THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
837 
June  i,  1897,] 
off;  “D”  holds  severe  pruning  responsible  to 
a great  extent  for  bad  prices,  and  believes  tliat 
preparation  coimuands  greater  attention  than 
before.  Both  agree  that  overproduction  is  the 
chief  cause.  Altogether,  the  ten  letters  under 
review  are  not  the  least  suggestive  of  the  series, 
though  they  disclose  at  the  same  time  a remarkable 
divergence  of  opinion  on  most  points. 
(Letters  Co)itinued. ) 
No.  LX XI. 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF  TEA  SEED  IN 
REFERENCE  TO  INDIFFERENT  TEAS. 
20th  April. 
Dear  Sir, — In  view  of  the  discu.ssion  yon 
recently  started  in  your  columns  (and  for  which 
we  are  one  and  all  very  tliankful  to  you),  re 
fall  in  tea  prices,  and  the  different  opinions 
you  elicited  as  to  its  various  causes  wliich  have 
been  voluminously  and  fully  ventilated, — has  it 
ever  entered  the  minds  of  any  of  your  contii- 
butors  tliat  tea  seed,  from  which  estates  were 
planted  not  long  ago,  and  are  still  being  planted 
may  have  a part  to  play  in  the  output 
of  indifferent  teas,  wanting  in  strength  ami 
flavor?  Common  sense  speaks  lor  itself.  It 
is  an  admitteil  fact  that  weak,  unhealthy, 
unnourished  parents  cannot  and  never  could  have 
healthy  robust  offspring.  In  like  manner  tea 
seed  from  bushes  grown  on  wasted  and  worn 
out  estates  where  other  products  liad  held  sway 
for  half  a generation  or  more  and  the  soil  whereof 
was  originally  poor  stuff’,  cannot  possibly  be  ex- 
pected to  maintain  healthy  seed-bearers  and  be 
jiarents  to  healthy  tea  bushes.  Where  fertilizers 
can  be  cheaply  applied  year  after  year  it  may 
not  be  so.  Wiiat  about  our  steep  outlying  districts 
where  communication  is  often  only  a narrow 
rugged  bridle  path  for  miles;  these  are  all  at  a 
decideil  disadvantage.  The  seed  from  these  seed- 
beareis  must  be  and  will  be  lacking  in  stamina, 
yet  seed  has  been  indiscriminately  bought  and  a 
vast  acreage  planted.  However  gooil  a jat 
may  be  if  the  parent  trees  are  on  c.xhausted 
soil  and  are  poor  specimens  my  Humble  opinion 
is  that  plants  raisetl  from  such  seed  will  remain 
tainted  with  poverty  of  sap; — manuring  might  give 
it  a dicker  which  never  can  be  upto  much.  The 
taint  of  the  parents  remains  embedded  : weak  and 
debilitated  as  years  roll  by,  they  will  never  produce 
a healthy  succulent  flush,  however  nice  an  appear- 
ance the  fields  may  present  to  the  onlooker. 
At  the  infancy  of  tea  in  Ceylon,  saylSSO,  there 
were  but  3 or  4 places  from  which  seed  was 
procurable.  The  seed-bearers  were  about  6 and  7 
years  old  and  in  their  prime,  the  seed 
then  anil  for  a few  years  after  might  have 
been  all  that  could  have  been  desired  and  may  be 
so  now.  I know  these  places  and  I was  told 
they  have  had  their  seed-bearers  planted 
on  virgin  soil,  what  about  the  worn-out  places 
since  sprung  up  some  of  them  having  seed-bearers  ? 
“Nous  verrons.”  Every  man  before  buying  seed 
ought  to  satisfy  himself  that  the  seed  he  gets 
are  not  from  seed-bearers  jrlaivted  on  exhausted 
and  worn-out  soil,  that  is  if  he  has  a future  to 
look  forward  to  for  producing  a rich  marketable 
tea  full  of  strength  and  llavour.  Don’t  touch 
seed -bearers  on  old  coffee  land  which  never  even 
grew  cott'ee  for  three  years. 
By  the  bye,  can  you  kindly  enlighten  us  as  to 
whether  the  owner  of  a paddy-field,  after  his 
harvest  is  reaped,  has  power  to  prevent  one  going 
over  his  fields  after  snipe  or  say  to  shoot  over 
liis  field?  Opinions  difl'er— we  have  decided  to 
make  you  our  referee. 
SNIPE. 
[Surely,  permission  of  the  paddy-field  owner 
lias  to  be  got  : would  “Snipe”  allow  his  native 
neighbouis  hunt  for  hare  in  his  tea-fields 
without  leave  asked  and  obtained  ? — Ed.  T./).] 
LXXII. 
Passara,  March  2,  1897. 
(1) .  Of  course,  rough  leaf  plucking  gives  rubbish, 
but  if  leaf  is  plucked  medium,  and  there  is  room  on 
tats,  the  tea  should  be  fairly  good. 
(2) .  Manuring,  I believe,  will  spoil  quality,  es- 
pecially artificial,  as  the  flush  comes  on  so  rapidly 
and  is  always  sapjiy. 
(3) .  Severe  pruning  would  not  spoil  quality  if 
the  bushes  were  not  plucked  so  soon,  if  10  leaves 
were  left  and  then  knifed  across,  I believe  the 
effects  of  pruning,  so  far  as  quality  goes,  would 
be  obviated.  / have  proved  thi.s. 
(4) .  It  is  my  full  belief  that  proprietors  err 
and  severely  so,  in  not  employing  highly-paid 
Euio|)eans  to  make  their  tea,  but  the  well-paid 
and  experienced  Manager  is  required  just  the 
s^ame.  Men  must  supervise  all  works : but  no 
Assistant  will  remain  stewing  in  a factory 
on  RloO.  [I  believe  that  this  is  a great 
leasoii  why  India  has  gone  up  ; their  estates 
are  so  large  that  they  always  have  European 
supervi.sion  of  best  quality  making  their  teas, 
etc.,  etc.]  Only  give  them  one  month  in  factory 
and  one  in  field,  they  are  always  bright  and  pert. 
At  the  same  time  if  Ceylon  proprietors  order 
their  managers  into  the  factory  and  let  natives 
supervise  the  field,— the  results  would  be  still 
more  disastrous. 
(5) .  Men  must  make  up  their  minds  when 
short  of  labour  to  abandon  some  fields  or 
only  pluck  or  rather  tip  tlie  flush,  never  inind- 
ing  how  niany  leaves  are  left ; the  present  method 
of  chasing  14  days  flush  has  for  result  rubbish.  First 
pluck  fully  dcvclopcd\Q&( — small  shoots  make  taste- 
less tea  ; (2)  have  no  end  of  room  to  lay  leaf  thin  on 
tats.  In  wet  weather,  apply  heat— but  never  until 
leaf  has  naturally  withered  for  10  hours  at  least  • lire 
low  Employ  better  paid  tea-makei  s,  either  European 
01  high  class  natives, — be  liberal  with  tat  room 
Liood  teas-  cost  money  and  are  worth  it ; the  nre'- 
sent  mode  of  cheese-paring  and  demand  for 
big  crops  will  not  pay.  Except  in  poor  iats 
avoid  severe  pruning,  but  all  this  will  be 
no  use  without  a better  paid  man  employed 
in  factory.  Managers,  at  least  conscientious  nien 
are  given  far  too  much  work  in  field,  factory  and 
office  ; they  have  found  this  out  in  India,  hence 
their  good  prices.  ’ 
No.  LXXII  I. 
Lower  Ainbagaiiiuwa,  March  6th 
1.  Coarse  plucking  is  undoubtedly  the  nrinci 
pal  factor  in  reducing  one’s  prices  • but 
just  this  which  some  folk  /ay  well  t"  heS 
liave  quantity  and  that  leaves  mi>  •.  ^ 1 
balanci  on  th"e  right  ride.’’  /Testion\hi.  uSh^^ 
Experience  ha,s  taugd.t  me  that  quantity  wt 
weighed  111  the  balance  is  found  M’antimr” 
Not  only  are  you  frantically  makin-  eflbrt^to 
advertise  your  estate,  you  are  further  niaterTally 
helping  to  reduce  the  Ceylon  average  wWch 
must  sooner  or  later  tell  on  quantity  prod  cers 
That  coarse  plucking  has  a good  6 pei  S 5 
red  leaf  is  an  admitted  tact  arid  ^ 
centageof  reddish  leaf  in  your  break  does  fo^  voT 
I have  been  a sinner  but  sinnetli  not  now  J ^ ' 
