and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. —July, 1911. 83 



In the season 1908-9 deliveries were swollen 

 and Stocks were depleted by abnormally heavy 

 clearances prior to the Budget. 



Total Transhipments During the Past four 

 Seasons— 1st June to 31st May. 



1910-11. 1909-10. 1908-9. 1907-8. 



Iulian lb. 10^31700 £ 643700 9192900 i:866300 



Ceylon do 3229600 3506^00 2365900 2894800 



China do 1705600 1631900 3440400 2329400 

 Java & other 



Countries do 1629700 1C84900 1283400 11 08 CO 



Total 



do 



Average price rea- 

 lised for Indian 

 Tea sold in Lon- 

 don on Garden 

 Account 



Average price rea- 

 lised for Ceylon 

 Tea sold in Lon- 

 don on Garden 

 Account 



16799600 15467C00 16. 83600 1519S600 



1910 1909 1908 1907 



—8 3-5d - 8 l-3d -7 7-Sd — 81d per lb 



1911 1910 1909 1908 



1910 1909 1908 1907 

 -81-gd -8 1-8d — 7 7-8d -8d per lb 



TEA SHARES. 



Companies' Results for the Past Year. 



Sufficient of the tea corapanios have issued 

 their reports for the 1910 season to make it pos- 

 sible to analyse their results and to see how far 

 great expectations of last year are in the way of 

 being realized. It will be remembered that 

 directly after the rubber boom had exhausted 

 itself in the spring of last year there was talk 

 of a coming tea boom. 



The arguments in favour of a boom iu tea 

 shares were based on three factors. First, the 

 world's consumption of tea was showiug a 

 steady increase, for which the Indian teas were 

 wholly responsible ; even in those countries 

 where China tea was still consumed in large 

 quantities its use was steadily diminishing 

 before the ever-growing taste for a stronger- 

 flavoured leaf. The second point was the be- 

 lief that before the production of tea could rise 

 to meet the increased demand a substantial ad- 

 vance in price would have to take place, this 

 belief being based on the argument that most 

 of the land suitable for tea cultivation was al- 

 ready planted. And the third factor rested on 

 tho assumption that the boom in rubber would 

 lead a large number of tea companies either to 

 abandon tea or so to interplant with rubber as 

 seriously to diminish the productive capacity 

 of their land. 



In the following table are shown the total 

 crops and the net profits of the Companies for 

 1909 and 1910 :— 



Crop. Net ProHt. 



Company. 1909. 1910. 190J. 1910 



lb. lb. £. £. 



Alliance 1289700 1186600 a 12061 ftl02 7 



Amalgamated 4312000 4355300 rt39251 055761 



Bandarapola 80500 733600 a7920 a 4336 



Ceylon Tea Plant. 5516500 540000) a71112 a76546 

 Ceylon Prop, lea 1229900 1179800 8456 a9836 

 Consolidated Tea 



and Lands 16391500 16462200 148460 al79326 



Eastern Produce 4807400 4782100 a36162 a75133 

 Kast India and 



Ceylon 2012900 2059900 — 20209 



Imperial Tea 6267300 5335000 41718 47877 



Lunuva (Ceylon) 1739100 1758900 12813 C813134 

 Nuwara Eliya 1824700 1686100 20885 21336 



Standard Tea 1305800 127850) 148il 15080 



Yatiy ntota 150570U 1414100 12583 019186 



ctlncluding profit from other sources. 



Crops Smaller and Pricks Higher. 

 It will be seen that in practically every casa 

 oropd were smaller, but it must be remembered 

 that 1909 was an exceptional year, some of the 

 estates then securing the biggest crops on record, 

 and therefore a certain falling off was to be 

 expected. The falling off in crops was due to 

 much less favourable climatic conditions, but 

 as so often happens with most natural products, 

 a shortage in supply produces its own com- 

 pensation in higher prices. Net profits, it is 

 safe to say, would have been larger but for the 

 difficulty in obtaining sufficient native labour 

 in Ceylon, due in a great part to the extension 

 of rubber planting in that island. On the last 

 occasion when tea prices rose considerably 

 many of the Indian estates adopted the practice 

 of what is known as ''coarse plucking'' in 

 order to take advantage of the high prices 

 ruling, " Coarse plucking " means the utilisa- 

 tion of the lower leaves of the tea plant, and 

 these are naturally inferior in quality. There 

 is, however, no indication from the results so 

 far published that any tendency in this direc- 

 tion was allowed to develop last year. This 

 point, perhaps, is more clearly brought out in 

 our next table : — 



Average price Yield per 

 Company. per lb. aore. 



1909. 1910. 1909. 191". 

 d, d, lb. lb. 

 Alliance 8'05 8-09 479 442 



Amalgamated 9'31 9' 15 336 38S 



Bandarapola 5 86 6'22 718 642 



Ceylon Tea Plantations 8 33 8 - 44 523 496 



Ceylon Proprietary Tea . 7-55 7"94 469 462 

 Consolidated Tea and Lands 7 - 6ti 7'84 563 551 

 Eastern Produce 7-90 8" 05 440 437 



East Indian and Ceylon 7"36 7'62 — — 



Imperial Tea 770 7 "81 490 493 



Lunuva (Ceylon^ b-68 6'70 512 492 



Nuwara Eliya 8-05 8 36 640 592 



Standard Tea 7-96 812 517 50d 



Yatiyantota 6 03 6 23 534 503 



Quality Practically Maintained. 



Here are shown the average price per pound 

 realised on the whole output in 1909 and 1910 

 and the yield per acre for each of the two 

 years. Prices in every case are higher and yields 

 generally lower. Where yields have fallen sub- 

 stantially it is nearly always the case that the 

 price has risen proportionately, indicating that 

 there could have been little falling off in quality 

 as compared with the general average. The 

 decline in the yield per acre shows, however, 

 that the falling off in the total production of tea 

 is not due to any restriction of the area under 

 cultivation, nor is the falling off in the yield per 

 acre sufficient, except in a few isolated cases, 

 which in themselves may have been the result 

 of a particularly bad season, to have been due 

 to the interplanting of rubber. 



Therefore, on the results of the paot year 

 there seems little to justify the expectation of a 

 real boom in tea shares ; in fact, as rubber and 

 tea thrive on similar soils, the extension of 

 rubber planting has resulted in a rise in the 

 price of labour, and this, as far as can be seen, 

 is not likely to fall while tea and rubber are not 

 less profitable than at present. As regards the 

 immediate future, however, while trade con- 

 tinues so active all over the world, the con- 

 sumption of tea will go on increasing, for the 

 consumption, as may oe seen from a glance at 



