^^6^ 



Ttte "tkOPiCAL AaHietJL'TURfS'r. 



[Oct. a, ibb6. 



iiiSii>g»aa' jjm.jUii- 



phwMM^wW i 



TEA IN UVA. 



Everything concerning the practical development 

 of the tea enterprise in the Province of Uva is full 

 of interest at the present time, and we have been 

 much pleased with a series of reports from diverse 

 hands, which we have had the privilege of look- 

 ing over. When a Colombo Agent with a con- 

 siderable experience of tea writes to a Manager 

 in almost the ultima thule of Uva as follows, " The 

 teas you send down are first ' chop ' and leave 

 nothing to be desired ; if you can send us teas 

 like these from Uva in quantity, the enterprise 

 cannot fail of success," it is evident that the 

 district is to take no second jDlace in its quality 

 of tea. Madulsima ' broken pekoe ' has been valued 

 lately by London experts at Is lOd and upwards ; 

 while here is a local report on another series of 

 samples from the same district: — 



"Your tea is excellent and bears favorable com- 

 parison with about a dozen tea samples we tried with 

 it. The report written on your tea was as follows: — 

 ' Sample No. 4. — Broken Pekoe. 



Appearance: — Fairly well twisted, slightly greyish, 

 good display of tip. 



iermc.ntntion: — Good and even, bright. 



Liquor: — Strong, dark, good flavour, somewhat rasping. 

 'Sample No. 4. —Pekoe. 



Jppcarmice: — Twist uneven, evidently hand-rolled, 

 somewhat greyish, grading defective, some red leaf 

 and congou present. 



Fermentation: — P]ven and bright. 



ii^i^or:— Strong, dark liquor, sligLitly metallic taste. 



"For commercial purposes you should grade as we 

 are doing elsewhere. Pluck out tea leaf, pass through 

 a No. 8 sieve, then break all save congou through the 

 No. 8 mainly by gentle pressure of the baud, not 

 against the metal. Take out dust by a 30 or 32. 



" Your B. P. is beautiful arrd have a splendid liquor, 

 only two on the table were better, a B. P. of Kerr's 

 and old Taylor's. 



" The pekoe has too much tip, I think, and is rather 

 disfigured by congou and a little red leaf. It liquors 

 splendidly. What you want is a roller, and you could 

 look over most men." 



The Galoola Tea Factory, we learn, was opened on 

 the 1st September. Machinery will doubtless be 

 required on a good many other estates erelong. 



CEYLON TEA. 

 The pamphlet issued by the Ceylon Planters' 

 Association, has at length reached us, a copy 

 having been courteously posted to our address by 

 the Secretary. The coloured lithographs, when 

 looked at closely are more patchy than artistic, 

 but they give a very good idea of what is intend- 

 ed to be illustrated, viz, : — ■ 

 A Tamil Wuhan Plucking Tea Flush ; 

 ViJiW oi' A Tka Estate and Factory; 

 Weighing in Ghken Tea Leaf. 

 As a large portion of our readers are interested 

 in the subject, we quote the text which accom. 

 panics the illustrations. The writer certainly does 

 justice to our new staple and turns the tables ef- 

 fectually on those whose " vested interests " in 

 the inferior teas of China and Japan led them to 

 prejudice the public mind as far as they could 

 against the stronger and purer competitor as if it 

 were a dangerous poison. But it ought in fair- 

 ness to have been mentioned that Indian Tea and 

 itb producers bore the chief burden and heat of 

 the day in the fierce and hitler controversies which 



once raged in England around the competing 

 teas of India and the Far East. By the time 

 Ceylon tea came on the stage, many of the old 

 enemies of Indian tea had been converted into 

 friends and had contracted vested interests in that 

 product, which the tea-drinking public had come 

 gradually to appreciate for themselves. Ceylon tea, 

 therefore, apart from its merits as combining in 

 an unmixed form delicate flavour with strength, 

 had less prejudice and selfish opposition to contend 

 with than was the case when " Ind of Great 

 Mogul" first entered the lists as a competitor 

 with " Far Cathay " and its world -renowned 

 " Thay." This might have been generously men- 

 tioned ; but the object of the writer was to re- 

 commend Ceylon tea, and this task has certainly 

 been well performed. We trust the circulation in 

 tens of thousands of this pamphlet, the show and 

 sale of Ceylon teas in the Exhibition and the 

 efforts of the Syndicate will be to increase con- 

 sumption in markets already open and secure favour 

 for our product where it is as yet unknown, or 

 only partially known ; so that consumption may 

 be in proportion to the increased production which 

 the writer of the brochure correctly anticipates : — 



TEA IN CEYLON. 



In the minds of the British public the name of 

 Ceylora has been chiefly associated with the production 

 of Coffee and Spices; the latter in poetry, but in 

 poetry only, imparting their fragrance to the very air. 



Whrle Ceylon Coffee and Ceylon Spices are of 

 superior quality and remain most important articles of 

 trade, it is Ceylon Tea that is rapidly becoming the 

 staple product and the one for which the island will 

 soon be most celebrated. 



Seldom or never has an industry made such progress 

 or a new article of consumption overcome by its in- 

 trinsrc merit the opposition of vested trade interests as 

 has Ceylon Tea. 



In 1873 the exports of Tea from Ceylon were 23 lb. ; 

 in 1885 they have been 4§ million lb. ; in 1886 they 

 will be about 10 million lb. ; and in the near future 

 40 million lb will be exported. 



The area under Tea in the island is rapidly extend- 

 ing, and already about 120,000 acres have been planted. 

 Over 700 European planters and 150,000 Indian and 

 Sinhalese laborers are engaged in the cultivation. 

 Some of the plantations are but little above sea level, 

 while others run up to an elevatioir of 0,000 feet. 

 The average altitude of the larger districts is about 

 4,000 feet above sea level, an elevation at which the 

 climate is pleasant and most healthy. A railway runs 

 up into the hills and a good system of cart roads exists, 

 so that most of the estates are already withirr a 

 day's journey from Colombo — the capital and shipping 

 port. 



At a time when dietetics has almost become a 

 science, when purity and cleanliness in food and bever- 

 ages are so strongly insisted on, it is strange that 

 greater attention has not been called to the nroro than 

 doubtful nature of irruch of that which is coubumcd 

 as Tea. 



It has been said that, if to be an Englishnrau is to 

 eat Beef, to be an "Englishwoman is to drink Tea. 

 True it is that the article which irr the sixteenth 

 century was a lu.sury, costing ten guineas a ponrrd 

 and consumed by a hundred people, has in the nine- 

 teenth century become a necessity, costing two shillings 

 a pound and consumed by millions. 



Did the people of Britain thoroughly uirdcrotand 

 the difference between I'ritish-grown Tea— such as 

 Ceylon's — and that of China or Japan, it is certain 

 that those who could, get the pure, clean, rnachirre- 

 prepared leaf which is turned out froui the planter's 

 factory, would never touch the far from pure article 

 prepared by the hands and feet of the unwashed 

 Mongolian. 



In Chiira and Japan Tea is mostly cultivated in 

 small patches by tlic peasantry, who ^gather the 

 leaves and prepare the Tea in tlicir Iruts in a very 

 unfastidious manucr. The Tea, either iu a halt- 



