646 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Masch i, 1886. 



Secondly, as to the prospects o{ America be- 

 coming a successful market (its capacity in tliat 

 way beggars description,) for Indian and Ceylon 

 lea. The said prospects are both bad and good: 

 bad if no larger efforts to introduce it are not 

 made in the future tliau the past has accomplished; 

 good, immeasurably good, it the Tea Association set 

 to work with a will, and really introduce it, which 

 they have never done in the proper way. 



The consumption of tea in the States is enormous,* 

 partly due, of course, to the tremendous area, but 

 also in a great measure to the habits of the Amer- 

 icans. They are, as a rule, a mucli soberer 

 race tlian tlie English. They drink 't is true, but 

 not in the same way as the English do. Sober for 

 months, then three or four days of hard drinking. 

 But to the point as it affects tea consumption. Tiie 

 Englishman drinks beer or wine with liis dinner, 

 sometimes witli his luncli and supper. Not so the 

 mass of the Americans: tea or coffee is tlieir 

 beverage, generally the former, and thus per head 

 I doubt not tliey drink far more tea than we do.+ 

 I write without statistics, but except, perhaps. 

 New Zealand, where the consumption is enormous 

 per liead, I imagine Die Americans consume, in- 

 dividually, more tea than any other race in the 

 ■ world. [A great error. — Ed.; 



Strange that it should be so, for it is the nastiest 

 .-ituff I have over tasted I It is principally .lava 

 green tea, fearfully weak, and the infusion is destitute 

 of aroma, colour, or taste. No, I am partly wrong 

 as to colour; sometimes it is a pinky green. Bui 

 it is, without exception, the most woeful stuff 

 I have ever drunk. It only shows how vei'y 

 acquired is the taste for tea, when the Americans 

 consume such rubbish. J 



How can we alter tlieir tastes, and get them to 

 drink good tea? I think so, at least my ex- 

 perience out there showed me it would be difficult. 

 I was stationary for some time in the State of 

 Colorado, drank Indian tea, and gave it to the 

 Americans who came to my house. They had never 

 previously tasted any but their own vile compound. 

 They all liked it, more the second or tiiird time 

 than the iirst, and some vowed they would never 

 in future drink any other. But I had better proof. 

 An Englishman in the capital of Colorado (Denver) 

 by name "Corn'orth" had started a large gro- 

 cery store, and among other teas sold Indian. It 

 was a very good high class Assam pekoe souchong,* 

 and he told me he sold a great deal and that it 

 was highly appreciated. But finding it there was 

 exceptional. It is to be had in New York, but, 

 as a rule nowhere else in the States. At least 

 enquiring in many places, I could tind it nowhere 

 except in one tea shop in San Francisco. There 

 too they sold much. 



But the fact is Indian lea is as unknown in 

 the States as it was in Great Britain ihirty years 

 ago. We all know what euormous strides it has 

 here (probably the figures for last year will give 

 some itB per cent of the whole coiisumptioni and 

 that iu five years more, wc shall equal if not 

 txceed the imports from China. Can we not begin 

 and pave tlie way for a like success i i .\iiierica'.' How 

 Are we to do it? Success is sure to come some 

 day in any case, for it is absurd to suppose a 

 good artick', will not eventually make its way there, 

 but that day, if a real effort is not made, wiU be 

 Very long deterred. What then should we do? 



Outside the futile efforts that have been made 

 already, we can do literally nothing without co- 

 operation. I can point out tlie road to success, 

 but it must remain with the London and Calcutta 

 Tea Association to achieve it. Were Indian tea 

 sent in goodly quantities to America, forwarded 

 to the principal cities of the States, and sold there 

 by public auction to the highest bidders as done in 

 Mincing Lane, it would thus be gradually intro- 

 duced and made known to the masses. There would 

 probably be losses on the first shipments, (a mere 

 bagatelle did tea owners see the immense future 

 advantages and subscribe for the jjurpose). but 

 the ball would be set rolling, and the demand 

 for Indian tea from America in a few years would 

 be great. 



It would run the same course in America it has 

 done in England — not much would be drunk pure 

 at first, by far the greater part would be mixed 

 to give body to their tasteless decoctions, but the 

 public would be mhicated to like the flavour, and 

 would demand more and more of the mixture. 

 When, as would certainly come to pass, and as is the 

 case in England now, the tea sold had more than 

 one-third of Indian in it, the cultivation in 

 both India and Ceylon would be far from satisfying the 

 demand that would then be created. 



I will do what I can to urge this uiattcr on 

 the London Tea Association, but I would ask for 

 your help to call attention to it in Calcutta. 



Of course, both now and liereatter, when I speak 

 of Iwdian tea I include Ceylon, and I may well do 

 BO, for she is running us a hard race. 



EllWAKD MONEV. 



* Surely no( : I'uly M8 lb. per c.-ipiit against 

 .'it least five times that amount of coffee. — Ed. 



"t" We drink nearly five times as much. — Ed. 



.^ Japan Oolouga are the teas chiefly druak 

 Amorica,— £]>• 



lit 



CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTING BEPORT. 



DEII.iND PCE TE.V ."JEEP — THE HOLD M.\K WHO SCOBES 

 — r.U,MS IN" XORTnERN INDIA — .IN HONEST OriXiON — 

 riiOFITS EB03I S.\LE3 OF TE.l SEED — KISE IN PRICE 

 OF EBONY — COOLIES OUT OF WORK. 



15th February IH8C1. 



It has been very interesting to watch for soms 

 months past the excited demand that there has 

 been for tea seed, and the leaps and bounds which 

 it has taken in price. 



Tliat the local crop for some months was short was 

 too manifest to all who had orders booked, for deliveries 

 were put off in some cases, uiitd the buyer was 

 sickened with disgust, and threw up his bargain in 

 despair. Nothing loath, however, was the seller to this 

 style of protest, for there were plenty of others 

 ready waiting to take the place of the disgusted 

 man, and even to pay an advance of from fifty 

 to a hundred per cent on the lonuer prices. 



The agents of the Indian tea gardens also helped 

 to keep up the excitement, by booking orders from 

 all corners, without any consideration as to the 

 garden's capacity to execute them, and the result 

 has been that Indian tea »eed orders are being 

 delivered short ; proportionate shares only being 

 handed out of the quantities ordered. 



Iu times ol undue excitement it is the bold man 

 who scores, and it was surely a touch of genius 

 which was manifest in the advertisement some time 

 ago, which offered four maunds of tea seed at 

 ItlOO a niaun<l ! cash to accompany the order I ! 

 and the advertisement to appear only once 1 I I 

 Whether it was the price, or the immediate delivery, 

 or the quality of the seed, or the vendor's confid- 

 ence in the "power of the single insertion, which 

 fetched a portion of the public, I know not, bnt 

 this I do know, that a man who wrote off whenever 

 lie read the advertisement had sorrowfully to con 

 fess that quick as ho had been lie vas yet too 

 late, ioi' be bad bis cheque returned with tbe \a- 



