July i, 1897.] 
TPIE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
53 
THE CHEEPEH. 
(By a Ceylon Tea Planter.) 
The rise and progress of the tea industry in Ceylon 
has been accompanied by the appearance and rapid 
multiplication of the “ Creeper ” in all liis varieties. 
The Creeper is not an insect, nor reptile, nor a 
plant, nor anything at all interesting from a natur- 
alist’s point of view. Although he may be said to 
live upon tea, tea is not his only food, nor, except- 
ing a few rare instances, his only drink As 
a rule, he is a good, healthy specimen of 
British youth. Va.rious causes, more or less connected 
with a distaste or incapacity for arduous and prolonged 
study have prevented him from entering the Army 
or any of the professions, and his parents having no 
connection with “ business,” and lacking the means 
to maintain him in idleness, are at their wits’ end 
to know what to do with him. In these circum- 
stances, it is very odd if some member or friend of 
t’ne family does not suggest Ceylon as a happy 
hunting ground for needy British youth. “ Fine 
climate, beautiful scenery, and all that sort of 
thing you know. Tea enterprise in a most 
flourishing state, and sure to afford a great opening. 
Planter’s life very jolly and easy. Out of doors all 
day, and excellent sport to be had.” Inquiries are 
set on foot, and it soon appears that there is no diffi- 
culty whatever about learning to plant tea. There 
are plenty of planters, but owners and superintendents, 
who are glad enough to add to their incomes by 
pocketing premiums, and, in exchange, letting young 
men do the hard work of their estates for them. 
They do not put it in that way, of course. They 
say that, for a consideration of, say, £100 (the 
amount of premium varies in direct proportion to the 
calmness and assurance of the individual planter 
with whom the business is negotiated), they are 
prepared to teach a young man his work, and that 
if he is steady and industrious they will no doubt 
be able to find a billet for him in due course. They 
allude to certain youths who have learned planting 
from them, and who have done very well, and they 
carefully refrain from hinting that such cases are at 
all exceptional. This seems to be very promising 
and satisfactory, and as the young man is beginning 
to be rather troublesome at home, the preliminaries 
are concluded, his “kit” is purchased, his passage, 
taken, and he is sent out to Ceylon to make his 
fortune in tea. 
If his friends have arranged for him to begin his 
career on a good estate in one of the populous dis 
tricts lying 2,000 feet or more above the sea level 
he may find the life pleasant enough, and if the super- 
intendent has a natural .optitude for the training of 
youth, and takes an interest in the Creepers under him, 
he may learn his work very quickly. Estates and 
superintendents, however, vary considerably in the 
facilities they afford either for the enjoyment of life or 
the acquisition of knowledge. The Creeper must 
rise very early in the morning, in order to have time 
for bis early tea, for he must muster the coolies, both 
men and women, at six o’clock, and send them off to 
the different parts of the estate where their work lies. 
All day, with the exception of an interval at noon for 
tub and breakfast, he is engaged in visits of inspection 
to the various working parties, weighing the leaf 
brought in by the pluckers, and preparing returns 
and reports for the information of the superintendent, 
As most estates are situated on steep hillsides, these 
daily rounds of inspection entail some pretty severe 
exercise, and conduce to the preservation of hard 
condition. Any youth with ordinary intelligence and 
powers of observation can soon learn the work con- 
nected with the Creeper’s daily routine, but in order 
to qualify himself for a superintendent’s billet he 
must master all the processes that are carried on 
in t’ne factory down by the cart road, w'nere the 
big water wheel turns unceasingly, and the tea 
undergoes a course of prep ^ration which changes 
each fresh green leaf into the shrivelled and tightly- 
rolled particle with which the consumer is familiar. 
The work of the factory is superintended by a native 
or burgher (half-caste) tea-maker, and a Creeper is 
usually allowed to acquire as much, , or as little, 
knowledge of its details as he may feel inclined to 
pick up. If he is wise he will learn not only to judge 
the value of the ultimate result, but also to detect 
the true cause of any shortcomings, for the tea maker 
will attribute them to the. poor quality of the green 
leaf, or the system of plucking, or defective machin- 
ery — to anything, in fact, rather than want of skill 
or care on his own part. 
It may be imagined that a Creeper who has made 
himself thoroughly conversant with all the branches 
of estate woik, both on the land and in the fatcory, 
is thereby qualified to take charge of an estate him- 
self. This, however, is by no means the case. A 
man may be competent in every other wav, and yet 
be unfit to be a superintendent, owing to his in- 
ability to manage coolies. A reviev/ of the labour- 
question in Ceylon does not fall within the scope 
of this article. It is sufficient to remark that your 
coolie is daily becoming more and more independent, 
and that he is gradually awakiug to the knowledge 
of the means by which he may take full advantage of 
the beneficence of the British rule (from his own 
point of view) in respect of legislation and the ad- 
ministration of justice. To keep the labour force ou 
an estate contented and efficient requires a rare 
combination of tact and firmness, and a thorough 
comprehension of the motives by which a coolie is 
principally actuated, and the methods by which he 
may be persuaded that he can best secure his own 
welfare by serving his employer faithfully. Nothing 
is more useful in the management of coolies than a 
good knowledge of their language (Tamil). Many 
men think that they know enough Tamil when they 
can make a few brief orders intelligible to their own 
coolies, though they may be unable to understand 
more than half of what the coolies say to them, and 
though strange coolies receive their remarks with the 
stare and grunt which are so very exasperating. A 
Creeper should not rest satisfied till he can converse 
freely with any Tamil, or even with a Sinhalese who 
speaks Tamil, ou any ordinary topic. So much for 
the Creeper’s work, now for his prospects. 
The chances of making money in tea grow less year 
by year. Fine fortunes have certainly been made with 
it, and the writer has known men who, by invest- 
ing a few hundred pounds, have found themselves 
after ten years, or even less, in possession of pro- 
perties bringing in a clear profit, of between £1,500 
and £2,000 a year. At the present time, however, land 
has risen so enormously as to greatly reduce the 
possibility of making large profits. The salaries of 
superintendents, also, owing to the ease with which a 
knowledge of tea planting can be acquired, and the 
rush of Creepers, tend to become less and less. If 
a Creeper can, after a year or two of probation, secure 
a billet worth 203 rupees a month, he will have done 
well, and it may be years before he can get anything 
better. As a rale,jestates which belong to non-resident 
proprietors or to companies are not left entirely in the 
hands of superintendents, but are inspected periodically 
by planters of ability and experience called visiting 
agents. The appointment of visiting agent to a 
large group of estates is, of cour.se a valuable one, but 
such posts can, naturally only be'ohtaiued by a favoured 
few, and are hardly likely to fall to the lot of the 
average “ Creeper.” — Glohe, May 5. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING NOTES. 
Beuu .vnd the Tea TK.inE. — As those interested in 
Indi-v and Ceylon tea are always ou the look out 
for new markets, a forthcoming exhibition in Lima, 
Peru, should attract attautiou. 'There is some scope 
in South America for pushing the sale of tea. That 
the present Government of Peru is anxious to do 
all ill its power to fo iter and extend tbs trade of 
the country is shov\ a by its notion in piomoting a 
permanent Industrial E.xhibitioUj^ which is to he 
opened at Lima this summer. In order to ens.u-e 
the success of the undertaking, a section of the Ex- 
hibition Palace at Lima has been set aside specially 
for it, while the whole of the arrangements are in 
the hands of the Minister of Public Works. Goods 
