Sbpt, 1, 1886.) THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



185 



his statements are, that he tells too much !— in fact 

 is too honest towards our traducers. The planters 

 of Oeylon are, as a rule, qvirJ: at Jrarning, be it coffee, 

 cinchona, cardamom or tea cultivation and manipul- 

 ation. Mr. Clow's task therefore should not be a 

 difficult one if he ;w2/y can teach us to improve 

 our teas, and enable Oeylon growers to double their 

 present prices in the London market. 



I trust I am not too stringent in my remarks, and 

 that Mr. Gow will take them in the spirit in which 

 ihey are intended; namely, to ventilate a discussion 

 which day by day is growing in importauce, and 

 which some day not far off will, in my opinion, form 

 the very foundation upon which Oeylon as an a^ri- 

 cnltural colony may be known, honored, and respec- 

 ted.— I am, sir, yours faithfully, . „ . „ 



SHELTON AGAR. 



ENEMY OP CACAO. 



10th August 1886. 



Dear Sir,— Enclosed I send you a small piece of 

 wood with chrysalides • attached. "Will you kmdly 

 tell me what they are ? I found them inserted longi- 

 tudinally in the bark of the trunk of a cacao tree, 

 and, as you will see, they had penetrated the cam- 

 bium. As they exist in great numbers, I p,m anxious 

 to know what they are ?— I am, sir, yours truly, 



A PLANTER. 



P. S. — I have often been mystified, on reading the 

 Monthly Market Kates given iu your Tropica} 

 Agriculturist as to how different products are sold. 

 I read this month, for instance: " Vanilla 14s to 24s" 

 Is this per lb. (U- per kilo ? Would you publish once 

 a table of how these different products are sold ? 

 f We shall endeavour in future to give the measure 

 opposite to each. Vanilla must be per lb. — Bn.j 



A BIG TEA LEAF. 



Hunugalla, Elkaduwa, ISth Aug. 1886. 



Dk.vr Siii,— What think you of this tea leaf 

 from Elkaduwa? Its size when pulled was llj; by i\. — 

 Yours very truly, A. D. MOIR. 



[The leaf is splendid, excelled only by a leaf of 

 indigenous, fully a foot in length, sent to us a couple 

 of years ago from Somerset, Dolosbage. — Ed.] 



THE RECENT FALL IN PRICE OF 



CEYLON TEA. 



De.vr Sir, — Other eminent men have written about 

 the late fall in value of Ceylon tea. Why should 

 not I? I have planted tea, and I have made tea, 

 and I have sold tea. I am a tea planter. Some 

 say the cause is to be found in the fall of silver. 

 I don't agree with them. It requires silver to make 

 tea, but tea is not made of silver. Take a pound 

 of tea, say B.O.P. for sake of argument. It is worth 

 60 cents. But you are up to snuff and get one 

 rupee for it in Colombo. Next week the price of 

 silver falls. But your pound of tea is exactly the 

 same value if not exposed to rats and damp. Try to 

 buy it back for less. You can't do it. This proves I 

 am right. Some say it is faulty manipulation. Why 

 manipulate at all ? I don't manipulate. Pull your tea 

 about and yon get grey dust. Everyone knows that. 

 Sieve it gently through 8 and 12, and blow your 

 dust out. What more do you want? Some say it 

 is over-firing. That 's abaird. Surely we have noses 

 and can smell burnt tea? I can smell burnt tea 

 at 100 yards' distance on the flat. A cooly who 

 burns tea in my factory gets lifted out of it pretty 

 smart. Some men burn their tea. But that does 



* Eggs, probably of a cricket or locust, or perhaps 

 those of a nug. 1'he ones cent have been injured 



hv piossme. 

 51 



Oiii cntonaological referee. 



not prove that we all do it. I will give any man 

 one rupee per pound for all the burnt tea he can 

 lind in my factory, if he agrees to give me 10 cents 

 per lb. for all he linds not burnt. This will pay 

 for damage done by his pulling my tea about in 

 search of burnt stuff. I don't say I'll give liira 

 the tea for 10 cents. You bet I keep the tea! 

 Some say it .is young leaf. Ridiculous nonsense. 

 We have not all got young leaf. Some of mine is 

 very old, but it does not fetch higher prices than 

 the young. Some say it is exhausted soil. Bun- 

 kum ! Has all the tea soil in Ceylon suddenly be- 

 come exhausted? The man who started that theory 

 is in a bad way. He ought to consult Doctor 

 White. Some say it is bad lead and rotten tea chests. 

 Those men have lead and boxes for sale. Look 

 out. Don't buy them. Some say it is bad stowage 

 on board ship. Shipping with hides and other 

 fragrant conserves. Rubbish! Does tea taste of 

 everything it is shipped with? I hope not. Some 

 say it is a fall in the tea market. Exactly so! I 

 agree with them. An ordinary fall in the common 

 or garden tea market. Nothing else. — Yours sin- 

 cerely, WOOLY WAG. 



MR. SHELTON AGAR AND MR. GOW. 



D?;ar Sir, — I think that Mr. Shelton Agar's letter 

 attributing to Mr. Gow, opinions regarding the 

 manufacture of tea in Ceylon, which he never 

 expressed, is not only unfair but written in very 

 bad taste. 



Mr. Agar acknowledges that he knows absolutely 

 nothing about Mr. Gow's qualifications or whether 



i he ever made a pound of tea in his life, and as- 



j suraes at once that Mr. Gow like himself has 

 expressed an opinion on a subject of which he is 



' completely ignorant. 



1 I know Mr. Gow has plenty of commonsense 



j and I am sure that in anything he has said re- 

 garding the manufacture of tea here he has not 

 condemned the good with the bad. 



Mr. Gow was an Assam planter for seventeen 



■ years and manufactured from 150,000 to 200,000 lb. 



i of tea per annum ; he was afterwards, for several 

 years, a tea taster and tea expert in London, and 

 after years of study has invented a tea withering 



- machine. 



I Surely if long practical experience in the cultiv- 

 ation and manufacture of tea, and thorough ac- 

 quaintance with it after it is made, qualities a 

 person for endeavouring to correct mistakes which 

 unexperienced planters may have fallen into, Mr. 



! Gow is the man. 



Mr. Agar says that his object, in his attack on 

 Mr. Gow, " is to ventilate a discussion which day 



; by day is of growing importance." It is a curious 



1 way of attaining his object by trying to shut Mr. 



I Gow's mouth.— Yours truly, A TEA PLANTER. 

 [It is certainly strange that Mr. Agar should haVe 

 been unaware of Mr. Gow's experience as a planter, 

 but we fail to see the bad taste of his allusion to 

 Mr. Gow's uncomplimentary opinion of the capacity 

 of Ceylon planters to manufacture tea. If Mr. 

 Gow never said that our planters were wrong from 

 the first process to the last, he is truly unfortun- 

 ate in his connection with the local " Times" editor, 

 who has attributed such sentiments to him in the 

 most explicit manner, sentiments which Mr. Gow 

 has never personally repudiated. We beg to say 

 that it is not enough that he should do so second- 

 hand, through this correspondent. Wliile the belifl 

 remains that Mr. Gow made the st.atement attrib 

 nted to him, it is natural that reaentraant ahouUl 

 111' felt and expressed. — En,] 



