March 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTUEIST 
581 
pilgrimage. Curiously enough the Mahoramedans 
and Hindus equally hold the mouutain in venera- 
tion'; tha former think the well kuown foot-print 
upoii the summit is that of our common parent 
from which superstition the Peak derives its name. 
The Hindus credit their god Siva with the impress, 
whilst the Buddhists, of course, reverence the foot- 
print as that of their holy Gautama. 
The great working or cooly race is that of the 
Tamil, from the coast of Malabar ; their lot in their 
own country in the time of famine is so hard that 
they are glad to emigrate anywhere far a certainty 
of shelter, a plentitude of rice with regulary paid 
wages. 
The constantly recurring loss of the rice crops, 
due to the paucity of rain, has caused much dis- 
tress and loss of life through starvation. By giving 
regular work and wages, our tea gardens have saved 
the lives of thousands of our fellow-creatures, surely 
an additional reason to look kindly upon au indus- 
try which has prevented so much suffering. The 
Tamil cooly is a patient, hard working representative 
of humanity, he will work under a tropical sun for 
10 hours at a stretch for 5id. his wife for do- 
ing the same being qaite content with the equivalent 
of 4d. io English money, his children find employ- 
ment as pickers. Althougb of course he cannot make 
any considerable amount of savings he will sometimes 
return to his const and buy a cow which to him 
Bpells affluence, or he will start himself as kmgani 
or small headman, by degrees collecting a labor 
force to manage which insures him a competency, 
and what is still more to be desired enables him to 
superintend the work without working himself, which 
consists in st9,nding upon a rock and dividing his 
time between chewing "betel" and shouting at the 
ooolies. Kanganies who are not paid wages are paid 
each day so much for eich cooly in their gang who 
comes to work. The system adopted by recruiting 
labor is called " Coast Advances." A sum of money 
ia advanced by the Superintendent to his kangany 
who straightway returns to his village on the coast 
of India, and there in his turn advances so much 
to each cooly who is willing to return with him to 
the estate and work in his gang, thus a cheap 
labor force is constantly replenished, and it is no 
doubt greatly owing to this fact that the success of 
the tea industry is due. Cheap libor and cheap trans- 
po't are both obtainable in Ceylon, without which, 
however suitable climate, rainfall or soil, no tea garden 
could by any possibility be made to pay, either in 
Ceylon, India or elsewhere. 
It is generally supposed that Ceylon with its won- 
derful soil and climate produces a golden harvest of 
all kinds of fruit without the necessity of cultiva- 
tion. This is not so. Only a few fruits even when 
cultivated are fit foe European digestion : there are 
of course the well known 3Iaiigo, Plantain, Pineapple, 
Pomegranate, 3Iangosteen and Orange, and that is really 
about all. The pineaple indeed is sometimes grown 
to an enormous size, weighing as much as 32 lb. 
and as delicious in flavour as abnormal in sizo. The 
best fruits are carefully cultivated and it is quite a mis- 
take to suppose that they grow wild in the jungles. 
I mention this fact relative to Ceylon fruits as 
partly accounting for the downfall of King Coffee. 
Cojfee being a fruit crop was only kept going by 
high cultivation, the ground was manured heavily year 
after year, until the frni^-bearing' power reached its 
climax, and the over-taxed trees became an easy prey to 
the fell disease which eventually caused their destruc- 
tion. The grape vine suffers from a very kindred disease 
to the "'Hemileia" of the Coffee, in fact it appears 
to be an impossibility to force a heavy fruit crop 
year after year from the same trees', without compel- 
ling their destruction, in plain language we take mo e 
nourishment from Mother Earth than any system of 
rnanuring will enable us to replace. 
3*6(1 is not a fruit crop but leaf crop, the na- 
tural tendency of all vegetable life in the forcing 
climate of Oeyloa ia to run to leaf. Therefore tea, is 
a natural crop. We only ask from the tea tree what 
it can well afford to part with. The tea tree, it ia 
true, throws out a beautiful blossom like a small 
single Camelia, to which family it belongs, but should 
there be too much seed upon the trees it is a sign 
that the •"Jat" or quality of the tea is not good. 
The best tea throws out the least seed. 
The difference between the two crops coffee and 
tea, being understood, it is not difficult to under- 
stand why planters have been so successful with the 
lattei'. The former exhausted the soil, the cultivation 
of the tea crop does not do so, it represents a bill of 
exchange upon the soil, which is always paid when 
due and without dificulti/. The tea tree only requires 
careful pruning and management to bring its leaf 
crop to perfection. So rapid is the growth of the 
tea flush that on a properly managed garden the 
pickers have only time to finish the last field when 
the first will be ready to recommence upon, the 
flush takes about 8 or 10 days to grow. The tea 
planter his little reason to fear the ravages of the 
numerous pests which have helped to rob the Island 
of its magnificent coffee crops. No disease has yet 
appeared to interfere with the ever-growing export 
of tea from the port of Colombo, there is no ap- 
prehension as to that. The real problem to solve 
is what is to be done with the surplus of tea which 
cannot find an outlet in AlmciugLane? This impor- 
tant question has brought me before you to-day and 
will be discussed later on. It is one that must sooner 
or later affect consumer as well as producer. British- 
grown teas have still to replace those of China on 
the Continent of Europe and America ; this is the 
special mission of the House I represent, Mesara 
James Finlay & Co. of Glasgow, with whom are in- 
corporated Finlay, Mnir & Co. in the Bast and 
Rogivue & Uo. Ld. on the Continent of Europe. Thia 
great firm has houses in all parts of the world- 
Glasgow, London, Calcutta, Colombo, Bombay, New 
York, Chicago, Toronto, Moscow, Constantinople, 
Magdebourgh, Lausanne, etc. and has altogether 
seventy thousand (70,000; acres under tea in Assam, 
Sylhet, Cachar, Darjeeling, Travanoore and Ceylon, 
besides a considerable area under coffee, cocoa, 
cinchona, cardamoms, etc. The produce from their 
tea gardens last year amounted to 22,000,000 lb. of 
manufactured tea, this converted into cups of tea 
at the rate of 200 for each pound of tea tpould mahe 
four thousand four hundred million (4,400,000,000). 
Before describing the processes of tea cultivatioa 
it would be as well perhaps to study the chemists' 
analysis of the tea leaf. We have all noticed 
that there are tildes when nothing refreshes us sq 
much as a cup of tea.. No other beverage possesses 
this wonderful quality. Nothing in this world can 
ever replace the afternoon cup of tea, it is the only 
stimulant which cheers without exacting reaction. 
To what special property in the leaf is this due? 
The constituents of ihe tea leaf are fifteen in 
number, but all with the exception of three are of 
small importance, these three are : 
The Essential Oil, 
Theine or Caffeine, and 
Tannin. 
The Essential Oil gives to the tea its flavour and 
aroma. As regards Theine in India or Ceylon teas 
there is sometimes as much as 6 per cent whilst in 
China tea only about 1 per cent is found. The 
higher the percentage of Theine or Caffeine the 
greater is the beneficial elJect on the human system • 
this is evidently the invigorating agent. The Tan- 
nm in tea is the chief cause of its strength and 
pnngency ; it is however probable that the fulnes3 
of the tea apart from the pungency 
is due to the mucilagenous constituents 
dissolved by the boiling water. With regard to the 
great Tannin question it is a subject which has 
been much discussed but little understood. Indian 
and Ceylon teas are stronger in liquor than China 
teas, this( although distinctly in favour of tlie formaj; 
