Page Four

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday, February 5, 1960

 

Life In Lankq—Parl VII

Alumnus Takes To Ceylon Hills;
Tells 0f Visit To Tea Plantation;

Many people have called Cey-
ion the Garden oi Eden because
of the beauty found within this
small island (half the size ol
Iowal. i, too, have seen their
Justiﬁcation for this title: the
palmelincd, white sand beaches,
the lush vegetation tound every
where and the magniﬁcent stin-
rises and sunsets But not until
last week did I see the hill
country which in its own right
deserves this sacred title.

1 tell as ii i had entered an-
other world when i found mye
self high in the gl’ccnscovel‘cd
mountains of central Ceylon
Their ruggedness rivals the
Rockies, their views compare
with the most beautiful in the
world, and on these steep, for-
tile slopes grow some of the
ﬁnest tea—producing plants any
where

The object of my weeks so-
journ into the hill country was
to visit a tea estate, witness the
production of Ceylon tea and get
an idea of the way of life in
this area oi Ceylon

Tea is Ceylan's leading ex.
port. Tea and the next two
leading exports, rubber and
coconut, account ior approxis
matcly 35 percent oi Ceylon’s
exports by Valuer (These three
crops, trom planting to export.
ing, account ior so percent at
the working population.) in
Ceylon, where over half oi the
minimum lood requirement tor
the population oi nine million
must be imported, the success
of these crops is important to
Ceylon’s entire livelihood, Fur-
lllermore, the iact that rubber
and coconut prices ﬂuctuate
more widely than those of ale
most any other raw materials
on the world market, has po-
litical as well as economic

ell‘ects in Ceylon. i

An example of the politicali
eliccts would be the shift inl
foreign policy from one of the,
most genuinely proeWestern‘
among the newly independent
nations of Southeast Asia toward
a neutralistic and nonralignmenl
position when prices sufficient.
to pay for necessary food in,
ports could not be secured irom
Western markets. This also led,
to a series of trade agreeinentsl
with the Communist bloc (be!
ginning in 1952) to exchange
rubber for rice. At present itt
looks as though Ceylon will not‘
renew her trade agreement with
Red China, but Ceylon remainsi
neutral like her great neighbor
indie. ‘

l

But getting back to the hill
country and Ceylon’s tea induSr
try, let me Sh' -c with you some
of my experiences of last week.
The trip from Colombo to the
Kandahena estate took over ﬁve
hours, i was traveling by ear
the léoelnile distance with the
superintendent or the estate, his‘
wtic, her brother and his wife,
We started late in the afternoon,
so I did not get to see the
mountain scenes as WC wound
our way up and around many
mountains. But never have i
traveled on such narrow, cone
tinually winding, climbing and
descending roads.

Once in the mountains, it
was dillicult ever to attain the
speed oi 20 mph My friends
claim that the roads twist and
turn so much because the cons
tractors \VIIO built them were
paid by the mile. There may
be some truth in that claim,
but on mountains with sucii
steep slopes, it would be Im-
possible to drive to the towns
located in the high areas Wilh~
out slowly winding upward.

 

i
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l
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We arrived at the Slipcrilllcnd»i
ent's spacious bungalow in the;
night, The air temperature was
the coolest l have experienced

pletely hidden by a solid
blanket of Clouds,

season

inst beginning, The superintend-
cnt
ing to begin working.

about 600 acres
elevation
5000 feet above sea level
slopes on which

steep and rocky,
task of plucking the tea leaves‘
often diificult for the estate la.
borers. But the danger of thisi
task

thick green carpet, for the tea
plants are allowed to grow no
higher than three ieet, and (limb
even tailoring, irom plucking eve
cry seven to ten days and prun—
‘lng every three to ﬁve years,
creates the deep, green image of

contour of the lnuuntainsides l

backdrop that the quiet work
oi the tea estate is carried on.‘
The superintendent's ﬁrst stopl
in the morning is usually at the

estate,
ithis long, tllrcesstory, rectangu—
lar building, the complete prov
cssing oi the
leaves to the tea ready tor the
teapot takes place. This process
is not complicated and takes be»
tween 12 to 40 hours to Com-
plete, depending on the weather

in Ceylon (in the low 60’s)
Dawn broke around 5 At this
hour, 1 was able to see some
of the tea plants on the moun-
tainside, but the valley was come
low
(The weather-
during most of my visit was
cloudy and damp because the
northeast monsoon was setting
in, and there would be the wet
tor the northern and
eastern parts of Ceylon until
March) For those employed on
the estate, the work day was

rises at 5:30 every morn»

The planter, as the super-
intendent is known locally,
wears the customary planter’s
outfit, a Shortsslccvcd shirt
which matches his khaki
shorts, with long white or
khaki socks. He'll wear his
year-old liat, no matter what
the weather conditions are,
and will carry a pluckcr's
knilc in his belt and a leather
baton in his hand. For trans»
portztion, the planter some-
times drives the cstate jeep
over the nan-ow, twisting,
winding, rocky roads etched
out oi the hillsides, but usu~
ally he would rather walk.
The estate I visited covers
in which the
varies from 2000 to
The
the thousands
grow are very
making the

of tea plants

hidden
ml wllal.

beneath
looks llkC

is
beauty

the
a l

‘nany waves ﬂowing down the

beautiful‘

It is 1
l

against this

nost important building on the!
the tea iactory. Within

[rashly pleCd

The fresh leaves begin to
arrive at the lactory at mills
morning and continue to come
in until late aitcrnoou, They
ﬁrst go to the drying rooms, l
which occupy the upper two
doors oi the iactory. There

they are separated and placed l
on many canvas trays for dry-
ing and withering. This ﬁrst
step is the longest, ior z. nat—
ural drying is best for cons

serving the ﬁne tea ﬂavor. It
the air is very dump (as it is
very ottcn on ten estates, ior
tea plants require a suba
tropical climate with a heavy
annual rainiall of between 80
and 200 inchcsi then ii system
of ians circulates artiﬁciallye
heated air until the withering
process is complete. ,
Then the withered tea leaves

 

Judith L. Anderson
and her date
each receive

FREE
A siUNDAl:

From

DAVIS
ICE
CREAM

Howe To Discuss
'Music In Religion1

Richard E Howe (muslc) \VIll
discuss and illustrate with music
The Power at Music in Religion"
sunday at 7-30 pm in Younker
lounge,

The discussion, sponsored by
the Unitarian student group, will
be lollowed by a quebllollsands
answer period
are sent tumbling down chutes
to the ﬁrst iloor where the re
maining processes are completed
in quick succession to retain the
tune ﬂavor. The youngest and
tendercst leaves having been
plucked, they are twisted and
crushed in rolling machines. The
machines are fed the leaves by
hand by the barefooted lndian
Tamils, who are employed on
the Ceylon tea estates, ‘

After being crushed into small
pieces, they are set aside on
trays and allowed to ferment
until they emit a peculiar odor
and are copper-colored At this
point they go into drying mas
chines ior "ﬁring” under a cur.
rent of hot air until the tea is
dry and brittle.

The tea is then siited into
the various grades (in size),
“broken teas" and tea dost.
This process is accomplished
by siiting in chin or by
hand siitcrs. T si ing prose
ess is done by women as is
the plucking oi the tea leaves,
whereas men do all the other
jobs around the estate and
factory. The tea is then pack—
aged into boxes tor shipment
to tiic United Kingdom or to
local packaging ﬁrms,

A fresh tea odor permeates
the atmosphere all around the
factory and estate. One can al~
ways tell when he is entering
the tea country by this crisp
odor of fresh tea.

From the laetory, the planter
usually goes by loot into the
ﬁelds to check various projects.
The- is always some road roe
pairing, tor the water from the
heavy rains is constantly washs
ing away sections or causing
small landslides The planter visa
its the nursery for a daily cheek
of the young higlvyielding tea
plants being cultivated for roe
planting. The government is sub

sidizing estates for the replantev

mg of approved, lllgllsyleldlng
tea plants in its effort. to His
crease Ceylon’s tca production
without greatly increasing the
acreagcin tea production.

The planter also checks to
see which areas of tea are
ready for plucking and it any
area is in need oi a major
pruning. I have mentioned that
the tea plants are only a few
lcct high, but this is not their
natural state of growth; it is
fl result 0f the pruning which
stunts the height while in.
creasing the yield. if not
primed, a tea plant becomes a
tree, reaching over 20 iect in

i height.

A major problem of the sauna
intendent is labor, but not be.
cause the workers demand high
wages, 101‘ they don’t. But Estate
workers are members of a mk
nority group in Ceylon; they are
Tamil—speaking, and they ini—
grate iroin southern lndia
der present laws they cannot be-
eomc citizens, and they will not
return to their ovel'rpopulilled,
starving southern lndia, They
have termed large unions which
now have the power to paralyze
the entire tea trade at will. But
the trouble is oiten not with

Summer Job
Openings

The Green Giant Co. llils
sum-lllcr jobs for collt’ze age
the

interested

students in Wisconsin

area. Anyone
should contact Robert Steiner,
no, tor intermo—

cxli more

tiont

Un~t

lPersonnel Changes
,Become Effective

pe-sonnel changes he-
cifcctlve recently when
Ednamac Beaty and Mrs,
Martinson, both oft
joined college}

l

Two
rame
Mi's
Maxine
Grinncll,
. aft.
Mrs, Boaty is a new assistant
,in the libiaiy. She succeeds
Mrs. Hilda Godfrey Wilson,
who is now working at the
Ottumwa public library. Mrs.
Wilson had been a member oi
the college lib iry stati since
l946. and earlier was assistantt
librarian ,at Stewart library
from 1930 to lease

Mrs. Martinson became a sec-
rctary to the treasurer. Philip
R, Yount, who has been ace
eountant in the treasurer's of-
fice since last June, will startl
work Monday as a trainee inl
the accounting statistical dos
partment oi Farmers Mutual
‘RClnsurance co.

Rabin To Hold

Consul’ra’rions

Earl r, Peisner, dean of men,
announced this week the appoint.
incnt of a clinical psychologist.

Dr Herbert Rabin, clinical psy-
chologist at the Marshall County
Mental Health center in Mar.
siialltown, will be available this
semester tor consultation with
students on Saturday dfternoons’
in Peisncr's office.

[he
i

 

l

i scheduled a

Physics Profs
To Consider
Many Topics

Beginning with a 'lectul‘c,
“Origin oi the Solar System"
which will be given Wednesday,
the physics department has
series of lectures
which will continue into March.

The first three lectures, uh-
dcr the general name, “1, 2, 3,
lniinity" will be delivered by
William H, Sander-man, (phys~
lcs).

The these lectures
will be given Wednesday at
9 n.m in room 125 of the
science building. Sandman will
speak on the “Origin of the
Solar System,”

On Wed., Feb.
Feb. 24 respectively,
will give two lectures; “The
and “The ‘Unknown‘ of the
‘Kliown' of the Solar System"
Solar System."

Three more lectures Will be
given in March On Wed,
March 2, Grant 0, Gate (physs
icsl will speak on ”The Op~
erational Point of View," On the
following Wednesday, March 9,
Roger J. Hanson (physics) will
deal with “The Uncertainty
Principle and Wave-particle
Duality.” On Wed. March 16,
Wayne B. Denny (physics) will
PHYSICS

Cont, p. 8, col. 1

first GI

17 and Wed,
Sandmap

 

the unions but between the var
ious unions. Often there are
rights and stabbings on the css
tates because of the rivalry be.
tween thcse large organizations,

The lndian Tamils in Ceylon
number over one million, and
they have.a very high birth
rate. On the particular estate
where I stayed, there were
about 200 lndian Tamils employ.
ed, and in their families over
400 children. There is a school
on the estate for the children,
who cannot be employed until
they are 14 years old. But the
,big problem will arise when
most of these children are over
14 and no employment will be
available for them in Ceylon or
m lndia.

Lite on a tea estate in Cey—
lon is a very quiet and fairly
peaceful existence. Many of
the lndian Tamil laborers have ‘
been born, raised, and are
now working and raising their
own ioniitics on the same cs-
tate. This is their home and
country, but yet they remain
people without a citizenship
in any country.
For the superintendent and
his wife the pace oi lile is very
slow compared with living else
where in Sri Lanka. They must
be content with a small circle
of friends, membership in the
local club, and an occasional
trip into Colombo or nearby
cities tor a change oi atmos»,
phcre. 3
For the visitor, his short stay
at the tea Stale is lefleshingi
o tempor -y retreat froin the
lworld‘s problems, a time to sit
alone and look tor the sea in

the far-oil horizon and watch
the white doves circling in the
valley below. and a chance to
sip a cup oi freshly brewed tea

music news

 

Grinnell College

Radio
610 . KGRW - 610

RETURNING TO THE
AIR SUNDAY. FEB. 7

Watch for the NEW

expanded schedule ‘

l

 

sports interviews

YOU
éhii’i’
lAUNDER
mi?
[[55

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designed wiI-h
you in.mind
WASH - 20c
DRY - inc

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Less ' '

 

 

 

