6So 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[March 2, 1885 



Agriculture, a communication, asking if I could ex- 

 plain the causes of the rapid decline in the demand for 

 Indian tea in Australia. 



I do not think it is any breach of confidence if I give 

 you the substance of my reply. 



I said, to give an adequate answer would take up more 

 time than I had at my disposal, but I might briefly state 

 my opinion on a few of what I considered the causes. 



Item. — It was I thiuk wrong policy to appoint only one 

 agency at the first. In many oi my letters to those interested 

 in Calcutta, I pointed out that a sudden change from China 

 to Indian tea on the part of consumers was scarcely to be 

 expected, and I suggested a multiplication of agencies, a 

 widespread publicity, and the distribution of the tea in 

 packets, &c. This policy was not followed. One central 

 agency was established, and the sales were forced at public 

 auction, and the teas sold at much below their value. This 

 raised a false issue. Price, and not quality, became the 

 desideratum, and, as a matter of fact, the greater pro- 

 portion of the large supplies of Indian teas sent down 

 were bought up by large tea-packing companies, because 

 they got it cheap, and much of it is still in their hands 

 and is being used iu their packet business. Now that 

 they can get no more Indian tea at the cheap rates they 

 at first bought at, they are quite content to revert to the 

 cheaper China teas. 



Another cause is, that, during the last two seasons, there 

 has been a more than usually abundant supply of good 

 medium qualities of China teas. The good values offering 

 in this grade in China tempted consignors to substitute 

 these for their orders for commou teas. The result is, that, 

 for the last twelve mouths, medium Chinas have been 

 over-abundant and cheap, while low and common have 

 been scarce and dear. The improvement in the quality, too, 

 may be partly due to the introduction of the Indian article. 



The real poiut however I opine is, that grocers here are 

 averse to taking trouble. They will not mix and blend 

 teas, as the English grocer does, so long as they can do 

 as well with unmixed teas. The trade in Indian teas in 

 England was worked up slowly by persistent, continuous 

 effort. It was a work of time, and so must it be here. 



The experience of the firm of which I am a partner 

 is, that " our sales of Indian teas have increased during the 

 past year." JAS. INGLES. 



[Mr. Inglis is well-known as author of interesting 

 works under the name of " Maori." Mr. Buck put the 

 Indian Court at Melbourne under his charge. — Ed.] 



TEA CROWING- IN CEYLON. 



(From a Correspondent to the Calcutta " Englishman," 

 Jan. 21st J 

 The extension of tea cultivation in Ceylon has of late j 

 been extremely rapid. In 1873 between 200 and 250 acres - 

 only were under tea, and up to 1878 this area was but little j 

 increased, but in 1883 there were 35,000 acres under plant, 

 though ot course not all yielding a return. Coffee reached 

 its lowest point of depression in 1879. and its recovery has 

 now been despaired of by the most sanguiue. Of course 

 there have been, and will be, fluctuations in the market, 

 but its production is steadily on the decrease, and will prob- 

 ably continue so until either it ceases to be one of the 

 staple products of the island, or shrinks to dimensions too 

 insignificant to be taken into account when estimating the 

 productive resources of the colony. In 18G3 one million 

 cwt. of coffee was exported from Ceylon, and last year 

 the export was only 333,000 cwt. Tea on the other hand 

 has expanded from 23 lb. in 1876 to 1,522,882 lb. in 1881. 

 Of the 48,000 acres under tea cultivation iu 1884, almost 

 all are at comparatively low altitudes, but recent experi- 

 ments tend to prove that in Ceylon tea may be profitably 

 grown at an elevation of from 5,000 feet, as at Nuwara 

 Eliya, to 6,000 or 6.5 10 feet, in which case the area of possible 

 tea cultivation may be roughly estimated at from 150,000 to 

 160,000 acres calculated to produce 70 million pounds of high 

 priced tea. I say " high priced tea " advisedly, because 

 all the Ceylon tea that has been sent home up to the 

 present has realized prices which would, if obtained as 

 generally for Indian teas, cause a change in the aspect oj 

 Indian tea cultivation as an industry which is most de- 

 voutly to bo wished. There is a subtle aromatic flavour 



abont Oeylon tea which an Indian tea lacks, and it is, 

 though peculiar, one that seems to recommend it to the 

 most uneducated palate. Though on the other hand I 

 incline to the belief that so distinctive a characteristic is 

 calculated to cause its popularity to be somewhat eph- 

 emeral unless bulked with some other tea calculated to 

 render this peculiarity somewhat less prominent. There 

 are many other advantages possessed by the Ceylon planters 

 over their less happily situated Indian brethren. Incred- 

 ible as it may seem to us here in India, the Government 

 so far from being hostile to them and interposing diffic- 

 ulties in the way of their getting labour, and checking 

 their "spirit of ascendency," is actually affording them 

 practical assistance in their. undertaking, 'though this evid- 

 ently proceeds from the notion (shared in by every Gov- 

 ernment but our own) that in turuing barren land into 

 productive gardens, affording work and the means of sup- 

 port to a large body of men, and introducing anew industry 

 while doubling the productive resources of the island, these 

 men, in serving themselves are also affording very material 

 service to the State. Of course the idea is a falacious one, 

 but, somehow or other, under these favourable auspices tea 

 is making grand strides. Wherever one goes one sees clear- 

 ances and new extensions, roads being made, bridges built, 

 slopes terraced, and signs of general progress on every 

 side. It is impossible to predict what the future has in 

 store for India, but if ever it is realized iu this country 

 that the folly of today is the wisdom of tomorrow, we 

 may learn, before the bulk of our tea trade is gone, that 

 perhaps the Ceylon Government, in the cordial assistance 

 they are giving to the planters there, are not so very fool- 

 ish after all, and that, beyond crippling to a considerable 

 extent a very promising addition to their exports, the 

 Government of India has not achieved a brilliant success. 



The planters in Ceylon possoss four other advantages, 

 second only in importance to that just specified. These may 

 be briefly stated as labour, freight, carriage, and tenure. 

 As to the first, it is cheap, and— judged by our Indian 

 standard— by no means bad. The coolies are Tamils im- 

 ported from Southern India— and in the way of this— 

 mirabile dictu — the Government of Ceylon interposes no 

 useless obstacles, but on the other hand positively indicates 

 a disposition to assist both coolies and planters. The 

 coolies themselves, like those in this country, are of a con- 

 templative turn of mind, and would apparently prefer to pass 

 their time equally between eating, sleeping, and silent 

 meditation, but a mature consideration of the probable result 

 on pay day of such a course suffices to convert them for a 

 certain time into gaost industrious people. They are, more- 

 over, quiet and orderly iu the extreme, and no inducements 

 are held out to them to be otherwise. As to freight, the 

 Ceylon planters ship from Colombo for two annas per 11). 

 less than the Indian planter can ,«hip from Calcutta, and, 

 when wo add to this, good roads, a railway close by, clear- 

 ance wood, a marketable commodity, and the best virgin 

 soil procurable at £1 per acre on a title known as Crown Free- 

 hold Title (with easy conditions as to clearance) and that 

 title guaranteed by a friendly disposed Government, no 

 risk of being shot by someborder tribesmen, no chance of 

 being " raided " out of house and home, a good climate, 

 rain on an average every week, and not lifty-two weeks' rain- 

 fall concentrated into five.no floods, no drought, no red 

 spider, and within a day's run of the seaside, (he Ceylon tea 

 planter may well exclaim : " Truly the lots have fallen upon 

 me in pleasant places." 



So far the picture is indeed a bright one, but just, as has 

 been wisely remarked by some one, " Life is not all beer 

 and skittles," so there are drawbacks, and it may be seri- 

 ous drawbacks, to so bright a prospect. Ceylon, in the 

 hill tracts at any rate, is nothing if not rocky, and 

 in the vast majority of places the soil that covers the 

 rock is of no great depth, and is diminishing every year. So 

 long as the forests romaiu uncut, they protect the hillsides 

 from the direct impact of the rain drops, diffuse the water 

 more generally over the ground, and interposea shield in the 

 shape of fallen leaves, which, by an increase in the area of 

 exposure, also assist in keeping off such water as may reach 

 so far. But when this shelter is removed, and the steep hill 

 sides, with their friable soil, are exposed to the rain with no 

 other protection than that afforded by a more or less de- 

 veloped tea bush, the " wash " becomes a very serious con. 

 sideration, and it i-i a common thing, in a place which has 



