March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



6S3 



TEA. 



STATISTICS, OCTTUHN AND CONSUMPTION. 



The position of Indian tea is apparently strong and very 

 encouraging to investors in yielding gardens, but the 

 question that is exercising the minds of people just now 

 is, how it will stand tho strain when the present large 

 extensions which are going on come into bearing, and a 

 matter of several million pounds extra are thrown upon the 

 market. The cry a year or two ago to stop extensions and 

 pluck fine so as to keep the outturn down, seems to have 

 been entirely forgotten or lost sight of. At no period did 

 we consider that advice of this sort carried feasibility on 

 its face, because if one planter was religiously carrying out 

 such instructions, his next neighbour was simply taking 

 advantage of it by plucking coarse whenever he saw an 

 opportunity of getting any thing like a price to cover 

 manufacture. No doubt the true solution is now being 

 tried, namely, in the study of economy combined with the 

 most improved machinery, and so long as this is kept in 

 view we have no fear for the result. The better class of 

 plant now being put out, the higher class ot machinery 

 being used, and the careful attention paid to manufacture, 

 are bound to tell upon the consumption of China tea, 

 simply because there is better value for the money in the 

 Indian tea. We notice in our home contemporary, the 

 Home and Colonial Mail, that a taste is developing tor the 

 higher classed teas pure and unadulterated, and that the 

 rage for what we may term '' People's Mixtures" at 2s. and 

 2s 6d per lb. is to some extent dying out amongst those who 

 can afford a higher price for the finer grades ; this 

 is to some extent, our contemporary says, the reason of 

 ^ Fine lincSy^ carrjnng such high values compared to good 

 sound mediums, although no doubt there is excellent values 

 for the price in the class. We confess we often wonder 

 what becomes of good medium Pekoes, large numbers of 

 chests of which are sold at one shilling and upwards, and we 

 very much doubt whether much of tliis class is retailed pure. 

 A very large proportion finds its way into the market well 

 mixed with, we fear, a China Congou bought probably at (id 

 to 8d per lb. That a large number of middlemen in tea 

 must make a fine thing there is no doubt, but we feci 

 pretty certain we are not far out when we say that the con- 

 sumer of the article has never yet felt the full benefit of the 

 low prices now ruling for Indian tea, but which nevertheless 

 we should be content with, were there any surety that the 

 present standard would remain as it is. A year or two ago, 

 we believe, one house in London made a very large fortmie, 

 laying up all the red leaf and selling it as pure Indian tea, 

 and advertizing largely that it was the only pure Indian 

 tea, and went so far as to try to prove this by asking in their 

 advertisement what color a withered leaf assumed if put 

 out in the sun, as all Indian tea leaf was so treated. By 

 such ruses are the British public taken in, but we wonder 

 that many of our large companies do not start retail places 

 and guarantee their produce. We are aware that a few do 

 — but as yet the quantity sold in this way is trifling. We 

 feel convinced that if America can only be enhsted en our 

 side, that with their style of advertizing and by the means 

 of travelling agents Indian tea will have a great future 

 before it there. The American simply hoists his wares into 

 the market by advertizing, or as it were driving his goods 

 down his customers' throats, and we think tho Indian tea 

 Investor might take a leaf from Cousin Jonathan's book. — 

 Planters' Gazette, Feb. 5th. 



THE BUG. 



The bug differs from the majority of insects in not 

 passing through a quiescent stage previous to the assump- 

 tion of its adult form. Those insects which pass through 

 the stage familiarly known as the " chrysalis," are in 

 their earliest life totally unlike what they are destined to 

 develop into, and during their pupahood the vast modific- 

 ations that have to take place before tho creature appears 

 in its adult form, are elaborated out of the store of nutri- 

 ment laid up in the body during the preliminary stages. 

 Now the bugs are already, .at the commecement of their 

 life, so similar in general form to their adult shape, that 

 the changes they have to undergo are comparatively trifiiug, 

 and therefore no quiescent stage seems to bo necessary. 

 Bugs live entirely upon juices which they extract from 

 plauls or auimaiii. The Laid bugs seem to favoiu- au 



animal, and the soft ones a vegetable diet ; this, however, 

 must not by any means be taken as a hard-and-fast rule. 

 Some are attached to special plants, apparently because 

 they either derive their nuriment directly from the plant, 

 or indu-eotly from other insects that feed upon tho same 

 plants. 



As a rule they are not to be regarded as coming under 

 the category of useful insects. When a plant is, so to 

 speak, tapped, and its juices gradually absorbed, it of course 

 tends to become weak, shrivelled, stunted, and unhealthy ; 

 and, therefore, any creature that feeds on vegetable juices 

 may be reckoned a priori, as likely to become injurious 

 to man, since his welfare so largely dej>ends upon the 

 vegetable produce of the soil. There are a few plants 

 which seem specially liable to the attacks of bugs. The 

 different kinds of grasses are much infested, furze and 

 broom have each their special inhabitants, nettles and 

 thistles afford a home and food to lai-ge numbers, rest- 

 harrow and heath are much frequentetl by species, and 

 amongst trees, oak, hazel, sallow, bii-ch, ash, and fir have 

 each their own peculiar hemipterous faima. If you would 

 see the bug at home and pry into the secrets of their life, 

 go in July or August to a flouiLshing bed or nettles or 

 thistles, or to some luxuriant patches of ragwort, sit 

 down beside the plants, and carefully look on without dis- 

 turbiug them. They will be chieUy green, a favourite 

 colour with soft bugs, and may easily be recognized by 

 the characters of wings and beak. If you wish to secure 

 them, a bag of stout calico attached to au iron ring 

 and stuck in a handle should be vigorously and rapidly 

 drawn backwards and forwards across any patch of rank 

 herbage, and in this way with very little trouble large 

 numbers will be obtained. — Knowledge. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEA CULTIVATION IN 



CEYLON. 



The Flauttri' Gazette states : — A ijroposal is being priv- 

 ately circulated by a Ceylon planter, the object of which 

 is to obtain the co-operation with Lim of one or more 

 capitalists in tho creation of a tea estate of 500 acres. For 

 this purpose, it is calculated that a total capital of £15,000, 

 or £30 per acre, will be needed, and of this sum tho planter 

 himself will lay down £1,600. He accordingly invites sub- 

 scriptions for the other £13,500 upon terms which are not 

 only novel and ingenious but perfectly just, and siLfliciently 

 attractive. For every £30 subscribed, he guarantees to 

 open up an acre of virgin soil in Ceylon, and to baud it 

 over to the investor at the exijiration of three years from 

 the date of payment as a tea garilen, and as security for the 

 due performance of this contract, he will e.Kecute a mort- 

 gage upon other estates in Ceylon in favour of trustees, 

 for those providing the funds. Moreover, he undertakes to 

 have the title to the land registered in the names of the 

 several parties. At the option of the investor, the £30 

 per acre may be paid in three equal instalments spread over 

 three years, orit may be paid up at once, and in the latter 

 case it will bear six per cent, interest ; should any of the 

 subscribers be young men anxious to learn the business of 

 tea planting, arrangements will be made for placing them 

 with the tea planters, under whom they would have full 

 opportunity for learning their work. They woultl be ex- 

 pected to pay for their board, and if prepared to live 

 economically, £120 per year would be amply sufficient to 

 maintain them, until they could take up their own property. 

 In this way, an investor say,of £3,U0O would receive sufiici- 

 eut to maintain himself until the three years were over. 

 It is generally estimated to cost about £30 to bring an 

 acre of tea into bearing in Ceylon, and therefore it is not 

 at fli'st sight very obvious what the planter is himself to 

 get out of it. But he explains that it is far more econom- 

 ical to work a large estate than a small one, and of course 

 his available cash, amounting to £1,500, would be quite 

 useless by itself. Moreover, there is very little doubt, we 

 suppose, that out of the £30 au acre there would be sufficient 

 to pay him a fair salary for the three years occupied in the 

 creation of the garden, provided always that the whole sum 

 asked for was subscribed, and the 500 acres therefore 

 planted up. At the end of the three years, then, the origin- 

 ator of the scheme would have his own fifty acres of tea 

 in bearing, and the chances are that Lis co-partners, if 

 they were satisfied with his management, woidd wish hiin 



