THt TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [September 2 1889; 
A SUGGESTED NEW DEPARTURE IN 
CHINA TEA CULTIVATION. 
Our contemporary The Colonies and India, in its 
issue received by the last mail, contains mention 
of a suggestion, which, if given practical effect to, 
must involve an entirely new departure in regard 
to the competition which India and Oeylon are 
carrjing on with China in respect to tea cultivation. 
Reference is made in the columns of that journal 
to a letter addressed by Mr. William Cochran of 
Overdale, Dunblane, Perthshire, to the Stirling 
Observer, dealing with the present condition 
of the tea industry in China. This letter expresses 
the opinion that Chinamen require some practical 
lessons in the art of tea-making, and proposes the 
formation of a Scottish syndicate to undertake 
systematic cultivation of tea in China and to 
introduce a proper system for its manufacture. It 
is the first time, we believe, that we have ever 
heard of a proposal of the kind. Had the sugges- 
tion been confined solely to an attempt to introduce 
improved methods of manufacture we could under- 
stand it ; but that it should embraoe the actual 
cultivation of tea furnishes in our opinion ground 
for a foregone conclusion that any such enterprize, 
if undertaken, must be foredoomed to failure. 
We have it already in evidence that at the low 
rates lately ruling in the home market for tea there 
is a loss of from 3d to 4d per lb. on all the tea 
sent from China to the London market. We have 
learned on Sir Robert Hart's authority that the greater 
proportion, indeed we may assume nearly all— of the 
tea sent to the West from the Chinese ports is 
produe' d hy the peasants, each of whom is pos- 
sessed of but a few bushes only. The rule seems 
to be that rice and other food products are grown 
in the levels of a farm, tea being cultivated on 
the higher grounds or ridges. It is fair to 
conclude from this fact that the mere cost of 
growing is very small, the charges wi.ich raise 
the cost of the tea before shipment being those in- 
curred by intermediaries who collect the teas from 
the individual ^rowers and by the manufacturers 
who prepare them. The idea of Mr. Cochran, 
of course, is to abolish these charges by intrusting 
the cultivation itself to a regularly organized com- 
pany. Such an idea appears at first sight to be a 
warrantable one; but all those who have under- 
taken the cultivation of tea in India or Ceylon 
know the absolute cost of production and will 
probably be of opinion with ourselves that that cost 
must exceed any profit obtained or outlay made for 
the purpose of collecting tea grown by the natives, 
as we have said above, entirely, or almost entirely, 
without cost, the tea bushes occupying pieoes of land 
fit for no other culture. If such a conclusion be 
correct, what prospect would there be of a company 
undertaking cultivation being able to compete with 
countries which, while the present rates are ruinous 
to China growers, are able at all events to obtain 
some margin of profit, however insufficient, upon 
such rates ? , 
But such a consideration would not stand by 
our means alone in estimating the chances suoh 
a competition by China with India and Ceylon would 
have of success. So far as we are aware, no asso- 
ciation of the character of that suggested has ever 
attempted to compete with the operations of the 
reasantry in China. The whole geriius of that 
EmpiresB opponed to any chance of success at- 
ti nding any such association. Competition of the 
kind, if attempted, we may be sure would arouse 
the fiercest opposition. The Government of China 
j a as it professes to be— parental. There is not 
an action of a Chinaman from his cradle to his 
grtve that is not in some way or another subject 
to' what Europeansj term "grandmotherly legis- 
lation," and the first duty of the ruling power ia 
to afford protection to native interests against 
any attempt to affect them by the intervention of 
the " foreign devil." It is only in matters which 
it has become evident are essential to safeguarding 
the people against outside attack that the conser- 
vatism of the ruling power has in any degree 
yielded. They may have given way to the pressure 
of this necessity so far as to welcome tuition and 
guidance in the construction of armour-clad ships 
and the manufacture of other warlike agencies 
which they have been incapable of producing for 
themselves ; hut it would be quite another matter 
were the attempt made to introduce the thin end 
of the we-'ge which would eventually disrupt the 
whole course of anyone of those pursuits by which the 
peasantry of the country earns its daily bread. We 
may be quite sure beyond this, that did the Chinese 
Government venture to sanction the commencement 
of any project such as Mr. Cochran has suggested, 
which must entail the possession of Chinese soil 
by the hated foreigner, there would be little 
chance of any trees planted being allowed to 
arrive at maturity. The fiercest prejudices would 
be aroused among the peasants who now sell the 
produce of the few trees thev own individually, and 
the numbers of those affected would bring a 
pressure to bear on their Government which we 
may be certain would not and could not be dis- 
regarded. 
It seems evident therefore that both the popular 
genius and the question of the cost of produc- 
tion oppose themselves to the initiation of any 
such scheme as that propounded by Mr. Cochran, 
and we should conceive that that gentleman must 
be profoundly ignorant of what would have to be 
contended against in any attempt to introduoe 
it. We have said that had Mr. Cochran confined 
himself to the single proposal to essay the in- 
troduction of improved methods of manufacture 
we could understand the suggestion. But, after 
all, how could these be applied ? If collection 
has to be made — as Sir Robert Hart informs us 
it has — from a multitude of growers, the operation 
must take time, and if that collection was to 
be of the raw leaf instead of as now of the 
prepared leaf, we may be certain of great deteriora- 
tion before sufficient quantities could be brought 
to a central factory for treatment. The whole 
conditions of the tea-growing industry of China 
seem to be opposed to any chance of improving 
existing methods either of production or curing. 
Sir Robert Hart has reported in favour of retaining 
the export duty on tea, and the mandarins would as 
soon part with existence as with the privilege 
of "squeezing"' the productive classes. But 
foreigners, they well know, would protest against 
the export duty and refuse to be " squeezed." We 
may, therefore, rely on it that concessions to 
oreigners suoh as are contemplated and would be 
necessary for the initiation of Mr Cochran's pro- 
jeot, would be opposed to the utmost by the Chinese 
oultivators and the ruling classes alike. Compe- 
tition of the nature indicated need not, therefore, 
be made a faotor in estimating the future of tea 
in the markets of the world. 
HOW I GOT TO HENARA.TGODA (AND 
SEVEN MILES SOUTH OF IT) FROM 
COLOMBO VIA VEYANGODA ; AND 
WHAT I SAW: 
Coconuts and Pepper. 
At the Henaratgoda station we saw about a dozen 
bales of kitul fibre, regarding which we were told 
hat the bales were taken somewhere " inland " to 
be „orted, cleaned and prepared for shipment. But 
