AuGvat t, 1885.] 



'HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



107 



It has alirays beeu a stiiprizs to me that tliere is 

 no public sanatorium in Ja:ii;iija, as thi'ie is at 

 Nunara Eliya ia Ceylcu, for the clima'e is siirp'y 

 perfect from November (after the rains) to April ;iml 

 May, but Newcastle at 4 000 to 5,000 feet above the 

 sea 13 a purely military cantonment, only accessible) 

 to the favoured iew who Un-^w the oilicers, so that 

 a large hotel oa the Aniencan principle would, I am 

 sure, pay wo!', if but some enterpriziug New 

 Eu{;lander would liiid the capital, or get up a com- 

 pany to carry ou; such a deaideratuni. There are 

 many sites at -J.COO to 5,000 feet above the sea, 

 which would sui'. admirably, and even ready-built 

 lu>u,-es fur a cvramencemeDt : the dittieulties in the 

 way are lack of cart-reads to get up supplies easily 

 aud cheaply, aud the lack of good servants, but 

 these no duubt could be got from the States, aud 

 I feel mre it wculd pay, as not only would .Liiiiaicans 

 who live in the hot lowcouutry gladly avail them- 

 selves of such a good chauce for chauge of air, but 

 viaitois from America and even fro n i-urope would 

 ba attracted to the place if they could be assured 

 of being oumfurtably housed and well fed. I know 

 of t»o places tucli as Belle Vue aud Flams- 

 head ou the Port Ko^al range, not much mure 

 than fuur or five miles from Gordon Town, vhich 

 would suit lor the purpose; the present good bridle- 

 road might be wideUfd here and there, so as to make 

 it passable for those Chine e conveyances called 

 " jienkslia," so that a^ed visitors who cuuld not ride 

 could le wheeled up to their mountiiin I ottl. 



I was lately present, as one of the Commissiouers 

 of Koads for this parisli, at the public opening of a 

 bridge over the Yallalis river connecting the 

 parishes of St. Andrews and St. Thomas's. There 

 was a larg; assemblage of buckra's brown folk 

 and Creoles to witness the ceiemony, which was 

 made ijuite a gala day in the district. The Member 

 of Couucil for Portland and St. Tliumas, the Hon. 

 George Henderson, perfoimed the ceremony in tlie 

 .■•bsence ef Maj ir-General Mann, r.k, Director of 

 Public \V"rks, breaking a bottle of champ igne over 

 the rail.n.im ;d ti'.e structure " Mahogany Vale Briilge." 

 It spans the river close by that old coffee property, 

 and 1.1 a srong, well-built iron-girder bridge. It will 

 confer an immense benefit en tlie travelling public 

 aud inhabitants of the district, for, nhen the rains 

 are ou, and the river as they say in .Jamaica " comes 

 down," it is a wide and most formidable current. 

 Many, I am tolH, have been the deUhs caused by 

 perple endeavouring to ford it when in Hoed ; at 

 preamt, after two or three dry seasons, it is but 

 an ordinary striam, but in Hiod expands seme 200 

 to 300 feet, which proves that when it does rain in 

 Jam dca it cornea down with a vengeance. 



1 may ag well conclude my letter by relating a 

 good story I heard some time ago. A gentLmau and 

 his friend, having gone to Kingston, bmugbt home 

 a block if ice and ordered the old cegro woman who 

 was in charge of the bouse to stow it away in the 

 " drip," which is the term used here for a large 

 earthenware water-cooler ard filter, but was obliged 

 to leave home again at once. On h's n turn shortly 

 afterwaids he aakerl the old woman for some ice, 

 when on going to look for it, she found none, it 

 having melted ; so she came back in a great state 

 of mind, saying : — " Hi 1 my mnssa, him no derc, 

 Somebody hav' tief him fa' true." W. S. 



PROGP>LSS OF 'IHE CEYLON TKA KNTKR- 

 PRIZE IN THE FIVE YEABS BETWEEN 



18-10 AND 1885. 

 Messrs, Gow, Wilson & .Stanton have, in a very 

 interesting and useful piper, summed up the pro- 

 gress of the Ceylon Tea entcrprize from tho second quarter 



of 1S80 to the second ciuarter of the present veer. 

 The main faots and statistics are grap'iioally described 

 in a series of diagrams. First are shown (he vari- 

 ations of prices. Commencing with I lei per Hi. aver- 

 age in the second ipiarter of 1S80 the course wis reg. 

 uhrly downwards to 9d in toe first epiarter of 



1551. Our tea< have never gone so low as tins again. 

 From 9d as recorded, the rise was rojulirand rapid 

 until Is 2d was reached in the Brat ejiiarter of 18S2. 

 Then came a fall to Hid in tho fourth quarter of 



1552, followed by a steady and rapid rise to I.1 5^il 

 in the last quarter of 188.3. This vrm the higheit 

 average. Then there came a fall to about Is 2Jd 

 in the third cjimrter of ISS-t, with a lise to 

 Is 2Jd in the fourth quarter, and a fall to Is 2JI in 

 the first quarter of the present year, followed by a 

 recovery in the second quarter to Is ."id, with which 

 the record of 5 years ends. Tiie second diagram shows 

 the shipments in each ejuarter from Cevlon, and a 

 third gives the annual shipments. We give the 

 figures in a combined form : — 



1880 



1881 



8,000 

 000 

 000 

 ,000 



1882 J 



C 1st qr. 8, 



I 2nd „ 36, 



■) 3rd ., 64, 



I. -Ith „ 17,' 



f 1st qr. .'>4,nOO 



J 2nd „ 08,000 



i 3rd „ lll.nOO 



I 4th „ 78,0110 



Ih. 



lb. 



1st qr. 

 2nd „ 

 3rJ „ 

 4tli ,. 



1:^9,0(10 Ih. 

 IM.5.0110 

 1 7!1,( 100 

 I118.OOO 



1883 



f 1st qr, .385,1100 I 



J 2ud „ 54,S,0U0 , 



] 3rd „ 4ij2,liiil) „ 



t 4th ,. 204,110(1 „ 



I] 



lb. S 



114,845 1b. 



311,145 1b, 



021,068 lb. 



1,593,087 lb. 



1881 



1 



2,285,294 lb. 



1st qr. 408,000 lb. 



2nd „ 056,000 „ 



3rd „ 882,000 ., 



' 4tli „ 839,000 „ 



The shipments for the first ejiiarter of the present 

 ye ir were ti7I,000 lb. Our readers w.ll see that, so 

 far, tlie bulk of tlie cr.ip has gone forward in the 

 second and third quaitera of each year. lu each of 

 the years given, in oreler to find thj entire piodiictiou 

 of tea in Ceylon, ligures giaduaHy inereas;cg as Chita 

 tea was displaced, ought to be added for local con- 

 sumption. The average home oonsumpiion of tea iu 

 Ceylon in 1875-77 was 80.000 lb. aud probaMy a 

 higher figure should be added to lea exported, as 

 the local consumption of tea llllls^ have increased .••iiice 

 ten years at»o. Let u-i say 120 000 b f ,r home couiump- 

 tion, and then we get 2,513,000 lb loi tlie total piodvc 

 Hanoi 1884, adding exports to other places than Britain. 



Having thus disponed of tlu d.agrams, we give the 

 brokers' remarks in full below. 



The statement is altogelher encouraging, not only as 

 regards the quality of Ceylon tea hut as to the prospect 

 of the market generally. With few variations prices 

 have advanced with advancing expjits, the estates 

 sending produce having ri?en from 20 in IS80 to 185 at 

 the beginning of 1885. It will bo seen that the consump- 

 tion of tea in Britain has rloubkd in twenty years and 

 that the proportion of Indian (including Ceylon) is rapid- 

 ly increasing, being already not far from 40 per cent. 



The continental demaud lor the better teas is also 

 increasing. It seems time that stejis were taken to 

 follow the aelvice given from so many qu.irtt:rs to call 

 in the aid of the analytical chemists, to test the 

 quality of the lea leaf, as well ua to give juelgment 

 on the constituents o!' soil and the nianuiial substances 

 which can with best results bo upplied. As regards 

 the hints at the end, we should like to know the 

 secret of making tea without dust? Some exporters 

 certainly seem to hive discovered it. To n^ it is a 

 mystery equally with the alleged superiority of large 



