again, and 
three months to get into full yield. I argue that if 
tea will stand the above treatment in such a severe 
climate, the same treatment will be more beneficial 
in better climates. Hut whatever system of pruning 
is aaopted it is more than ever necessary to look to 
the future welfare of the bushes, and to prevent them 
from deteriorating for the fancied gain of the coming 
season. , 
In the case of taking over an ill-used estate it might 
Vje best to cut the bushes below the surface level, and 
^"Ali>0 to cut );99ts," 69 tha^t there may be ieci|)i,'06al 
growth between the branches above and the roots 
beiow. _I have dug up seedlings with their roots 
^ entire, and I found that when the upper growth wis 
at re-:t '—i.e.. Bangi, the roots were long ;r, bat when 
there was upper growth (i.e., Pekje Bud) the roots 
were shorter. And so I conclude that "both" the 
roots and branches must h.ive periods of rest and 
activity. If a bush is cut down, the roots cannot rest 
until the upper growth stops. But if the or,ot3 are 
cut ofi tnere will be a natural and reciprocal gr-wdh 
which should bn beneficial. lla?ing once cut down a'^e 
renewed the bushes thev should never a^ain be sub- 
jected to the trial. The fact that marry bushes din 
at.er beiii« cut down ptoves that the trial is severe, 
if auvoue doubts whether the duennial pi-nuing is of 
any benefit, and not pra^:ticable, on account of droutrhts 
etc., etc., I recommend that pruning at the e nil of 
April should be tried. If half the garden should be 
pruned in December and half in May, this also would 
equalise the yield of the year. We practise this safely 
in Ohota N:igpur, because the bushes are dormant in 
May, and m Ass.am or Cachar they would be in vigorous 
gro wth. There is aa id<>a that it is h irmful to prune 
a plant when it is growing, but as' the tea plant is 
■ leaf pruned " const.iutlv, I doubt whether wood 
pruning would injure it. At the first glance this Utter 
plan appears absurd, because it gives two period-i of 
rest instead of one, but it is worth trvinij. The 
sy-itpm? of pruning will never be changed unless pro- 
prietors recognise the dam.ige done to their property 
by cutting down, and put an end to it once for all. 
If cuUing down ii forbidden the managers will find 
the best system under the circumstances, and will 
soon find th-it no deficiency in yi.?ld comes fro-n 
letting the bushes remain at their full size perma- 
nently.— Tea. Abooke. 
COPRA FROM ZANZIB.\R. 
MORE CARE WANTKD. 
"We wonder why Z iuzi bar planters are so hope- 
le.s.sly apathetic and stupid. Produce is often 
brought into town in a very disgraceful condition, 
copiah especially being frequently oftered for sale 
in a half dried and almost rorcen grate. This is 
either due to sheer laziness or else it is done deli- 
berately because halt diied copra weighs more than 
tiie properly prepared article, and the fact tiiat tlie 
loss in weight is more than conipen.sated for by the 
price on the quality is completely Jest .sight of. 
For this reason Zanzibar eoprah has lose inucli 
piiound on the European markets of late years, 
and were it not for the fact that our eoprah yields 
a very large percetitage of oil. we would pio'iiably 
be unable to bold our own in the face of the 
keen competition of other coMatnts.— Zanzibar 
Gazette, October 23rd. 
PROSPEROUS MALAY STATES. 
Here are striking " bits " trom Sir Frank 
Swettenhani's latest Report on the "Federated 
Malay States" :— 
The value of trade for the year 1900 reached nearly 
a hundred million dollars or ten millions sterliu<T. 
In the twenty-sis years during which the Malay States 
have had the advantage of British advice and pro- 
tection, the revenue has grown from about £100 000 
to over £1,500,000. Over 250 miles of railway, I'sOO 
miles of cart-road and 1,400 miles of telegraph have 
been constructed. Waterworks, wharves, hospitals 
prisons, schools, and many other public buildings' 
have been constructed, while, at this moment, the 
Government of Perak is engaged upon an important 
scheme of irrigation which will benefit about 60,000 
acres of land and cost about a million dollars. The 
four States under British protection were federated 
in 1896, their total revenue foi that year being a little 
9vee eight millipn dellars, As seme proof of 
