and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



175 



tally has been fairly good, without being in any 

 way outstanding. 



Ceylon Tea. 



Coming after a year in which there had been 

 a set-back in yield it was natural to expect that 

 1907 would show some increase. The figure of 

 increase, however (say about 13 million lb.), is 

 considerably beyond any expectations formed 

 earlier in the season. It has been made up in a 

 somewhat eccentric way, similar to the yield 

 from India, as many companies show 

 deficiencies while others show considerable 

 increases. It is fortunate that the large 

 development was coincident with an Indian 

 yield inclined to be retrograde, so that it has 

 been found possible to dispose of the heavy pro- 

 duction at prices which in Colombo, as well as 

 in London, tended generally throughout the 

 year to a gradual but certain advance in level. 



There is no evidence yet that rubber is affect- 

 ing production, or that the higher costs of 

 labour and labour difficulties are tending to'res- 

 trict same. As more rubber trees reach the tap- 

 ping stage, it is possibe the labour difficulty 

 may show itself more definitely, but the recent 

 condition of the market for rubber and the less 

 brilliant prospects for rubber investments, will, 

 no doubt, tend to check extensions. There is now 

 shown some disposition to make extensions in 

 tea where suitable land can be found. It will, 

 however, be many years before the crop from 

 such can come into competition with the exist- 

 ing volume of supply. It will be seen that the 

 importations into the United Kingdom were only 

 slightly in excess of those for 1906, but that 

 there was a very considerable falling off in both 

 the duty-paid consumption and the expor- 

 tation, the Use of Ceylon tea having dropped 

 back materially in the home trade during the 

 « last two years. 



Java Tea. 



The island of Java continues to make mode- 

 rate progress in yield, and the Tea grown there 

 is now of much more general interest to Tea 

 distributors because of the improvement in 

 quality and manufacture. A few of the estates 

 are, in their produce, quite equal in character 

 to corresponding estates in India and Ceylon. 

 There is no doubt that if capital could be 

 found to develop more rapidly the Tea possi- 

 bilities of the island it would become a 

 most formidale competitor to the oth er growths. 

 The consumption in Holland, to which the 

 great bulk of the production is sent, has re- 

 mained fairly stationary for several years, 



rendering it more than ever necessary to re-ship 

 all excess to Great Britain. Some of the London 

 tea brokers, whose business purview is limited 

 by the horizon of Mincing Lane, record a falling 

 off in the volume of Java business, but the 

 statistics herewith will show how gradually but 

 s urely this Tea is establishing itself in consump- 

 tion within the United Kingdom ; indeed the 

 competition of Java tea sold in the auctions of 

 Amsterdam and delivered at low rates of freight 

 to various outports in the United Kingdom, is 

 one of the most severe which London tea dealers 

 have to meet and is having a serious effect upon 

 the prices that can be paid for Indian and 

 Ceylon teas to sell in competition. Even the 

 competition of Russian buyers for Java teas 

 (which are free from the special discriminating 

 surtax that Russia put upon Indian and Ceylon 

 teas from London) has now been transferred to 

 a large extent from the London to the Amster- 

 dam market. The exports from London of Java 

 tea have consequently declined materially. 



CHINA TEA. 



There was during the year a very considerable 

 development in the home use of China teas, 

 and the improved aspect of the statistics for 

 those has been made much of by the specialist 

 China dealers who have been so successful 

 during the last few years in obtaining a great 

 deal of judiciously worked advertising, fre- 

 quently at no cost whatever. A close exami- 

 nation into the particular kinds of China 

 tea that have gone to make up the 

 increase in the deliveries indicates, however, 

 that the increase is not in the pure high-class 

 teas that the consumer is urged to drink for 

 the benefit of his digestive or nervous organi- 

 sation. The obvious explanation of the largo 

 increase is that blonders have found it necessary 

 to use the very lowest priced stuff obtainable 

 in order to reduce costs to a minimum : inferior 

 China sittings, formerly considered practically 

 unsaleable, have gone into the pot in as large 

 a proportion as the distributer dare use, and 

 certain aspects of the statistics indicate that 

 more China tea of low character has been 

 imported during the year than it has been 

 possible to absorb. The marked unwillingness 

 of the modern consumer to drink anything that 

 betrays a suspicion of the rank flavour of com- 

 mon China tea, is a factor that has to be 

 reckoned with. A limited number of dietetic 

 faddists, influenced ly antiquatod medical 

 opinions, drink what is called China tea and 

 say that they like it. It is exceedingly pro- 

 bable, however, that much more tea is servecl 



