April  i,  1897.]  THE  I'ROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
71; 
Careful  factoi-y  work  is  a great  essential  in 
making  tea. 
5.  Shortness  of  labour  lias  made  your  tea  run 
away  ; consequently,  coarser  tea  is  plucked,  as 
no  person  likes  to  throw  away  leaf. 
6.  I know  no  other  cause  except  over-produc- 
tion. J.  J. 
No.  XXXIV. 
Teldeniya,  Feb.  IS. 
1.  I fancy  plucking  is  very  much  whac  it 
always  was,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
fall  in  prices. 
“2.  Can  (judicious  ! ?)  manuring  do  harm  to  any 
cultivation  or  crop?  I do  not  think  so.  If  new 
soil  or  manuring  upsets  quality  and  flavour,  let 
us  rush  for  old  exhausted  land. 
3.  There  is  no  doubt  severe  pruning  (cutting 
down  to  a foot)  does  away  with  quality  and 
flavour  of  tea  for  fully  12  months. 
4.  I do  not  think  less  attention  is  given  to 
factory  work.  On  the  other  hand,  too  much  fuss 
and  interference  with  the  tea-maker  is  apt  to 
upset  the  regular  routine  of  work.  Of  course, 
“ tea  is  made  in  the  field  ” — good  or  bad— but 
it  lakes  .some  trying  to  spoil  fine  leaf. 
.5.  Glad  to  say,  I have  never  been  short-handed, 
but  I can  quite  believe  a short  labour  supply 
would  upset  the  plucking  a good  deal  and  so 
.spoil  the  quality  of  the  leaf. 
6-7.  It  IS  not  possible  to  make  the  same  tea 
all  through  the  year,  weather  and  pruning  having 
a great  effect  on  quality  and  make,  and  prices 
are  therefore  bound  to  rise  and  fall.  The  tea  of 
today  is  as  good  as  ever  it  was.  Increased  supply 
should  bear  the  blame  of  fall  in  the  market 
value — here  we  make  our  best  teas  in  the 
south-west  months,  1 suppose  jroni  the  check 
the  bushes  receive  from  the  wind— our  poorest 
teas  in  March  and  April,  when  the  great  rush 
of  leaf  is  on. 
I add  our  3 wants  as  a rule  : — Want  of  withering 
space,  want  of  power,  and  want  of  coolies. 
What  say  you?  Do  you  think  Nasebv  teas  of 
today  are  not  as  good  as  those  when  fine  prices 
were  being  realized  some  time  back  ? What 
puzzles  orje  is,  where  all  the  poor  teas  sold  in  the 
Colombo  market  comes  from,  or  how  it  is 
plucked  and  made — but  it  was  always  so,  it  is 
no  new  thing.  R.  B. 
No.  XXXV. 
February  18. 
1.  I do  not  think  men,  as  a rule,  pluck  coarser 
than  formerly. 
2.  Manuring  may,  at  first  application,  give  you 
a leaf  lighter  than  the  trees  yielded  before  they 
were  manured,  but  as  manuring,  in  the  course  of 
three  or  four  months,  improves  the  wood,  the  leaf 
must  naturally  be  better  from  manured  trees. 
3.  Severe  pruning  is  only  resorted  to  when  the 
trees,  say  after  three  primings  are,  what  is  called, 
pruned  down. 
4.  Tea  manufacture,  as  a rule,  is  as  much  at- 
tended to  as  formerly. 
5.  If  an  estate  is  short  of  labour,  naturally 
too  long  time  elapses  between  each  plucking,  and 
liquor  suffers. 
6.  I think  production  is  getting  ahead,  gradu- 
ally, of  consumption — hence  the  gradual  fall  in 
price.  V.  A. 
No.  XXXVI. 
February  IS,  1897. 
(1).  Considering  that  a large  numbei  of  estates 
had  been  formed  into  Companies  it  is  a dillicult 
matter  to  .say  ivliether  coarse  j)lucking  is  the 
principle  cause  for  low  prices.  1 think  yuperin- 
tendents  pay  more  attention  to  plucking  than 
they  did  a few  years  ago.  Fro.  plauter.s  wlio 
work  their  own  estates,  are  generally  fond  of 
coarse  plucking,  doing  great  harm  to  their  own 
interests  in  bringing  down  the  average  prices  for 
Ceylon  teas. 
(2) .  Having  had  little  or  no  experience  in  manur- 
ing tea,  I am  not  in  a jiosition  to  answer  this 
question. 
(3) .  Severe  pruning  is  bound  to  bring  down  the 
average  prices  for  Ceylon  teas,  unless  estates 
adopt  a proper  system  of  pruning  ^rd  of  estate 
every  year.  A great  number  of  lowcountry  jilaces 
are  iiruned  once  in  12  or  18  months,  and  these 
(estates)  cannot  possibly  send  good  teas  to  the 
market.  Estates  at  high  elevation  are  ju  uned  once 
in  three  years,  but  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  we  shall  have  to  follow  the  example  of 
lowcountry  planters  of  pruning  tea  once  in  18 
mo-iths. 
(4) .  I do  not  think  careful  attention  is  paid 
to  the  manufacturing  of  tea.  Native  tea-makers 
are  often  very  careless,  and  yuperintendenls 
should  ])ay  three  or  four  visits  to  the  factory 
every  day. 
(5) .  I have  never  been  short  of  labour,  but  those 
who  have  not  a sufficient  labour  force  on  the 
estate  to  pluck  once  in  12  days,  cannot  expect  to 
make  good  tea. 
(6) .  Careful  plucking,  manufacture,  and  proj)er 
system  of  pruning,  may  keep  ui>  Ceylon  prices, 
but  as  far  as  niy  experience  goes,  as  the  tea  gets 
older,  Ceylon  is  bound  to  produce  a poorer  quality 
of  teas. 
(7) .  Over-production  has  a gi'eatdeal  to  do  with 
the  low  [irices,  but  this  sort  of  thing  cannot  go  on 
for  any  length  of  time,  for  the  day  will  come,  when 
estates  at  low  elevations  will  gradually  become 
worthless,  giving  a chance  to  estates  at  high  eleva- 
tion to  realize  good  prices.  W.  N. 
THE  PLUCKING,  PRUNING  AND 
PREPARATION  OF  TEA  : 
REVIEW  OF  LETTERy  XXI  TO  XXXVI. 
Resuming  our  remarks  on  the  letters  on  the 
above  subject,  from  No.  21,  we  note  a continu- 
ance of  the  divergence  of  opinion  alreaily  recorded 
on  the  subject  of  coarse  plucking.  It  is  rather 
a difference  of  testimony  on  a matter  of  fact  ; 
foi,  if  there  is  coarser  or  finer  plucking  now  than 
before,  the  statement  regarding  the  cham>-e 
would  scarcely  be  reckoned  an  opinion,  about 
which  practical  men  of  experience  would  differ. 
Either  there  is  coa.ser  plucking  now,  or  there  is 
not.  Ho.'.'  Lit,  then  tliat  some  writers  distinctly 
affirm  coarser  plucking,  and  either  justify  it  as 
more  remunerative,  or  condemn  it  as  leadiii"-  to 
the  fall  in  prices  which  is  loudly  deplored 
while  other  writers  as  confidently  report  an 
improvement  in  plucking,  but  equally  iame'nt 
the  lower  |)nces,  which  they  refer  to  utiier  causes 
than  the  .system  of  plucking?  The  explanation 
seems  to  us  simple,  and  one  which  reflects  on 
the  accuracy  neither  of  observation  nor  of  .state 
ment  of  Uie  writers.  Each  refers  to  matters 
within  his  personal  knowledge  and  observa- 
tioii  without  the  least  idea  of  misleadin<r 
The  system  of  plucking  differs  in 
ditterent  districts,  and  even  on  different  estates. 
Roughly  speaking,  estates  in  the  lowcountry  or 
of  medium  elevation,  prefer  quantity  to  (lu.ali’ty 
seeing  that  their  teas  connot  command  the 
prices  which  thu.se  of  the  higher  districts  fetch  j 
