Dec. I, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



383 



provisions are given to the labourers and their 

 families, and, when we hear of low money wages 

 in Darjilint!, we must not forget the fact that the 

 coolies get land to cuUivatein iiddition to their money 

 wages. The large sales of tea seed recjuired tor 

 the extensions we have mentioned in India 

 and tor others in Ceylon and elsewhere have 

 helped a good many old estates in Indiii, but 

 this source of revenue is now likely to lUminish. 

 We may mention in passing that the crop of tea 

 seed on" many estates in Ceylon, especially on 

 those at a liigh elevation, has this year been a 

 gieat disappointment. We know of a " lowcounti7 " 

 estate where the trouble is to prevent the bushes 

 running to blossom and seed, while on another, 

 between 4,(J00 and 6,000 feet altitude, large trees 

 of eight and nine years old show sign neither of 

 blossom nor seed. Probably the removal of super- 

 fluous wood and the application of bone-dust, 

 might be useful in that later case. But to return 

 to tea in India. From gardens and extensions recently 

 opened, crops at the rate of 7 to 10 maunds per 

 acre (560 to 800 lb.) are expected, in which ease 

 the most productive properties in Ceylon must 

 look to their laurels. From an article in the IiuUuii 

 Tea Gazette we quote as follows : — 



Unless tea can be produced at some very low 6gnre 

 indeed, it cannot pay. Prices are low and the tend- 

 ency, allowing for an occasional temporary spurt up- 

 wards, is downwards. And yet we heaj of new exten- 

 sions in every direction, not only to existing gardens, 

 but also the opening out of entirely ne.v ones. In 

 South Svlhet and in the Dooars new gardens are bemg 

 made at a rate which seems incredible to the old 

 stagers. The South Sylhet Tea Company has put 

 some six to seven thousand acres under tea within the 

 last two years : the North Sylhet have done a good 

 deal of extensions chiefly in the Dooars : and Messrs. 

 O. Steel and Co. open out their new gardens in blocks 

 of .''OO to 1,000 acres per annum. Ceylon, too, is rapidly 

 extending its area and increasing its outtuni and other 

 countries are taking to growing tea. Will demand 

 keep pace with supply, or will prices fall so low 

 that it will not pay to manufacture? 



Will the increased quantity of higher class teas, 

 produced by the increase of area of good Jdt plants, 

 and the greater care yearly exercised m plucking and 

 manufacture, readily find purchasers at existing rates ? 

 The argument in favor of extensions of area, and opeu- 

 ing new gardens is, however, a strong one. It is gener- 

 ally admitted that many of the old gardens, with their 

 broken up aud scattered cultivation, their inferior 

 jot. and small yield per acre, will not pay now, though 

 they used to "do so. Good Jcit and good outturn 

 per acre,— at least five mauuds — are necessary to enable 

 a garden to pay even a small profit. Old China gardens 

 must either exteud largely with good jdl, or expect to 

 work at a loss aud shut up eventually. They cannot 

 hope to compete with the gardens recently opened out 

 under the new Ughts, mauy of which give, or will give 

 when in full bearing, seven to teu inaunds an acre. 



A cogent argument in favor of new extensions on 

 old gardens is that, as the profit on a pound of tea is so 

 emnll now, eo many extra pounds must be turned out 

 to realize anything worth having. AVben a planter 

 could clear sixpence a pound on his outturn, he only 

 wanted to put .JO.OOOIb. of tea on the market, ;. c, make 

 ftbout .iOO mnunds of tea, to clear £1,0(10. But if he can 

 barely clesf a [.enny a pound, by mosh careful and eco- 

 hcmical working, be must naturally (urn out six times 

 fts much as before to clear the same profit. Ot course, 

 I'steiisions do not grow spontaneously; they co.st money 

 alld labor, and thus add to the cost of production ol'the 

 bearing tea. IJut many of the hading planters of the 

 day believe strongly that they pay in the end, notnith- 

 a^aiidiDg the outcry against over-production. 

 Such being the feeling and such being the eon- 

 sequent action, the great question is how to 

 find markets for the increased quantities of 

 t«a wliicU lodis, plus Ceylon, wU epeedily pro- 



duce. A writer in the paper from which we have 

 already quoted states : — 



There is no doubt that in a few yeai-s, with Ooylon 

 opening out at the rate it is doing, tea outturns will be 

 doubled. A^''> have all along contended that, in the 

 native bazaars throughout India, a splendid field for 

 Indian tea hiis been neglected for many years 

 p..^'. Instead of being able to calculate the con- 

 sumption ill thousands, we ought by now to have 

 been calculating by millions. We hope things will not 

 be allowed to drift on, or matters dealt with, as, in the 

 case of the Australian market where a large ciuantity 

 of tea was wasted for no good apparently, although, 

 possibly, it may have introduced Indian tea to some 

 who never saw it before. We have now an Indian Tea 

 Association, which is supposed to have the interests of 

 tea in its care, and it might not be altogether outsiih; 

 the limits of its functions to adopt measures for tho 

 opening out of new markets. In addition to the ordin- 

 ary bazaar market, which is eminently suited to take 

 off coarse teas in small packets, we have heard of no 

 attempt being made to introduce our Indian tea iu brick 

 sh.ape to the Thibetans. 



And then the writer proceeds to show how the 

 Indian planters might utilize their coarsest leaf 

 to supply bricks to the Thibetans, if only tho 

 Thibetans would accept them. That question wiU 

 be soon tested, for the probabilities are, that, 

 owing to the present friendly relations between 

 Britain and China, the long-sealed land of the 

 Lamas is likely speedily to be opened to trade 

 and travellers from India. But conservatism has 

 to be overcome and the Thibetans have become 

 as much accustomed and as much attached to 

 the cheap and nasty brick tea of China, as the 

 mass of Australians have, from long use, come to 

 like the cheap inferior leaf tea sent them from 

 the same source. For good Indian and Ceylon teas 

 to make their way in Australia and the Western 

 Continent, will be a matter of time. So with 

 Eussia and other continental nations. What we 

 have mainly to trust to is the largely expanding 

 demand in Britain for realty good teas. Were the 

 millions of natives in India and Ceylon only 

 somewhat more wealthy than they are, local 

 markets for our second-class teas and dust 

 would open up and expand indefinitely. That 

 day will yet dawn, but it is in the still 

 distant feature. Our wisdom in the present, no 

 doubt, is to go on supplying the London market 

 with the high quality teas which have already 

 found so much acceptance with the tea drinkers 

 of Great Britain, next to China itself the greatest 

 tea-drinking country in the world. 



CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTING BEPORT. 



SHOWERY WKATBER : ITS TWOFOLD EFFECTS — A " SHUCK " 

 COFFEE-TBEE AND A POOH BELIEVER— TEA — WHITE- 

 ANTB— COOLIES — THE " T. A." 



26th October 1885. 

 The fine showery weather we have beeu having 

 for some time now, however suitable it may be for 

 the planting comnuuiity and the young tea plants, ia 

 a dead stop to anything like floating news. Every 

 day lately has been bringing its extra work i every- 

 body has been busy, aud the neighbour who 

 usually drops iu with a cheery remark, or the latest 

 •■ tale that is told," has been absent, being Us fully 

 occupied as one's self. And still the days pass : all ! 

 how swiftly — and tho time is round again for another 

 letter. 



It is not to church one goes for planting' news^ 

 and yet one sometimes hears fumiy things aoout it 

 from the puliJit. I was much interested the other 

 Sunday, at a preacher working out tiie analogies 

 between a " shuck " coffee tree and a believer in 

 poor circumstances. XJp to a certain point the thing 

 weut along beautifully, aud told, as oiuy illustratiouf 



