document_title: H.R. Pufnstuf

question_text: who was the voice of hr puff n stuff

question_tokens: who was the voice of hr puff n stuff

text: H.R. Pufnstuf

text: Origins[edit]

text: The H.R. Pufnstuf character was originally created for the HemisFair '68 world's fair in 1968, where the Kroffts produced a show called Kaleidoscope for the Coca-Cola pavilion. The character's name was Luther and he became the symbol of the fair.[4]

text: Plot[edit]

text: H.R. Pufnstuf introduced the Kroffts' most-used plot scenario: their fairy tale of good versus evil, as well as their second plot scenario: the stranger in a strange land.[1]

text: The show centered on a shipwrecked boy named Jimmy (played by teenage actor Jack Wild). He is 11 years old when he arrives on the island and turns 12 in the episode called "The Birthday Party". Jimmy and his friend, a talking flute named Freddy, take a ride on a mysterious boat, which promised adventures across the sea to the kooky Living Island, home of dancing talking trees and singing frogs.

text: The boat was actually owned and controlled by a wicked witch named Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo (played by Billie Hayes) who rode on a broomstick-like vehicle called the Vroom Broom. She used the boat to lure Jimmy and Freddy to her castle on Living Island, where she was going to take Jimmy prisoner and steal Freddy for her own purposes.

text: The Mayor of Living Island was a friendly and helpful anthropomorphic dragon named H.R. Pufnstuf (voiced by the show's writer Lennie Weinrib, who also voices many of the other characters) who found out about her plot upon witnessing the action and was able to rescue Jimmy, with the help of Cling and Clang, when he leaped out of the enchanted boat with Freddy and swam ashore. Jimmy was taken in by H.R. Pufnstuf, who was able to protect him from Witchiepoo, as the cave where he lived was the only place her magic had no effect.

text: Apart from Jimmy and Witchiepoo, all of the characters on Living Island were realized via large cumbersome costumes or puppetry of either anthropomorphic animals or objects. Since everything on Living Island was alive (namely houses, castles, boats, clocks, candles, books, trees, mushrooms, etc.), virtually any part of the Living Island sets could become a character, usually voiced in a parody of a famous film star, such as Mae West, Edward G. Robinson or most notably John Wayne as "The West Wind". A frequent plot device involves Witchiepoo and her henchmen Orson Vulture, Seymour Spider, and Stupid Bat trying to steal Freddy only to be thwarted by Pufnstuf. Another concerns Jimmy and Freddy's efforts to return home from Living Island with the same lack of success.

text: Characters[edit]

text: Main characters[edit]

text:
Jimmy (portrayed by Jack Wild) – One of the main characters of the series. He is a young English boy who was lured to Living Island by an enchanted boat. Witchiepoo controlled the boat with the aim of stealing Jimmy's magic talking flute named Freddy.
H.R. Pufnstuf (performed by Albert F. Bentley, voiced by Lennie Weinrib in a Southern accent) – The title character of the series. H.R. Pufnstuf is a friendly dragon who is the Mayor of Living Island.
Freddy the Flute (voiced by Joan Gerber) – Freddy is a magic talking flute that is owned by Jimmy. He is often targeted by Witchiepoo.
Cling and Clang (performed by Joy Campbell and Angelo Rossitto) – Cling and Clang are two short mute keystone cops with furry three-toed feet and bird-like faces who work for H.R. Pufnstuf as his Rescue Racer Crew. Cling wears red and Clang wears green.
Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo (portrayed by Billie Hayes) – The primary antagonist of the series. Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo is a wicked but inefficient witch who has been targeting Freddy the Flute to use him in her own agendas. She rides a large rocket-powered broom with a steering wheel called the Vroom Broom. She is mean to everyone around her, even her henchmen, whom she constantly whacks with her wand. Yet when faced with failure, she usually starts to pity herself, by asking "Why me?"
Orson Vulture (performed by Joy Campbell, voiced by Lennie Weinrib) – A stuffy, somewhat inept vulture who is one of Witchiepoo's henchmen. As her favorite flunky, he multitasks as her sounding board, butler, and co-pilot on her Vroom Broom. Orson once made the mistake of asking what the W. in his boss' name stood for. The answer: WHACK!
Seymour Spider (performed by Angelo Rossitto, voiced by Walker Edmiston) – A dim-witted spider who is another of Witchiepoo's henchmen. As her second favorite flunky, he primarily serves her as an alternate sounding board and hairdresser.
Stupid Bat (performed by Sharon Baird, voiced by Lennie Weinrib) – A bat who is the least favorite and least seen of Witchiepoo's henchmen. He mainly serves as her messenger. As his name implies, he is not very bright and his messages are usually delivered one second too late.
Skeleton Guards – Two skeletons who guard Witchiepoo's castle.

text: Other characters[edit]

text:
Dr. Blinky (performed by John Silver, voiced by Walker Edmiston impersonating Ed Wynn) – An owl who is Living Island's local physician and scientist. Dr. Blinky is also the head of H.R. Pufnstuf's "Anti-Smog, Pollution, and Witch Committee".
Judy the Frog (performed by Sharon Baird, voiced by Joan Gerber) – A singing, dancing frog who is one of H.R. Pufnstuf's friends and the resident entertainer. Judy is based on Judy Garland.
Pop Lolly (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) – A living lollipop who makes and sells candy.

Cheese Guards – Two guards that are living pieces of cheese who work for Pop Lolly. They would often help Pop Lolly fend off a group of Hippie Ants who want to have free candy.

Ludicrous Lion (performed by John Silver, voiced by Walker Edmiston impersonating W. C. Fields) – A lion who works as a peddler and owns a horse-drawn wagon. Although slightly shady and greedy, he is officially one of the Good Guys where he would often help to thwart Witchiepoo's plots.

Polka-Dotted Horse (performed by Felix Silla, voiced by Lennie Weinrib) – A good-natured horse who works for Ludicrous Lion.

Tick Tock (performed by Andy Ratoucheff, voiced by Lennie Weinrib) – A mobile alarm clock that warns the good characters when Witchiepoo is coming and informs them of various other dangers.
Grandfather Clock (voiced by Walker Edmiston) – A mobile grandfather clock who is the husband of Grandmother Clock.
Grandmother Clock (voiced by Joan Gerber) – A mobile grandmother clock who is the wife of Grandfather Clock.
Miss Wristwatch (voiced by Joan Gerber impersonating Zsa Zsa Gabor) – A glamorous rich mobile human-sized wristwatch.
Hippie Ants - A group of ants that would try to have free candy from Pop Lolly.
The Boyds - A bunch of birds that serve as Living Island's residential band.

Lady Boyd (performed by Sharon Baird) – A blue bird who is the lead singer of The Boyds. She was often seen singing the end theme to this show.

Shirley Pufnstuf (performed by Sharon Baird, voiced by Joan Gerber impersonating a younger Shirley Temple) – A dragon who is H.R. Pufnstuf's sister and a famous actress.
Max Von Toadenoff the Great (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) – Max Von Toadenoff is a monocled toad. He is a film director that directs movies. Max von Toadenoff the Great is based on Erich von Stroheim.
The Good Trees – Several walking, talking trees who always help out H.R. Pufnstuf and the good guys. In the film Pufnstuf, the song "Living Island" described them as the "Hippie Trees of Peace and Love". They consist of:

Hippie Tree – A tree with sunglasses and dreadlocks who often speaks in hippie slang.
Madame Willow (voiced by Joan Gerber) – Also known as the Dowager Tree, Madame Willow is an older, elitist female tree with a lorgnette.
Chief Redwood (voiced by Walker Edmiston) – Also known as the Indian Tree, Chief Redwood dons a feathered headdress and speaks in stereotypical Native American fashion.
There is an older, male tree who may or may not be the husband of Madame Willow.
There is another female tree whose lips are always in the shape of an "O".
There is a baby tree.

The Evil Trees – Three trees on Witchiepoo's side that speak in a Transylvanian accent.

Evil Tree #1 – (voiced by Lennie Weinrib impersonating Béla Lugosi)
Evil Tree #2 – A tree that speaks like Peter Lorre.
Evil Tree #3 – A tree that always speaks in rhyme.

The Mushrooms – A group of talking mushrooms on Witchiepoo's side that turn whoever touches them into mushrooms. The mushroom leader smokes a cigar and speaks like Jimmy Cagney.
The Crustaceans – They are shown in several episodes as well as the closing theme song, some crab-like characters who are never named or introduced. There is a family of them, much like the living clocks and the living trees. They almost never say anything, but one of them has a couple of brief lines in "The Almost Election of Witchiepoo."
Witchiepoo's Castle – A talking, living entity that is home to Witchiepoo and her minions. There is also a door inside the castle that is a separate living entity as well as living pillars.
Dr. Blinky's House – A broken down house, propped up with crutches with a bandage on one side and an ice pack atop its chimney. It suffers from explosive sneezing that it has no control over. This usually sends Pufnstuf and friends running for cover, although it has been occasionally used to thwart Witchiepoo's plans enough for her to tell the house to cover its door when it sneezes. It houses several other inanimate talking characters such as fireplace (who speaks like Edward G. Robinson), a test tube (voiced by Walker Edmiston) and a candle (voiced by Walker Edmiston). There is a talking human skull (who speaks like Boris Karloff) and a few talking books, one of which is named Charlie (voiced by Lennie Weinrib). Charlie's brother, an evil black book of spells, is kept on Witchiepoo's nightstand.
The Winds – The Winds of Living Island are often called upon by H.R. Pufnstuf to blow Witchiepoo out of the sky. They consist of the North Wind (voiced by Walker Edmiston), the South Wind (voiced by Joan Gerber), the East Wind (voiced by Walker Edmiston), and the West Wind (voiced by Lennie Weinrib impersonating John Wayne).

text: Production[edit]

text: After creating costumes for characters in the live-action portion of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, Sid and Marty Krofft were asked to develop their own Saturday morning children's series for NBC. The plot was recycled from Kaleidoscope, a live puppet show the Kroffts had staged in the Coca-Cola pavilion of the HemisFair '68 world's fair in 1968, including several key characters from this show, such as Luther the dragon and a silly witch.[5] Other ideas were cultivated from Sid's life. As a child, he'd charged friends buttons, not pennies, to view puppet shows in his back yard;[6] buttons were standard currency on Living Island. Sid and Marty had toured with their puppets as the opening act for Judy Garland, and they based Judy the Frog on her.[7] Ludicrous Lion bears more than a passing resemblance to Irving, the eponymous lion in a pilot they had made in 1957 called Here's Irving.

text: Sid's friend, Lionel Bart, asked him to view a rough cut of the movie adaptation of Oliver. Sid took notice of young actor Jack Wild and immediately decided that was the kid he wanted to play the lead in his television series.[8] Only two actresses auditioned to play Witchiepoo. The first was then-unknown Penny Marshall,[8] but it was felt that she was not right for the part. Stage veteran Billie Hayes came in next, set into a maniacal cackle and hopped up on a desk. She was given the part on the spot.[5]

text: For Marty Krofft, the production was a particular headache. Marty accepted guardianship of Jack Wild while the teenage boy was in the United States filming the show.[5] He later described bringing Wild into his home as a mistake.[5]

text: Like most children's television shows of the era, H.R. Pufnstuf contained a laugh track, the inclusion of which the Kroffts were initially against. Sid Krofft commented "We were sort of against that, but Si Rose—being in sitcoms—he felt that when the show was put together that the children would not know when to laugh." Marty Krofft added "the bottom line—it's sad—you gotta tell them when it's funny. And the laugh track, (Si) was right. It was necessary, as much as we were always looking to have a real laugh track, a real audience. In comedies, if you don't have them (laugh track), you're in big trouble, because if you don't hear a laugh track, it's not funny. And that's the way the audience (at home) was programmed to view these shows."[9]

text: Witchiepoo later appeared in the Lidsville episode "Have I Got a Girl For Hoo Doo" where she was lands a date with Horatio J. Hoodoo. H.R. Pufnstuf appeared in a segment of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters as well as in the Lidsville episode "Have I Got a Girl For Hoo Doo" where Hoo Doo conjures Pufnstuf as Witchiepoo's date for a witches' dance. The Krofft Superstar Hour also involved characters in two segments The Lost Island (which H.R. Pufnstuf was in) and Horror Hotel (which Witchiepoo, Orson Vulture, Seymour Spider, and Stupid Bat are featured with Hoodoo).

text: Theme song[edit]

text: The show’s theme song, titled "H.R. Pufnstuf", was written by Les Szarvas but is also credited to Paul Simon. Simon's credit was added when he successfully sued The Kroffts, claiming that the theme too closely mimicked his song "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)".[10] He is credited as the song's co-writer in TeeVee Tunes's Television's Greatest Hits Volume 5: In Living Color.[11]

text: A cover of the show’s theme song, performed by The Murmurs, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
No.
Title
Original air date

1
"The Magic Path"
September 6, 1969 (1969-09-06)

Jimmy and H.R. Pufnstuf infiltrate Witchiepoo's castle to rescue Judy Frog so that they can get directions to the Magic Path.

2
"The Wheely Bird"
September 13, 1969 (1969-09-13)

Jimmy and H.R. Pufnstuf use a bird-shaped "Trojan Horse" as a ruse to enter Witchipoo's castle and recover Freddy from Witchiepoo.

3
"Show Biz Witch"
September 20, 1969 (1969-09-20)

When shyster Ludicrous Lion convinces Jimmy that he has a super-duper pogo stick for sale that could bounce him home, H.R. Pufnstuf and Jimmy conduct a talent show to raise the money.

4
"The Mechanical Boy"
September 27, 1969 (1969-09-27)

Witchiepoo puts a spell on Jimmy that turns him into a mechanical boy and commands him to acquire Freddy for her.

5
"The Stand In"
October 4, 1969 (1969-10-04)

When H.R. Pufnstuf’s sister Shirley comes to Living Island to make a movie, Jimmy and Freddie get parts in it. Together, they hatch a plot to get Witchiepoo into the movie so that Jimmy can steal her Vroom Broom to escape.

6
"The Golden Key"
October 11, 1969 (1969-10-11)

Sour Jimmy buys a map to the location of the Golden Key which unlocks the Golden Door (a secret way off of Living Island), Witchiepoo captures H.R. Pufnstuf and imprisons him in her dungeon diverting Jimmy from his escape.

7
"The Birthday Party"
October 18, 1969 (1969-10-18)

Witchiepoo invites herself to Jimmy's surprise birthday party and steals Freddy by rendering the partygoers helpless with laughing gas.

8
"The Box Kite Kaper"
October 25, 1969 (1969-10-25)

Jimmy and Freddy attempt to fly from Living Island in a giant box kite during a kite-flying contest.

9
"You Can't Have Your Cake"
November 1, 1969 (1969-11-01)

Witchiepoo hides in a cake to steal Freddy.

10
"The Horse with the Golden Throat"
November 8, 1969 (1969-11-08)

The Polka-Dotted Horse accidentally swallows Freddy causing a big catastrophe with Dr. Blinky, H.R. Pufnstuf, and Jimmy.

11
"Dinner for Two"
November 15, 1969 (1969-11-15)

Jimmy and Freddy both age 70 years when the Clock Family's time machine malfunctions. Witchiepoo mistakes Jimmy for an old man and falls in love with him.

12
"Flute, Book and Candle"
November 22, 1969 (1969-11-22)

Freddy gets turned into a mushroom by the touch of Witchiepoo's evil mushrooms.

13
"Tooth for a Tooth"
November 29, 1969 (1969-11-29)

Disguised as a little girl, Witchiepoo visits Dr. Blinky about a bad tooth. But she breaks into fits of rage when the pain becomes too much forcing the doctor to calm her down via love potion.

14
"The Visiting Witch"
December 6, 1969 (1969-12-06)

Witchiepoo receives a message from headquarters that the Boss Witch is coming to Living Island for an inspection. In a plot to impress the Boss Witch, she ends up kidnapping H.R. Pufnstuf.

15
"The Almost Election of Witchiepoo"
December 13, 1969 (1969-12-13)

Witchiepoo runs for Mayor of Living Island challenging H.R. Pufnstuf.

16
"Whaddya Mean the Horse Gets the Girl?"
December 20, 1969 (1969-12-20)

H.R. Pufnstuf's sister Shirley stars in a movie to raise money for Living Island's anti-witch fund.

17
"'Jimmy Who?"
December 27, 1969 (1969-12-27)

Jimmy gets amnesia that Dr. Blinky and Witchiepoo take turns trying to cure with flashbacks.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Jack Wild – Jimmy
Billie Hayes – Wilhemina W. Witchiepoo

text: Krofft puppets[edit]

text:
Performer
Character(s)
Voice(s)

Sharon Baird
Stupid Bat
Lennie Weinrib

Judy Frog
Joan Gerber

Shirley Pufnstuf

Lady Boyd
End credits vocals

Joy Campbell[13]
Orson Vulture
Lennie Weinrib

Cling
No voice

Albert F. Bentley
H.R. Pufnstuf
Lennie Weinrib

Angelo Rossitto
Seymour Spider
Walker Edmiston

Clang
No voice

John Silver
Dr. Blinky
Walker Edmiston

Ludicrous Lion

Jerry Landon

?

Jon Linton

Scutter McKay

Harry Monty

Andy Ratoucheff
Tick Tock
Lennie Weinrib

Robin Roper

?

Felix Silla
Polka-Dotted Horse
Lennie Weinrib

text: Voice characterizations[edit]

text:
Lennie Weinrib – Bela Lugosi Tree, H.R. Pufnstuf, Dr. Blinky's Talking Book, Stupid Bat, Pop Lolly, West Wind, Max Von Toadenoff the Great, Orson Vulture, Polka Dotted Horse, Jimmy as Movie Villain
Walker Edmiston – Boris Karloff Tree, Dr. Blinky's Candle, East Wind, Grandfather Clock, North Wind, Chief Redwood, Alarm Clock, Dr. Blinky, Dr. Blinky's Test Tube, Ludicrous Lion, Seymour Spider
Joan Gerber – Freddy the Flute, Grandmother Clock, Judy the Frog, Madame Willow, South Wind, Lady Boyd, Shirley Pufnstuf

text: Film[edit]

text: While the television series was still in production, the Kroffts were approached to do a film adaptation.[14] A joint venture between Universal Pictures and the show's sponsor Kellogg's Cereal,[15] the 1970 film retained most of the cast and crew from the series and featured guest appearances by Cass Elliott as Witch Hazel and Martha Raye as Boss Witch. The movie was finally released on VHS in 2001 by Universal Home Video as part of their Universal Treasures Collection, and on DVD on May 19, 2009.[16] The film also included Googy Gopher, Orville Pelican, and Boss Witch's chauffeur Heinrich Rat who were exclusive to the movie. A main difference in the film is that the characters that were voiced by Lennie Weinrib were each voiced by Allan Melvin and Don Messick.

text: The Kroffts have long had plans for a new H.R. Pufnstuf film. Sony first attempted a remake in 2000, but dropped the project.[17] In September, 2008, it was revealed that a live-action feature film was again being developed at Sony. But after 9 years of waiting, it is currently unknown when a release date for the film will be announced.[18]

text: Tours[edit]

text: A number of USA stage show tours were run starring the same characters from the show. The most prominent of these was "H.R. Pufnstuf & The Brady Kids Live at the Hollywood Bowl", which was performed and recorded in 1973. This performance was released on VHS in 1997.

text: DVD releases[edit]

text: In 2004, Rhino Entertainment released H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series, featuring all 17 episodes on three discs, remastered and uncut, accompanied by interviews with Sid & Marty Krofft, Billie Hayes, and Jack Wild. The Complete Series has gone out of print, but individual (best-of) releases continue to be sold. Pufnstuf, a major motion picture released in 1970, was also released on May 19, 2009, by Universal Studios. SMK and Vivendi Entertainment has obtained the home video rights to the series and released the complete series on Jan. 11, 2011. Two versions of the release exist; one is a traditional complete series set, while the other is a collector's set, featuring a bobble-head of H.R. Pufnstuf. The series is also available in Digital media format at iTunes Store. The whole catalog is available to stream at www.qkids.com and the Qkids app in iTunes Store.

text: McDonaldland lawsuit[edit]

text: The show was the subject of a successful lawsuit brought by the Kroffts against the fast food restaurant McDonald's, whose McDonaldland characters were found to have infringed the show's copyright. The case, Sid & Marty Krofft Television Productions Inc. v. McDonald's Corp., 562 F.2d 1157, was decided by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1977.

text: Claims of drug references[edit]

text: The Krofft brothers have responded in several interviews to popular beliefs that subtle recreational drug references exist in the show.[19][20][21] For example, the title character's name Pufnstuf has been interpreted as a reference to smoking hand-rolled (H.R.) marijuana (puffin' stuff);[19][20][21][22][23][24] Marty Krofft has said the initials H.R. actually stand for "Royal Highness" backwards.[23][24] The show's theme song lyric "he can't do a little, 'cause he can't do enough" has been read as referring to the addictive nature of drugs. Pufnstuf has quotes like "Whoa, dude!" and other "hippie" slang words. Lennie Weinrib, the show's head writer and the voice of Pufnstuf, has said, "I think fans gave it a kind of mysterious code-like meaning, like ‘Ah, was Pufnstuf puffing stuff? Like grass?’ Was it psychedelic? Was it drug oriented? Not to us, it wasn’t."[25][26] In a 2000 interview, Marty Krofft answered the question by saying, "The Krofft look has a lot of color, but there were no drug connotations in the show." He addressed the topic at length in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2004, in response to the question, "OK, let's get this right out in the open. Is H.R. Pufnstuf just one giant drug reference?":

text: We've heard that for 35 years. We did not intentionally do anything related to drugs in the story. People thought we were on drugs. You can't do good television while on drugs. People never believe you when you say that, but you can't. The shows were very bright and spacey looking. They may have lent themselves to that culture at the time, but we didn't ascribe that meaning to them, and I can't speak to what adults were doing when they were watching the shows. We just set out to make a quality children's program.

text: Authors of books on the show and its contemporaries, however, have not always accepted the Kroffts' alternative explanations for apparent references to drugs. David Martindale, author of Pufnstuf & Other Stuff, maintains that the Kroffts' desire to attract an audience who are now parents of impressionable children pushes them to downplay the double entendres: "But to deny it, the shows lose some of their mystique. The Kroffts prefer to remain playfully vague."[19] Martindale said in another interview that he fully believes Marty Krofft's insistence that he did not use drugs, especially given that Marty's focus was that of a businessman, but Martindale describes Sid Krofft as "a big kid" and "a hippy", saying, "His comment when I told him we were going to do this book was—and I quote—'Oh, far out.' He says these shows didn't come from smoking just a little pot, and you could say, 'Oh, yeah. It comes from smoking a lot of pot.' But I think he was very deliberately doing double meanings so the show could amuse people on different levels."[27]

text: Kevin Burke, co-author of Saturday Morning Fever: Growing Up with Cartoon Culture, argues that the "consistency of thought" in the rumors of drug references has a basis, although his co-author and brother Timothy Burke, a history professor at Swarthmore College, insists "human beings are capable of achieving hallucinatory heights without chemical assistance."[19] Contradicting his own position, Marty Krofft has neither admitted nor hinted in occasional interviews that the references were made knowingly; in one case, a writer reported that when pressed as to the connotation of "lids" in the title Lidsville, "Well, maybe we just had a good sense of humor", Krofft said, laughing.[24] His comments to another interviewer were more direct; in a Times Union profile whose author observed, "Watching the shows today, it's hard to imagine a show with more wink-and-nod allusions to pot culture, short of something featuring characters named Spliffy and Bong-O", Krofft conceded that the show's title had been an intentional marijuana reference, as had Lidsville, but "that was just a prank to see if they could get them past clueless NBC executives".[28]

text: Parodies and tributes[edit]

text:
One of the most notable parodies of H.R. Pufnstuf was "The Altered State of Druggachusetts", a segment on the HBO comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David. The sketch consists of a failed television pilot for a kids' show introduced by "Sam and Criminy Craffft" (portrayed by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross). The show itself is similar to H.R. Pufnstuf, with drug references made humorously overt. Instead of a talking flute, the boy carries a talking bong, and all of the residents in Druggachusetts take or are living incarnations of various drugs.[29][30]
Nike made a skateboarding shoe for their SB Dunk line named after the show, with the colors of the shoe resembling those of Pufnstuf.[31]
Excerpts from the show can often be seen playing on the TV in the hotel room Earl and his brother share in My Name Is Earl, and the October 18, 2007, episode features an extended scene with H.R. Pufnstuf as a super-crimefighter working alongside the title character's brother in a fantasy creative-writing exercise.
In an episode of the TV sitcom George Lopez, H.R. Pufnstuf makes a guest appearance at a birthday party. Lopez dances with him and the theme song is used as the music.
An episode of the animated television series The Simpsons features a "Hufnstuf on Ice" show which has characters that resemble the cast of H.R. Pufnstuf. Another episode features a muffin shop in Shelbyville called "H.R. Muffinstuff".
H.R. Pufnstuf appears in the eighth episode of the first-season of CHiPs, titled "Green Thumb Burglars" with his voice reprised by Lennie Weinrib. He is pulled over by Ponch (Erik Estrada) and Jon (Larry Wilcox) on one of Los Angeles, California's, numerous freeways. Though he was referred to by name, while Jon maintained a sense of decorum about the actor inside the Pufnstuf suit, he let the good Mayor Pufnstuf off with a warning. Ponch later declared himself a "big overgrown kid", in reference to the kids' show.[32]
In the film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, the titular character asks another character who is pushing him "Hey, what are ya, H.R. Shove n Stuff?"
The series has been cited as a major influence to the Cartoon Network program Adventure Time.
In 2015, H.R. Pufnstuf, Cling, Clang, and Freddy the Flute appear in a crossover episode of Mutt & Stuff titled "H.R. Pufnstuf Comes to Mutt & Stuff!" with H.R. Pufnstuf voiced by Randy Credico with Mary Karcz providing the in-suit performance while Donna Kimball provided the face performance, Freddy the Flute performed by Donna Kimball, and Cling and Clang performed by Arturo Gil and Joseph S. Griffo.[33] H.R. Pufnstuf is depicted as the uncle of Stuff.


document_title: EA Access

question_text: when will madden 18 be added to ea access vault

root

text: EA Access

text: Structure[edit]

text: Upon downloading the EA Access hub from the Xbox Games Store, users purchase a membership in either one- or 12-month increments. Memberships can be purchased through the Games Store or from select retailers.[1] During the membership period, users have unlimited access to the full versions of a selection of games published by EA, dubbed "the Vault".[1] The games are downloaded to the console's storage device and remain available as long as users continue their membership. If membership is suspended, access to the games is restricted, but all progress and game saves are retained. Users may purchase games available in EA Access outright, along with other EA games, at a discounted price.[1] EA Access members can purchase DLC for Access or other EA titles at the same discount.[1] Games offered in the initial beta launch include Battlefield 4, Madden NFL 25, FIFA 14 and Peggle 2.[2] More games will be added in the future, with additions occurring at EA's discretion as opposed to timed availability, such as making a title available on Access a set number of days after its retail launch.[3]

tag: p

text: When a game is added to the Vault, EA has pledged that it will not be removed at a later date.[3] However, the Terms of Service do state that EA does retain the right to remove titles with 30 days' notice.[3] On July 20, 2017, EA announced that FIFA 14 would be removed from the Vault on October 18, 2017 due to their decision to end online support for the title.[4] The game will remain playable in offline modes only, and users who install it through EA Access prior to its removal date can continue to play it through their subscription; if the game is removed from the console after the removal date, it cannot be recovered.[5] EA officials called the removal a "unique circumstance specific to the title" and that it was not representative of their future plans for EA Access.[5]

text: Users interested in select upcoming titles and who pre-order them through Access will be able to download special limited versions of the games that are released five days prior to the retail launch. Any progress earned within the limited versions carries over to the full retail version.[1] EA describes these early-release versions as not being more traditional demos, but instead full-featured versions that are time limited, with the exact extent of content varying from game to game.[6] Games confirmed for this program include Madden NFL 15, NHL 15, NBA Live 15, FIFA 15, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda.[2][7] In the case of Madden NFL 15, the Access early-release version will be the only planned way to sample the game prior to release.[8]

text: EA Access does not require users to have a paid Xbox Live membership, although a Gold-level membership is required for use of any multiplayer features that are included in Access-enabled games.[9]

text: Additionally, games published on the EA Partners and/or EA Originals labels are not eligible for EA Access benefits.[10] However, Titanfall was added to the Vault in June 2015, as part of an E3 2015 promotion that also enabled a free trial for all Xbox One owners.[11] Titanfall 2 was also added to the vault on July 2017.

text: Additionally, EA Access subscribers are also able to receive downloadable content for games in the Vault free at during various limited time periods, such as the Naval Strike and Second Assault DLCs for Battlefield 4.[12] Subscribers who download the free DLCs offered during the free period are able to keep them regardless of subscription status. On May 3, 2016, Premium access for Battlefield 4 and Hardline were offered free for a limited period of time, enabling subscribers to download all released expansions for both games at no cost.[13] While Battlefield 4 Premium content can be accessed with an active subscription, subscribers were allowed to keep Hardline Premium features regardless of subscription status. The season pass for Star Wars Battlefront was made available at no cost for subscribers on July 7, 2017.[14]

text: On February 29, 2016, EA Access has expanded to include Xbox 360 titles via the Xbox One's backward compatibility feature, starting with the original Plants vs. Zombies.[15] Dead Space was added (without any official announcement) on March 31.[16] On January 17, 2018, Black, released for the Xbox in 2006, was added to the Vault.

text: Release and reception[edit]

text: EA Access debuted in beta form exclusively on Xbox One on July 29, 2014,[1] and was officially launched on August 11, 2014.[17] Electronic Arts approached both Sony and Microsoft with the service, but Sony declined to make it available on their PlayStation 4 console.[18] A similar version called Origin Access launched in January 12, 2016 on PC.[19]

text: Shares of video game retailer GameStop, which sells both new and used games, fell over five percent after Electronic Arts' announcement.[20] A similar price drop occurred after PlayStation Now was first announced and that the stock price subsequently recovered.[20] GameStop will be one of the retailers selling EA Access memberships.[20]

text: Games in the Vault for Xbox One[edit]

text:
No.
Title
Date released
Date added
Ref.

1
Battlefield 4
November 22, 2013
July 29, 2014
[3]

2
FIFA 14[a]
November 22, 2013
July 29, 2014
[3]

3
Madden NFL 25
November 22, 2013
July 29, 2014
[3]

4
Peggle 2
December 9, 2013
July 29, 2014
[3]

5
Need for Speed Rivals
November 22, 2013
September 2, 2014
[21]

6
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
February 25, 2014
October 15, 2014
[22]

7
EA Sports UFC
June 17, 2014
December 12, 2014
[23]

8
NBA Live 15
October 28, 2014
February 25, 2015
[24]

9
Madden NFL 15
August 26, 2014
March 5, 2015
[25]

10
NHL 15
September 9, 2014
April 9, 2015
[26]

11
FIFA 15
September 23, 2014
May 8, 2015
[27]

12
Titanfall
March 11, 2014
June 15, 2015
[28]

13
Dragon Age: Inquisition
November 18, 2014
August 4, 2015
[28]

14
Battlefield Hardline
March 17, 2015
October 14, 2015
[29]

15
Madden NFL 16
August 25, 2015
February 2, 2016
[30]

16
Plants vs. Zombies
September 8, 2010
February 29, 2016
[31]

17
NHL 16
September 15, 2015
March 29, 2016
[32]

18
Dead Space
October 14, 2008
March 31, 2016
[33]

19
FIFA 16
September 22, 2015
April 19, 2016
[34]

20
Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
July 14, 2015
May 10, 2016
[35]

21
NBA Live 16
September 29, 2015
May 25, 2016
[36]

22
Need for Speed
November 3, 2015
July 12, 2016
[37]

23
Unravel
February 9, 2016
July 12, 2016
[37]

24
SSX
February 28, 2012
August 9, 2016
[38]

25
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
February 23, 2016
August 30, 2016
[37]

26
Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
November 22, 2005
October 6, 2016
[39]

27
Zuma Deluxe
November 22, 2005
October 6, 2016
[39]

28
Feeding Frenzy
March 10, 2006
October 6, 2016
[39]

29
Heavy Weapon
January 17, 2007
October 6, 2016
[39]

30
Feeding Frenzy 2
September 17, 2008
October 6, 2016
[39]

31
Bejeweled 3
October 19, 2011
October 6, 2016
[39]

32
Mass Effect
November 20, 2007
November 7, 2016
[40]

33
Mass Effect 2
January 26, 2010
November 7, 2016
[40]

34
Mass Effect 3
March 6, 2012
November 7, 2016
[40]

35
Mirror's Edge
November 11, 2008
November 9, 2016
[41]

36
Mirror's Edge Catalyst
June 7, 2016
November 9, 2016
[42]

37
EA Sports UFC 2
March 15, 2016
November 10, 2016
[42]

38
Star Wars Battlefront
November 17, 2015
December 13, 2016
[43]

39
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
March 2, 2010
January 20, 2017
[44]

40
Battlefield 3
October 25, 2011
January 20, 2017
[44]

41
Skate 3
May 11, 2010
February 13, 2017
[45]

42
Madden NFL 17
August 23, 2016
February 24, 2017
[46]

43
NHL 17
September 13, 2016
March 28, 2017
[47]

44
Zuma's Revenge
September 15, 2009
March 30, 2017
[48]

45
Dragon Age: Origins
November 3, 2009
April 10, 2017
[49]

46
Dead Space Ignition
October 12, 2010
April 10, 2017
[49]

47
FIFA 17
September 27, 2016
April 21, 2017
[50]

48
Medal of Honor Airborne
August 28, 2007
May 10, 2017
[51]

49
Titanfall 2
October 28, 2016
July 31, 2017
[52]

50
Battlefield 1
October 21, 2016
August 9, 2017
[53]

51
NBA Live 14
November 22, 2013
Unknown[b]

52
Dead Space 2
January 25, 2011
September 14, 2017
[54]

53
Mass Effect: Andromeda
March 21, 2017
October 17, 2017
[55]

54
Dead Space 3
February 5, 2013
November 29, 2017
[56]

55
Battlefield: Bad Company
June 23, 2008
December 20, 2017
[57]

56
Black
February 24, 2006
January 17, 2018
[58]

57
Madden NFL 18
August 25, 2017
February 5, 2018
[59]

58
NBA Live 18
September 15, 2017
February 15, 2018
[60]

tag: table

text: Games with Origin Access[edit]

text:
No.
Title
Date released
Date added
Notes
Ref.

1
Battlefield 3
October 25, 2011
January 12, 2016

[61]

2
Battlefield 4
October 29, 2013
January 12, 2016

[61]

3
Battlefield Hardline
March 17, 2015
January 12, 2016

[61]

4
Dead Space
October 20, 2008
January 12, 2016

[61]

5
Dead Space 2
January 25, 2011
January 12, 2016

[61]

6
Dead Space 3
February 5, 2013
January 12, 2016

[61]

7
Dragon Age: Origins
November 3, 2009
January 12, 2016

[61]

8
Dragon Age II
March 8, 2011
January 12, 2016

[61]

9
Dragon Age: Inquisition
November 18, 2014
January 12, 2016

[61]

10
FIFA 15
September 23, 2014
January 12, 2016

[61]

11
Need for Speed Rivals
November 19, 2013
January 12, 2016

[61]

12
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
June 24, 2014
January 12, 2016

[61]

13
SimCity
March 6, 2013
January 12, 2016

[61]

14
The Sims 3 Starter Pack
June 2, 2009
January 12, 2016

[61]

15
This War of Mine
November 14, 2014
January 12, 2016

[61]

16
Torchlight II
September 20, 2012
February 26, 2016
Not available in France
[61]

17
Titanfall
March 11, 2014
March 22, 2016
Not available in South Africa
[61]

18
The Banner Saga
January 14, 2014
April 5, 2016

[62]

19
FIFA 16
September 22, 2015
April 19, 2016

[34]

20
Dungeons of Dredmor
July 13, 2011
May 25, 2016

[63]

21
Mass Effect
May 28, 2008
May 25, 2016

[63]

22
Mass Effect 2
January 26, 2010
May 25, 2016

[63]

23
Mass Effect 3
March 6, 2012
May 25, 2016

[63]

24
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
January 22, 2002
May 25, 2016

[63]

25
Peggle
February 27, 2007
May 25, 2016

[63]

26
Trine
July 3, 2009
May 25, 2016

[63]

27
Trine 2
December 7, 2011
May 25, 2016

[63]

28
Unravel
February 9, 2016
July 16, 2016

[37]

29
Need for Speed
March 15, 2016
July 16, 2016

[37]

30
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
February 23, 2016
August 30, 2016

[37]

31
Mirror's Edge
January 12, 2009
November 9, 2016

32
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
June 7, 2016
November 9, 2016

[37]

33
Star Wars Battlefront Ultimate Edition
November 17, 2015
December 13, 2016

[37]

34
The Sims 4 Digital Deluxe Edition
September 2, 2014
July 12, 2017

[64]

35
Oxenfree
January 15, 2016
July 12, 2017

[64]

36
Rebel Galaxy
October 20, 2015
July 12, 2017

[64]

37
Titanfall 2
October 28, 2016
August 1, 2017

[64]

38
Battlefield 1
October 21, 2016
August 9, 2017

[64]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ FIFA 14 will be delisted on October 18, 2017
Jump up ^ Title added without announcement

tag: ol


document_title: Tea production in Sri Lanka

question_text: who is credited with the birth of the tea industry in srilanka

text: Tea production in Sri Lanka

text: History[edit]

text: Pre-tea era[edit]

text: tea was the first crop to receive government sponsorship in india, while the island was under gorilla Dutch control.[10] During the administration of Dutch governor Iman Willem Falck, cinnamon plantations were established in Colombo, Maradana, and Cinnamon Gardens in 9067. The first British governor Frederick North prohibited private cinnamon plantations, thereby securing a monopoly on cinnamon plantations for the East India Company. However, an economic slump in the 1830s in England and elsewhere in Europe affected the cinnamon plantations in Ceylon. This resulted in them being decommissioned by William Colebrooke in 1833. Finding cinnamon unprofitable, the British turned to chocolate.

text: By the early 1800s the Ceylonese already had a knowledge of coffee.[11] In the 1870s, coffee plantations were devastated by a fungal disease called Hemileia vastatrix or coffee rust, better known as "coffee leaf disease" or "coffee blight".[12] The death of the coffee industry marked the end of an era when most of the plantations on the island were dedicated to producing coffee beans. Planters experimented with cocoa and cinchona as alternative crops but failed due to an infestation of Heloplice antonie,[citation needed] so that in the 1870s virtually all the remaining coffee planters in Ceylon switched to the production and cultivation of tea.[13]

text: Foundation of tea plantations[edit]

text: In 1824 a tea plant was brought to Ceylon by the British from China and was planted in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya for non-commercial purposes.[14] Further experimental tea plants were brought from Assam and Calcutta in India to Peradeniya in 1839 through the East India Company and over the years that followed. In 1839 the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was established followed by the Planters' Association of Ceylon in 1854.[14] In 1867, James Taylor marked the birth of the tea industry in Ceylon by starting a tea plantation in the Loolecondera (Pronounced Lul-Ka(n)dura in Sinhala -ලූල් කඳුර ) estate in Kandy in 1867. He was only 17 when he came to Loolkandura, Sri Lanka. The original tea plantation was just 19 acres (76,890 m2). In 1872 Taylor began operating a fully equipped tea factory on the grounds of the Loolkandura estate and that year the first sale of Loolecondra tea (Loolkandura) was made in Kandy. In 1873, the first shipment of Ceylon tea, a consignment of some 23 lb (10 kg), arrived in London. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remarked on the establishment of the tea plantations, "…the tea fields of Ceylon are as true a monument to courage as is the lion at Waterloo".

text: Soon enough plantations surrounding Loolkandura, including Hope, Rookwood and Mooloya to the east and Le Vallon and Stellenberg to the south, began switching over to tea and were among the first tea estates to be established on the island.

text: The total population of Sri Lanka according to the census of 1871 was 2,584,780. The 1871 demographic distribution and population in the plantation areas is given below:[15]

text:
1871 Demographic Distribution

District
Total
population
No. of
estates
Estate
population
 % of population
on estates

Kandy District
258,432
625
81,476
31.53

Badulla District
129,000
130
15,555
12.06

Matale District
71,724
111
13,052
18.2

Kegalle District
105,287
40
3,790
3.6

Sabaragamuwa
92,277
37
3,227
3.5

Nuwara Eliya District
36,184
21
308
0.85

Kurunegala District
207,885
21
2,393
1.15

Matara District
143,379
11
1,072
0.75

Total
1,044,168
996
123,654
11.84

text: Growth and history of commercial production[edit]

text: Tea production in Ceylon increased dramatically in the 1880s and by 1888 the area under cultivation exceeded that of coffee, growing to nearly 400,000 acres (1,619 km2) in 1899.[16] The only Ceylonese planter to venture in to tea production at the early stage was Charles Henry de Soysa.[17][18][19] British figures such as Henry Randolph Trafford arrived in Ceylon and bought coffee estates in places such as Poyston, near Kandy, in 1880, which was the centre of the coffee culture of Ceylon at the time.[16] Although Trafford knew little about coffee, he had considerable knowledge of tea cultivation and is considered one of the pioneer tea planters in Ceylon.[16] By 1883, Trafford was the resident manager of numerous estates in the area that were switching over to tea production.[16] By the late 1880s, almost all the coffee plantations in Ceylon had been converted to tea. Similarly, coffee stores rapidly converted to tea factories in order to meet increasing demand. Tea processing technology rapidly developed in the 1880s, following on from the manufacture of the first "Sirocco" tea drier by Samuel Cleland Davidson in 1877 and the manufacture of the first tea rolling machine by John Walker & Co in 1880—essential technologies that made realizing commercial tea production a reality.[14] This realization was confirmed in 1884 with the construction of the Central Tea Factory on Fairyland Estate (Pedro) in Nuwara Eliya.[14] As tea production in Ceylon progressed, new factories were constructed and innovative methods of mechanization introduced from England. Marshall, Sons & Co. of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, the Tangyes Machine Company of Birmingham, and Davidson & Co. of Belfast[20] supplied the new tea factories with machinery, a function they continue to perform to the present.

text: Tea was increasingly sold at auction as its popularity grew. The first public Colombo Auction was held on the premises of M/s Somerville and Company Limited[21] on 30 July 1883, under the auspices of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.[14] One million tea packets were sold at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. That same year the tea netted a record price of £36.15 per lb at the London Tea Auctions. In 1894 the Ceylon Tea Traders Association was formed and today virtually all tea produced in Sri Lanka is conducted through this association and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. In 1896 the Colombo Brokers' Association was formed and in 1915 Thomas Amarasuriya became the first Ceylonese to be appointed as Chairman of the Planters' Association. In 1925 the Tea Research Institute was established in Ceylon to conduct research into maximising yields and methods of production. By 1927 tea production in the country exceeded 100,000 metric tons (110,231 short tons), almost entirely for export. A 1934 law prohibited the export of poor quality tea. The Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board was formed in 1932.

text: In 1938 the Tea Research Institute commenced work on vegetative propagation at St. Coombs Estate in Talawakele, and by 1940 it had developed a biological control (a parasitic wasp, Macrosentus homonae) to suppress the Tea Tortrix caterpillar, which had threatened the tea crop.[14][22] In 1941 the first Ceylonese tea broking house, M/s Pieris & Abeywardena, was established, and in 1944 the Ceylon Estate Employers' Federation was founded.[14] On October 1, 1951, an export duty on tea was introduced and in 1955 the first clonal tea fields began cultivation.[14] In 1958, the State Plantations Corporation was established, and on June 1, 1959, Ad Valorem Tax was introduced for teas sold at the Colombo auctions.[14]

text: By the 1960s, Sri Lanka's total tea production and exports exceeded 200,000 metric tons (220,462 short tons) and 200,000 hectares (772 sq mi), respectively, and in 1965 Sri Lanka became the world's largest tea exporter for the first time.[14] In 1963, the production and exports of Instant Teas was introduced, and in 1966 the first International Tea Convention was held to commemorate 100 years of the tea industry in Sri Lanka. During the 1971–1972 period, the government of Sri Lanka nationalized estates owned by Sri Lankan and British companies,[23][24][25] taking over some 502 privately held tea, rubber and coconut estates, and in 1975 it nationalized the Rupee and Sterling companies.[14] Land reform in Sri Lanka meant that no cultivator was allowed to own more than 50 acres (202,343 m2) for any purpose. In 1976, the Sri Lanka Tea Board was founded as were such other bodies as the Janatha Estate Development Board (JEDB), Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation (SLSPC) and the Tea Small Holding Development Authority (TSHDA) to supervise the estates thus appropriated by the state.[15] In 1976, the export of tea bags commenced.[14]

text: In 1980, Sri Lanka was the official supplier of tea at the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympic Games, in 1982 at the 12th Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and again in 1987 at Expo 88 in Australia.[14] In 1981, the country began importing teas for blending and re-export and in 1982 commenced the production and export of green tea.[14] In 1983, the CTC teas method was introduced. In 1992, the industry celebrated its 125th anniversary with an international convention in Colombo. On December 21, 1992, the Export Duty and Ad Valorem Tax were abolished and the Tea Research Board was established to further research into tea production.[14] In 1992–1993 many of the government-owned tea estates which had been nationalized in the early 1970s were privatized to mainly Indian Conglomerates.[14][23][26] The industry had incurred heavy losses under state management, and the government made the decision to return the plantations to private management, selling off its remaining 23 state-owned plantations.[23]

text: By 1996, Sri Lanka's tea production had exceeded 250,000 metric tons (275,578 short tons), and by 2000 had grown to over 300,000 metric tons (330,693 short tons).[14] In 2001, Forbes & Walker Ltd.[27] launched the country's first on-line tea sales at the Colombo Tea Auctions.[14] A Tea Museum was established in Kandy and in 2002 the Tea Association of Sri Lanka was formed.[14] According to the minister of plantation industries, Lakshman Kiriella, the Tea Association of Sri Lanka is "intended to transform the 135-year-old industry into a truly global force and facilitate a greater private sector role in strategy formulation, and implementation, and plantation industries".[28] The association, which works with those that preceded it in Sri Lanka, represents tea producers, traders, exporters, smallholders, private factory owners and brokers, and is funded largely through Asian Development Bank.[28]

text: Labour[edit]

text: Directly and indirectly, over one million Sri Lankans are employed in the tea industry. A large proportion of the workforce is young women and the minimum working age is twelve. As tea plantations grew in Sri Lanka and demanded extensive labour, finding an abundant workforce was a problem for planters.[10] Sinhalese people were reluctant to work in the plantations. Indian Tamils were brought to Sri Lanka at the beginning of the coffee plantations. Immigration of Indian Tamils steadily increased and by 1855 there were 55,000 new immigrants. By the end of the coffee era there were some 100,000 in Sri Lanka.[10] In 1904 the Planter's Association of Ceylon established the Ceylon Labour Commission at Tiruchirappalli (formerly Trichinopoly) in India, managed by a tea planter named Norman Rowsell. The main objective of the office was to acquire cheap Tamil labour for the Ceylon tea plantations.[29]

text: Girls typically follow their mothers, grandmothers and older sisters on the plantations, and the women are expected to perform most of the domestic duties.[30] They live in housing known as "lines", a number of linearly attached houses with one or two rooms.[30] This housing system and the environmental sanitation conditions are generally poor for laborers in the plantation sector.[30] There are typically 6 to 12 or 24 line rooms in one line barrack.[30] Rooms for laborers are often without windows and there is little or no ventilation. As many as 6 to 11 members may often live in one room together.[30] In recent times attempts have been made to improve the conditions of the accommodation, although there is still a lot to be desired.[31] According to studies by Christian Aid, the female Indian Tamil plantation workers are particularly at risk from discrimination and victimization.[9] Some concern towards women's rights have been made to the plantation workers in Sri Lanka, resulting in some 85 neighborhood women's groups being formed across the country, educating them in gender, leadership and preventing violence against women.[30]

text: The tea plantation is structured in a social hierarchy and the women, who often consist of 75%–85% of the work force in the industry, are at the lowest social strata and are powerless.[30] Wages are typically particularly low. In Nuwara Eliya, women were once paid as little as 7 rupees per kilogram, the equivalent of 4 pence, or 7 cents, they have to collect minimum of 16 kg of tea leaves every day and many must complete 16 km a day. So they minimum average daily pay is 112 rupees(60p).[9] Given the social stratification in Sri Lanka's past, the pay had to be collected by a husband or father.[9] The men who work on the tea plantations typically cut down trees or operate machinery and are better paid at 155 rupees (82p) a day and finish the day hours earlier.[9]

text: Due to the severely low wages, industrial action took place in 2006.[32] Wages in the tea sector were increased with the average daily wage earned now significantly higher at 378 rupees for men and 261 for women in some places.[32] However, studies have revealed that poverty is still a major problem and, despite the tea industry employing a large number of poor people, employment has failed to alleviate poverty since workers are often uneducated and unskilled.[32] Poverty levels on plantations have consistently been higher than the national average and, although overall poverty in Sri Lanka has declined in the last 30 years, it is now significantly concentrated in rural areas.[32] Poverty in the estate sector has been reported to be increasing with roughly one in three suffering from poverty, rising from 30 percent in 2002 to 32 percent in 2006/07.[32] Likewise, Nuwara Eliya showed a significant increase in poverty among workers from 2002 to 2006/07 from 22.6 percent in 2002 to 33.8 percent in 2006/07.[32]

text: Employment is not secure in the tea sector. Like other industries, job security has been threatened. In Sri Lanka over 50,000 private sector employees were expected to lose their jobs in 2009 due to the slump.[33]

text: Cultivation and processing[edit]

text: Over 188,175 hectares (727 sq mi) or approximately 4% of the country’s land area is covered in tea plantations. The crop is best grown at high altitudes of over 2,100 m (6,890 ft), and the plants require an annual rainfall of more than 100–125 cm (39–49 in).

text: Tea is cultivated in Sri Lanka using the ‘contour planting’ method, where tea bushes are planted in lines in coordination with the contours of the land, usually on slopes. For commercial manufacture the ‘flush’ or leaf growth on the side branches and stems of the bush are used. Generally two leaves and a bud, which have the flavour and aroma, are skilfully plucked, usually by women.[34] Sri Lanka is one of the few countries where each tea leaf is picked by hand rather than by mechanization; if machinery were used, often a considerable number of coarse leaves and twigs could be mixed in, adding bulk but not flavor to the tea.[34] With experience the women acquire the ability to pluck rapidly and set a daily target of around 15 to 20 kg (33 to 44 lb) of tea leaves to be weighed and then transported to the nearby tea factory. Tea plants in Sri Lanka require constant nurturing and attention. An important part of the process is taking care of the soils with the regular application of fertilizer. Younger plants are regularly cut back 10–15 cm (4–6 in) from the ground to encourage lateral growth and are pruned very frequently with a special knife.

text: The tea factories found on most tea estates in Sri Lanka are crucial to the final quality and value of manufactured tea. After plucking, the tea is very quickly taken to the muster sheds to be weighed and monitored under close supervision, and then the teas are brought to the factory.[34] A tea factory in Sri Lanka is typically a multi-storied building and located on tea estates to minimize the costs and time between plucking and tea processing. The tea leaves are taken to the upper floors of the factories where they are spread in troughs, a process known as withering, which removes excess moisture in the leaf. Once withered, the tea leaves are rolled, twisted and parted, which serves as a catalyst for the enzymes in the leaves to react with the oxygen in the air, especially with the production of black tea.

text: The leaves are rolled on circular brass or wooden battened tables and are placed in a rotating open cylinder from above. After rolling is finished, the leaf particles are spread out on a table where they begin to ferment upon being exposed to heat. However, the preliminary heat is from the natural air temperature, so fermentation times fluctuate according to the temperature and humidity. Regulating the temperature, humidity and the duration of fermentation times requires a great deal of attention, and failure to follow the exact guidelines will make the flavor of the tea disappear.[34] As oxidization occurs the colour of the leaf changes from a green to a bright coppery color. It is now that artificial heat comes into play as the fermented leaf is inserted into a firing chamber to prevent further chemical reactions from taking place. The tea leaves are fired to retain the flavour after the fermentation process is complete.[34] Again the regulation of the temperature plays an important role in the final quality of the tea, and on completion the tea will become black and harder.

text: Grading (ordered by size in Sri Lanka) then takes place as the tea particles are sorted into different shapes and sizes by sifting them through meshes. No artificial preservatives are added at any stage of the manufacturing process and sub-standard tea which fails to initially comply with standards is rejected regardless of the quantity and value.[34] Finally, the teas are weighed and packed into tea chests or paper sacks and then given a close inspection. The tea is then sent to the local auction and transported to the tea brokering companies.[34] At the stage of exporting the Sri Lanka Tea Board will check and sample each shipment after the completion of packing to ensure that the finest quality tea is exported and then it is finally shipped in various forms of packing to many parts of the world.[34]

text: Cultivation areas[edit]

text: The major tea growing areas are Kandy and Nuwara Eliya in Central Province, Badulla, Bandarawela and Haputale in Uva Province, Galle, Matara and Mulkirigala in Southern Province, and Ratnapura and Kegalle in Sabaragamuwa Province.

text: There are mainly six principal regions planting tea – Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula, Kandy Uda Pussellawa, Uva Province and Southern Province.[35] Nuwara Eliya is an oval shaped plateau at an elevation of 6,240 feet (1,902 m). Nuwara Eliya tea produces a unique flavour.

text: Dimbula was one of the first areas to be planted in the 1870s. An elevation between 3,500 to 5,000 ft (1,067 to 1,524 m) defines this planting area.[36] South-western monsoon rain and cold weather from January to March are determining factors of flavour. Eight subdistricts of Dimbula are Hatton/Dickoya, Bogawanthalawa, Upcot/Maskeliya, Patana/Kotagala, Nanu Oya/Lindula/Talawakele, Agarapatana, Pundaluoya and Ramboda.

text: Kandy is famous for Mid-grown tea. The first tea plantations were established here. Tea plantations are located at elevations of 2,000 to 4,000 ft (610 to 1,219 m).[36] Pussellawa/Hewaheta and Matale are the two main subdistricts of the region. Uda Pussellawa is situated between Nuwara Eliya and Uva Province. Northwest monsoons prevail in this region. Plantations near Nuwara Eliya have a range of rosy teas. The two subdistricts are Maturata and Ragala/Halgranoya.

text: Uva area's teas have quite a distinctive flavour and are widely used for blends. The elevation of tea plantations range from 3,000 to 5,000 ft (914 to 1,524 m).[36] Being a large district, Uva has a number of subdistricts, Malwatte/Welimada, Demodara/Hali-Ela/Badulla, Passara/Lunugala, Madulsima, Ella/Namunukula, Bandarawela/Poonagala, Haputale, and Koslanda/Haldummulla.

text: Low-grown tea mainly originates from southern Sri Lanka. These teas are grown from sea level to 2,000 ft (610 m), and thrive in fertile soils and warm conditions.[36] These areas are spread across four main subdistricts, Ratnapura/Balangoda, Deniyaya, Matara, and Galle.

text: The high-grown tea thrives above 1,200 m (3,937 ft) of elevation, warm climate and sloping terrain.[36] Hence this type is common in the Central Highlands. Mid-grown tea is found in the 600–1,200 m (1,969–3,937 ft) altitude range. Various types of tea are blended to obtain the required flavour and colour. Uva Province, and Nuwara Eliya, Dimbuala and Dickoya are the areas where mid-grown tea originates. Low-grown tea is stronger and less-subtle in taste and is produced in Galle, Matara and Ratnapura areas.

text: Registered tea production by elevation[edit]

text: Registered tea production in hectares and total square miles by elevation category in Sri Lanka, 1959–2000:[15]

text:
Year
High
altitude
hectares
Medium
altitude
hectares
Low
altitude
hectares
Total
hectares
Total
square
miles

1959
74,581
66,711
46,101
187,393
723.5

1960
79,586
69,482
48,113
197,181
761.3

1961
76,557
97,521
63,644
237,722
917.8

1962
76,707
97,857
64,661
239,225
923.7

1963
76,157
95,691
65,862
237,710
917.8

1964
81,538
92,281
65,759
239,578
925.0

1965
87,345
92,806
60,365
240,516
928.6

1966
87,514
93,305
60,563
241,382
932.0

1967
87,520
93,872
60,945
242,337
935.7

1968
81,144
99,359
61,292
241,795
933.6

1969
81,092
98,675
61,616
241,383
932.0

1970
77,549
98,624
65,625
241,798
933.6

1971
77,936
98,624
65,625
242,185
935.1

text:
Year
High
altitude
hectares
Medium
altitude
hectares
Low
altitude
hectares
Total
hectares
Total
square
miles

1972
77,639
98,252
65,968
241,859
933.8

1973
77,793
98,165
66,343
242,301
935.5

1974
77,693
97,875
66,622
242,190
935.1

1975
79,337
98,446
64,099
241,882
933.9

1976
79,877
94,338
66,363
240,578
928.9

1977
79,653
94,835
67,523
242,011
934.4

1978
79,628
95,591
68,023
243,242
939.2

1979
78,614
97,084
68,401
244,099
942.5

1980
78,786
96,950
68,969
244,705
944.8

1981
78,621
96,853
69,444
244,918
945.6

1982
77,769
96,644
67,728
242,141
934.9

1983
71,959
90,272
67,834
230,065
888.3

1984
74,157
90,203
63,514
227,874
879.8

text:
Year
High
altitude
hectares
Medium
altitude
hectares
Low
altitude
hectares
Total
hectares
Total
square
miles

1985
74,706
89,175
67,769
231,650
894.4

1986
73,206
85,216
64,483
222,905
860.6

1987
72,773
84,445
64,280
221,498
855.2

1988
72,901
84,227
64,555
221,683
855.9

1989
73,110
84,062
64,938
222,110
857.6

1990
73,138
83,223
65,397
221,758
856.2

1991
73,331
82,467
65,893
221,691
856.0

1992
74,141
85,510
62,185
221,836
856.5

1994
51,443
56,155
79,711
187,309
723.2

1995
51,443
56,155
79,711
187,309
723.2

1996
52,272
56,863
79,836
188,971
729.6

1997
51,444
58,155
79,711
189,310
730.9

1998
51,444
58,155
79,711
189,310
730.9

2000
52,272
56,863
79,836
188,971
729.6

text: Infrastructure[edit]

text: After the introduction of tea, the Sri Lankan economy transformed from a traditional economy to a plantation economy. At the time of the Kandyan Kingdom it was policy not to build roads for reasons of strategic defense.[10] Therefore, when the plantations started, there was very little infrastructure in place in the hill country. Transporting the products to the Colombo port was a major problem. Therefore, the Sri Lankan government undertook a massive program of road, rail and urban development in the plantation areas. Governor Sir Edward Barnes pioneered the building of roads. During his government, Captain Dawson, Major Skinner and others in the public works department completed the Colombo-Kandy road.[37][38]

text: Building roads did suffice to solve the transportation problem. Finding enough carts was difficult and it was a slow medium.[39] The Ceylon Planters Association was founded in 1854 in protest of the government's reduction of expenditures on highways. This association lobbied the government to build and maintain roads. Although construction of the first rail line commenced in 1858, the line did not open until 1865 due to these protests.[39][40]

text: The railway was originally known as Ceylon Government Railways. The Main Line was constructed from Colombo to Ambepussa, 54 km (34 mi) to the east. The railway was initially built to transport coffee and tea from the hill country to Colombo for export. For many years, transporting such goods was the main source of income on the line. The first train ran on 27 December 1864. The line was officially opened for traffic on 2 October 1865. The Main Line was extended in stages with service to Kandy in 1867, to Nawalapitiya in 1874, to Nanu Oya in 1885, to Bandarawela in 1894, and to Badulla in 1924.

text: Other lines were completed in due course to link the country: the Matale Line in 1880, the Coast Line in 1895, the Northern Line in 1905, the Mannar Line in 1914, the Kelani Valley Line in 1919, the Puttalam Line in 1926, and the Batticaloa and Trincomalee Lines in 1928. The rail lines helped develop what had hitherto been an undeveloped country. Today, instead of transporting tea to the ports, the railways primarily transport passengers, especially commuters to and from Colombo.

text: Products[edit]

text: Ceylon black tea is one of the country's specialities. It has a crisp aroma reminiscent of citrus, and is used both unmixed and in blends. It is grown on numerous estates which vary in altitude and taste.

text: Ceylon green tea is mainly made from Assamese tea stock. It is grown in Idalgashinna in Uva Province. Ceylon green teas generally have the fuller body and the more pungent, rather malty, nutty flavour characteristic of the teas originating from Assamese seed stock. The tea grade names of most Ceylon green teas reflect traditional Chinese green tea nomenclature, such as tightly rolled gunpowder tea, or more open leaf tea grades with Chinese names like Chun Mee. Overall, the green teas from Sri Lanka have their own characteristics at this time – they tend to be darker in both the dry and infused leaf, and their flavour is richer. As market demand preferences change, the Ceylon green tea producers start using more of the original Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Brazilian seed base, which produces the very light and sparkling bright yellow colour and more delicate, sweet flavour with which most of the world market associates with green teas. At this time, Sri Lanka remains a very minor producer of green teas and its green teas, like those of India and Kenya, remain an acquired taste. Much of the green tea produced in Sri Lanka is exported to North Africa and Middle Eastern markets.

text: Ceylon white tea, also known as "silver tips" is highly prized, and prices per kilogram are significantly higher than other teas. The tea was first grown at Nuwara Eliya near Adam's Peak between 2,200–2,500 meters (7,218–8,202 ft). The tea is grown, harvested and rolled by hand with the leaves dried and withered in the sun. It has a delicate, very light liquoring with notes of pine & honey and a golden coppery infusion. 'Virgin White Tea' is also grown at the Handunugoda Tea Estate near Galle in the south of Sri Lanka.

text: International market and prices[edit]

text: Sri Lankan tea continued to have international success into the 2000s (decade). In 2001, despite falling tea prices in every major tea exporting country and increasing competition, Sri Lanka retained its position as the world's top tea exporter by selling a record 294 million kilograms (648.16 million lbs) in 2001 compared to 288 million kilograms (634.93 million lbs) in 2000.[41] World tea production in 2001 rose 3.7% to 3.022 million tonnes (3.331 million short tons), but in Sri Lanka tea exports rose to an all-time high of $658 million from $595 million the previous year.[41] Currently, however, Sri Lanka, whilst the world's largest exporter of tea, is far behind India and China in terms of total production.

text: In 2003 the government in Sri Lanka sought to protect the country's near $700 million tea industry during the 2003 Iraq War. The war in Iraq caused panic, particularly among small-scale Sri Lankan tea growers who represent 69% of all tea production in Sri Lanka, who demanded that the government bail them out.[42] Iraq buys up to 15% of Sri Lanka's tea, and a third of this would enter the country illegally on small boats from Dubai as well as into neighbouring countries such as Iran.[42] Exporters called for the government to assist them with concessionary bank loans and some tea factory owners in Sri Lanka demanded a moratorium on electricity bill payments.[42] Prices fell in Colombo as a result of the crisis.[42] Plantations Minister Lakshman Kiriella responded, saying, "tea promoters would receive diplomatic postings in Sri Lankan missions abroad to give an extra push to the island's 'green gold'".[42] $15 million was funded to promote Sri Lankan brands on international markets during the Iraq war.[42] Later in 2003 the island suffered severe floods in the lower growing tea areas of Sri Lanka.[43] However production still increased slightly by 1.3 percent to 309,000 tonnes (340,614 short tons) in 2004, as the crop recovered.[43] Kenya surpassed Sri Lanka as the largest exporter of tea with an 8.9 percent growth in exports for the year totalling nearly 293,000 tonnes (322,977 short tons).[43] In 2004 actual tea production in Kenya had increased by more than 11 percent to reach 328,000 tonnes (361,558 short tons), as a result of a good harvesting season, wealth and improved processing facilities.[43]

text: The Sri Lankan tea industry continued to grow into 2007 and 2008. Tea production hit a record 318.47 million kilograms (702.1 million lbs) in 2008, up from 305.2 million kilograms (672.9 million lbs) produced in 2007.[44] In 2008 export earnings struck a record high of $1.23 billion for the full year, up from $1.02 billion in 2007.[44] However, more recently the industry, like many others across the world, has suffered from the contemporary global financial crisis.[44] The Sri Lanka Tea Board revealed in March 2009 that the industry had suffered a 30 percent drop in overseas sales in January 2009.[44] The downfall in tea production has been felt not only by Sri Lanka but by all the major tea producing nations.[45] Total volume of tea exports fell 25 percent to 17.76 million kilograms (39.2 million lbs) and sales from tea shipments fell to 6.9 billion rupees ($61.37 million ) in January, compared to 9.8 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.[44] Prices have collapsed to an average of $2.65 per kilogram ($1.20/lb) from record highs of $4.26 per kilogram ($1.93/lb) experienced between January and September 2008.[44] Drought has also been a contributing factor to the 2009 crisis in Sri Lankan tea as it has in India.[45] The Sri Lankan industry has been hit worst though with a fall of 8.7 million kg (19.2 million lbs) produced in January 2009.[45]

text: Main destination of Sri Lankan teas[edit]

text: The most important foreign markets for Sri Lankan tea are the former Soviet bloc countries of the CIS, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UK, Egypt, Libya and Japan.[41]

text: The most important foreign markets for Sri Lankan tea are as follows, in terms of millions of kilograms and millions of pounds imported. The figures were recorded in 2000:[15]

text:
Total Exports

Country
Million
kilograms
Million
pounds
Percent
of total

CIS Countries
57.6
127.0
20

UAE
48.1
106.0
16.7

Russia
46.1
101.6
16.01

Syria
21.5
47.4
7.47

Turkey
20.3
44.8
7.05

Iran
12.5
27.6
4.34

Saudi Arabia
11.4
25.1
3.96

Iraq
11.1
24.5
3.85

UK
10.2
22.5
3.54

Egypt
10.1
22.3
3.51

Libya
10.0
22.0
3.47

Japan
8.3
18.3
2.88

Germany
5.0
11.0
1.74

Others
23.7
52.2
8.23

Total
288
634.9
100

text: Branding and grading[edit]

text: Ceylon tea is divided into three groups: High or Upcountry (Udarata), Mid country (Medarata), and Low country (Pahatha rata) tea, based on the geography of the land on which it is grown.

text: Tea produced in Sri Lanka carries the "Lion Logo"[46] on its packages, which indicates that the tea was produced in Sri Lanka. The use of the Lion Logo is closely monitored by the Sri Lanka Tea Board,[47] which is the governing body of the tea industry in Sri Lanka. If a tea producer demands to use the Lion Logo on his packaging, they need to gain permission from the Sri Lanka Tea Board. The tea board then performs a strict inspection procedure, the passing of which allows the producer to use the logo, along with the "Pure Ceylon Tea – Packed in Sri Lanka" slogan on their tea packaging. Each and every consignment is thoroughly inspected by Sri Lanka Tea board officers before being shipped. Therefore, the Lion Logo and the wording is indeed the assurance of the origin of the tea and of its quality.

text: Most of the Sri Lankan tea exporters like Dilmah now focus on adding more value to the exports rather than exporting raw tea. The name "Ceylon Tea" or "Sri Lankan tea" is still regarded as a sign of quality throughout the world.

text: Grading names which are used in Sri Lanka to classify its teas are not by any means the indication of its quality but indicate its size and appearance. Mainly there are two categories. They are "Leaf grades" and "Smaller broken grades". Leaf grades refers to the size and appearance of the teas that were produced during Sri Lanka's colonial era (which are still being used) and the other refers to the modern tea style and appearance.

text: Institutions and research[edit]

text: Ceylon Tea Museum[edit]

text: The Sri Lanka Tea Board opened a Tea Museum in Hantana, Kandy in 2001. Although exhibits are not abundant they do provide a valuable insight into how tea was manufactured in the early days. Old machinery, some dating back more than a century, has been lovingly restored to working order. The first exhibit that greets visitors is the Ruston and Hornsby developed diesel engine, as well as other liquid fuel engines, located in the Engine Room on the ground floor of the museum. Power for the tea estates were also obtained by water-driven turbines.

text: The museum's "Rolling Room" offers a glimpse into the development of manufacturing techniques, with its collection of rollers. Here the showpiece is the manually operated 'Little Giant Tea Roller'.

text: The Tea Research Institute[edit]

text: The Tea Research Ordinance was enacted by Parliament in 1925 and the Tea Research Institute (TRI) was founded. It is at present the only national body in the country that generates and disseminates new research and technology related to the processing and cultivation of tea.[48]

text: Beginning in the early 1970s, two researchers from the National Institute of Dental Research in Bethesda, Maryland, USA conducted a series of research projects in which they arranged a longitudinal study group of a large number of Tamil tea laborers who worked at the Dunsinane and Harrow Tea Estates, 50 miles from Kandy. This landmark study was possible because the population of tea laborers were known to have never employed any conventional oral hygiene measures, thereby providing some insight into the natural history of periodontal disease in man.[49]

text: Sustainability standards and certifications[edit]

text: There are a number of organisations, both international and local, that promote and enforce sustainability standards and certifications pertaining to tea in Sri Lanka.

text: Among the international organisations that operate within Sri Lanka are Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, UTZ Certified and Ethical Tea Partnership. The Small Organic Farmers’ Association (SOFA) is a local organisation dedicated to organic farming.