1&2 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September 2, 1889- 
all possible information furnished, — should not 
only meet but far exceed local demand. Euro- 
peans now enjoy.fair health in the north-central, 
eastern, northern and south-eastern portions of the 
island, where the climate and soil specially favour- 
able to cotton cultivation exist. It is quite 
possible therefore, that Europeans could per- 
sonally superintend cotton cultivation on a 
large scale in the dry and arid regions. 
In any case they could visit and direct 
such cultivation so as to ensure all possi- 
ble success. We are aware, from personal obser- 
vation, that experiments made in the Jaffna Penin- 
sula now nearly half a century ago by the Messrs. 
Whitehouse Brothers and Mr. Hardy, were not 
successful. But prices are now better and the 
cultivation better understood. There is far better 
soil on the mainland than that in which the 
experiments were conducted in the Jaffna 
Peninsula, — in the north-central Province 
certainly. There the difficulty is population, 
but as Jaffna Tamils are flocking in to 
cultivate rice, so Tinnevelly and Madras Tamils 
might be induced by liberal offers of land to 
emigrate for the cultivation of cotton, alone or 
as a mixed crop with food grain, —on unirrigated 
soil or on land "under" tanks, — we cannot help 
thinking that irrigation in dry or arid regions 
would obviate all difficulties as to boles forming in 
the monsoon rains and also enable the cultivator 
to set insect and other enemies of the crop at 
defiance. But any way, now that a large local 
demand and fairly remunerative prices are assured, 
we feel certain that the vaticinations of Mr. Caley 
and others as to Ceylon becoming a considerable 
cotton-produoing country are likely to be fulfilled. 
THE FUTURE OP CEYLON TEA IN THE 
LONDON MARKET. 
At a time when the long-continuing fall in the 
price of our teas at home was creating a well- 
founded alarm among the proprietors of estates, it 
would certainly have been cheering to have learned 
that the opinion of Mr. Roberts, of Messrs. S. Rucker 
& Co., the well-known and highly reputedLondon firm, 
was to the effect that the lowest point of fall had 
been reached and that an upward tendency in 
prices might shortly be looked for. That opinion, 
it will be observed, was expressed to our London 
Correspondent on June 28th when the average 
for Ceylon teas had reached the lowest point of 
8|d. And now that the reaction has set in and the 
average has risen to nearly, if not quite lOd, full 
credit should be given to Mr. Roberts. Our London 
Correspondent has been favoured by this gentleman 
with his views on the subject of our teas ever 
since their cultivation on any large scale com- 
menced in this island, and it may be stated as a 
faot that Mr. Roberts' anticipations have uni- 
formly been fulfilled. It was Mr. Roberts who, at 
the time when nearly all the London houses re- 
fused almost to look at Ceylon teas, asserted his 
belief in the great future that lay before our 
now chief local industry. He recognized in the 
overburnt and crudely prepared tea that was then 
shipped from this island, qualities which he felt 
assured must, when the preparation was better 
understood and praotised, certainly give to Ceylon 
teas the pre-eminence in popular favour which they 
have sinco obtained among the tea-drinkers of Great 
Britain. 
But apart from the wide experience and highly 
trained judgment which enabled Mr. Roberts to 
express himself with suoh confidence, he is 
possessed of aa exceptional position which should 
render any opinion he may form exceedingly 
reliable. As a member of a firm largely engaged 
in wholesale dealings in tea of all growths and 
descriptions, no one can be better qualified to estimate 
the position and prospects of any special pro- 
duction ; while the further fact that, as being 
connected with a Company whose main function is 
the distribution of Ceylon produce to the retail 
dealers of the United Kingdom, it must be to his 
interest to be able to purchase our teas at the 
lowest possible rates, lent force to the view ex- 
pressed by him that the term of capability to 
purchase at recent low prices was coming to an end. 
For these several reasons, therefore, we are fully 
prepared to endorse the confidence expressed by 
our London Correspondent as to the value attach- 
ing to any judgment so experienced an expert and 
distributor as Mr. Roberts may enunciate. We 
have but recently referred in our editorial re- 
marks to the points raised by Sir Robert Hart 
in his official report on the tea trade of Chiua. 
It will be observed how strongly Mr. Roberts 
adopts the views we have ourselves expressed 
that it is impossible, on Sir Robert Hart's own 
showing, that the competition of China in 
the English tea market can be much longer 
continued. If the conclusions of so experienced 
a local official as expressed in that report 
may be accepted — and there is every reason 
why reliance may be placed upon them — every 
pound of tea now sent home from China, is 
being supplied at a dead loss. The result we 
have »een apparent in the large diminution that 
has now gone on for successive years — and 
especially during the present season — in the 
shipments made from the Celestial Empire to 
Great Britain, and it appears certain that the 
causes which have brought this about must be 
equally operative to " hasten the end." We 
have before detailed our reasons for believing 
that the only recommendations apparent to Sir 
Robert Hart whereby this diminished shipments 
may be stayed are impossible of being carried 
into effect, and we need not therefore now further 
refer to them. But we may be fairly well assured 
that as prices now rise, the teas of Ceylon and 
India will be forwarded in quantities which will 
maintain values at a level equal, we trust, to 
affording an adequate return to the planters, while 
still offering an effective bar to the resuscitation 
of Chinese competition. 
There are several other points in Mr. Roberts' in- 
teresting and valuable remarks to which the attention 
of our upcountry readers may well be directed. 
We have before been favoured with his views 
as to the desirability of medium pluoking, and have 
learned how strongly he would deprecate any attempt 
to confine our harvesting, preparation and exports 
wholly, or even nearly wholly, to the higher grades of 
tea. To do this would, in his opinion, tend seriously 
to narrow the field within which the taste for 
Ceylon teas can be cultivated among the tea- 
drinkers of the United Kingdom ; but in the remarks 
with which we have now been favoured Mr. 
Roberts includes the observation " But pray don't 
sacrifice quality"; that is by overstrained andinjudi- 
cious attempts to economize in the cost of production 
and preparation. It is certain from what we read 
in our London Letter that Mr. Roberts would 
urge upon our planters to abstain from sending 
home any great bulk of what may be termed 
" inferior teas," though he would desire to see a 
certain proportion of second, and even third, class 
teas accompany those of the finer pickings. He 
condemns the large amount of "simultaneous 
arrivals," manifestly of inferior qualities, which 
flood the market and find but few buyers willing 
