and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



5f9 



TEA CULTIVATION IN CEYLON AND 

 THE CAUCASUS. 



Moscow, 21st March— 3rd April, 1909. 



Sir,— In the " Supplement to the Tropical 

 Agriculturist, Vol. XXXII., No. 4, October, 

 1903, page 396: Russia's Caucasian tea" is 

 read: — "Comparisons made between the tea 

 produced in the Caucasus and that produced 

 in Ceylon all show clearly in favour of the 

 Caucasus," says tho journal. "After a 13 years 

 trial the Caucasian fields yield 116 lb. an acre 

 to 14 lb only from the Ceylon plantations — 

 ten times less." To these lines a remark is 

 added, that tho Russian journal has taken too 

 little care of the Ceylon yields per acre. 



The " Pharmatzertitsohesky Journal,'' it 

 seems, has copied figures without duly enlighten- 

 ing them from my report of 1906. There in 

 tho table No. 4 is read as follows : — 



"J Ac productiveness of the tea plantations in 

 Ceytou, as compared with the tea plantations on 

 the Caucasia estates of Constantine Popojf, 

 during the first 13 years of their existence, 



Ceylon. 



[Figures can be made to prove anything, it 

 is said ; but our correspondent, the well- 

 known Russian Tea Merchant, Mr. Constantine 

 Popoff, really endeavours to make them do too 

 much. Mr. Popoff evidently wants to maintain 

 that tho productiveness of his tea p1»,i'*4ti*n in 

 the Caucasus has proved greater than o »e pro- 

 ductiveness of tea plantations in Ceylon. He 

 takes the number of acres of tea planted and the 

 total quantity exported year by year for tho 

 first 13 years of the existence of the Ceylon 

 tea industry ; and this he contrasts with the 

 first thirteen years of the working of his own 

 estates. He makes out that during tho period 

 Ceylon attained the maximum production of 

 14 lb. per acre, while on his plantation 146 lb. 

 per acre was attained. Hisligures as regards 

 Ceylon merely represent tho amount of tea ex- 

 ported and take no stock of the quantity 

 consumed locally ; but he does not point out 

 that, in the early years, there was of course no 

 tea in bearing. On the other hand he has been 

 able to account for every ounce of tea produced 

 on his own property. At the present moment 

 Ceylon is producing 460 lb per acre all round on 

 an average and not a few estates in the island 

 are giving 1,000 lb. per acre. What is M. 

 Popoft s 146 lb. per acre compared to this ?] 



18C9 

 1870 

 1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877 

 1S73 

 1871) 



.Sale in lb, 



1,750 

 2,72o 

 4,700 

 6,600 



2,105 

 19,607 

 95,969 

 150,000,000 



Plantations of Const \ntine Popoff. 



1896 ' 13 dessateens of | 

 1807 | nurseries and 

 1898 I 127 dessateens | 

 1899-! of Plantations. )■ 

 127 dessateens I 

 = about 38t 

 acres. I 



Sale in lb. of 





Ulack Tea 





(Tablets of Tea 



Years, 



and pills not 





included). 







First 



do 



i 



20 



3 



3" 





lV'fO 



5 



2,900 



B 



3,610 



7 



846 



H 



9,300 



9 



17,027 



JO 



16,8331, 



11 



34,655 



12 



5H,346 



13 



The tables show that the comparison of the 

 Ceylon yields (1867 -1879) is made exclusively 

 with one plantation belonging to me They 

 indicate, that the increasing of Ceylon yields 

 resulted on the increasing amount of culti- 

 vated aores, the increasing of yields of my 

 plantation had not such a dependence, as the 

 amount of cultivated acros remained all the 

 time the same. 



The details about my trial of tea culture 

 in Trans- Caucasus oan be read : Tho Tropi- 

 cal Agriculturist Vol. XXXI. No 5, November, 

 1901.— Yours faithfully, 



CONSTANTINE POPOFF, 



m®BEB IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES 

 AND AMAZON. 



MR. J. B. CARRUTHERS EXTRACTS 



INFORMATION FROM A LECTURER. 



A most interesting paper on " The Resources 

 of the Peruvian Andes and Amazon,'' by Mr. 

 C. Reginald Enock, f.r.g s., Civil and Mining 

 Engineer, was read before an ordinary meeting 

 of the Society of Arts on April 28th. The paper 

 dealt mostly with the mineral wealth of these 

 countries, but rubber was frequently mentioned, 

 and at the close some further interesting infor- 

 mation was adduced in the course of discussion 

 by Mr. J. B. Carruthers among others. From 

 the lecturer's paper we extract the following : 



There are gold mines ; untold wealth of silver ; 

 there is copper and coal and quicksilver in 

 abundance ; and farther on yet there is wealth 

 of rubber and timber and chocolate and sugar, 

 cane, great herds of sheep and cattle and alpa- 

 cas, and many other matters of satisfaction to 

 the traveller, the capitalist, and the merchant... 

 And far beyond the great Cordilleras we shall 

 boo canoe-loads of "black gold," the rubber from 

 the forests, as tho rubber-gatherer shoots down 

 the rapids of the Amazon affluents towards the 

 Iquitos market. The wealth of an empire lies 

 within and beyond the Andes and upon the 

 Peruvian Amazon, waiting only the set of 

 humanity that way to gather it m for huma- 

 nity's use. 



Leaving the high regions of tho Ancles we 

 descend to the third natural zone of Peru, tho 

 "Montana," or region of the forests of the 

 Amazon plain. The natural resources of this 

 vast region might be summed up by saying that 

 it forms one ot the world's great natural store- 



