September i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



153 



"THE TKA ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON": 



REMINISCENCES OP THE VERY BEGINNING OFTEA-PLANTINC} 

 UKKE by " W. M. L." — ME. ARTHUR MORICe's MISSION 

 TO INDIA — THE ROCK AHEAD: "OVERPRODUCTION." 



London, 26th June 1S85. 



Dear Sir, — I am much obliged for the little books 

 you send me on the cultivation and preparation of 

 tea, &c. in Ceylon. 



Old associations make me keenly interested in all 

 that pertains to the tea enterprize in Ceylon, though 

 my interest is almost .-iltogether sentimental. 



It may have chanced to one to have loved in its 

 eatliest infancy some bounie babe, to have played with 

 the engaging sprite, to have dandled it on one's knee, to 

 have tossed it in the air. The chances of life part one from 

 the pet. Years pass by and aaon one hears of the luSty 

 young school boy and his famous deeds, may be with 

 bat or oar, may be with pen or book. How 

 strong is the interest one feels in the opening career 

 of the once loved infant 1 How benevolent, tinged 

 not with the slightest touch of sordid considerations, 

 bat with hopeful anxiety alone, how so much vital 

 power may develope itself in the future ! 



Such is my interest iu the Ceylon tea enterprize. 

 Nineteen years have passed since, as Secretary of 

 the Planters' Association, I took an active part iu 

 promoting the mission of Mr. Arthur Morice to re- 

 port on the cultivation and preparation of tea in India. 

 That mission, if it had iio other result, caused me 

 in the following year on behalf of my firm to order 

 from Calcutta a consignment of seed of the hybrid 

 Assam plant, and these seeds committed to the cate 

 of that ever watchful nurse, Mr. James Taylor (who 

 had already by his fuccefs with cinchona, and more 

 recently with China tea earned the complete coutid- 

 ence of his employers for experimental work), fojmed 

 the beginning of the now famous Loolcondura estate. 

 In due course (I think m 1S72) I found myself 

 selling in Kandy to all-comers the produce of our 

 little garden, and therewith my direct connection 

 with the cultivation and preparation of tea in Ceylon 

 ceased probably for ever. 



Such bemg .ny experience, it gives me unmixed 

 pleasure to read now, after so many yiars, that cultiv- 

 ation is at last being tak'-n up in good earnest and 

 how, be it for ^ood or for evil, ( eyluu is ntw surely 

 growinu into a greit tea-pioduc.ng country. It is 

 pleasant too and enooutagiug to liarn from the di\ers 

 writings that ycu have brought together that all 

 possible care and intelligence are belt g used to secure 

 the utmost economy and ethcieucy iu the various 

 operations. 



That hopes should bo high is only natural. 

 Looking to all the discourage mfnts of the past, to 

 forbid hope would be cruc! ; but as I have hinted 

 above, hope must needs be mixed with some anxiety, 

 and this for several reasons. 



The first reason that I sh.uld give {a very general 

 one, which applies to any ent rpriz^ equally wiili that 

 of tea-planting), is set forth in thelat-- Lord Beacons- 

 field's dictum: "It is always the unexpected that 

 happen?. " In a business career exttnding now over 

 30 years, during which many ipecuUtiuns of many 

 different kinds have been tried, I have been much 

 struck with the truth of tins sajing. Schemes of 

 the greatest promise as judged by all past experience 

 have proved the most complete fiilurts owing to some 

 new factors in the problem of which no human foresight 

 could posfibly take coguizince ; and iiwi-C/'utt, in cases 

 where hope had dki awav, success has beeu achieved 

 20 



contrary to all expectation. To illustrate my meaning : 

 I remember having heard one of the shrewdest aad 

 most experienced of Colombo agents say that ho 

 would value cotTee property only on secured results, 

 that is on the actual crops for previous years. A 

 valuation of any of the famous Haputale estates 

 made on this principle before the year 1S70 would 

 have given as the full value of the property prob- 

 ably a less amount than a single year's pn.fits ia 

 snbscepient years. And there is no need to poiut out 

 how misleading, though iu the opposite direction, 

 would be any valuation of coffee estates of late years 

 based on previous crops. 



In all mundane affairs it is unsafe to judge con- 

 fidently of the future by the past, and tropical 

 agriculture certainly forms no exception to this rule. 

 Having thus sweepingly disposed of all hopes based on 

 the facts and fiyurej which are set forth in your 

 little publication, it may seem supettluous to con- 

 sider auy particular reasons why hopes should bs 

 moderate. And one only shall be mentioned. 



The one rock ahead, which iu the impenetrable 

 haze of the future stands out in unmistakable 

 clearness, is the so called " overproduction" : overpro- 

 duction that is for the interests of the producers, 

 though not for those of the consumers. It is stated 

 that tea will grow and flourish iu Ceylon from the 

 sea-level to 5,000 feet above the sea. Given that the 

 cultivation prove as successful as ia now hoped on the 

 agricultural side, we may expect from Cej'lou alone an 

 astounding addition to the imports into Europe within 

 the next ten years. In a much mora limited zone 

 of elevation the extent under cofi'tfe some years back 

 exceeded 200,000 acres. The acreage of tea may easily 

 be half as great again, yielding yearly 100,000,000 lb. 

 annually. We have lately seen both in corn and 

 sugar, and indeed also in nearly every branch of 

 manufacture, the result of the extraordinary powers 

 of production developed of late years. Even those 

 who produce most cheaply have had to sell at a loss. 

 Under the inexorable laws of supply and demand, 

 which uot even the most advanced Radical has yet 

 attemptc<l to abolith by Act of Parliament, the con- 

 sumer calmly tnkes, not only all the hoped-for profits, 

 but confiscates also a good slice of the actual cost 

 of production. But someone will be saying "that 

 can only be temporary ; see how sugar has already 

 gone up agxm with a bound." Tea and sugar are 

 not in like case. B et is a yearly crop, and beet- 

 growers having lost very heavily last year, do not 

 sow it again this year. Tea gardens can only be 

 allowed to cease bearing under pain of loss of the 

 whole capital invested, both in the ground and in 

 plant, and they will in no case succumb to the low 

 prices due to increased production without a long and 

 stern struggle for life. 



It is the old, old story of sic von, non vobis. Tho 

 tea planters of Ceylon will surely do good service tn 

 the tea-driukeis of the world. But whether they will 

 earn the hoped-for abundance of gold for themselves 

 is matter of doubt. An ominous sign to me is the 

 cry raised by some for more capital. It is qllito 

 certain that very moderate realized profits will draw 

 at least as much capital as ia necessary for sound 

 development of the tea industry. Within the last ten 

 years we have seen the effect if an influx of capital. 

 My best prayer for Ceylou is that it may bo spared 

 another similar flood. 



This is a letter of a pessimist, your readers will 

 eay. Not so. Were I young and with some small capital 

 at my disposal, I wool I be ready willingly to cast 

 in my lot in Ceylon as .1 tei-plauter. It is a fine, 

 healthy, beneficent employ meut, and offers aa fair 

 chances of success a.s any other similar work that I 

 know of, But unless I wished to be disappointed I 

 ebould not liz mj hopee on liigb {irolit^ fvhicli it is 



