October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



233 



TEA PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 



IN CEYLON. 

 As regards our tea enterprise, we may say that 

 one of the most useful and reliable estimatfs 

 of our preseut position and future prospects yet 

 made, is that which we reiiroduce on page 234 from 

 the pen of Mr. H. K. Rutherford. This gentle- 

 man has exteDi^iv6 tea proprietary interests in 

 several districts : and he has evidently studied hia 

 snljeot to some purpose, the result being worked up 

 in the paper contributed to the local monthly trade 

 publication, "The Ceylon Advertiser" (Missra W. 

 H. Davies & Co.). It will have been seen that 

 Mr. Rutherford gives the probable export for the 

 current season at 3,880,000 lb. There are, now, 

 only six wc-ks more available of the present season, 

 but we hope to see 4 million lb. of exports touched 

 if not exceeded. As regards his ealiinates for three 

 succeeding seasons, we think Mr. Rutheiford must 

 be near the mark although we shall be in a better 

 position to judge a little later on when our statistics 

 of acreage are available. The basfis on which Mr. 

 Rutherford's calculations are made is, of course, 

 the figures of our planting enterprise, compiled for 

 last " Handbook and Directory" ; but a good deal 

 more uncertanty attends the "probable yields" 

 estimated by him as follows : — 

 188.5-8G... Total jieUl of tea 6,300,000 lb.; 



local consumptiou I30,0i lb.; export6,230,C00 lb. 

 1886-87... Do. 12,120,000 lb.; 



160,000 1b.; do 11,960,000 1b 

 1887-88... Do. 20,800,000 lb.; 



200,000 lb.; do 2O,600,C00 lb. 

 Mr. Rutherford's estimates of yield per acre are 

 very moderate — in the face of the publi^hed returns 

 from certain estates — ranging as thiy do for t' a of 4 

 jeais old and upwards at from 2S0 lb. to 330 lb. per 

 acie. There is much l.owever in what is sai'i in 

 criticism of the figures of acreage already recognised 

 as contrasted with the actual export ; but when 

 it is remembered how much has been done of late 

 to cultivate and properly work tea which bad former- 

 ly bem comptratively neglected, we cannot help 

 thinking a much better average, 360 lb. nil round 

 at leait, should be established from next year on- 

 wards tor all tfa over 4 years old. We should be 

 inclined to dispute the acreage return rather than the 

 yield, if the export figur. s did not bear out this ratio. 

 It is most diffioult to estimate a proper acrea^^e 

 for tea planed among c. ffee or cinchona, and in 

 this way proprieiors are apt to exaggerate the 

 actual extent under fach product. 



Then as r<gards "local consunipion," we think 

 Mr. Rutherford is a good deal below the mark 

 in his figures for the present rjuantily consumed and 

 eepecially for t'e consumption of coming years. He 

 finds that in 1877 the import of China tea was 

 87,000 lb. ; and it so happens that that year taw 

 the maximum consumption of foreign tea in Ceylon. 

 But we submit that if 87,00011). of tea selling at 

 from Rl to RI-50 per lb were taken up by local 

 consumers five years ago, we may viry well double 

 that Cjuantitv when we consider how large a pro- 

 portion ot the dust and other cheap tea diunk by 

 the natives cos's no more than 25 c nts, while 

 very fair drinkible tea is oblainable for 50 cents 

 per lb. Another point is the great extent to which 

 the natives along all our main roads and in the 

 villages have substituted tea for coffee as their 

 drink. Wnen the native coffee gardens were flour. 

 30 



ishing and everything prosperous in Ceylon, we 

 estimated that tlie local consumptiou of the beiry 

 could not be le-s tlian 50,000 cwt. — fi^ miilous 

 lb. At present, we suppose there is nut a fifth of 

 this quantity locally consumed. But tea is every- 

 where iu demand to take the place of coffee, and we 

 should really be inclined, hearing wl at we do of the 

 way iu which tamby pedlars are travell n^' every- 

 where selling tea, to double the above figures 

 aud nay that there must be 400,000 lb. of tea drunk 

 iu Ceylon in this year 18S5 ; and threc-fi.urlhs of 

 this quantity by people who never touched tea so 

 long as coffee was freely available aud so long as 

 they could only buy the highpiiced foreign tea. 

 And this process of an increasing local demand is 

 to go on and the consumption of tea among the 

 2i millious Sinhalese and Tamils mu t rise rapidly, 

 until by 18S7--8, not 200,000 lb as estim ted by Mr. 

 Rutherford, but 800,000 lb. will be n quired to n eet 

 the local consumptiou in Ceylon, the (.reatir pro- 

 portion of course being of the very ch' apest sorts. 

 This, however, after all, affeo's the estiii ates of 

 yield and expert only to a slight extent, aud in 

 other respects we do not feel called on at present 

 to criticize, but m'-rely to ca'l attention to Mr. 

 Rutherford's carefully woiked-out and very useful 

 summary. This much we may say, that we feel 

 sure, if it errs at all, it is on the side of moder- 

 ation and that a good deal might be lad for 

 estimates which would run for the three coming 

 seasons as legards Exports:— 7 milliou, 13 million, 

 and 2.5 million lb. Probably the a.-tual roult will be 

 found between these aud Mr. Rutherford's tigu.es 

 as given aburc. 



CEYLON UPCOUNIRY PLANTING REPORT. 



A VISIT TO MAEIAWATTE TEA FACTORY, NEAE GAMPULA. 



17th AuKUBt, 1885. 

 The store is not yet completed, although nearly 

 SO- It is built of iron and brick, measures about 

 two hundred and eighty feet in lenj,tb, and eiglity 

 feet wide ; lias an upii* r llorir boarded wiih pine, 

 secured to iron liiains, and which is to be u.sed 

 as a withering loft ; the lower floor is la d with 

 concrete to a depth of abi.ut six inches, and will 

 have a covering of pure ceno nt on the top, the 

 withering 1< f t is very well liglited and suited for 

 the purpose fir which i', was intended, but tlie 

 lower floor strikes one as being somewhat dark. 

 Why piiiewoi'd should have been sebcted for 

 the fl oriug I cannot very well make out, imported 

 too from Scotland, for it is very liable to take 

 fire, and as for white-ants I fancy they would 

 travel miles to gtt at it, so much is it appriciated 

 by the teiniite. There is however not much ciiance 

 of whit' -ants ever reiching the wrod. The ground 

 floor is like a showroom of Me^sr.'<. Jackson's 

 machinery. There is an engine and boi er, two 

 "Excelsior" roller.s, a large sized "Victoria " drier, 

 "Eureka"8orter, and the new "Invincible" tea mill or 

 cutter, all supplied through that eminent firm, and 

 manufactund by Messrs. Marshall, Smis & Co. of 

 Gainsboiough. Tie engine was 12 horsepower, 

 with 14 horse-power boiler, which 1 was tolil could 

 e».''ily devekqr 40 horse-power wlien n quired. 

 Althougli not a prof' ssonal. I could not but note 

 the ease and sweet working of the eneine : and the 

 boiler seemed a fine specimen of Engl sh woik- 

 manship. I don't know how the makers mai i grd to 

 make the boiler so smooth and n und : not a 

 hammer mark to bo seen on the fiances or rivets, 

 like a piece of turned ebony in tact. From the 

 engine a belt pa ses tj the loi t' line of shafting 

 thiough which p'lwer is conveyed to the rollers 

 and other machines. 



