EN ROITE TO A CEYLON TEA ESTATE 11 



35,882.000 pounda and Formosa sixth with 23,285,000 

 pounds. Even if the exports of Japan and Formosa 

 be added together and cre<lit«'d to the Japam'so Empire, 

 since the Ibland c»f Formosa is a Japanese possession, 

 Japan can only claim to be fourth in the running 

 on the strength of a total export that was less than 

 one-third of CVylon's contribution to the world's 

 supply of tea. 



But Ceylon's rank as a tea-producing countrj' cannot 

 be fairly estimated by a mere comparison of her output 

 with that of India and China, nor does her interest in 

 this role depend entirely on the bare fact that she is 

 able to take such a good third place in the quant it j- test. 

 There are a few more facts I want to put before you, 

 and I hope 3'ou will often give them a thought when 

 we !ie C<ylon tea-lands ; they will lu-lp you 



to ^. . . ^. on a fair basis, your own idea as to 



the position of Ceylon in the tea industry. But I must 

 w&m you that it Is not possible to arrive at any just 

 estimate of the importance of any one count rj- to that 

 industry until you have st>cn what is being done as 

 regards the cultivation and manufacture of tea by all 

 the countries that a^ t 'ucing the C' ' 'v, and 



have studied the • r of the ^ that 



consume it. 



Tea was first cultivated in CVylon in the sixtus of 

 last century. The first export of 23 pounds was sent 

 to London in 1872. By 1880, the Ceylon export had 

 risen to 1 15.000 pounds ; by 1883 the figures expressing 

 its output ran into millions, by IS87 into tens of 

 millions, and by 1896 into hundreds of millions. In 

 1911 the export amounted to 187.674.990 pounds, a 

 total which beat all Ceylon s past annoal records with 



