548 



THE TROPTCAL. AGRICULTURIST. 



[January i, 1885. 



above the annual average, although the interest 

 awakened in tea especially, has made a difference 

 within the past three years. 



It is our object now to Bhow, as far 

 as we legitimately can that Ceylon in its new pro- 

 ducts offers as good a field for judicious invest- 

 ments as any with which we are acquainted in the 

 wide circle of British dependencies. We acted on this 

 belief in writing the letter which the London Times 

 published a few months ago and in answering the 

 enquiries of the representative of the Pall Mall 

 Gazette. With the same object in view we now begin 

 the publication of a series of papers by planters of 

 more or less prolonged local experience for the benefit 

 more especially of many persons outside the island who, 

 at this time, are looking to it for the investment of 

 their energy and money. Although there are at present 

 several indications ot capital becoming more generally 

 available for local use; yet the influx has to continue freely 

 if progress is to be made with tea at the rate justified by 

 the success hitherto attained on most, if not all, our tea 

 plantations. There is therefore plenty of room for draw- 

 ing further attention to the subject. Tea among all new 

 products, is of course the most generally believed in 

 and the most promising, because of the hardiness of 

 the plant and the varieties of climate, soil and alti- 

 tude in which it is found flourishing. Cinchona and 

 cacao although very valuable — in fact the more 

 valuable perhaps from one point of view, when fairly 

 established, — have a far more limited range and the 

 plantmg of them involve a good deal more risk. 

 .Some of the advantages of tea over coffee as an in- 

 vestment are found in the longer duration of crop time, 

 the greater independence of climatic conditions and the 

 steadier employment afforded to a certain labour force 

 all the year round. The whole year's labour of a planter 

 over his coffee fields was occasionally rendered valueless 

 by uopropitious weather prevailing for one month or six 

 weeks when the bushes were ready to burst into, or to 

 mature blossom. Again a coffee planter would come to 

 Colombo to get advances on crop, estimated to be gathered 

 six or nine months afterdate according to the blossom. 

 The tea planter, as in the case of one whom we saw 

 the other day, comes to an agent for an advance on 

 the security of crop gathered month by month. " I 

 dont' want money " — as our friend said to bis agent 

 — "to be repaid out of next year's crop; but an 

 advance which I shall begin tomorrow to pay off by 

 sending you leaf for shipment, my picking going on 

 steadily month by month." There is no doubt of 

 the additional safeguard for capital which this fact 

 gives in the c.ise of tea over coffee investments. It 

 is further urged that a tea clearing can stand neglect, 

 a temporary stoppage of expenditure, without the per- 

 manent injury which was too often sustained under 

 similar circumstances by coffee ; while in the event 

 of severe competition between India and China bring- 

 ing down the price for a time to a point that allows 

 no margin of profit, the Ceylon tea planter could 

 suspend outlay without injury until the crisis was over. 

 In the case of coffee (or any fruit crop), of course, 

 the berries must be picked when ripe or finally lost. 

 As regards tea in India and Ceylon, enough 

 has not been made perhaps of the greater 

 economy with which tea can be transferred from 

 the Ceylon plantations to the London market. The 

 intermediate charges in Colombo are decidedly less 

 than in Calcutta. 



But there is no need that we should further stand 

 between our readers and the Papers we have referred to. 

 We publish No. I today, and will give the others at inter- 

 vals of two or three days. We think it will be found 

 that the subject is treated with sufficient variety. 

 Some of our correspondents have thrown their ob- 

 servations into Letters addressed to enquirers at home ; 

 others will give their experiences in an almost autobio- 



graphical form ; while one writer will tell us " How 

 he kept his wattie " all through the bad years. 

 Notwithstanding many disadvantages the last-men- 

 tioned gentleman made his coffee pay working expenses 

 and interest; and more, to cover the cost of 

 planting cinchona which in its turn yielded funds 

 sufficient to enable most of the land to be turned into 

 a tea plantation ; and this again is now valued at 

 more thau ever the coffee wattie was. But enough 

 of reference to the several Papers which will tell 

 their own story all in good time : 



THE PERIOD OF PLANTING DEPRESSION DRAWING TO AN END— 

 OVER-SPECULATION IN TEA DEPRECATED— SALUBRITY OP 

 CEYLON TEA DISTRICTS — PROSPECTS BEFORE INVESTORS : 

 TWO COURSES — FORESTLAND VS. OLD ESTATES— CAPITAL 

 REQUIRED— PROBABLE OUTLAY AND RETURN — UNDER JUDI- 

 CIOUS INVESTMENT, 20 PER CENT ON CAPITAL. 



It is generally conceded by those who have long 

 resided iu, and are well-acquainted with, the island 

 of Ceylon, that the period of depression which has 

 overtaken this country is coming to an end, and that a 

 period of comparative prosperity may be confidently 

 looked for in the immediate future. The failure of 

 the coffee enterprize has been a severe blow to the 

 Island, and one from which, not so long ago, it would 

 have appeared inconceiveable that she could ever re- 

 cover. Now, however, it is becoming more and more 

 vident everyday that through the extension of the 

 tea enterprize a fresh era of prosperity is at hand, 

 and one it is to be hoped that will prove of lasting 

 benefit to the Island. 



Over speculation, and the hasty and ill-con- 

 sidered expenditure of money in unsuitable land, 

 will, it is to be hoped, be avoided for such can 

 but lead to disappointment in the future as it has 

 in the past. The judicious investment of capital in 

 the tea enterprize by those resident in the Island who 

 have profited by the experience of past years, and by 

 new colonists of the right stamp, is an event to be 

 hoped for, and one deserving of every encouragement. 

 Whether a period of speculation in Ceylon tea is 

 about to occur or not, it is difficult to say. What has 

 happened in the past may occur again ; in the immed- 

 iate future we have, however, to look for an influx of 

 capital into the Island, which will render much of 

 the land at present unproductive, profitable, and give 

 remunerative employment to many who are now suffer- 

 ing from a period of depression which affects either 

 directly or indirectly every individual connected with 

 the planting industry. The general salubrity of the 

 Ceylon tea districts is well-known, and the 

 advantage which this gives us over our Indian 

 brethren is proverbial. Any one unacquainted with 

 the European residents in the Island would be as- 

 tonished at the number of robust men who have 

 already passed the better portions of their lives in 

 constant residence here, and who are probably in 

 better general health than they would have been had 

 they never left England. Some of the lowcountry 

 tea districts are in parts rather trying to some Euro- 

 pean constitutions, but even these districts (which are 

 becoming more healthy every day as the country 

 gets opened up) are as a rule better than the 

 other tropical colonies which offer inducements to in- 

 vestors. The hill districts which comprise the large 

 bulk of the existing tea estates, as well as large 

 tracts of land suitable for tea, afford as pleasant and 

 healthy a place of residence as can be desired. 



Proposing investors in tea have two prospects open 

 to them : they can either purchase forest lanel in 

 localities which have no; be'n found suitable for cotfe<.-, 

 or they can obtain estates which have been planted with 

 coffee, and either abandoned or cultivated as the case 

 may be. As a rule, the soil of the districts at present in 

 forest is inferior to that of the coffee district, but 



