Tea Planting in Ceylon

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Although much has been written with regard to the planting, cultivation, manufacture and marketing of tea, no attempt appears to have been made hitherto to outline in any single volume the history of the industry in Ceylon, the conditions under which it is carried on and the practical working of estates. While endeavouring to do so, we cannot pretend to have in any way exhausted the subject nor more than to have touched on many of its aspects, for, owing to the extraordinary diversity of elevation, climate, rainfall, jat, soil and labour conditions that are met with in the tea- growing districts of the Island, methods which may be safely and usefully applied on some estates are quite unsuited to the needs of others where conditions are different tried to confine ourselves to a statement of the general principles involved and to show how they may be adapted to meet the requirements of the three zones, Low-country, Mid-country and Up-country. into which the various districts naturally group themselves. We in no way aspire to lay down the law to experienced planters, but venture to put forward our ideas in the hope that they may stimulate thought and discussion, supply novices with useful information on some of the multifarious details of the working of tea estates, and make them to some extent acquired with past methods and modern practice.

Although much has been written with regard to the planting. cultivation, manufacture and marketing of tea, no attempt appears to have been made hitherto to outline in any single volume the history of the industry in Ceylon, the conditions under which it is carried on and the practical working of estates. While endeavouring to do so, we cannot pretend to have in any way exhausted the subject nor more than to have touched on many of its aspects, for, owing to the extraordinary diversity of elevation, climate, rainfall, jat, soil and labour conditions that are met with in the tea-growing districts of the Island, methods which may be safely and usefully applied on some estates are quite unsuited to the needs of others where conditions are different.

We have, therefore, tried to confine ourselves to a statement of the general principles involved and to show how they may be adapted to meet the requirements of the three zones, Low-country, Mid-country and Up-country, into which the various districts naturally group themselves. We in no way aspire to lay down the law to experienced planters, but venture to put forward our ideas in the hope that they may stimulate thought and discussion, supply novices with useful information on some of the multifarious details of the working of tea estates, and make them to some extent acquainted with past methods and modern practice.

Visitors to the Island, too, might be glad to learn some- thing about one of its principal industries and the methods employed in the production of so universally consumed a beverage as tea, which is not manufactured from the roots of the bush, as one of them recently confessed had been his life-long impression.

Our very hearty thanks are due, in the first place,to Mr. R. Garnier for the great assistance he has given us in the collection of data for this book,and for advice on many points connected with it.

The Tea Plant (Camellia Thea or Thea Sinensis) is an evergreen of the Camellia family and is not indigenous to Ceyon, its home being in China and the N. E. districts of India, but nevertheless it flourishes in the Island from sea level to 7,000 feet above it. It is a particularly hardy plant and thrives under. the most diverse conditions of soil, climate, elevation and treatment, but is limited in its range by rainfall, a minimum of 60 inches being required if its growth is to prove a commercial success.

There are two principal varieties of the plant, the Chinese (Bohea) and the Indian (Viridis). The former has a small. hard leaf and grows in the shape of a low bush or hedge,andthe latter in its natural environment develops into a forest tree 20 to 30' high with a large glossy leaf, but under cultivation is trained into a wide-spreading bush, often growing from one central stem.

There are many intermediate hybrids, which are described as high, medium or low jat, and are distinguishable by the size of the leaf in each case, the high jat bushes growing the largest leaves. Much high jat Indian seed has been planted in Ceylon of recent years, but in the early days of the industry. no great attention was paid to jat and the bulk of the tea growing in Ceylon, is, at best, only a medium hybrid. This, though not so taking to the eye, is in many ways better suited to the rough and ready methods necessitated by cultivation on at large scale with unskilled native labour than the more delicate Assam or Manipuri high jats.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages