Dec. f, 1897.J THE TRUPlCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
385 
higher opinion of your soil than I had then. I 
believe there are more than one or two districts I 
have seen wliich possess great natural advantages in 
every way, and are capable of doing anything that 
is attainable in tea. 1 have seen a great deal of 
the island and I must say I have seen nothing 
I consider poor excejtt some small scraps going 
up to Kandy. I have seen no “ poor tea,” but 
a great deal I consider very fine. 
A HEALTHY PLANT. 
1 have been impressed with the healthiness and 
robustness of the plant. I may say I have seen 
surprising little signs of sickness or distress in 
any part, and hardly what I consider a trace of 
blight. I have also seen some very fine factories, 
probably the largest in existence at the present day» 
admirably arranged and most efficiently equip- 
ped. I hardly saw a weed within the whole 
area of cultivation. I was very much struck 
with that, for it is such a contrast with our 
hill district of Darjeeling. I saw none, — not even 
in the channels, or the banks of the streams, or 
in fact in any direction. Another thing tliat 
struck me was that 1 never saw throughout the 
whole of my excursions any attempt at terracing, 
PUETHER TEA INVESTIGATION. 
I propose to visit ten more tea districts in 
India and elsewhere. It is twenty-one years 
.since I was in Assam : it is seventeen since I 
visited Cachar and Sylliet : and nineteen have 
elapsed since I was in Dehra Dun. It is four 
years-and-a-half since I was in Darjeeling, but 
I have been in constant communication with them 
there, so that is the only country of whicli I have 
up-to-date information, and comparing Ceylon 
with that I consider you have the following 
ADVANTAGES. 
1. — Climate. 
2. — The slopes are more gentle, lending them- 
selves better to terracing, manuring and sur- 
face di'aining. 
3. — The estates are less costly in the prepara- 
tion of the land for planting and in after 
cultivation. 
4. — In regard to transit you have splendid 
roads with easy gradients. Even in the gardens 
themselves you have the advantage over us for 
everything is carried on men’s backs in Darjeeling. 
5. — In regard to water-power you are most 
advantageously situated, the water being more 
easily brought to the side of your factories than 
is the case with us. 
6. — The .soil is evener (though I consider 
nothing I have seen any where in Ceylon equals 
our best Darjeeling soil) and the land less 
broken up. There are fewer uncultivable por- 
tions. The gardens are much more compact. 
7. — Looking at the physique and health of 
Europeans of long residence, I am convinced 
that even with the fine climate of Darjeeling 
you have an advantage. 
8. — Through all the hill districts, so far as I 
have seen, the rivers are gentle in their flow ; 
to some extent they are navigable with slight 
artificial aid. They are such a contrast to the 
mountain torrents of Darjeeling. 
POSSIBLE DANGERS. 
Nature (continued Mr. Christison) has been so 
lavish and so liberal to you that I am afraid 
you do not realise the importance of some sources 
of danger. May I diffidently suggest the follow- 
ing 
1. — I have spoken as to the healthiness of the 
plant I have seen ; but I believe in no in- 
stances in any former experience in any crop 
where there has been such a surface covered, 
has there been exemption from blight. tThis 
ought to be thought about. I sincerely hope you 
will escape, but you will be exceptionally for- 
tunate if you do. Wherever there is a large 
area of cultivation, no matter what plant, in 
any country and in any climate, there comes 
in time blight. 
2. — The Avant of rest for the plant is another 
source of danger. You are always plucking or 
pruning. Pruning is not a rest, 'but a surgical 
operation more trying than plucking. I look 
upon it as a more severe process for the plant 
than plucking. 
3. — I have seen some indications of waste of soil 
by wash and this requires to be seriously thought 
about— the effects of wash year by year, the 
carrying away of the constituent properties 
of the soil by rain. Yours is a light friable 
soil and in spite of your admirable and com- 
plete system of drainage this requires grave 
attention. ^ 
4. — We do not know the life of the tea plant yet. 
When tea is reduced to a science, the dete- 
rioration of the plant will be understood 
and must be reckoned with. Wherever the plant 
comes into full bearing, you ought to write off 
a sum for annual deterioration of the plant in 
the same way that you write off for deteriora- 
tion of buildings, and other [iroperty. 
5. — In many districts the Want of firewood 
fuel will become very pressing, and, though 1 
give you credit for much planting along road- 
sides and also separate plantations, further steps 
in this direction might be carried out with 
advantage in the shape of separate forest plan- 
tations. * 
For thirty years (said Mr. Christison in con- 
clusion) 1 have been fighting against nature in 
a climate lyhere we had practically five months 
wuliout rain and 1 am consequently alive to 
some of these points I have mentioned. One 
thing I should like to do— to go back to the begin- 
ning of coffee and see wdiat your land was like*, 
then. It is not what it was, but it is capable- 
of very much now ivitli the climate you have 
got. Too much attention cannot be paid to pre- 
serving and fertih.sing the soil, but especially to. 
prevent any more of it being carried down your 
rivers. I have expressed myself hurriedly and 
with many imperfections, but what I have said I 
have put forward with the most kindly feelings 
towards all associated with the tea industry in 
Ceylon. ^ 
FIBRES GALORE. 
A PRACTICAL agriculturist writes to us from 
an outstation regarding Ramie or Rhea •— 
“As regards the Rhea fibre industry, which 
has recently been the subject of discussion in the 
local press and is now causing anxiety in thn 
minds of .some planters, one can easily understand 
there can be such a thing as having an ‘ev^o 
No. 1.' Mr. MooDcoald-r figure, for* yield 
were evidently based on a character of soil not 
very general in Ceylon. And yet Mr. MacDonald 
himself does not appear to have granted this 
for, when talking as to soil for the Rhea plant', 
he strongly advocated planting thickly amoimst 
coconut trees, ‘the closer the plants and the more 
complete the sliade from the coconut trees tiie 
better the canes for fibre.’ This should prove 
something; worth knowin^^ to owners of 
coconut pl^tations.^’ 
