4S6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jan. I, 18S7. 



ing booked the box as passengers' luggage, and 

 not having accompanied the box myself. However, 

 I did at last get the box passed and I do not 

 grudge the time spent, as I ascertained fully all 

 the intricacies of the working of the Custom house. 

 The duty on tea amounts to about Is 6d (English 

 money) per lb. Russian. A Russian pound is 10 per 

 cent less in weight than an English pound. The 

 duty must be paid in gold. The authorities will 

 not accept their own notes, not even if you oifered 

 lemon may be added, and ail the teas have a 

 more or less artificial aroma, which must have 

 been added by either dried Gardinia flowers or 

 dried Lime leaves. As I said, I cannot speak 

 with certainty, but I believe our inferior tea would 

 suit Russia well, and the flavour now in their 

 teas could, I believe, be easily added in Ceylon if 

 requisite for their disposal. I enclose memo, of 

 samples brought from Petersburg with prices at- 

 tached. Next mail I will give you London values. 

 It is extraordinary, the quantity of tea which is 

 drunk in Russia and the tea shops in Petersburg 

 and Moscow are as numerous and well dislributed 

 as the Public Houses in London. I visited Mos- 

 cow, but having only . one day there I could not 

 find time for seeing the Cremlin and other objects 

 of interest. However, I found out all I wanted 

 about tea. Alreadj some Indian or Ceylon tea has 

 been sold in Moscow, imported by a young English- 

 man and with a mixture of China has sold well. 

 I mention Indian or Ceylon as he was not certain 

 which it was. He bought it in London from a 

 firm I know. The translation of the Russian ad- 

 vertisement with reference to the tea is as follows: — 

 Newly Received 



Tea from India 



The crop 1886 

 Commenced to be sold at 



Roubles 2 per lb. 



2-20 Koopecks * 



3' sold in 1 lb., J lb. and l lb. packages. 



Indian Tea under the name of [Kakwyan (a place 

 in India) is distinguished by its aromatic and soft 

 taste and gurpases the Chinese. 



Customers outside the town may buy through the 

 post office. All orders executed by 



P. Bycloff & Co.. 



Moorsuskeen, 



Moscow. 

 Of course, there will be for some time a pre- 

 judice against Ceylon and Indian Tea, but that 

 will soon be overcome as in England. A good 

 deal of tea comes from China overland to Moscow 

 and with that means of transport we can certainly 

 compete. 



List of prices of teas I brought as samples : — 



Petersburg Teas. Moscow Teas. 



No. Roubles. No. Roubles. 



18 1 2-68 



2 5 2 2-20 (0) 



3 4 3 2- 



4 304 4 2- 



5' 2-64 X 5 1-80 (00) 



6 2-40 6 1-40 



7 2-24 

 81 2- 



9 1-84 



10 1-60 XX 



11 1-20 Brick Tea, not much used. 



12 Spurious tea made from a shrub growing 

 in Russia used for mixing, 10 k. per lb. Not allowed 

 by Government. 



X XX These teas in principal use in Petersburg. 



(o) (00) These teas in principal use in Moscow. 



I returned by sea from St. Petersburg ; stormy 

 accross the Baltic, but fine in the North Sea. — 

 Yours faithfully, G. D. ELPHINSTQNE. 



* A koopeck at present exchange is ftHout la 4d ; it is 

 really 100 of a rouble. 



Tea Planting Manual. — In closing a review 

 of Owen's Manual, the Straits Times says : — " These 

 bright prospects speak volumes for the energy of the 

 Ceylon tea planters who, taking every advantage of 

 the favourable conditions enumerated above, have 

 lifted the Colony out of the slough of depression, into 

 which it had fallen on the collapse of the coffee 

 enterprise. The Manual itself bears every mark of 

 painstaking care. It is full of information on every 

 subject connected with tea planting. Intending tea 

 planters in this quarter will never regret the money 

 spent in procuring copies for their behoof. To 

 them it wiill prove indispensable indeed." 



Tea in Western Dolosbaqe is flourishing 

 apace: we have just heard so good a judge as 

 Mr. Gow speak in high terms of the Ardross and 

 Glenalla estates as including some of the most 

 vigorous tea he has seen in the country. On the 

 latter property there is a held of 38 acres planted 

 with seed at stake in 1881 and consequently about 

 live years old, which has given this year so far, 

 close on 1,000 lb. — certainly over 900 lb. — per 

 acre and the tea has had no manure nor does it 

 appear to suffer. Mr Drummond's Gangwarily is 

 also doing well and he has got a splendid crop 

 of cocoa this season ; while it is needless to say 

 that Mr. Blackett's far-extending tea fields are crop- 

 ping. Some experiments in Dolosbage made by 

 Mr. Gow in tea-making — improved fermentation 

 — have resulted very favourably, to judge by the 

 prices got in Mincing Lane for sample invoices. 



The Use of Coffee appears to be rapidly declining 

 in England. The reduction of the duty to three- 

 half-pence a pound has had no effect on consump- 

 tion, and in the year ending 31st March 1886, some 

 314,000 lb. were consumed less then id the pre- 

 vious year. " The decline is attributed," " says 

 the Spectator, " to the comparative difficulty which 

 the poor find in making coffee ; but it is quite 

 as likely that the true causes are the declining use 

 of alchohol, and the cheapness of tea and sugar. 

 The bulk of the people prefer tea to coffee. If 

 tea were ever to become really cheap — say, six- 

 pence a pound — nothing else would be drunk ; 

 and it would be drunk all day, cold as well 

 as hot. The taste for it is becoming uni- 

 versal, and distinctly increases with the ad- 

 mixture of the Indian teas, which are rougher, and 

 develop the special ' teacy' flavour." — Madras Mail. 

 Ornamental Trees at Hakgalla.— The tollowing 

 list of ornamental plants supplied by Mr. Nock from 

 Hakgalla to a recent purchaser (R30 cost of all) for 

 planting on a piece ot ground at Nuwara Eliya, is 

 of interest as showing what can be procured at the 

 Gardens for a very moderate charge:— Height 



100 Frenela rhomboidea — Australian Pine 50-90ft. 

 25 Piuuslougifolia— Ohir Pine ... 60-lOOft. 



18 „ sineusis— Chinese Pine 30-40ft. 



6 „ massoniara from China) 30-40 ;P) 



18 Cupressus macrocarpa — Citron Pine 150ft, 



18 „ tournefuti looks as though it 



would be large) 

 12 „ torulosa — Bhootan Cypress ISuft. 



(i „ Lawsouiana — Port Oxford Cypress ICOft. 

 6 Thuja Orientalis — Chinese Arborvitse 18-20ft. 



6 „ Nepalensis 12-20ft. ('O 



12 „ aurea-semper-aurea ... 3-6ft. 



G „ conpacti ... .. (?) 



6 Tristanea conferta— Queensland Box 50ft. 



G Fraxinus Americana— Am: White Ash 60-80ft, 

 2 Quailaja isaponaria— soap-bark Tree GOft. 



12 Tecoma velutina— Velvety trumpet 



flower ]2-20ft. 

 6 Psidium montanum — (Hard-wooded 



Jamaica tree) 30-60ft. 

 12 Leptospermum acoparium — Broom Tea 



Tree 12-20ft. 



6 Oallistemon rugulosum (Bottle-brush) 10-iUft. 



18 Salix Babylonica— Waeping Willow 40£t, 



