CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION. 113 



of the island, later investigation proved that it had no 

 relation whatever to that of the regular teas of com- 

 merce. Tennant, in 1842, was the first Englishman to 

 speak of Ceylon as a possible tea-growing country, but 

 the highly profitable cultivation of coffee at that time 

 attracted so much public attention that the article which 

 has since proved to be the real wealth of the island was 

 heedlessly overlooked, so that it is not too much to say 

 that the present high position of Ceylon as a tea-pro- 

 ducing country has been to a great extent entirely due 

 to accident, it being only after the outbreak of the coffee- 

 pest in 1 870 that tea was first looked upon as a possible 

 source of profit. When utter ruin seemed the only fate 

 of the planters, it was suggested that they turn their 

 attention to the cultivation of tea. A commission was 

 duly appointed to visit the tea districts of India, and 

 report upon the desirability of introducing the tea-plant 

 into Ceylon. Very tardily, indeed, at first did the planters 

 come to regard the experiment in the light of a paying 

 speculation, for old habits and prejudices were strong, 

 inducing them to cling with persistency to the hope that 

 the coffee-plague would ultimately disappear, and it was 

 only as a last resource that they decided to turn their 

 attention to tea-culture on that island. The first planta- 

 tion was started with plants received from China; the 

 result, however, proved a financial failure, the first tea 

 produced therefrom costing $25 per pound. Other spas- 

 modic efforts were made later, until it was finally admitted 

 that tea-culture could be made a success on the island, 

 when a rush was made for estates for tea-growing pur- 

 poses. The progress made was small at the beginning, 

 many of those who planted tea doing so under the con- 

 viction that the industry would not pay, abandoning the 

 scheme almost at the outset. 



