picking tea buds

picking tea buds
a bonded slavery still exists in srilanka.
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Wednesday, June 8, 2011


CEYLON - HISTORY OF COFFE




In a work published- some years ago on the products of this most beautiful tropical island, it is said that when in 1836 the duty on coffee in England was reduced to sixpence per pound, a great impulse was given to coffee planting. If such was the case, and it certainly was, then how great ought the production be to-day when the duty is only three halfpence. Yet though only a quarter of a century ago coffee was the principal product of the colony, and the value of the annual crop exported exceeded 3,000,000, now it is only about £25,000, whilst tea occupies the premier position.
From very early times it is recorded that coffee grew wild in many parts of the island, but during the decade commencing with 1836 there was what can be only described as a rush for lands said to be only paralleled by the movement towards the gold mines in California and Australia. The mania so acted upon all classes that we are told even the governor, council, military, judges, civil servants, and clergy all swarmed to the hills to purchase the Crown lands which the authorities were only too ready to sell and did so to the extent of about 40,000 acres per annum. Officers of the East India Company sent their savings to invest in what was to be an El Dorado, then the crash came, hastened by two causes ; first, the financial panic through which England passed in 1845, and, secondly, the withdrawal of the protective duty—for this happened in the days of protection to which we are asked once more to return —a duty being charged on the product of Java, Brazil, and other coffee-growing countries in excess of that levied upon the British-grown product. Still the crisis had some compensations, for it led to a healthier condition of planting, economics were introduced into the management of the estates, and scientific principles were established instead of the many different schemes which individual planters without any real knowledge endeavoured to carry out. While there are still a few left in the trade who can remember when " Plantation " and " Native " Ceylon were the two principal kinds used by the grocers throughout the kingdom ; today Ceylon coffee is. hardly known as an article of commerce and certainly the greater number of grocers have never sold a pound of this once favourite description. The term native has always been, as applied to Ceylon, somewhat of a misnomer, for though coffee is reported to have grown wild there, it is more than likely that it had been brought by Arabian traders. In later years, the term was applied to that grown on more hardy trees, which were planted around a garden or plantation, and did not receive the same care and attention as the product of these plantations did, while the crops grown on them were looked upon and treated as part of the wages of the natives, or coolies, who were employed on the estate. The final blow to coffee culture in Ceylon came with the development of the leaf disease, which is here described, and though for a time Liberian coffee was introduced which it was hoped would resist the ravages of this pest, even that has had to give way to the more profitable tea and rubber, for both of which the island has become noted. Whether the' high prices obtained, for the small quantity grown, will induce further cultivation is open to question, for though the' quality of the product stands quite alone, and will always ensure a ready sale, yet with an increased production there would naturally be a corresponding reduction in price.
Coffee Leaf Disease. The Ceylon coffee industry was ruined owing to the attacks of a minute fungus, known as Hemileia vastatrix, very similar to the rust of wheat. The disease was first noticed in 1869, when it was already fairly well distributed throughout the island and had probably been in existence for some time. The characteristic outward sign of the disease is the formation of a number of yellow spots on the surface of the leaves. Owing to the fungus using up the plant's food, the coffee plant is weakened, its leaves fall long before they would if not attacked, only a small proportion of the. flowers develop sound fruits, and accordingly a very poor crop is the result, whilst the whole plant is weakened and may finally be killed. The disease was very carefully investigated by the late Professor H. Marshall Ward in 1880-81, but no curative measures could be discovered. The greatest assistance was rendered by the Botanic Garden, and the Ceylon planters displayed wonderful energy in meeting the disaster. Within a year or so after the disease was noticed in Ceylon it appeared in Southern India, and rapidly spread to other countries also, the spores probably having been introduced in various ways; practically all the coffee-growing regions of the Old World were affected. The disease is so dreaded that other countries took, and still take, every possible precaution to guard against its introduction.
JAMAICA
The " Blue Mountain " coffee of Jamaica is famous and commands higher prices than any other kind of coffee. It is grown at elevations between 3,000 and 4,500 feet on estates situated in the beautiful mountain range whence it derives its name—in a region where the climate is cool, and rain, alternating with bright sun-shine, is obtainable all the year round. The output of the better grades is limited to rather less than 8,000 cwt. per annum. The total export of coffee varies, however, between 50,000 cwt. and 100,000 cwt., and it usually stands about third or fourth in order of value amongst the products of the colony.
Taken as a whole, coffee culture in the island has degenerated very seriously. Since the commercial depression which fell upon it, according to many, with the abolition of slavery, there has not been the care and attention given to its production that was given formerly. The result is seen in depreciation of quality, and with a corresponding lowering of prices it is quite conceivable that it is no longer the paying article which it was in early days. A large proportion of the total production of the island is grown by the natives in small patches, and they have neither the materials nor the inclination to improve the quality, leaving the trees to become worn-out and unproductive. There is, however, now some indication of a more systematic cultivation, and rather large quantities are being exported, much of it being shipped here in the parchment, with the result that more care is devoted to the cleaning, and better results are obtained.
BRITISH EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA
Coffee was the principal export of British Central Africa, and the Protectorate stood alone in the British Empire in this respect. The introduction of coffee into the country is quite a recent event, comparatively speaking, having taken place in 1878. By 1896 coffee was by far the most important item in the list of exports.
The area under coffee reached its maximum in 1900, when it was 16,917 acres in Nyasaland alone ; it decreased more or less steadily, until in 1907 it was 6,134 acres. The diminution in coffee cultivation has been due to the general depression in the coffee market and locally to droughts to a considerable extent. The great fall since 1904 appears to be due to the increased attention given to cotton. The coffee estates are chiefly situated in the healthy Shiré Highlands, and Arabian coffee is almost entirely grown.
The figures of the weight and value of the exports indicate a decided falling off during the last ten years. In 1898 the weight exported was 7,688 cwt. valued at L22,412, while in 1908 it had fallen to 7,120 cwt. and £16,374 value. The total value of all exports in 1898 was only £26,146—almost all coffee—but in 1908 it was £214,631, showing how cotton cultivation has largely been introduced rather than fresh plantations of coffee. Part of the reduced export is, however, due to the fact that as the interior of Africa has been opened up by a largely increasing white population, so the demand from the country itself has increased, and in addition to the amount exported must be added the amount retained for consumption there, but these figures are not obtainable. The acreage under cultivation, however, as shown above, has greatly decreased, but it is probable that as other parts of Africa are opened up and European capital is attracted there—for instance in the outlying parts of the Uganda protectorate and in some parts of the Congo Free State as well as possibly in Northern Rhodesia—coffee will be introduced and British grown coffee may become a considerable item in our food supplies.
QUEENSLAND
There is a part of Queensland which being situated within the tropics is capable of the cultivation of coffee and other tropical productions. Up to the present time the amount grown is hardly worth taking into consideration being only about 100,000 lbs. to 150,000 lbs. per annum, and this is practically all retained for home consumption. It is stated, however, that the venture has been a financial success and in time it is hoped will become an article for export as well as for the local home consumption.


engal kudumbam

engal kudumbam
gayathry kalyana veedu



Title : Willie Group Tea Factory - The first tea factory in the island to use trough withering
Photographed by : Unknown
Submitted By : Ajith Ratnayaka
Approximate date of Photo : Unknown

Long Description : Abstract from the article �Remembering the �Local Pioneers� in the propagation of tea in Sri Lanka�, by Maxwell Fernando, published in the Daily News, Supplement of 4th February 2002

Satinwood Bridge over the Mahaweli river near Peradeniya

satinwood-bridge.jpg

Satinwood Bridge over the Mahaweli ganga (Mahaweli river) near Peradeniya, Ceylon


Date Original 1894
Photographer/Artist: Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942

Courtesy, L.Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602.

A satinwood bridge, which spans the Mahaweli-ganga. The bridge was constructed in 1832-1833 by Lt. Gen. John Fraser (1790-1982) which lasted until replaced by an iron bridge in 1905.

This bridge is a remarkable structure; it crosses the river with a single span, in which there is neither nail nor bolt, the whole of the massive wood-work being merely dovetailed together. It is constructed entirely of beautiful yellow satinwood, which fifty years ago was so plentiful in the forests of Ceylon that it was used for common building purposes. This wood is extremely hard and dur-able, as is evidenced by the present condition of the bridge, which has now withstood the effects of excessive damp and tropical heat for sixty-two years.
Golden tips. A description of Ceylon and its great tea industry (1904) Author: Cave, Henry William. 1854

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Compiled by Ian Gardner
(From documents provided by J. M. E. (Mike) Waring)
September 2008

HISTORY OF THE TEA FACTORY
By Royston Ellis. May, 1996.

The factory at the Hethersett tea plantation played an important part in the development of Sri Lanka’s tea industry, and in helping Pure Ceylon Tea to become renowned as the world’s favourite beverage.

Tea from the Hethersett factory was the first to fetch the highest price in the world for silver tip tea from Ceylon. In 1891, Hethersett tea was auctioned in Mincing Lane, London for £1.10s.6d, over thirty times the then average price 1s0d for a pound of tea.

This was an exciting achievement for a new tea factory.

Tea was first grown commercially in Ceylon (which became Sri Lanka in 1972) by a Scotsman, James Taylor, on a coffee estate named Loolecondera, near Kandy, in 1867. Taylor, with encouragement from Dr. Thwaites, the Director of The Royal Botanical Garden at Peradeniya, planted 20 acres of tea grown from seed imported from India.

It was a wise move as, soon afterwards, a dreadful blight ravaged the coffee plantations on which Ceylon’s economy depended. Planters turned in desperation to tea and cinchona (for quinine) as alternative crops. Within a decade of Taylor’s planting there were 5000 acres of tea growing in the hills of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya.

In response to requests to open up plantations, the government sold virgin crown land around Kandapola to pioneer planters in the 1870s. Among the bidders was Mr. W. Flowerdew. He was the first planter-proprietor, agent and resident manager of what became Hethersett Estate. This consisted of 250 acres of which he planted 150 with cinchona.

Flowerdew was a pioneer. He camped in the wilderness he had bought, working alongside labourers hired in gangs from India. Before clearing and planting the land, he built himself a log cabin, using boards sawn from trees felled to open up the land. The roof was foliage used as thatch. It was a primitive and tough life.

The name he chose for his plantation gave a clue about Flowerdew’s origins. He seems to have named it Hethersett after a village southwest of Norwich in England. Perhaps it was his home village since even today the distinctive name of Flowerdew is to be found in the Norwich area.

The Tamil name for the plantation is Poopanie. Translated into English it means Flowers of Frost. It is picturesque way of describing the cold mist that occasionally descends on Hethersett, which is 6800 feet above sea level, although only six degrees from the Equator. Actually the plantation name, however apt, is a direct translation into Tamil from the English name of its original owner: Flowerdew.

Flowerdew had a partner during his first year on the plantation, Jas. R. Jenkins, an experienced tea planter who advised him to grow tea as well as cinchona. History does not recall what happened to Flowerdew but by 1881 he seems to have sold the plantation. A temporary manager,[1] A.C.W. Clarke, was in charge and the estate was in the name of Jas. Whittall, with his own company, Whittall & Co., as agents.

The agent’s role was vital in the early days of the tea industry. Usually an estate proprietor was an individual or company based in England who needed an agent in Colombo to provide support, and supplies, to the manager of the plantation. A broker handled the sale of the crop.

Whittall & Co. remained as agents for a few years but ownership passed to Mr. J. MacAndrew. An experienced planter, K. MacAndrew, doubtless a relative, became the resident manager. In 1885, Hethersett consisted of 254 acres planted in tea and cinchona.

Cinchona served as a cash crop while the MacAndrews were nurturing tea. K. MacAndrews was also the manager of the neighbouring estate, Denmark Hill. This was the beginning of a link that resulted in green leaf grown at Denmark Hill being processed into made tea at the Hethersett factory.

The successful sale of the early shipments of Hethersett tea in London, and the record-breaking price selling price, in 1891, began the formidable reputation of the Hethersett mark, making it synonymous with Pure Ceylon Tea of quality.

By 1897, Hethersett was swallowed up by the Nuwara Eliya Tea Estates Company Limited into a combined holding of 3000 acres. The Company, registered in London, had Leechman & Co., as agents in Colombo. It was an association with both companies which Hethersett that was to last 75, years until nationalisation.

George Leechman founded his agency house in 1866. He was previously a partner with Wilson, Ritchie & Co. That company, was founded in 1830, eventually became part of Aitken Spence & Co., Ltd. the present managers of Hethersett.

The tea factory that produced Hethersett’s silver tips (a hand-rolled, sun dried, whole leaf tea) and its Orange Pekoe, was located down hill from the present factory, where the village crèche now stands. It was a small wooden building that expanded under the direction of a dynamic young planter called John Mac Tier.

Mac Tier arrived at Hethersett in 1900 when he was 27. There were 270 acres of tea then. He stayed for 25 years, dying suddenly in the old Hethersett factory when he was 52. There is a memorial plaque in the Holy Trinity Church, in Nuwara Eliya, “in affectionate memory”.

During Mac Tier’s tenure, the owning company happily reported dividends of between 9% and 12% every year.

Tea from the factory began its journey to market in tea chests carried by bullock carts down the rough tracks to the Railway station at Kandapola. The narrow gauge railway line was opened in 1903 (it closed in the 1940s) from Ragalla via Kandapola to Nuwara Eliya and Nanu Oya. At Nanu Oya the tea chests were transferred to the main, broad gauge line, and sent for delivery to the Colombo godowns. After auction, the tea chests went by steam ship to England or Australia.

The journey by train from Nuwara Eliya to Kandapola took one hour as the toylike engine puffed and weaved through the hills. Its maximum speed was six miles per hour.

Cyril Travers Nettleton, an unofficial police magistrate, was the planter at Hethersett for a couple of years after Mac Tier. He too, rests at Holy trinity Church, having been in charge of the Concordia Group, which includes Hethersett, when he died in 1944. He was succeeded at Hethersett, by A.J. Waterfall. During Waterfall’s time the original wooden factory in the village was burnt down.

The head of a hill was scalped to create a plateau for the new factory which is the hotel of today. When it was built in the mid-1930s, it was regarded as a remarkable work of engineering. There was no water or stem to power it, or mains electricity, only the ingenious use of an oil fired engine with fly-wheels and pulleys to operate the large fans for withering the tea, and also the rollers and sifters.

The factory produced top quality orthodox tea, both whole and broken leaf, for export. Tea grown on the neighbouring Denmark Hill estate was shuttled down to the factory in sacks along a wire stretched across the valley separating the two estates.

The planters in charge of Hethersett during the 1940s to 1960s were personable, capable men from Britain. Gordon Windus, manager for most of the 1940s, was a member of the prestigious Hill Club in Nuwara Eliya. In May 1934 he wrote testily in the visitor’s book there, “I should like to suggest that peas from the garden instead of tinned peas are served.”

Windus is remembered by the Hethersett villagers for the agricultural projects he started. These included a piggery in the village and a vegetable farm in the jungle at Kuruwatta.

Planter John Bousfield used to surprise the labourers by working in the fields with them, pruning the tea bushes himself. It is said that the bushes he pruned yielded the most tea.

Another British planter, J. M. E. Waring, who took over Hethersett in the late 1950s, and eventually, as group manager, supervised the closing down of the factory. He owned a horse which he used when inspecting the fields. He also raced this animal with a jockey, at the Nuwara Eliya race meets.

In 1968, the Hethersett factory had passed its heyday. Its machinery was regarded as old fashioned and uneconomical. It was the time of cost cutting and so the factory was closed. The Hethersett green leaf was sent to other factories in the Concordia group for manufacture.

For three years the factory was used as a warehouse for refuse tea, which is the fibrous reject after the manufacturing process. A few people were employed to sift the fibre and extract any remaining tea for local consumption. The residue was sold as fertiliser.






THE WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONS SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

In 1867 the Church missionary society (Anglican) established the Borella School for girls and in 1875 a similar one for boys. In 1923 the boys’ school was amalgamated with Christian college, kotte (now jayawardhanapura) and the girls’ school with mowbray college, Kandy, which is today a residential fee-levying school attended mainly by the daughters of estate clerks and conductors and those of similar rank. The boys’ school and its successors provided for many years not only clerks and conductors and their ilk, but also teachers, priests and trade union leaders serving in the plantation districts. It has ceased to perform this service after the closure of the Tamil stream consequent to the take-over of assisted schools in 1961. A day- school established to serve the same class of estate employees is now Uva College, Badulla, where the Tamil stream has had a similar fate; a government junior Tamil school stands on the site of the Kandy bazaar school, catering to the poorer children from the estates and the town of Kandy.

In the course of time the Christian missions established several schools, big and small, in the planting districts. Those run by the Anglicans include St Mary’s, bogawantalawa, St Andrews, nawalapitiya, Holy trinity college, Nuwara eliya and girl’s schools run by the church of Ceylon zenana mission, like the CMS girls’ school, Gampola. The Methodist contribution includes kingswood, Kandy (which closed its Tamil stream even before the ‘take-over’), Highlands, Hatton, and girls’ schools like the Badulla and Kandy high schools while the Baptists established two well known girl’s schools, Viz. Ferguson high school, ratnapura and the BMS school, Matale.

The Roman Catholics did not enjoy the patronage of the state the Anglicans did, but in course of time established schools like St Anthony’s and later St Sylvester’s, Kandy, dehiowita and girls’ convent schools like St Anthony’s, Kandy , St.ursula’s ,Badulla, and St Gabriel’s, Hatton.