340 
THP- TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Notember *, 1891 
The credit for the starting of the tea industry as 
well as oioohous planting in Ceylon beloDgs to Messrs. 
Harrison and Leake as Keir, Dundee Sc Oo. who were 
my employers and proprietors of Loole Condera. 1 1 
was they who allowed mo to plant cinohona and 
ordered mo to plant tea, and it was they who paid 
for these things and stood the rink of failure. I 
look much interest in these cultivations, for I 
bad before thought myself that surely something 
else besides ocffee could be profitably grown on our 
estates; 
With regard to the manufaotnre of tea I learned 
that mainly from others and from reading, but it 
took a lot of experimenting before I was ver^ suc- 
cessful, About the time we began planting China tea 
from seed got from Poradenija Garden a Mr. Noble, 
an Indian tea planter from Cacbar, parsed through to 
see a neighbouring coffee estate that some of his 
friends were interested in, and I got him to show 
me the way to pluck and wither and toll tea 
with a little leaf growing on tome old tea bushes 
in my bungalow garden. It was nil rolled by hand 
then. Ho told me abont ftrmenliog and panning 
and tbe rest of the process as then in vogue, 
showing me tbe fermenting and panning as far as 
ciroumstancos permitted. After that I frequently 
made experimental lots as I got leaf to pluck. 
Afterwards when Mr. Jenkins of the Ceylon Company, 
an old Assam tea planter, camo to the country he 
called on me and I made a batch of tea under 
his direction. A sample of this and samples of seven 
lots that I had made Defore were then sent cp to Cal- 
entta together to be repotted upr n and valued. Mr. 
Jenkins’ sample was valued a liltio higher that any of 
mine, but mine were alao pronounced good except one 
indifferent and one spoiled. With these exceptions 
both Jenkins’ sample and tbe rest of mine were said to 
be better than the most of tbu Indian tesa that were 
being sold in Caloutta at the time. From tbia I raw 
tbat 1 had been making tea rightly enough, but as 1 
could not get it to tarte like the China tea of tbe 
abopa I bad been always varying my process and 
spoiling batches of it in various ways aometiines 
purposely to ace the nature of the results and 
throwing away Iota that wore no doubt rtally good 
tea, tome of which was used by other people and pro- 
nonneed good. Nevertheless I beoefitted largely by 
Mr. Jeokins in various ways, aud that sample of hia 
being better than mine fettled me as to the degree to 
go to in tbe different parts of tbe manufacturing pro- 
oess and gave me confidence. 
Up till this time all my makings of tea bad been 
made with arrangements in the bungalow verandah 
and godowns. But I got [a tea bouse finished soon 
after and regular lea making then became o necesfary 
S art of the working of the estate. Aiiorwards Mr. 
enkina put up a temporary tea house on CoodegaUa 
which I was surprised to find was a copy iu all its 
working parts aud arrangemenls of the one I had bnilt 
which was according to a plan of my own and different 
from tbe style of Indian tea honses, and Mr. Jenkins 
did not like it when be first saw it. 
But Mr. Jenkins did not then make as good lea as 
I did. On visiting bis tea house I fonnd his tea very 
different from the lot he made wilh roe aud very 
different from what I was ^king ; and his ferment- 
ing which I saw by ramming the roll as hard and 
tight aa possible into a box was a plan that I liad 
tried in the beginning of ray expeiimcnts but long 
before given up na a failuroi The lot Mr. Jenkina 
made with me at Loole Condera was not fermented 
that way. One day I was iu the coach going up to 
Nuwara Eliya with Mr. rarsoiis. Government Agent 
of Kandy, and some apparently stranger friend 
of his, Mr. rarsons did not know me but I 
knew who he wss. When wa wore ptaaing the 
old patch of toa in Oondogalla Mr. Parsons pointed 
it out to his friend as being tea. Hia friend then 
asked if they made tea there. Sir. Pare ons said : " Yes, 
they make tea here but they do not make good tea 
here, the favontite tea is made ou another estate they 
call Loole Condera;” aud fiom other quarters I heard 
tbe lame- 
A Mr. Baker, a tea planter from Assam, called on me 
after my original field of Hybrid Tea was well grown 
up and showed me tbat I bad not pruned it sufficiently 
iu the pruning 1 bad just then finished aud I pruned 
it all over again. I also saw light prnniog and heavy 
ontliug down of Hybrid ioa in tbe Darjeeling Terrsi 
in 1874 just before their plucking ecssou commenced. 
Altcrwarda when Mr. Cameron came and took to 
visiting tea eitalns 1 was pleased to find that his 
pruning so far as I siw of it on Slariawatte seemed 
to entirely agree witli what I hod done. 
But Mr. Cameron started finer plucking than I 
had been doing and began to top the sale lists which 
I think wo began to got about that time or very 
shortly boforo. When I fonnd this I also took to 
weekly plucking and topped the sale lists for a tiino. 
That liner plucking largely increased the selling 
prices of my toa and stul more largely the profit por 
aero. So I was greatly indebted to the example of 
Mr. Cameron though I only met him two or three 
tunes casually about Kandy and Gampola. 
Regarding cinchona we wore not tho first to plant 
a few trees or even a small patch but wo wore tho 
first to regularly cultivate a few acres and to teat 
the value of tho bark in the market aud then to 
start tbo cultivation on a large scale. Our experiences 
as to raising seedlings in field nurseries aud that 
tbo bark of diseased trees if taken in time was valuable, 
and so on, must have been usefnl to others who 
planted later. 
Looking back lo the beginiiing of Onr Cinohona and 
Tea experiments aud lecollccting how little they were 
generally thought of at the time, expecially by some 
of my acquaintances whom I moot respected as in 
varions ways superior to myself, and now seeing this 
testimonial makes me feel that tho battle is not 
always to tbo strongest. Tbe first person I faoliove 
who tl oroughly appreciated our experiments and who 
really foresaw the neoossily of now cultivations in 
Ceylon was Sir William Gregory | and Ceylon Toa is 
more indebted to Sir Wm. Gregory who so patronised it 
ami gave it fame than wo can ever know. 
Now 1 thank all who have helped towaids this testi- 
monial and tho office bearers of the Planters’ Associ- 
ation who have taken trouble with it and Mr. P, K, 
Stand who as 1 learned from tho newspapers took 
part in initiating the matter, and especially I thank 
Mr. Wall who first proposed it to the Association in 
words which are of themsclres a grand testimonial and 
who has taken a leading interest in it all through. It 
made me feel ocurused aud surprised tbat I should be 
thought worthy of such honour as well as of the kind 
things said of me at that meeting by its Chairman and 
Mr. W. Mackenzie. 
The ’Testimonisl is not only a valuable one but one 
of a kind to make mo remembered after I am not 
here. It will make my name and tbat of Loole Condera 
live in tho history of Ceylon. I shall be proud of it 
though ahashod in the receiving of it. 
But if I may be allowed to make remarks abont one 
so ranch my superior and so tar above me Mr. Wall 
is the mau who deserves a memorial from the Planters’ 
Associaiion. He has been by far its most conspicuous 
Slid lending member from the first, until jiatlerly 
perhaps that he has not been so much amongst ua 
for some time. It has seemed to me that but for his 
own will be might have been permanent Chairman of 
the Association ; and he was one of tho leading men 
oonneotod with our planting indnelry before the 
Association was formed. I sappoae few of tlio men of 
old who knew Mr. Wall in the earlier years of bis 
labours now remain. But I from reading of them in 
newspapers have known of his ceaseless exertions for 
the good of onr planting enterprises and of tho Asso- 
oiation for a very long time.— Yours truly, 
(Sigued) Jambs Tavlob. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
Tba Dikect to Livebpooi,.— We print in another 
oolnnin some suggestions made by the Liverpool Journal 
of Commerce in favour of the direct shipment of lea 
to the Mersey. The journal from which we quota 
