April i, 1886.J TPME TROPICAL AGRICULTURIS'T. 



715 



CEYLON LTCOrXTRY PLANTING EKPOBT. 



CHK.U- TEA MACniXEKY— PTTTIXG IT ON— S.MALI- PBO- 

 FITS AXIl QCICK RETURNS SOT THE RULE IS 

 CEVLOX — VET AXOTHER AXD CONTDJUOCS ROLLER — 

 THE PROSPECTS 01- CACAO — NVTJIEGS — A GOOD BLOSSOJI 

 OS COFFEE IN DCUBARA BCO. 



15th March 1SHI\. 

 Is the appearonce of Mr. C. Shand's cheap tea 

 drier the beginning of an era wlien the prices for 

 tea niacliinerv will see a considerable reduction ? 

 That the machines ro.iuired for the manufacture 

 of tea cost a lot of money goes without saying, 

 and that they could be made for very nmch less, 

 and still show a handsome profit to the manu- 

 factmors, can hardly be disputed. There is, 

 however, some delicacy of feeling among the 

 rival makers in regard to lowering current iiuot- 

 ations; no one desires to take precedency of the 

 other in this good work : " After you," they keep 

 repeating to each other, as they stand hat in hand: 

 an exhib:tion of a high-toned refinement of which 

 the planters would willingly see less. 



I heard the other day of one machine which is 

 high ill favour, and has been well cracked up. It 

 has turned out to be a regular milch cow to all who 

 have to do with it— except the buyer. A planter 

 remonstrating with the patentee on the big price 

 he was asking, and pointing out— without any 

 sellish motive of course— how much more satis- 

 factory it would be for every one if a moderate 

 price were demanded, instead of "sticking it on" 

 as was being done, was told that the thing was 

 impossible. How could he ask a moderate jn-icc 

 when the makers of the article wanted R200 clear 

 profit from every machine which left their shop, 

 as their share of the spoil ? Then there was tlie 

 cost of manufacturing, the material, exchange, 

 wages, Ac, to be added. Last of all there was 

 " something for my trouble." Altogether the 

 patentee ran up a nice little|bill, which, if passed, 

 completely cut away the ground from the caviller, 

 and what had seemed exorbitant turned out in the 

 light of fuller knowledge to be cheapness itself. 



And yet there is room and call for a cheap 

 machine, only the engineers as yet don't see it to be 

 to their advantage to resjiond to that call. The 

 principle of "small profits and quick returns" 

 which at home has 'done so much for those \yho 

 have had the courage to embrace it as an article 

 of business faith, is perfectly powerless here: it 

 pays mnch better say they to sell fewer of the 

 higher priced article, than more of the low price one. 

 While on tea machinery, I may say that there 

 is yet another roller about to appear. Unlike thos 

 now in the field, the new machine will be cone 

 tinuouo in its working, the withered leaf coming 

 in at the top, and a steady flow of rolled issu- 

 ing from the bottom. The aim I understand 

 is not to waste any power in continuing to roll 

 what is already BUtliciently rolled, nor to lose time 

 in stopping the machine to take out the charge, 

 and filling up again. If the new roller comes up 

 to the expectation of its inventor, it will be a 

 con?idcrablc advance on anything that is yet in 

 the field, and will have beforeit a prosperous 

 future. 



The weather still keep very favourable for cacao, 

 and those who see it as it is now, and contrast it, 

 with what its appearance was this time last year 

 can trace there in a fit emblem of the downs 

 and ops of a planter's life. A Matalc planter look- 

 ing last season at the future of cacao, through 

 the leafless boughs of his stricken trees, 

 said in reply to a friend who had put 

 in the cheery word that Matale wa.s the very 

 home of cacao, "yes, the last home"! And now 



tliere is everywhere quite a change in tone, the 

 croakers who formerly were legion have ceased their 

 croaking, and the more hopeful have now their 

 innings. 



The season lias also been a very favourable one 

 for nutmegs, o' which, however, there are very few 

 in Ceylon who c n boast of an acreage of any extent 

 in bearing. It is uch a difficult plant to rear, and 

 so very slow to grow that it wearies out the cultivator 

 waiting for returns. I know of one planter wlio was 

 so disgusted with this tardiness of growth that 

 he pulled all he had up by the roots. For months 

 he had agonized over every pair of fresh leaves, and 

 when he came to calculate how much more 

 he would have to go through ere they would 

 attain to any kind of height at all he was appalled 

 at the prospect, and cut the connection by condemn- 

 ing them to the happy dispatch. I once heard of 

 a man who went in for growing teak in India, 

 but backed out when his plants were still in the 

 nursery, as he had come to learn that the teak 

 tree took eighty years to reach its full height, and 

 required fifty more years to mature I* Nutmegs are 

 not (juitc so bad as that, still there is a vista 

 of a decade in length ere bearing begins, and 

 tluy go on improving for more than a quarter of 

 a century. 



I hear of a good coffee blossom aiqisaring in 

 Dumbara, and round about Kandy generally, where 

 any with a fair heart is left: still it is a very "one 

 horse" alJ'air even at the best, and but for the 

 old habit of expecting blossom at this season, the 

 coffee in the lower districts might be dismissed 

 witli few words. Bug seems to have taken itself 

 off to some extent, still it is about, and when it 

 spreads its pall the end is near. rEn-Encous. 



TEA. 

 f'Kxlract from the llrjiorl of the Imliun Ten Association.) 

 Fon THE Year endin.; :28th Fkukhahy 18B6. 

 In last year's report there were some pappra re- 

 garilin;; a trade with 'J'hibet in brick tea, and the 

 Ci)niniittce have .since been favonxl liy Mr. Alfred 

 SiinsoM, of Messrs. Schocne, Kilburii .Si (ki., with a 

 letter in which that gentlemen drew atteiiliou to the 

 fai-t i^licited during Mr. I'olraan MacauUy's vi>it to 

 Sikkim that the Tliibetans are larg'- consumers of leaf 

 t<!is in addition to brick tea. The latter is only con- 

 sumed by those who cannot affonl to indulge in the 

 luxury of tlie more expensive China varieties wbicb, 

 it appears, fetch very high prices, ranging from K2 to 

 113 per lb. As the jiriucipal difficulty in the way of 

 a trade between India and Thibet in tea, wool, piece 

 gnodf, hardware, &c., is the objection of the Chino.se 

 to allow traders to enter the latter territory, ^rr. 

 Simson suggested that the Chamber of Commerce 

 should be urged to take immediate steps for bring- 

 ing the subject to the notice of the Government of 

 India. This was accordingly done, and an intere.sting let- 

 ter was addressed to the Government of India by tho 

 Chamber of Commerce, in which;the Comniittee said 

 that, as Ncpaulcse traders are now admitted into 

 Thibet, the desire no further imiovation upon Chinese 

 cxclusiveness than that the native traders of British 

 India be similarly admitted, and they were of opin- 

 ion that this could best be effected by sending a 

 Commissioner to the Court of Pekin froin India speci- 

 allv charged to negotiate on the snbjcct, 



The result has been that JVIr. Macaulay, an ofhcer 

 of the Bengal Government, was deputed to the Chin- 

 ese' Court, and it is understood that his mission 

 has been so far successful that an arrangement is 

 likclv to be come to, which it is hoped may tend 

 to tJie opening up of a trade with Thiljet. 



• Very different from Pat, who, hearing that a 

 tortoise "lived for 200 year.s, bought one to test the 

 matter for himself !— Ed. 



