December i, 1891*] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
389 
It will thus be sesn that Mr. Armstrong's result 
for hand prepared tea waa 34 cents per lb. With 
the use of machinery the figure waa reduaed by 
4 conta in October 3844, the cost o£ plucking and 
manufacturing by machinery showing a saving per 
lb. of tea of 6-34 cents, as against hand rolling 
and charcoal firing. Mr. Armstrong's estimate waa 
then for machine made tea 30 cents per lb f.o.b. 
at Colombo, and our correspondent states that 
his figure has been since reduced to 26 cents. 
We suppose that is the fact in many, per- 
haps the majority of oases (?) and in the faoa of 
low prices already prevailing and the prospects of 
over-production and its results, no legitimate effort 
should be spared still further to economize. In 
that direction and in the pushing of our 
teas in open markets and introducing them 
into others practically closed or only par- 
tially open, our hope of continued success as tea 
producers lies. The limits of production with our 
favourable conditions of soil and climate, have ex- 
panded and are expanding wonderfully. 
_ _ 
NOTES FROM .PEERMAAD. 
Oct., 1891. — lu the " good old days," September waa 
always the pleasantest and brighost month of the year, 
but of late years we have been rather uiifortnuate in 
having a succession of wet Septembers ; this year, 
however, we have been favoured with the moet lovely 
weather, bright hot days as a rule, with ]ust an oc- 
casional shower, every now and again, towards eveniog. 
But the sun was whnt was wanted for the coffee, and 
we got it, and are happy. Leaf disease, which had 
shown itself a bit here and there, and of which I 
wrote somewhat doubtfully in my last, has almost 
entirely disappeared, and although the crop has 
suffered slightly on one or two estates, there is now 
no cause of anxiety, and estimates will bo realised. 
Picking has already commenced in the Periar Viilley, 
and will be in full swing by the end of the mouth ; 
crops generally on the higher estates being not so 
forward. 
The rapid fall in the Coffee Market is, on the face 
of it, somewhat disheartening, but it is satisfac- 
tory to note that fine plantation is in good demand, 
ami I shall bo much surprised if there is not a good 
recovery iu prices long before this season's crop is 
shipped. By the way, what a ghastly tale of disap- 
pointed hopes is told by Messrs. Alston Low & Co.'s 
Annual Statement of Exports of Oolfee from the 
Malabar Coast during last season ! Tho three ports, 
Cochin, Qiiilon and AUeppy, which ship by far the 
greater portion of tho coffee grown in Travancore 
and Cochin, show only 1,230 owt. as having been ex- 
ported. Verily a ghastly record. I am sorry I have 
not in hand a statement of the export of tea from the 
flame three ports for the same period, as it would 
have been satisfactory to have had this as a " set off." 
I most endeavour to send you this with my next 
budget. 
The weather for the past sis weeks has been simply 
perfect for tea, and the flushes have been remarkably 
fine. The fact that, during September, over 6,000 lb. 
of tea were made from 40 acres on one estate i. e., 
150 lb. of made tea per acre for the month, speaks for 
itself. A friend who has lately returned from a visit 
to some of the tea estates in the Periar Valley, reports 
the tea as looking "simply magnificent," and the 
Manager of one ot the largest properties there, anti- 
cipates a yield iu the near future of 1,000 lb. per acre. 
I hope next wook to take a run down to the valley and 
shall bo able to send you full accounts of what wrtA— alaa 
that I should have to write it in the past touse — 
llic coffee district of Travancore, and that now pro- 
mises to become one of the finest tea districts in 
tho country. Nor is this to be wondered at, pos- 
seseiug as it does, a most forcing climate and a 
soil that is just about perfect. Coffee used to 
yield 10 to 15 cwts per acre in " the Seventies," and 
if only shade treos had been grown there, leaf 
disease would undoubtedly have been less disas- 
trous, and but little would, I fancy, now be heard of 
tea in the Periar, which, iu my humble opinion is 
par excellence the beau ideal of a coffee district. The 
only estate that has attempted anything m the way 
of shade is still very much to the fore, and though 
unfortunate in losing its final blossom in February 
last, has a very nice crop on now and is, I am glad 
to ht ar, looking particularly well and capable of giving 
a still heavier crop in the coming year. As another 
instance of the productiveness of the soil, I may 
mention that I once sowed four acres of land with 
paddy, and reaped 280 bushels, or an average outturn 
of 70 bushels per acre, a yield which will I fancy 
bear favourable comparison with the yields of some 
of the finest corn-producing districts in the world. I 
must here mention, to avoid misconception, that apart 
from the natural regard — nay affection — that the 
pioneer of a district may fairly retain for his "first 
love," this praise of the Periar is perfectly disinteres- 
ted; for the writer has long ago parted with the many 
broad acres he once possessed in tho valley, and mi- 
grated to a healthier, if somewhat less^ produotivei 
part of the district. 
A forest land in the near neighbourhood of Peer- 
maad has become scarce, and as the demand for land 
for Tea cultivation is increasing, applications have 
lately been made for certain blocks of selected grass 
land, and during the past monsoon, one new grase- 
iaud clearing has been planted up, the result of which 
will be watched with considerable interest, as should 
the experiment turn out the success that there is 
every reason to anticipate for it, there will undoubtedly 
be a large demand for land of this description, of 
which there are thousands of acres available. 
Apropos of this, I am reminded of a remark made by 
the late Kajah Sir T. Bladava Kow, when Dewan of 
TravaDcore, in reply to an application for a grant of 2 
acres of grass-land for every acre of forest held by 
planters in the Peermaad District, which I had been 
deputed to make personally. It was urged that it waa 
absolutely necessary for us to secure for each estate 
a certain amount o£ grass-land for grazing purposes, as 
we were alive to thefjct that manuring would have to be 
resorted to at an early date, that there were thousands 
of acres available, and that the grass-liud was utterly 
valueless except for Kraziug, and that we paid a heavy 
tax on our forest land aud so on. After a patient 
hearing, and expressing his pleasure at finding that wa 
were, at that early stage of the Coffee enterprise in tho 
country, turning our attention to the matter of high 
cultivation, the Dewan, after assigning various reasons 
for refusing to grant our request, concluded by saying, 
" And besides this, how are we to know Mr. ■ that 
the planters of, say, five end twenty years hence, may 
not, so far from characterising your grass-land as 
' utterly valueless ' find it tighly suitable for some 
other cultivation ? 'I'la for instance." 
Piophetic words, that may ere long be fulfilled. 
That the soil of the generality ot grass-land will 
hardly bear comparison with that of virgin forests, 
goes without saying, but, with our great facilities for 
cheap manuring, and in consideration ot the difference 
in initial co^t of land, this need not be regarded ia 
the light of a drawback. 
That we are fortunate as regards cheap manuring 
may be gathered from what follows. 
Large herds of cattle are brought up every year 
from tho C'umbnm Valley (which literally swarms 
with cittlo aud perodically suffers from a fodder 
famine), to graze, and the Travancore Government 
levies a small grazing fee of 3 annas per head for the 
season, usually about four months, from February to 
June. Every estate, however, of 100 acres and upward, 
is allowed 51)0 head of cattle free and by payment 
ot the above-moutioued fee of A annas per head, aa 
many more cattle as may be required can be obtained, 
without any difficulty, by merely making the necessary 
arrangements with the cattle Orvncrs. Any quantity 
of manure ia thus easily obtained and, as may be seei^ 
at ft glnuoo, at a ridiculously low cost, 
