310 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [Nov.  i,  1895. 
THE  TEA  PLANTING  INDUSTRY  OF 
CEYLON  IN  1895: 
THE  POSITION  IN  RESPECT  OF  ALTITUDE 
AND  GROUPS  OF  DISTRICTS  ; INTERESTING 
ANALYSES. 
THE  RESERVE  AVAILABLE  FOR  TEA. 
Just  as  we  have  pointed  out  the  location  of  what  is 
^eft  to  us  of  “Coffee,”  so  it  may  be  well  briefly  to 
bring  under  review  the  great  divisions  or  centres  of 
“Tea”  cultivation  in  the  island.  We  may  indeed  be  told 
that  tea  is  everywhere,  or  be  asked  where  it  is  not, 
within  the  recognised  Planting  divisions  of  the  Moun- 
tain Zone  and  much  of  our  South-Western  lowcountry  ; 
but  by  grouping  certain  districts  together  and  show- 
ing the  total  area  in  these  covered  by  the  tea  plant, 
we  may  get  a much  better  idea  of  the  importance  of 
the  several  zones  of  cultivation.  In  doing  so  we  may 
first  give  an  approximative  estimate  of  the  area  with 
tea  from  an  altitude  of  about  five  thousand  feet  above 
sea -level  and  upwards  ; secondly  between  five  thou- 
sand and  down  to  about  three-thousand-five-hundred 
feet  altitude ; thirdly  from  the  latter  limit  to  say  two- 
thousand  feet  ; fourthly  between  two  and  one 
thousand  feet  and  fifthly  under  a thousand  feet 
altitude  and  in  the  low-country  proper.  Premising 
that  the  aggregate  area  planted  for  Ceylon  is  taken 
according  to  the  latest  Directory  returns,  at  305,000 
acres,  plus  5,000  acres  in  native  gardens  not  in  our 
lists,  our  estimate  of  approximative  areas  at  the 
different  altitudes  works  out  roughly  as  follows  ; — 
Feet. 
Feet.  Acres. 
Tea  above  (or  close  on)  5,000  about 
,,  ,,  3,500  and  under 
„ „ 2,000 
„ „ 1,000 
,,  under 
30,000 
5.000  151,000 
3,500  67,000 
2.000  24,000 
1.000  38,000 
Total..  310,000 
Next  we  may  attempt  some  grouping  as  i-espects 
districts.  Taking  first  the  great  expanse  of  cultiva- 
tion between  Great  Western  and  Adam’s  Peak  and 
including  Lower  Dikoya,  we  get  of  tea  planted,  as 
follows : — 
Acres. 
Dimbula- area  under  tea  • 
Dikoya  ,, 
Dikoya  Lower  ,, 
Maskeliya  ,, 
• 41,001 
■ 26,731 
- 7,996 
- 18,547 
Total 
- 95,175 
Or,  not  far  short  of  one-third  of  the  total  area 
planted  in  the  country,  and  certainly  by  far  tlio  most 
valuable  third.  Let  us  by  way  of  contrast  place  the 
Uva  group  of  districts,  going  as  far  as  Maturata 
and  Nuwara  Eliya  on  the  one  side  and  Balangoda— 
though  this  may  seem  rather  beyond  the  Uva  climate 
- — on  the  other.  We  then  get  a return  as  follows  : — 
Haputale  area 
under  tea 
Acre.s. 
- 11,6.30 
,,  West 
- 1,197 
- 3,412 
Balangod.a 
N ew  G.alway 
881 
ITflapussellawa 
»»  * 
- 8,289 
Maturata 
J»  “ 
- 5,U’9 
Badulla 
- 8,579 
Pas.sara 
»>  • 
- 3,560 
Madulsiina  and  llewa 
Kliya 
M * 
- 6,009 
Monaragala 
♦ 1 “ 
245 
Nuwara  Kliya 
»>  " 
- 3,600 
Total 
• 63,141 
Here  we  have  ovei*  ouc-sixth  of  our  total  area  under 
tea ; but  then  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  this 
division  there  are  also  13,-100  acres  of  coffee  and  an 
appreciable  ai'ea  of  cinchona  against  only  3,800  acres 
of  coffoe  and  very  little  cinchona  in  the  Dimbula- 
Dikoya  group. 
It  may  be  well  next  to  show  the  area  under  tea 
Ja  North  aad  South  of  Kandy  respec* 
tively.  In  the  Northern,  North-Western  and  North- 
Eastern  divisions,  we  have  : — 
Matale  East  & Laargala— area  under  tea 
Acres. 
- 7,439 
Matale  West 
- 3,095 
,,  North 
- 1,289 
Kelebokka 
• 4,887 
Knuckles 
- 4,095 
Nitre  Cave 
- 329 
Rangala 
• 4,595 
Medamahanuwara 
- 988 
Hunasgiriya 
- 2,859 
Panwila  and  Wattegania 
- 1,913 
Dumbara  - 
60 
(And  let  us  add)  Kurunegala 
- 1,368 
— 
Total 
- 32,417 
Or  not  far  off  one-ninth  of  the  whole  extent  under  tea 
and  less  than  half  the  acreage  included  in  the  next 
group.  South  and  West  of  Kandy,  we  place  : — 
Hantane— area  under  tea 
llewaheta  Lower 
„ Upper 
Nilainbe 
Pussellawa 
Kamboda 
I’undaluoya 
Kotmale 
. Ambagamuwa 
Vakdes.sa 
DolosViage 
Kadugannawa 
Alagalla 
Acres. 
• 4,840 
• 4,004 
• 4,228 
■ 4,991 
• 12,211 
- 3,637 
• 3,345 
• 8,198 
• 5,092 
• 1,761 
- 14,174 
• 3,375 
• 2,453 
Total  . 73,209 
This  takes  the  second  place,  the  proportion  being 
nearly  one-fourth  of  the  whole. 
Finally,  we  may  give  all  that  remain  together  as 
“ Lowcountry,”  although  the  Rakwana,  Kukulu  and 
Morawak  Korale  districts  are  scarcely  in  that  cate- 
gory 
Kelani  Valley— area  under  tea 
Kegalla  and  Polgahawela 
Kalutara  - • • 
Udagaina 
Other  Lowcountry  Districts  « 
Acres. 
- 22,322 
- 1,350 
- 10,453 
- 3,970 
- 3,749 
(Considerahhj  higher.) 
Kuruwita 
Rjikwana 
Morawak  Korale  - 
Kukulu  Korale 
41,841 
. 1,262 
• 3,145 
• 3,168 
• 1,053 
Total 
• 60,472 
In  this  total  we  have  very  nearly  one-sixth  of  the  grand 
aggregate  for  the  island  ; but  as  time  rolls  on,  if 
only  encouragement  is  offered  through  prices  keep- 
ing up,  we  may  expect  the  lowcountry  to  show  a 
further  considerable  development. 
We  liavc  been  asked  by  a Colombo  merchant 
to  .state  wliat  proportion,  acconiingto  our  reckon- 
ing, of  tlie  reserved  land  in  private  bands  may  be 
available  for  planting  witli  tea.  The  total  ex- 
tent of  plantations  being  ...  748,017  acres 
and  of  cultivation  ...  ...  379,182  ,, 
We  get  for  total  reserve  ...  368,835  ,, 
Of  this  very  large  extent  we  should  say  that 
about  120,000  acres  represent  forest  and  other 
valuable  land  fully  available  for  cultivation 
if  due  encouragement  is  ottered ; and  unle.ss  a 
fall  in  the  price  of  tea  through  large  crops  in 
India  interfere,  we  see  no  rea-sou  why  60,000 
acres  of  this  reserve  should  not  be  jdanted 
liming  the  next  live  or  six  years — apart  from 
any  Crown  land  that  may  be  made  available — 
so  let  Jndkm  tea-planters  beware  of  sitjyposing 
that  Ihcre  is  no  more  tea  land  to  plant  in  Ceylon, 
