Aprjl I, i886.3 THE TROPICAL AGl^ICULTURlST, 



6/3 



^orri:!spnincl6t^oi3. 



To the Editor of the " Ceylon Obscrv/r." 



PEOPORTIONS OF SORTS OF TEA. 



19th February 1880. 



Deak Sib, — Your •• overland " of 16fb contain? 

 Colombo Brokers' reports of local tea sales ; amongst 

 others that of Messrs. Wilson & Co. with notes re 

 "Blaokstone" invoice, " which was sold privately, 

 and realized many cents per lb. above any previous 

 parcel sold locally by public auction, wttich con- 

 tained all the four rjniiles villi the fame •propor- 

 tions." (The italics are mine.) 



It would be interesting to know what price per 

 lb. Mr. Wilson secured for overwhelming percent- 

 age of Pekoe Souchong and Broken Tea. — Yours 

 faithfully, TEA MARKER. 



BLACKSTONE AND AGAR'S LAND TEAS. 

 Kaudy, 19th Feb. 188G. 



Sre, — Messrs. Wilson & Co. state in their 

 " Tea Memorandum, " February IGth, that "an ex- 

 cellent invoice from Blackstoue estate withdra^vn 

 from public sale, was sold privately, and realised 

 many cents per lb. above any previous parcel sold 

 locally by public auction which contained all the 

 four grades «i(/; the siamc proportion." 



The last four words I have italiciiied, as therein 

 evidently hes an awful lot for consideration. Will 

 Messrs. W. & Co. favor the public with particulars 

 a little more explicit? I ask the question, as it 

 appears to me a pity that such a "crack" tea 

 sale should be put under a bushel, as also that 

 my own mind may be made easy on the score of 

 top prices. 



When in Colombo, I heard a gi'eat deal said 

 about this wonderful break of "Blackstone" tea. 

 That it had been bought in at Rl-70 per lb. That 

 it had been valued so low as 91 cents per lb. That 

 it had eventually been sold to Messrs. W. M. Smith 

 & Co. at El-20 per lb. 



If the latter story be true, I scarcely think Messrs. 

 Wilson & Co. are justified in claiming first place 

 for "Blackstone" locally; seeing that "Agar's 

 Land'' averaged El-2y for 3,610 lb. of an "all 

 round break," sold at public auction by the well- 

 known firm of Messrs. Forbes & Walker. 



I am of opinion that friendly competilion and 

 rivalry will do all tea producers good, and per- 

 advenlure may be the means of attracting buyers 

 from "afar," thus giving an occasional " fillip " to 

 the local trade. 



I hope the next break "Blackstone" sends lo 

 our local maiket may find a bona tide purchaser 

 in the public sale room ; and it might interest and 

 induce buyers to dip their hands more deeply into 

 the orthodox breeches pocket, if the article ])ut 

 before them was knocked down at a reasonable 

 ligure, I shall probably put a break of " Agar's 

 Land '' tea on for sale in the course of a fortnight, 

 S.OOO lb. or so, and it will give me pleasure to sec 

 •• Blackstone" again in the field. — Tours faithfully, 

 SHE LTON AG AR. 



DANGER OF TEA PLANTING BEING 



OVERDONE. 



De\j: Siii, -It is no news to you, I daresay, to 



say that people at home — in London as well as 



elsewhere — are now aware that tea is being grown 



in Ceylon. They are aware, too, that most of the 



tea is of very good quality, and that even Mincing 



Lane at length believes in Ceylon, and is disposed 



to pat it on the back in a most kindly and motherly 



way. Nobody outside o£ Mincing Lano ueeds uow 



8C 



to say a good word for it. That is what some of 

 us had to do a few years ago and a few times over ; 

 but it is all changed now. Everybody drinks or 

 wishes to drink Ceylon tea now ; and everybody, or 

 let us say nearly everybody, is ready to go shares 

 with you in a tea estate, if you only will let him. 

 Well, I for one am very glad and thankful that it 

 is so and that we are all going to be so h.-ijipy and 

 jolly again. And yet one sometimes thin!;s. One 

 sometimes thinks -just for a moment perhaps, it 

 makes no impression— that perhaps wo in Ceylon, 

 with our Scotch dourness and our English pluck, and 

 our general combativeness and determination not 

 to be beat by anybody or anything — that we may 

 perhaps just a little overdo the thing once more. 



Now I know, Mr. Editor, that you think you know 

 the very words I 'm going to say next, and that 

 these words are : " My brethren, suffer a word of 

 exhortation " ; but it is n't so, I assure you. I 'm not 

 a licensed hand, and therefore cannot preach ; and, 

 though laymen are allowed to exhort, I have no idea 

 even of exhorting. 



I had some talk with an intelligent East India 

 merchant, the other d.iy, and I thought you might 

 like to hear something of it. He is directly inter- 

 ested in Indian tea, and finds at present that his 

 investment in that line pays him very well. But ho 

 questioned me about Ceylon tea, of which he said 

 he had been hearing a good deal. I gave him the 

 best and latest information I could give at thn 

 moment, and told him that the last estimate I had 

 seen was that by this time there were about 100,000 

 acres under tea in all Ceylon. " One hundred 

 thousand acres!" he said, and was amazed. And I 

 confess that I was somewhat " scared by the sound 

 mj-self had made." Fori remembered that when in 

 Ceylon in the early part of 1884, the answer Unit was 

 given to my enquiry was that about 12,000 acres 

 were then under tea : and to leap from 1'2,000 to 

 100,000 in some 1st or 20 months was rather n, big 

 jump. But what was I that I should gain.say 

 the Oh/erver? The chronicles of the tea bushes, 

 are they not all written in that nice little pocket 

 volume, the CeyIjON Handbook and Dirkctohy? 

 and don't I find in its very very latest edition, 

 which has not yet come to hand, that the " total ap- 

 proximate extent under tea " is set down at ex- 

 actly 101,09-5 acres ? But at any rate I was so 

 " scared " by my friend's remarks (he icminded 

 me that 100,000 acres meant -10 millions of pounds 

 weight) that I promised to see the Observer, and 

 verify my figures, and the result was that I 

 wrote confirming my statement and giving the total 

 as above — 101,(39") acres. Next day I had the 

 following reply;--" I am much obliged to you for 

 looking into the matter and writing to confirm the 

 figures you had previously given me as to tea 

 cultivation in Ceylon. If lUl.OO.'i acres be the 

 area already under plant, however young, and not 

 simply the aggregate area of the estates which are 

 being devoted to tea of which only a portion 

 (probably about a half, say) is already planted, 

 I confess that I should take a very grave view of 

 the squ.eze that awaits the enterprize in all quarters 

 say in 3 to .5 years. And yet I fancy the planted 

 area is really meant." 



I had more to say, but I write at the close of my 

 niailday corre-spondencc, and the time is jusl about 

 up. But here is a cutting giving the greater part 

 of an article from the Statist. Vou may have it 

 otherwise; if not, you will like to sec it. — With kind 

 regards, A CORRESPONDENT. 



The new tea season, 1R85-S6, has opened, in tlio. 

 opinion of the .Staliil. undT much more hopeful 

 auspices than did last year — stocks are d wii one-half, 

 cuusumptioii is on the increase, and the only element of 

 dieturbwce to au imiaedi^e rite it the uncertaiuty 



