THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[Jan, t, 1898 . 
476 
TEA PLANTATIONS : ^YATEK-HOLES AND 
FORKING. 
Dec. 11. 
DeAK Sir, — When reading over the replies tn 
your query No. 7, I note tliat “ S. E.,” 
N. H. ” and perhaps others advocate the old 
system of water holes ! Sinely tliey have little 
or no experience of the result ? 
In the old coffee days we cut trenches, say three 
feet long, one foot lir-oad and 15 inches deep, on 
the face of a hill field in Dolo.sbage. 
There came a heavy downpour of rain, after 
a few days’ light rain : liere and there, one 
of the holes became lull and commenced to run 
over ; this cau.sed the next one below it to do 
the same with increased volume; each succeeding 
hole added volunte and force to the rush of water. 
Hundreds of tons of .soil wer e washed away, down 
into the drains, roads and ravines. The lines 
in that field ran as perpendicular as the hill 
would permit ; consequently the scour vvas chiefly 
down between the lines of trees, but in many 
places the trees were left on stilts ! 
I give this one particularly bad instance. But 
I can point out hundreds of acres of land now- 
in tea (fornrerly in coffee when the holes were 
cut) and the ledges still remain (2 feet square 
or so) showing what was the bottom of the old 
holes ; there being the original hill slope bet- 
ween these ledges. All the soil excavated was 
soon washed away, once the holes began to fill 
and became shallow- enough to run over in w-et 
weather. 
Another writer states that “ forking would 
cause too mucli wash.” 
Eorking causes no w-ash if properly done. But 
forking and draining may have and do have ill 
effects on free soil in districts subject to long 
droughts. For that reason I have heard of drains 
being filled in again. 
Eorking in still soil, with tram forks, driving 
the fork as deep as it can go (15 inches to 18 inches) 
into the ground: then merely shaking the fork suf- 
ficient to loosen the soil between it and the spot 
it had last been inserted has a w-onderfu I effect. 
The fork must be draw-n out carefully, not 
pricked, no turning over ef the soil. The sur- 
face remains as it was excepting that the humus 
and loose surface soil slips into the cracks, and 
hard lumps crumble as you walk; upon them. 
In very stiff clayey soil a light sprinkling of 
uuslaked lime before the forking has a benefi- 
cial effect. 
The foregoing is the result of many yearsj 
practice. —Yours faithfully, VETERAN. 
THE MODERATE PRUNING OF TEA 
ADVOCATED. ' 
Dec. 12, 1897. 
Dear Sir, — That you did a world of good by 
publishing those 84 letters on “ Plucking, Pruning 
and Cultivation of Tea,” there cannot be a doubt, 
and your reviews on the same w-ere fair and perti- 
nent. I am not coming forward with a “ Review 
of Reviews,” but if you will allow me a little 
space, would like to i-evert to one of the topics 
discussed, viz., pruning or overpruning._ Of the 
84 w-riters, 56 were against the hacking down 
system, 22 alluded to the matter but slightly, 
three favoured severe cutting down, and two 
favoured it apologetically. Of the 56, some w-ent 
the length of saying the tea made after excessive 
cutting'^down could not regain its former excel; 
louce in less than twelve months. Others men- 
tioned periods of six to ten months. Different 
elevations, of course, regulate that considerably. 
But what about the cut down bushes ? In some 
cases hacked in almost to the collar, I maintain 
that they are permanently damaged. The property 
deteriorateil for all time. In such cases nature 
makes an effort, especially when the tea is net 
very old to make up her loss, a cluster of wiry 
shoots springs up close together, because the breadth 
has been cutoff'. The wood is slerdor and weakly, 
the leaf small, t’ue coolies cannot bring in their 
former task. The vvork is thus cos' Her. The tea 
made has neither colour, fiavour, nor strength. 
Bad reports come from London. The directors, 
would never think of attributing blame to their 
V. As. who directed the cutting down. The 
superintendent must be made the scapegoat. I 
am notsettirg up a.s the siiperintendent’s advocate 
Invever; hut in such cases, I pity .‘shareholders 
whose proiierties ha\e been so reduced in value, 
and dividends curtailed, they all the time ignorant 
of this, as one great cause. That the system is 
fast running itself out is clearly proved by the 
great majority of those 84 experienced writers; 
but there is still to be seen, sedlj- mutilated fielde, 
low narrow rows, instead of the once strong 
spreading bushes, the coolies stooping to pluck as 
if gatheiing strawberries, and tie half-exhausted 
bushes looking as if in need of pruning again in 
less than rine months. — AYurs faithlly, 
“ MODERATION.” 
PAPAYA JUiCE. 
Sumatra, O.K., Nov. 1897. 
Deak Sir,— I would be obliged if I could get any 
information regarding the mode of packing the dried 
juice of the Papaya tree and also the address of a 
proper person in London to give a report thereon. 
Perhaps some of your obliging readers will help. 
Also the quantity of fibre obtainable from the pine- 
apple in proportion to weight of leaf, or number of 
plants of the proper kind for fibre. 
SUMATRA O.K. 
[Our correspondent makes rather a wide order. 
In back numbers of the Tropical Agriculturist there 
is much information regarding Papaya juice and 
Pineapple fibre, and Mr. Thos. Christy, 25 Lime 
Street, London, E.C., will, we feel sure, be ready 
to report on any samples sent to him. — En. T.A.] 
MR. POPOFF’S TEA GARDEN AT BATOUM. 
INTERESTING LETTER FROM MR, VALENTINE 
WEBSTER. 
Moscow, Nov. 6 . 
Dear Sir, — I arrived from St. Petersburg on the 
2iid, and leave for Odessa on the 9th. I had a letter 
of introduction to Messrs. K. & C. Popoff, who own 
the largest tea packet business in Russia. I met 
Mr. Popoff, the founder of the firm and proprietor of 
the tea garden in the Caucasus mountains, today. The 
garden has nothing to do with the firm of K. & C. 
Popoff, of which he is chief. 
Mr. Popoff has given me a letter to the superin- 
tendent of his garden, which is ten miles from 
Batoam, in the south end of the Caucasus mountains. 
He has many strange ideas, as will be seen from 
the following facts : — He has already planted 
160,000 trees, mostly from China seed, with a few 
small patches of Assam, Darjeeling, Ceylon and Java. 
In the winter they have down to 10 degrees 
of frost ; and in the summer it is very hot. 
Labour is Is. 6d. per day and a free house! Mr, 
Popoff does not believe in machine-made teas and 
cannot understand why in Ceylen [and in India with 
our cheap labour, we will spoil our teas with 
machinery, when it can be so well done by hand I ! He 
says hand-rolled teas are far superior : the difference 
