^^ov,  r,  1895. J THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
EXPERIMENTS  WITH  TEA  IX  CEYLON 
2G  YEARS  AGO. 
[I  send  some  notes  on  tea  written  by  Mr.  A.  C.  H. 
of  Rangoon,  formerly  a planter  on  Mount  Temple 
Estate,  above  Gampola,  which  it  will  be  interesting 
to  publish.  He  is  a very  clever  and  original  man, 
but  unlucky  in  his  speculations.  At  present  he  has 
a rice  mill,  and  is  pi'eparing  Burma  rice  in  the 
same  w.iy  they  prejiare  it  in  Madras,  steaming  it 
i.o  make  Calunda  rice,  and  is  the  first  to  intro- 
duce that  system  of  preparing  rice  into  Burma, 
which  may  benefit  the  rice  growers  there  very  much. 
He  is  very  sanguine  about  making  a fortune  over 
it. — Cof.'] 
9th  Aug.  1895. 
In  1879  the  following  experiment  wastiied  on  five 
ycr  r old  tea  bushes  by  a restless  spirit  whose  notions 
are  out  of  the  beaten  track.  A few  old  women  were, 
after  picking  the  usual  flush  of  young  leaves,  set  to 
strip  every  leaf  off  a certain  number  of  bushes  to 
ascertain  what  kind  of  tea  could  be  made  from  the 
bard  leaves. 
About  8 trees  a piece  was  all  the  old  women  got 
through,  each  tree  producing  as  its  total  crop,  over  a 
pound  weight. 
The  'e  .ves  wore  too  dry  to  wnther,  roll,  or  ferment ; 
the  question  was : what  to  do  then 
A large-sized  sausage  machine  being  available  the 
leaves  were  put  through  it,  and  cut  up ; they  were 
then  sprinkled  with  water,  plenty  of  it,  and  with 
some  trouble  of  attempted  rolling  (and  palming, 
patting  or  pounding)  got  to  adhere  in  the  form  of 
D.alls.  In  this  state  a certain  amount  of  fermentation 
was  set  up,  even  to  a reddish-green  colour,  and  the 
tea  was  in  due  course  fired,  put  into  paper  packets 
of  1 lb.  each,  and  put  aside  for  sale  to  natives  who 
occasionally  came  for  tea  at  Is  Gd  each. 
The  originator  of  the  experiment  forgot  it  until 
some  weeks  after,  a neighbour  who  turned  up  his  nose 
at  the  very  idea  of  Ceylon  tea,  ran  out  of  his  im- 
ported stuff  and  wrote  over  asking  as  a favor 
to  be  spared  a few  pounds  of  tea.  By  way  of  pay- 
ing him  off  for  the  contempt  he  always  exhibited 
with  ’regard  to  the  production  of  Ceylon  tea,  a couple 
of  paper  packets  of  the  production  in  question  were 
sent  to  him  with  a note  saying  that  this  was  some 
rubbish  sold  to  natives  at  Is  Gd  a pound,  and  was 
the  only  tea  available  at  the  moment. 
In  the  course  of  an  hour  or  two  an  acknowledge- 
ment was  received  to  the  effect  that  the  sample  sent 
was  the  finest  the  writer  had  ever  tasted,  and  he 
would  be  only  too  glad  to  buy  every  pound  avail- 
able at  Is  Gd  I So  much  for  tea  made  from  what  99 
planters  out  of  101  consider  of  no  value,  because  the 
rem  lining  one  has  said  so. 
Twenty-seven  days  after  that  stripping,  every 
bush  treated  threw  out  an  abundant  flusl*'  of 
pekoe  tips  or  about  ten  times  tbe  quantity  that 
any  ordinary  bush  would  yield  under  ordinary 
circumstances.  At  a rough  calculation  an  acre 
of  tea  if  stripped  say  twice  a year  would  yield 
fully  800  lb.  of  tea  from  hard  leaf.  From  only 
pekoe  tips  two  pluckings,  .501b.  and  more  than  its 
yield  of  average  tea  during  tbe  other  10  months  in 
the  year,  because  all  the  young  leaves  would  be 
tender  enough  to  manufacture  if  advisable. 
The  late  Dr.  Thwaites  on  being  consulted,  gave 
his  opinion  that  stripping  should  not  be  resorted 
to  “ too  often.” 
The  question  induced  by  the  result  of  this  experi- 
ment is  “ Does  the  Tea  Planter  under  the  prevailing 
system  derive  one  quarter  of  the  profit  from  his 
tea  trees  that  they  are  capable  of  yielding”  the 
answer  is,  if  you  h.ive  full-grown  bushes  why  not 
prove  it  ? 
A.  C.  H. 
[We  suspect  that  after  each  successive  “strip- 
ping,” the  bush  would  prove  less  and  less  readily 
responsive  and  would  in  fact  soon  begin  to  show 
signs  of  suffering.— Ed.  T.A.\ 
39 
313 
now  IT  STRIKES  AN  OLD  COLONIST. 
MOROWAKA  REVISITED  ; 
THE  COMING  RESURRECTION  OF 
BURIED  SOVEREIGNS. 
Passing  along  Craven  Street  a few  months  ago,  I 
observed  a brass  plate  bearing  tbe  words  “ Morowak- 
korale  Tea  Company,  Limited.” 
The  doorway  had  long  been  familiar  to  old  Im  iin 
and  Ceylon  men,  mercantile,  civil  and  military,  and 
perhaps  was  more  frequently  and  hopefully  entered 
in  the  olden  time  when  the  quaint  little  street  came 
to  a cnl  lie  mic  ere  reaching  the  bank  of  the  Thames, 
than  now  when  it  is  an  open  and  busier  thoroughfare. 
Morowaka  seems  better  known  in  London  than  it 
is  in  Colombo.  “Where  on  earth  is  Morowaka?” 
said  a leading  Estate  Agent  the  other  day  and  as 
there  are  doubtless  many  in  Ceylon  equally  ignorant 
of  our  southern  hills,  a biief  record  of  the  district’s 
history  during  the  past  30  years  may  not  bo  out 
of  place. 
The  Morowakkorale  proper  lies  wholly  within 
the  Southern  Province,  though  several  of  the  estates 
such  as  Hayes,  Valleyfield,  Panilkande,  &c.,  are 
within  the  limits  of  Sabaragamuwa,  about  40  miles 
from  Matara— GO  from  Galle  and  112  from  Colombo, 
by  such  roads  as  are  now  available  and  those  who 
complain  of  them  ought  to  have  “ seen  those  roads 
before  they  were  made,” 
The  railway  jouriiay  to  Galle  from  Colombo  un- 
necessarily tedious  as  it  unquestionably  is — takii  g 
four  mortal  hours  to  cover  wliat  in  my  native  coun- 
try would  be  accomplished  in  about  IJ  hour.  Still  it 
is  an  improvement  on  the  old  coach,  though  the  journey 
may  be  more  monotonous.  We  are  not  now  anil 
then  landed  in  the  ditch  we  gat  no  mullaga- 
tawny  at.  Bentotta.'  Albeit  there  is  a considerable 
saving  and  for  this  we  are  duly  thankful.  In  a 
few  weeks  more  the  line  will  be  opened  to  Matara 
bringing  us  ten  miles  neartr  our  destination. 
To  anyone  like  myself  who  30  years  ago  crept 
up  from  Akuresse  through  jungle  paths,*  the  present 
carriage  drive  seems  .splendid,  and  indeed  it  is  a 
very  creditable  trace — but  passes  through  a veiy  poor 
and  sparsely  peopled  country.  There  are  no  valu- 
able forests  and  the  greenery  existing  such  as  the 
bracken,  only  serves  to  show  the  poverty  of  the  soil. 
Here  and  there  the  pretty  and  curious  pitcher  plant 
hangs  over  the  steep  embankment  indicating  a very 
moist  and  warm  climate.  The  purple  variety,  by  the 
way,  only  supposed  to  be  found  in  Borneo,  is  here 
not  uncommon.  A few  miles  before  reaching  Akuressa 
—or  about  20  miles  from  Galle — we  come  upon  the 
first  tea  estate,  a poor  jilt  in  a poor  soil,  but  such 
is  the  result  of  150  inches  of  rain  per  annum  in  a 
hot  climate,  that  the  flushes  seem  fairly  good. 
AKURESSA 
itself,  with  its  comfortable  bungalow,  its  pretty  clump 
of  teak  trees  and  its  navigable  river,  forms  the  only 
real  oasis  in  this  lowcountry  wilderness.  The  road 
thence  to  Dcniyai — 29  miles — affords  little  worthy  of 
note  save  tbe  welcome  and  very  pretty  Beslhoiise  at 
Morow.ika  where  one  can  alw.iya  get  an  easy  chair, 
a refreshingly  long  drink  and  see  such  iamiliar 
objects  as  a copy  of  the  I'ropicul  Aijricullurint  and 
S.indy  Browm’s  picture  hanging  on  the  wall. 
AIUUVED  AT  DENCVAI 
whe 'e  the  frogs  perpetually  croak,  the  worried  travel- 
lers feel  only  fit  to  follow  their  example.  There  is  not 
much  to  eat,  less  to  drink;  Imt  wo  bless  the  Government 
Agent  whose  forethought  li  id  provided  such  Sjflendid 
beds.  Deuiyai  though  barely  1,000  feet  above  sea  level  is 
cooler  than  Kandy,  and  we  sleep  as  only  moderately 
tired  men  with  fairly  good  consciences  can.  Feeling 
refreshed  next  morning  we  start  for  a walk  of  6 miles 
into  the  heart  of  the  old  coffee  district;  but  before  we 
had  travelled  a mile  we  hid  entered  upon  a tea  watte 
of  considerable  extent,  at  the  entrance  into  which 
stands  a substantial  stone  and  lime  Church  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Joseph  built  by  the  prosperous  native 
* Our  first  and  only  visit  to  Morowakkorle  and 
BjCross  Gongalla  to  Rakwana  was  in  1872. — Ed.  T.A, 
