and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— January, 1912. 91 



lia nearly gone, Canada going, our own quite 

 small, Russia, its best customer, turning to 

 India and Ceylon, and the United States re- 

 jecting its faced green tea. It still survives, 

 however, and is even regaining ground, for 

 Russia, London, and the Continent together 

 have bought some 15,000,0001b. more thisseason 

 while America and others have taken 6,000,000 lb. 

 less so far. Chinatea is still needed, and that 

 is why so much concern is felt lest its cultiva- 

 tion or supply should be endangered by the 

 prevailing chaos and disorder. 



Ceylon's Thriving Industry, 



In Ceylon we come to an industry that thrives, 

 in spite of drought and flood, rubber and dear 

 labour. High-water mark was touched in 1909, 

 when 192,000,000 lb. were shipped; then word 

 was sent that the bushes would give way where 

 rubber was growing amongst them, and only 

 182,000,000 lb. were made in 1910; but this year 

 the yield is up to 187,001,000 lb. It seems as if 

 the rubber trees were growing slower than was 

 expected, and tea getting more care ; manure, 

 moreover, is doing good, and giving plenty of 

 leaf. All that the island can produce is wanted, 

 especially the fine-flavoured tea once made, now 

 becoming scarce. No large schemes for develop- 

 ment 6eem possible, but gradual email exten- 

 sions of the area planted are being made, and 

 the total is now more than 400,000 acres, in- 

 cludirg 15, COO still immature, and 78 000 acres 

 that are interplanted with rubber. Our share 

 of the output is about 112,000,000 lb. this year, 

 and 75,000,000 lb. go elsewhere. Russia, Aus- 

 tralia, and North America continue to be free 

 buyers in Colombo, and so dependable that the 

 local market, where about 70,000,000 lb have 

 been sold in auction, moves almost indepen- 

 dently of London, strengthening the hands of 

 those who sell their produce here. 

 Prospects in India. 



We pass on to India, the hope of all who want 

 tea cheap and good, and India should not fail 

 them. About 258,000,000 lb. were gathered 

 there in 1909, some 262,(100,000 lb. in 1910, and 

 this year's crop may be a-j much as 270.000,000 

 lb., all of which will find a ready sale. Will 

 India go on giving more ? It will partly depend 

 upon the climate, and whether the word 

 goes out to pluck with a heavy hand ; also 

 on the extent to which manuring is adopted. 

 India has been behind Ceylon in this 

 respect, but its eflicacy being proved, it 

 may become more general, the result being 

 more leaf but not tea of better quality. 

 Increase is also due from about 30,000 acres 

 of newly-planted and 20,000 acres of re- planted 

 land since 1906, which should compensate for 

 shortening yields from some of the oldest 

 fields, and give hope of some annual, if irre- 

 gular, expansion in supply. A fresh forward 

 movement in extending would have been made 

 ere now if it had not been delayed by difficulties 

 connected with labour and the land. 



The growers in the North now have the 

 benefit of two markets in which to sell, and 

 of the last crop they sold 76,000,00:) lb. in 

 Calcutta, where numerous buyers congregate, 

 who purchased of them and away from us 

 73,000,000 lb., including what the natives of 



India take for local use. The pi an ie^s 'in the 

 South sell partly in Colombo, and o'lt of their 

 total of 18,000,000 1b. about %',000,OUO lb. , wVre 

 diverted from London, moat'y" tb America. 

 More is being sold locally this season at the 

 auctions, at a good advance upon last year's 

 price, but somewhat less of it has been taken 

 for foreign and Colonial use, as bidders for 

 London were active in Calcutta. 



Importance of Local Markets. 

 The existence of these local markets has 

 not received the attention they deserve ; they 

 have been overlooked or underrated here, even 

 deemed unwelcome rivals to London's supre- 

 macy, but they have been the means by which 

 the desired expausion in the use of our tea 

 abroad has been attained, and the making of the 

 growers' good fortune. This could not have been 

 done, and cannot be maintained, through Lon- 

 don channels, and what it has effected the 

 following figures show : During the last decade 

 India and Ceylon's aggregate output increased 

 104,000,000 lb. ; our home cosumption of it only 

 increased 25,0u0,000 lb., and our re-exports of it 

 only advanced 10,000,000 lb. leaving a surplus of 

 69,000,000 lb. to find a market. How was it done? 

 By means of direct sales to the buyers from other 

 countries attracted to Calcutta and Colombo, 

 whose purchases increased some 80,000,000 lb, 

 or more during the same ten years. There, in a 

 sentence, is the explanation of the limitation of 

 our home supplies and stocks, which set our 

 markets moving upward to the high prices that 

 were lately reached — an outside influence that 

 quite modified or changed the position for a time, 

 if now abating. 



The same process has been going on in Java, 

 its increased output being nearly all bought by 

 our competitors. They deserve well of produ- 

 cers, as chey have averted the consequences of a 

 glut of tea at home, such as in bygone years 

 threatened this market, and some of them must 

 be named. The Russian markets have added 

 44,000,000 lb., American merchants 13,000,000 lb, 

 and Australian merchants 7,000,000 lb. to what 

 they bought ten years ago from India and Ceylon, 

 which makes it quite clear to all who do not know 

 it that the price of our tea has been raised by 

 the requirements and action of the Moscow and 

 Hankow firms that buy it on the spot. 



Looking Forward. 



The year's story has been told. What of the 

 future ? What will it bring to those who grow, 

 ship, deal in, or drink tea ? What will be its 

 price next year and the year after? It is un- 

 usual to look so far ahead; a few weeks or months 

 used to be the limit of the outlook, but those 

 who have large interests at stake have now to 

 consider something more than the petty de- 

 tails of import and delivery, auctions and 

 average rates, for changes are taking place 

 that may bring new influences Co bear upon 

 markets, trade, and prices. We are in 

 the throes of a great movement, a social and 

 economic revolution. The wage-earners are seek- 

 ing improved conditions, and they are getting 

 them. A general increase in the capacity of the 

 masses to spend money is in sight. How will 

 they spend it? And we are promised other 

 changes that will admit new and vast elements 



