TttE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. I, 1898 . 
TEA CULTIVATION IN CEYLON : 
OUE HEAVIEST-BEAEING PLANTATION— 
MAEIAWATTE— BEATING THE EECOED. 
We are indebted to Mr. H. V. Masefield* 
Manager of the Ceylon Tea Plantation Co. _ in 
the island, for the figures of crop, and bearing 
per acre, realized by the Company’s far-famed 
Mariav/atte garden for last year, as compared 
with the returns previously published ; — 
Eevised statement of yield of Mariawatte old tea 
from 1884 to 1897 showing average per acre, also yield 
of whole estate for six years showing average : 
Oldest and Special Field.— Actual acreage in 
bearing 101 a. 1 r. 0 p. 
Year. 
Made tea. 
Yield per acre. 
lb. 
lb. 
1884 
109,230 
. , 1,078 per acre. 
1885 
117,842 
1.163 
1886 
105,925 
1,046 
1887 
115,996 
1,145 „ 
1888 
106,410 
1,050 „ 
1889 
113,834 
1,124 
1890 
140,144 
1,384 „ 
1891 
120,366 
1.188 
1892 
119,909 
1,184 „ 
1893 
115,440 
1,140 
1894 
110,443 
1,090 
1895 
118,660 
1,170 
1896 
113,360 
.. 1,119 
1897 
105,729 
1.044 
Average 
for 
above 14 years 1,137 lb. per acre. 
YIELD FOE THE WHOLE ESTATE. 
Year. 
Actual acreage in bearing 
458i acres, 
lb. 
*1892 
. . 643 per acre. 
1893 
817 
1894 
760 
1895 
. . 886 „ 
1896 
896 „ 
1897 
926 
Average for above six years 821 lb. per acre. 
• Atgalla crops having been included prior to 1892 
figures are not available. 
We congratulate the Company, Mr. Masefield, 
and the Acting Superintendent of Mariawatte 
for last year (Mr. C. M. B. Wilkins) on the 
splendid result. It will be observed that over 
the whole estate of 4584 acres, the crop is the 
largest per acTL— 926 lb. made tea- ever gathered ! 
It is in fa(t not only a “record” for Ceylon, 
but also for “the world.” Nowhere in India or 
Java, we suppose, has 926 lb. (11 maunds) made tea, 
been harvested over so large an area as 458 acres ? 
If we turn to the oldest field of Mariawatte, 
planted in 1879 and therefore in its 19th year, 
we find the crop shews a slight decline, but it 
still reaches the unj)recedented figure of 1,044 lb. 
per acre for the 101^ acres, against an average 
for 14 years of 1,137 lb. The average for six 
years over the whole estate is 821 lb., while 1897 
gave, as we have said, no less than 926 lb, 
per acre. 
TEA CONSUMPTION AND CULTIVATION 
IN RUSSIA, 
Mr. R. Valentine Webster is surely a man 
to be envied and admired I Envied for the 
free scope given to him in travelling over 
this world’s surface as an Agent and Advocate 
of Ceylon teas, and admired for the “pluck” 
and enterprise he has displayed in the discharge 
of his duty and for his special facility in the 
use of his pen as an amateur “litterateur.” 
Here he is sending to the Ceylon press 
by far the most graphic and interesting, as 
well as instructive letter (see another ])age) 
that has ever reached us on the subject of 
Russia and its tea drinkers and growers. In 
half-a-dozen years, !Mr. Rogivue and his 
colleagues did not manage to give us -so 
vivid an impression of the country, the 
people and the “ tea situation ” ; while 
Mr. Webster’s expedition to the Crimea, 
to Batourn, the Caucasus and right into the 
preserves of the carefully guarded Govern- 
ment Tea Plantations, is unique and most 
interesting to every tea planter and tea mer- 
chant in Ceylon. As journalists in fact, we 
are inclined to think Mr. Webster has 
missed his vocation. He ought to be a 
special Pi ess Correspondent and to climb up 
the ladder along which such men as Sir W. H. 
Russell, Archibald Forbes and Henry Stanley 
gathered fame. Probably, however. Mi. Webster, 
is quite content with his own particular calling 
and most heartily do we wish him the widest 
possible success in making Ceylon tea known 
and in extending its sale all over the habitable 
globe. Nowhere, do we wish to see such sales 
extend more freely than in Russia. Mr. Web- 
ster gives us much reason to expect rapid 
improvement during the next few years; while his 
account of the experiment of tea-growing in the 
Caucasus, shows there is no more to fear 
from operations in that quarter than in the 
Carolinas where indeed the climate is far moie 
suitable. We thought the tea-bush a hardy 
plant when we saw it Hushing in the open air 
in Washington at 39 degrees North latitude ; 
but this is l.eaten by Mr. Webster’s descrip- 
tion of a tea field covered with snow ! Then 
again the (.’hinese employe on the tea garden at 
£40 a month reminds us of the experience of 
the Messrs. Woims in Pusselawa in the “forties” 
when they got a Chinaman over to make tea 
from their Condagalla bushes; but dropped the 
experiment w hen they found the tea made, cost 
them £5 sterling per pound avoirdupois ! 
THE CEYLON TEA CROP FOE 1897. 
Only at a veiy late hour as we are going to press, 
have we been able to get figures from the Chamber 
of Commerce final Export Return for 1897. We 
can only give the main results as follows* — 
Exports in 1897, 
Total lb. 
Tea for United Kingdom .. 98,930,069 
Tea for Australia .. .. 13,258,456 
Tea for America .. .. 830,873 
Grand total to all countries 116,054,567 lb. 
The first estimate made by the Planters’ Asso- 
ciation was 117,2(0,000 lb,, afterwards raised to 
119,000,000 lb. Messrs. P'orbes & Walker fixed 
their’s at 120 milion lb., and had it not been 
for exceptionally unfavourable monsoon experi- 
ences, we believe this figure would have been 
attained, as the best authorities in the i.^land 
fully anticipated. But both in India and Ceylon 
first estimates had to be cut down as the year 
grew older. 
PLANTING REVIEW FOR 1897. 
Tba. — The past year has not been such a good 
year for planters as its predecessors. Higb-rates 
of exchange, dear rice and a lower average of 
prices in the Local and London markets have 
upset many calculations. The yield has not 
been quite so much as expected. Such authorities 
as Messrs. Forbes and Walker and the Plant- 
ers’ Association made the forecast 119,000,000 lb. 
The result according to your contemporary, will 
