Tonyper
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« on: August 10, 2008, 09:19:59 AM » |
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I have added the name of Mr Richard Wynell-Mayow in the Planters' Register. However, I have no information on his planting career in the years before I served under him as SD from 1961 until 1967, having taken over the Upper Division of Craig Estate, Bandarawela from the late Ubhaya de Silva. Mr Mayow was well known for having increased the yield per acre on Craig substantially with his close attention to timely plucking rounds and applications of fertiliser. There was very little about plantation management that he wasn't aware of and was always ready to share with his SD's and friends. If there was anyone who earned the respect of others by his kindness and readiness to teach, it was certainly Mr. Mayow. If he disagreed with a suggestion made, he would clearly state the reasons why, immediately, and that too became a learning experience. During the time I was his SD, the following were also undertaken and successfully completed by Mr. Mayow. A factory expansion costing over Rs 300,000, the successful introduction in the older tea fields of Shear Plucking, the use of Rotorvanes in the rolling room, supplying both the Big and Small bungalows with A/C 220 volt electricity, replanting an acre per annum and not having more than one percent of casualties in any year. Each year, he had many visitors who came to see the results of his vegetatively propogated clones of tea, planted in the one acre "show-pieces." If he was absent from Craig, for more than a week, at any time, it was because he was on other estates as their Visiting Agent. He was one of the most sought after V.A's of his time. He was probably one of the planters who left the industry and the country at the very end of the exodus of non-national planters. I can say with a great deal of certainty that there was never a planter that I knew, during the 21 years that I was associated with the tea industry in Ceylon, who was more knowledgeable, innovative and most importantly approachable to many. He passed away while living in Oxford when he was in his mid-eighties. His wife, Eileen, entered an assisted living facility close to their home soon after his death.
Tony Perera
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