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THE TROPICAL A(J,mCULTUUmT, 



4' 



STATISTICS OF THE TEA ENTEEPEISE : 



THE CARD-BOAED TEA ALJIANAC. 



The Card-board Almanac issued by Barry I'b 

 Co. of Calcutta, is calculated to be very use- 

 ful, hung on the wall of an office, showing, 

 as it does, the main facts connected with the 

 great tea industry of China, India and Ceylon, 

 The almanac proper simply gives the days of the 

 week and those of each month, the latter coloured 

 red when Government holidays fall on them, July 

 of all the months is the only one not brightened 

 W)th a red coloured figure, January, May, June, 

 September, March and August, have each one ; 

 February and November two ; April and December 

 three each ; October is nearly half-red, with fourteen 

 days, twelve of these consecutively from the 2nd 

 to the 13th, and again the '2(jth and 27th. The 

 total result is that, in addition to the /)2 Sundays 

 of the year, the Indian Government and its servants 

 have 28 holidays, for two of the October (Doorga 

 poojah) holidays are Sundays ; that is to say, HO 

 non-working days out of the 8(55, the working days 

 being, consequently, 285. The figures for tea are 

 given for each month of 188H, 1884 and 1885, a 

 blank column being left to be tilled up with similar 

 details. Our readers ' may care to be reminded that 

 the imports into Britain of Indian tea (Ceylon in- 

 cluded) were 



1883 .. .. Gl,6(j<;,000 lb. 



1884 .. .. 67,153,000 „ 



1885 .. .. 66,803,000 ,, 



There was, therefore, a very material check to pre- 

 viously rapid advancement of production in 1885. 

 But there was no check but a wonderful advance 

 in deliveries in Britain (for export to some extent, 

 but mainly for home consumption), thus: — 



1883 .. .. 6'.),0!)7,000 lb. 



1884 .. .. 64,217,000 „ 



1885 .. .. 68,896,000 „ 



An increase of over 9 millions of pounds in 1885 

 as compared with 1883, and over 4 millions above 

 the deliveries of 1881. The stocks were reduced 

 in proportion, the figures being : — 



1883 .. .. 24,11(;,000 lb. 



1884 .. .. 27,076,000 ,, 



1885 25,780,000 „ 



Tlfe highest deliveries of Indian tea which ever 

 occurred were in March 1885, 8,654,000 lb., and in 

 April following 8,704,000 lb., or 17^ millions in 

 two months. But this was the consequence of a 

 budget scare, and the average for 1885 was some- 

 what over 5,700,000 monthly. We have good reason 

 to hope that the average for the present year 

 will equal, and, perhaps, exceed 6 millions per 

 month. Lately there has been renewed liveliness 

 in the China enterprise, the wretched peasantry 

 being aj^parently contented to produce the article 

 at a price which would seem to leave no margin 

 for even the tmallest profit. But in the three 

 years in which Indian and Ceylon teas were in 

 such increased demand, there was retrogression ia 

 China kinds ; the imports having gone down from 

 160,873,000 lb. in 1883 to 139,940,000 in 1885 ; the 

 deliveries sinking from 155,820,0001b. to 151,877,000. 

 The consumption of tea in Great Britain rose 

 rapidly in the 20 years between 1864 and 1885 ; 

 beginning with 81J millions and ending with 175J 

 millions, a considerably more than doubled con- 

 sumption in the score of years. In the first year 

 of the series Indian teas constituted only 3 per 

 cent against 97 per cent China : last year the 

 figures were India 39 pei" cent, to China 01. The viso 

 7 



in the consumption of tea in Britain has been, pe. 



head of the population, from IJ lb in 1840 to 4? lb. 



in 1885. The probabiiity is that the round 51b. 



per caput will be considerably exceeded in 1886. 



The " district averages " realized in Calcutta, show 



a steady difference of at least an anna per lb. in 



favour of the Darjiling and Terai teas, the figures 



for 1885 being :— 



Darjihng and Terai,— annas 10/10 per lb. 

 Assam .. .. 9/8 ,, „ 



Kachar and Sylhet 9/3 ,, ,, 



All other districts . . 9/4 ,, ,, 



The area under tea (in all stages, no doubt) are 



given at 



Assam ., .. 107,000 acres 



Kachar and Sylhet , . 83,000 „ 



Darjiling .. .. 53,000 „ 



All other Indian Districts 15,000 ,, 



Total for India 

 Ceylon 



258,000 

 100,000 



Grand total, India and Ceylon 358,000 acres. 



If all this area were in bearing at 300 lb. per 



acre we should get a total " production of 



107,400,000 lb. " It will be observed that in acreage 



Ceylon is already on a par with Assam, where the tea 



enterprise commenced half-a-century ago, only that 



of course a much larger proportion of our acreage 



is immature, and some of it, — a good proportion, 



being not yet exclusively tea. The yields of the 



various districts in 1885 were : — 



As,sam . . . . 31,209,000 lb. 



Kachar and Sylhet . . 19,328,000 ,, 



Darjiling ,. ,. 11,34(5,000 „ 



All other Indian districts 4,526,000 ,, 



Ceylon ... .. 3,797,000 „ 



Total India and Ceylon . . 70,206,000 lb. 



There was a moderate increase in the three years 

 everywhere, but in the case of Ceylon, the produce 

 of 1885 was considerably more than double that 

 of 1883. The estimated average yields per acre 

 were : — 

 I Assam ., .. 3311b. 



I Kachar and Sylhet . , 263 ,, 



Darjiling .. ,. 214 „ 



Other India districts . . 302 ,, 



The Ceylon average figures cannot yet be given, but we 

 \ think the general anticipation of 4001b per acre will be 

 more than realized. For estates on virgin forest soil 

 the calculations have been : — 700 lb. lowcountry 

 and 500 high, with 300 lb. on old coffee estates, 

 more or less worn. Looking at the record of tea 

 sales in Calcutta, we observe " Nil " against April, 

 and low figures against Feb., March, May and 

 June. The great sales season seems to extead 

 from July of one year to Jan, of the next. The 

 highest number of chests sold in any one month 

 was 04,556 in Nov. 1885 ; while in London 104,000 

 were sold in Oct. 1883. The highest average price 

 in Calcutta was 11 annas, 3 pies in June 1885. The 

 lowest was 7 annas, 4 pies in March 1884. Against 

 371,000 chests sold in Calcutta in 1885, the number 

 in London, including of course the great propor- 

 tion of those sold in Calcutta, was 813,000. 



The Indian Commissariat Department takes about 

 1,500,000 lb. of Indian tea per annum, at an aver- 

 age price of 7-3 to 7-3 annas per lb. The vast 

 bulk of the Indian teas go to Britain, but we are 

 glad to notice that the exports of Indian tea to 

 Australia is increasing, thus : — 



1883 . . 699,790 lb. 



1884 . . 1,029,463 „ 



1885 .. 1,939,009,, 



