204 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



North- West Provinces and in the Punjab to combine to exploit the 

 American markets with half-chests of green Tea, for the manufacture 

 of which those districts are famous, and for which there is so little 

 demand at present in the Central Asian market. We merely throw out 

 the suggestion, knowing that most of the planters in these parts could 

 ill afford to risk much in such an experiment. It is possible that the 

 Syndicate here, which already ships largely to America, might arrange 

 to ship green Tea for such of the planters in Northern India as cared to 

 join the Calcutta body. 



The American demand for green Tea is so large, that a quantity 

 representing the entire outturn of Northern India would form but a 

 small percentage of the whole, and if Indian green Tea from the Hima- 

 layas were taken up in that market, a demand for the whole quantity 

 produced might easily arise. Whether it would ever be able to compete 

 with China green Tea in the matter of price we do not know, and we 

 should think it would be up-hill work, and attended with some loss 

 in the first instance at any rate. 



The more Tea each individual drinks, the better doubt- 

 less for the producers. It is satisfactory therefore to find 

 the consumption per head is increasing in the United 

 Kingdom as follows : 



1870. 1875. 1880. 



Ibs. Ibs. Ibs. 



3.81 4.44 4.59 



Nearly i Ib. per head more in 1880 than 1870 ! 



A few figures as to Indian Teas in Australia and America 

 will finish this Chapter of Statistics. 



The consumption of Indian Tea in Australia and 

 the Colonies stands as follows : 



1880-81 Little under f of a million Ibs. 



1881-82 ... ... Nearly i million ,, 



1882-83 ... ... Estimated 2 million 



This is a satisfactory increase, but when we consider 

 how vast is the great Australasian field, it stands to reason 



