jMav I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISI*. 



737 



TEA IN CEYLON AND JAVA. 



Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton liave issued two 

 valuable and very suggestive circulars illustrated 

 l)j- eve-speakinj; diagrams, one referring to the 

 progress o{ tea in Ceylon and Java respectively. 

 The comparison or rather contrast is wonderful : 

 for, while the exports from Java have been nearly 

 stationary for 10 years, beginning with 4,808,000 

 ]b. in 1875, ri.sing to 6,l-5;i,000 in 1878 and sink- 

 ing again to 5,590,000 in 1884 ; the exports from 

 Ceylon have risen in half the time, from a 

 little over 114,000 lb. in 1880 to 4,.S52,8n5 in 1884. 

 With some variations the pi-ice of Ceylon tea 

 has also risen during the six years, from lid to 

 Is 3|d per lb. Well may Messrs. Gow, Stanton 

 & Co. \n-ite : — 



It is indeed a rarity to find any commodity in- 

 creasing so rapidly in production and showing a rise 

 in price so constant and sustained. We feel sure that 

 these encouraging results will tend towards even more 

 strenuous efforts on the part of planters to excel in 

 i/iitilili/ the produce of other Tea growing countries, 

 while they continue to increase the quantitif of their 

 exports. We would strongly urge them to remember 

 that the future prosperity of the Ceylon Tea trade 

 must depend mainly upon the excellence of quality 

 to which the article attains. 



Looking at the astonishing rapidity of produc- 

 tion in Ceylon and the certainty of progress at 

 a much accelerated rate, figures are produced to 

 help to a solution of the questions, — what new 

 markets for tea can be opened? and what room 

 for expansion is there in existing markets? The 

 British race are the great consumers of tea, 

 although in the United States the national taste 

 has gone off in favor of coffee. In Britain the 

 consumption per head is now 4-;i0 lb. per liead, 

 while the three millions of the Australian colonies. 

 New Zealand and Tasmania, taken together, use 

 over 7^ lb. per head. The more Australia is 

 peopled, therefore, the better for tea-growers, and 

 as better times come in Britain, no doubt, the 

 consumption of tea there will more and more 

 assimilate to that in Australia. Even in Canada 

 and Newfoundland, the consumjition is equal to 

 4} lb. per head, against only 1-aO in the United 

 States. The truth is that the people of the I'nited 

 States have never had good tea presented to them, 

 and their taste has been formed or their prejudice 

 strengthened by burnt and adulterated stuff from 

 Japan. Of Continental countries Holland alone 

 consumes over 1 lb. of tea per head, the figure 

 being 1-05, while Russia, with all that we have 

 heard of her constant tea drinking, uses only Ofil 

 per head. In the Cape Colony and Natal they 

 are not yet much ahead of Russia, and as for 

 other countries of any importance in the world, 

 the figures go down from 0-7(1 lb. per head in 

 Denmark to 1-lOOth of a pound per head in chocol- 

 ate-loving Spain! Here, we suppose, as in other 

 parts of the Continent, tea can only be obtained 

 in the shop of the apothecary, and then the stuff 

 obtained is "medicine" with a vengeance. We 

 look for much effect from the distribution of 

 really good tea at the forthcoming Exhibition, to be 

 followed up on similar occasions, as also from the 

 operations of syndicates and individuals. Even in 

 South America where mat^- is so largely used, good tea 

 is gradually making way. But of about :<50 millions 

 of lb. of tea exported from producing countries, 

 92 



over two-thirds is drunk by persons of British 

 origin, a fact which (in the face of the still great 

 consumption of alcohol) largely accounts, without 

 doubt, for our position in the world. Tea grown 

 by Englishmen in India and Ceylon is rapidly 

 displacing the interior China stuff', the proportion 

 in Britain now being 10 per cent of the former, 

 a proportion which will rapidly increase, Ceylon 

 keeping, we doubt not, the foremost place in quality 

 she has already obtained. 



But the teas of Java have also greatly improved 

 from their once low standard and with the decad 

 ence of coffee, we have no doubt that very largely 

 increased attention will be paid in Netherlands 

 India to this new product, more and more seed 

 being introduced from India. During 1885 there 

 was a marked improvement in price and for two 

 years deliveries had largely exceeded imports, so 

 that supplies, owing to this fact and to recent 

 drought in Java, were short of demand. The im- 

 ports into Britain had risen from 1,21(),000 lb. in 1881 

 to 3,343,000 in 1885. This was considerably more 

 than half the total exports from Java. With '20 

 millions of population the local consumption must 

 be appreciable, and we suppose we shall not be 

 much out in estimating the present total produc- 

 tion of tea in Java at 8,000,000 lb. of which over 

 a million are locally consumed* ? There will now be 

 a race betweeen the Dutch and the British Islands, 

 but we shall soon be far ahead, for we believe that 

 practically all the tea produced in Java is grown on 

 3'J pro])ertics enumerated by Messrs. Gow, Wilson it 

 Stanton of which that of our good friend Mr. 

 Kerkhoven, Sinagar, seems to be the chief. It sent 

 away (i,218 chests and 20 boxes last year, while 

 3,155 chests are against Bagelen, and (curious 

 exception) 5,258 boxes against only 1,000 chests in 

 the cas" of Nangoeng. What are 31) estates, however, 

 large their respective acreages, to our 500 to (100 

 plantations, with over 100,000 acres already in tea; but 

 then Java is now fast going ahead planting more land 

 with tea. With all the improvement which has taken 

 place, the average for .Tava tea sold in 1885 was 

 only !t-S4d per lb. against 1/3| for Ceylon. Hav- 

 ing heard in 1880-81 that the Melbourne market 

 had been tried with Java tea in vain, we suggested 

 that there might be some excess or some deficiency 

 in the volcanic soil, the probability in our mind be- 

 ing a deficiency of iron. But Mr. Moens, who had 

 analyzed the soils, did not favour this view ; so we 

 suppose the real inferiority of those really nice- 

 looking teas was due to defective fermentation. 

 Messrs. Gow, Wilson A Stanton are right in urging 

 the adoption of the best jats, but the case of 

 Darjiling and the Kangra Valley would seem to 

 prove that there is no inferiority of quality in the 

 leaf of China tea, if properly treated. Ottr busi- 

 ness, however, is to turn out teas of the best 

 quality in Ceylon, while our (|uantity goes on in- 

 creasing, so as soon to overtake and rapidly pass 

 our competitors in .lava. As the figures for total 

 consumption and iiuantity used per head of popul- 

 ation in various countries of the world, are of great 

 and permanent importance, enabling us to see 

 what the chances against a glut of production are, 

 we i|Uote them as they are so carefully compiled 

 and so cautiously submitted by Messrs. Gow, 

 Wilson * Stanton : — 



The figures in the subjoined list, wliich aic chiefly 

 based upon an overaye oj jh'e /»/ ttniiinj i/rai-s, give the 

 amount of tea takeu for home cousumptio* ia variois 



* Our " Hanilhook and Directory" fhows a totii) 

 prfiductinii for .T;iva of 8 mi lion n>s. arnl up to 7 

 roillionA for export : the liatavia Kxcbange nhowed 

 G,flOO,000 lbs. of export inseaaon I884-.'>, 



