^>'4  THK  TROPICAL 
TKA  IN  THK  WVNAAI). 
The  cultivation  of  tea  in  the  Wynaad  has  cliuiiif; 
the  last  few  months  been  attracting  attention  out- 
side the  limits  of  Southern  India.  More  than  one 
capitalist  has  come  up  from  Ceylon  to  prospect  the 
district,  and  we  have  already  chronicled  the  sale  of 
Perindotty,  the  only  old  tea  estate  of  any  consider- 
able. size,  to  planters  in  that  island.  When  tiie  sales 
of  the  hrst  breaks  of  tea  from  the  Kmimaculla  and 
Chulika  estates  realised  iir  the  London  Market  Id  to 
lid  per  lb.  over  the  average  of  the  week  for  Indian 
teas,  it  became  evident  that  the  quality  of  tea 
from  the  VVynaad  was  all  that  could  be  desired. 
That  the  yield  per  acre  is  very  heavy  is  beyond 
dispute.  When  the  returns  for  Perindotty  are 
made  up  for  the  current  year,  the  yield  per 
acre  over  the  whole  estate  will,  we  understand,  be, 
say,  550  lb.  per  acre.  This  figure  in  itself  is 
not  exceptionally  high,  but  it  must  be  reiuembered 
that  it  has  reference  to  a plantation,  many  fields  of 
which  are  planted  up  with  bushes  of  what  Mi\ 
William  Taylor,  a Ceylou  planter  of  long  experience, 
has  declared  to  be  ihe  worst  jat  he  has  ever  seen 
in  his  life.  This  implies  poor  and  infrequent  Hush- 
ing. When  the  annual  returns  for  the  young  estates 
that  have  just  come  into  bearing  are  published,  it 
will  be  found,  we  iielieve,  that  so  far  as  mere  quantity 
of  leaf  is  concerned,  the  Wynaad  is  able  to  hold  its 
own  against  auj  tea-growing  district  in  the  world. 
The  elevation  at  which  the  cultivation  is  carried  oii, 
viz.  from  ;1„5(X)  to  l,i  100  feet,  will  necessarily  prevent 
any  teas  of  exceptional  quality  being  produced,  but 
none  the  less  they  should  be  of  those 
useful  grades  which  always  find  a ready 
competition  in  Mincing  Lane.  In  Ceylon  we  notice 
that  Companies  whose  plantations  lie  at  a similar 
elevation  give  hand.some  returns,  though  it  must 
he  admitted  that  the  best  dividends  come  from 
Companies  in  tlie  low  country  or  at  an  e.xtreme 
altitude,  l.e.  from  those  estates  which  give  either 
the  biggest  quantity  or  the  highest  quality.  The 
cheapness  with  which  tea  grown  in  Soutliern  India 
can  be  put  on  tlie  Ijondon  market  will  always  l>e 
a most  important  factor  of  success.  In  both  Tra- 
vaucore  and  the  Wynaad  the  actual  cost  per  lb.  of 
tea  to  the  producer  varies  from  I^dto  5d.  In  Ceylon 
we  believe  it  is  the  same,  but  in  Northern  India 
it  is  stated  to  be  ‘id  per  lb.  more.  Too  great  stress 
c.tn  hardly  be  laid  on  this  fact,  for  it  allows  the 
tea-planter  of  Southern  India  and  Ceylon  to 
either  grow  inferior  l(>af  at  the  same  profit 
or  else  to  produce  the  same  quality  with  nearly 
100  per  cent  more  profit  to  himself. 
A correspondent,  himself  a tea-planter,  but  uotl  of 
the  Wynaad,  has  sent  us  the  following  note ; — “The 
coffee  crop  for  the  past  season  may  be  looked  upon 
as  finished,  and  from  all  one  hear.s  the  general 
result  is  somewhat  disappointing  as  regards  quantity. 
The  high  prices  ruling  at  home  and  locally  make  the 
past  season,  however,  a fairly  satisfactory  one 
taken  all  round.  The  recent  boom  in  tea  in  the 
Wynaad  seems  to  have  suffered  a little  clieck. 
Sev.  ral  Ceylon  planters  who  came  lierc  to  prospect 
are  said  to  have  returned  not  by  any  means  so  favour- 
ably impressed  to  the  future  A7  7>o/  ((do  that  some  pro- 
prietors in  that  district  would  try  to  make  others 
think  of  the  land  they  want  to  get  quit  of.”  We 
do  not  know  on  what  authority  our  corre.spondent  bases 
the  latter  statement.  So  f a-  as  we  have  heard,  no 
Ceylon  planter  who  has  seen  the  j-ounger  clearings  of 
tea  in  the  Wynaad  denies  its  extreme  suitability 
for  the  cuUivation.  Some  Ceylon  men,  we  know, 
have  gone  back  to  the  Island  deterred  by  exaggerat^-d 
accounts  of  the  uuhealtliiness  of  the  district.  Oil  this 
point  Vlantintj  Opinion  of  tlie  15th  ins'ant  writes ; — 
“ The  Wynaad  may  not  be  able  to  boast  of  a sanata- 
rium  climate  like  Ootacamund  or  Nuwera  Eliya,  but 
generally  speaking  we  believe  it  is  fully  equal,  if  not 
in  fact  superior,  to  any  districts  of  like  elevations  in 
either  India  or  Cevlon.  Certainly  it  is  very  far  from 
being  so  unhealthy,  owing  to  its  being  so  well  opened 
out,  as  many  ‘new’  districts  we  wrote  of.  As  to  labour, 
there  is  never  any  lack  of  it  in  the  Wynaad,  the  sup- 
nly  there  being  probably  better  than  almost  any  dis- 
trict in  Southern  India.  We  would  have  not  dwelt  at 
.AGRICULTURIST.  [March  2,  1896. 
sucli  lengtli  on  the  matter,  had  we  not  good  reason 
to  believe  that  the  above  attempts  to  frighten  off  Cey- 
lon capital,  have  been  solfislily  made  by  men  who  feared 
lest  large  extensions  should  raise  the  labour  rates.”  We 
can  hardly  believe  that  any  Wynaad  planter  could  be  so 
selfi.shoi  soblindtothe  interests  of  the  district  generally 
as  to  spread  false  reports  about  its  unhealtliiuess 
merely  to  scare  away  capital  because  it  might 
possibh/  at  some  future  date  raise  his  rates  of 
labour.  This  would  be  playing  the  cur  in  tlie  m uiger 
with  a veiigeuuce.” 
Mr.  H.  M.  Knight,  the  weli-kauw.i  pl.mter  of 
Travaucore  and  at  one  time  in  Ceyion,  who  lias  re- 
cently been  through  the  Wynaad,  writes  as  follows 
in  a Report  of  his  on  the  question  of  climate: — 
“ It  has  been  the  custom  for  planters  in  most 
p.irts  of  the  VV'^yuaad  to  leave  their  estates  in  the 
fiot  months,  IMarch-.May,  and  live  on  the  adjoining 
hills  at  a higher  altitude,  s.ty  over  4,500  feet,  or  to 
go  to  Ootacamund  or  elsewhere.  This  when  coffee 
was  the  sole  product  was  a pleasant  and  suitable 
arrangemsut  both  for  Superintendents  aud  labour, 
and  has  lapsed  into  a regular  custom,  and  this 
no  doubt  has  given  rise  to  the  widespread  idea 
that  the  Wynaad  is  very  feverish  during  these 
months  ; undoubtedly  there  is  some  ground  for  the 
report  as  fever  pi-evails  more  or  less  all 
over  India  at  certain  altitudes  before  tlie 
south-west  monsoon  is  well  in.  Rut  I cannot  be- 
lieve fever  is  more  prevalent  in  the  Wynaad  than 
other  places  at  same  elevation,  nor  do  I think 
from  all  I heard  that  it  is  a very  severe  type.” 
Tiiese  remarks  are  straight  forward  enough  ; aud  if 
they  be  wrong  wo  should  like  to  have  them  con- 
tradicted on  reliable  authority  with  facts  and  figures 
given  in  support  of  the  contradiction.  To  the  best 
of  our  knowledge  not  a single  European  has  died 
in  the  M'^ynaad  from  the  direct  effects  of  malaria 
during  the  past  ten  years.  It  is  moreover  too  often 
overlooked  that  this  type  of  fever  is  endemic  through- 
out the  greater  part  of  India.  If  Madras,  for  in- 
stance, were  not  the  seat  of  Government,  but  only  the 
headquarters  of  a Sub-Collectorate,  we  have  but  little 
doubt  that  double  batta  and  extra  allowances  would 
be  granted  on  account  of  the  prevalence  and  virulence 
of  malaria,  and  with  a good  deal  more  reason  than 
is  the  case  at  the  present  time  in  the  Wynaad. 
Nothing  definite  can  be  said  of  the  effect  of  the  climate 
of  the  Wynaad  during  the  hot  months  on  large  gangs  of 
coolies,  for  as  Mr.  Knight  has  pointed  out,  it  has  been 
the  custom  in  the  district  to  get  rid  of  labour  as 
soon  as  the  hot  weather  set  in.  So  long  as  there 
was  no  demand  at  that  season  of  the  year,  there 
would  certainly  be  no  supply,  but  given  the  demand 
it  seems  to  us  no  difficulty  will  be  experienced  in 
obtaining  the  supply,  except,  of  course,  the  initial 
trouble  which  always  attends  every  new  departure! 
It  may  be  taken  for  certain  that  imported  labour 
will  not  stay  in  the  Wynaad  during  the  hot  months 
when  there  is  no  work  to  be  done,  but  once  let  it 
be  known  that  there  are  wage.s  to  be  earned,  we 
see  no  reason  why  the  wage-earners  will  not  be  present. 
Tea  has  lieen  grown  profitably  in  the  Dooars  and 
the  Terai  in  Upper  India  and  in  the  Kelani  Valiev 
in  Ceylon,  where  fever  may  be  said  to  be  prevalent 
all  the  year  round,  so  we  can  hardly  suppose  that 
all  other  conditions  being  extremely  favourable,  it 
cannot  be  grown  ))rofitably  in  the  Wynaad  merely 
because  during  two  months  of  the  year  there  ex- 
ists a mild  type  of  malaria.  If,  however,  there  are 
Wynaad  planters  who  are  honestly  of  opinion  that 
fever  of  such  type  prevails  as  to  present  the  culti- 
vation of  tea,  we  here  ask  them  to  supply  us  with 
the  facts  and  figures  on  which  their  belief  is  based 
for  neither  at  V'^ayitri  nor  at  Sultan’s  R.attery  nor 
yet  at  Nellacotta  have  we  heard  of  this  virulent 
malaria. 
The  Hon’ble  Mr.  Rotnilly,  in  his  annual  report 
of  the  Wynaad  Planters’  Association  said  that  he 
sincerely  trusted  that  the  scheme  so  often  advo- 
cated by  this  Association  of  small  acreage  under 
different  proprietors  with  central  factories  might 
at  last  bo  put  into  force,  and  that  the  old  resi- 
dents might  share  with  the  new-comers  in  the  pros- 
perity that  is  to  come.  If  only  this  scheme  werecar-i 
