io8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
France, or the Ilemileia vastatrix in Ceylon.” The 
fact is that while no one will deny that the Assam 
plant, or at any rate a hybrid suitable for the locality, 
is preferable, the most has not been made of the too 
much despised China bush.* It has never had a 
really fair chance in Assam. The failures prior to, 
and the crisis of 1866, brought a reaction against the 
China plant, and other practices sound in principle, 
such as the distance apart plants should be put out, 
and led to serious mistakes in opposite directions. It 
would seem that the hybrids at all allied to the China 
plant are held but in little better repute by Mr. Crole. 
While he claims that the produce of the indigenous 
plant brings 10 percent, to 20 per cent, per lb. more 
than that of the China in the London market, he seems 
to overlook the fact that the indigenous quality very 
rarely has brought the best prices, except in the olden 
times when Indian tea was used, and in small pro- 
portions, for blending, and w’hat has long been the 
highest-priced tea in the world is the produce of a mild 
hybrid or of a blended variety of plants upon 
Darjeeliug gardens, where the China kind pre- 
dominates. Of course, ap.rrt from jdt of plant, 
quality is greatly a question of soil, as exemplified 
in As.sam as vrcll as the Darjeeling district. We 
doubt whether Mr. Orole has ever gone to the root 
of the vital questions affecting the thorough pre- 
paration. of land prior to planting and enlightened 
cultivation afterwards. His remarks seem not to go 
beyond what will admit of the methodical and per- 
fect lining out of a garden. Depend upon it, this 
is a more -vital matter. Success in the long run, 
failure, or recovery from failure, will ultimately be 
found to depend more upon the field than even the 
factory, most important though the latter be. C--r- 
triiily the book displays no acquaintance with hill 
cultivation and its be-setting difficulties. As to 
buildings, his plans seem rather those of some ex- 
isting factory than of what would be perfection. 
All are upon a gigantic scale, no doubt, and sug- 
gestive of grand ideas, but certainly not always 
with an adequate regard for arrangement or eco- 
nomy of space. We question if houses for the natural 
withering of leaf, so wide as specified, would act at 
all satisfactorily, even in the climate of Assam. Nor 
would a common chimney stalk, for boilers with 
underground flues from driers connecting work satis- 
fuotonly, unless situated upon a mound or knoll; and 
there are insurmountable drawbacks to underground 
pits for main shafting which with economy of space 
and outlay can be placed overhead, w'here it can 
infinitely more easily be seen to and kept in good 
condition. In machinery many obsolete machines 
(“ Lyle’s ” is styled ” Lyatl's) and others of which 
experience could only h?.ve been had in the patentee’s 
yards — where they cannot be thoroughly tested— are 
confidently recommended. And how can it be seriously 
asserted, in this year of grace, by any practical man, 
that tlie rude bag machines could ever roll “ fine leaf” 
better than a modern machines such as the “ Rapid,” 
which is as near as can be imagined perfection ? Most 
will admit that there was a w.iste of labour where two 
able-bodied men or more were placed in ch,arge of one 
roller, as was not unknown in old times when a single 
machine hod to get through three times the work 
one is put to in these da5's, yet all must pity the one 
boy who is put to attend to ” six machines in full 
swiug” ! It seems also diffioultfor the lay mind to under- 
stand from “acquaintance with the weather,” or “the 
feel of the leaf on the ohungs,” whether the leaf is 
liable to get heated or notin the machines irrespective 
of speed, pressure, or closeness. And strange that the 
time required for fermentation is to be determined by 
the difference between one garden and another, and in 
no measure to the season of the year, temperature of 
the day or whether. The great subject of manur- 
ing, sulfioieut alone for a volume, is but casually 
* Quito true: there is a field of pure “China” in 
Ceylon yielding a full crop of very fine tea, but this 
is at a high elevation — and although a “ hybrid ” may 
be, generally, more profitable, much can be done with 
“ China ” at high elevations both in Iqdia and Ceylon. 
j-JSd. T.A. 
[Aug. 2, 1897. 
alluded to in the chapters upon the “Botany of Tea ’’ 
and “ The Coolie ” ; and the practical application of 
Letjuminoso: to tea is dismissed with such few words 
as might indicate that after the MS. had been 
completed a line or two alluding to this subject (and 
what the author terms “ green soiling ”) have 
been interpolated on noticing attention recently 
directed to it in various quarters. On blights the 
work is conspicuously defective as to practical sug- 
gestions. The author from his remarks dees not 
seem aware that the old-fashioned cure of suiphur 
applied upon a simple and expensive method, has 
long ago been proved an effectual remedy for red 
spider, and at the same time a valuable manner in 
many instances. The only light shed upon this 
much vexed question is that Mr. Crole has disooveed 
two new species of faggot worm which he adds to 
the legion of parasites he gives as preying upon tea. 
Many other similar topic.s, most of which may seem 
of minor importance, might be alluded to. 
’There is often a mingling of the old obsolete 
objectionable methods with the approved and 
the ideal which we fear may have a tendency 
to mislead the uninitiated. For instance, when 
seriously told of tea seed having been sown 
broadcast from the backs of elephants, who 
were “ made to peregrinate in a more or less 
aimless manner ebout the laud it was desired to 
bring under tea,” which could never be more than 
a piece of pure romance, it is going too far. And 
we cannot refrain from protesting agaiust the in- 
justice done the industry in representing that it is 
the sick, aud those suffering from sores and accom- 
panied by babies that are employed to handle the 
tea in sorting in the final stages, whi'e the fact is 
that no such thing has been tolerated in any well- 
regulated factory during the last fifteen years. 
In the interests of the tea industry we feel bound 
to notice a few recommendations which are fraught 
with danger. The best distance for planting a 
garden is said to be 4ft. by 4ft. 16ft. = (or even = 18-85 
superficial feet of space per plant if planting trian- 
gularly as recommended). This is opposed to all 
sound principles of planting. On the contrary, for 
fully developing the capabilities of a garden, in the 
long run, for Assam we should say twice this space, 
at least 6fd. by 5ft. (and for the hills say 5ft by 
44ft. on the base) should be allowed ; aud with a 
view to cultivating by machi)iery, as advocated by Mr. 
Crole, even lines wider apart would be an advantage. 
Mr. Crole remarks that hosing should always leave 
the soil rough. Clod cultivation— or as in some cases 
as practised it might even be styled slab cultivation— 
is a great fallacy in tropical culture, especially when 
lengthened periods of dry weather may ‘be expected. 
Pruning by measure is reprehensible (as well as anti- 
quated, surely), and if not in some instances the leav- 
ing of heavily-out bushes uupruned next year, cer- 
tainly the “ slashing them across the top worse still 
to burn down rootrand branch as a remedy for mus- 
qiiito blight, a cure certainly infinitely worse than the 
disease. T.Ue eliminating of all hanji leaf, as advo- 
cated, not only unduly weakens all except the most 
robust bushes, but deteriorates the quality of the after 
flushes. In those days where quality above all should 
be aimed at, it is objectionable and entirely unneces- 
sary to handle all the tea, or any but the coarser, in 
sorting ; and we cannot agree with the author (though 
the majority may yet do so) thattea deteriorates(but tlia 
very reverse) iu properly constructed “ bins.” Neither 
ought chests to be packed to contain so much as 1501b. 
of tea, but we would rather name 95 lb., or at most 
100 lb., as the net limit. VVe are confident that tea 
ought to be bulked at the factory, not only because 
there it can be best done— considering the present 
methods and appliances at the London warehouse— but 
to curtail the warehouse charges as exemplified in the 
profits of 45 percent aud 80 per cent consecutive divi- 
dends from one warehouse company shown in some tea 
company’s printed accounts. 
Mr Orole alludes to a question recently raised by 
a “ silly letter ” in a religious journal; and states it 
to be his opinion that troubles between the planter 
p,ud his coolies are invariably due to want of tac^ 
