FebruAR* I, 1890] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
533 
production will disappear,* and the trade of Formosa 
will be placed on bo sound a basis that competition 
need not be feared but rather welcomed as a keen 
incentive to further efforts. Should no brilliant suc- 
cess at once attend this new departure, much good 
is oertain to be the outcome of it in the end, and 
Mr. Cass will bave the pleasure of being the pioneer 
of a plan by whioh a new lease of life will be given 
to the Formosa Tea Trade. H. E. Governor Liu 
deserves great credit for his sagacious act, and still 
more for tbe pluck he has displayed in attempting 
to solve the problem of how to save the tea trade 
of his Island ; while his experiments, if successful, 
may lead to the salvation of that trade throughout 
the Empire. India, Ceylon and Japan had better 
look to themselves, for a few more euoh men aa 
Liu Ming Ohuan in China would speedily settle the 
question of the supremaoy of China leaf over its rivals. 
The trade, aided instead of thwarted by high officials, 
will show an amount of vitality that will surprise tbe 
competitors. Ail those who have the best interests 
of China at heart must sinoerely wish prosp rity to 
attend this enterprise and hope that other high offi- 
cials may be found witti wisdom enough to follow 
the example set by Liu Ming Ohuau.— China Mail, 
Dec. 18tb. 
[There can be little doubt of Formosa producing 
the finest tea in the world, but our late;-t intelligence 
is that of a serious rebellion of the aborigines against 
the Chinese.— Ed. T. A.J 
SZ-CHUAN TEA. 
In Western China is the province of Sz-Ohuan, noted 
for supporting a population estimated from 35,000,000 
to 70,000 000, the Catholic missionaries placing it at 
45,000,000. It is a mountainous district, where the 
winters are very mild, white frost seldom seen, and snow 
almost unknown. This province, seldom visited by 
white men, has nearly 200,000 square miles within its 
borders. Here one fiuds native tribes under their own 
chiefs. As it is one of the tea districts of China about 
which little is known, we avail ourselves of a description 
of a journey to Western China by an English clergy, 
man, who states that in the great variety of its pro- 
ductions it excels all other provinces. There is scarcely 
an article grown in China which is not found here in 
great abundance. Kice is a staple product, and in good 
years the ample supply allows it to be exported to the 
East, Wheat is grown everywhere, and is of the best 
quality ; barely, peas, Indian corn and millet grow in 
vast quantities. Sugar-cane and sorghum are produced 
in sufficient abundance for home consumption, and 
some cotton is grown. It produces more silk than any 
other province, as well as hemp in large quantities. It 
raises the best tobacco, and, in recent years, large quan- 
tities of opium. It has an ample supply of oranges, 
lemons, pumalos, peaches, apples, pears, plums, cher- 
ries and other small fruits. Of medicines it produces 
enough for half the empire, and exports great quanti- 
ties. ItB salt-wells are celebrated all over China, and 
their products find their way to several contiguous pro- 
vinces, and to the table-lands of Central Asia. 
The soil and climate are well adapted to tea culture, 
of which a considerable amount is now exported. There 
is much tea exported to Siberia via Si-ngan-foo. Be- 
sides the ordinary tea, which is extensively cultivated 
for home and foreign conhumption, there are two kinds 
of tea on Mount Omei which are peculiar to that moun- 
ts, u, and *ol l largely to pilgrims, called "sweet tea" 
and " white tea." The sweet tea is made from the 
leaves of a slender growing shrub which is found half 
way to the top of the mountain. The leaf is large and 
thick, and when green has ro sweetness ; but when 
dried it has a peculiar, sweet, licorice-like flavor not 
altogether unpleasant. The white tea is prepared from 
the leaf of a very peculiar shrub found upon the side of 
tli e mountain ; it is palatablo, and not unlike the gen- 
uitio tea ot commerce in rhivor. 
* A most astonishing conclusion, surely.— Ed. T. A- 
Besides these teas, which are never exported, exoept 
n small quanties by visitors, there are two kinds of very 
good tea, grown by the priests and farmers arouu d the 
monasteries. The tea-shrubs were not unlike those 
found in abundance in Kiangsi, and the tea is quite aa 
good as that g own in Nganhui. 
Thibet and f tbe wild tribes are furnished with tea from 
the provinces , principally from Kiungcheu, Abbe Hue 
says " You meet every moment on these narrow paths 
long files of porters carrying brick tea, which is pre- 
pared at Khioung-Tcheou, and forwarded from Ta- 
tsien-lu to tbe different provinces of Thibet. Brick tea 
and the khata, or scarf of felicity," are the great articles 
of trade between China and Thibet. It is scarcely cre- 
dible what a prodigious quantity of these goods is ex- 
ported annually from the provinces of Kan-su and 
iz-Ohuan,"— American Grocer. 
THE " GEOOER " ON CEYLON TEA. 
In giving the separate movements of this article for 
the first ten months of the 5 ear, it is interesting to 
notice how rapidly the trade is expanding in all direc- 
tions, and also bow great an influence Ceylon tea is 
exercising upon the course of the market for other 
kinds, and especially that for China, which is receding 
into the background more and more evtry month. 
According to the latest private returns, the land- 
ings of Ceylon tea in London during October were 
1,953,6001b.. against 1,691,8001b. last year; and 815,1001b. 
in 18.87. These amounts, added to previous totals, 
make the receipts foi this year fqual to 25,924,800 lb. 
in comparison with 16,720,300 lb. in 1888, and 
9,259,650 lb. in the former year, showing a most ex- 
traordinary increase in the supply. None the less as- 
tonishing are the deliveries, which for the past month 
embraced 2,655,500 lb., in place of l,8S5,4501b. and 
1,008,950 lb., in the two preceding years, thus b'inging 
the total clearances for the present year up to the 31st 
ultimo to 26 099,800 lb., as contrasted with I5,454,900ib. 
and 8,409,750 lb. in 1888 aud 1887 for the same period. 
Seldom isitihat so rapid agrowth as this is seen in 
the use of any necessary of life, and it forces the con- 
victiuii upon one's mind that the gain ' bservable here 
is at the expense of an ither article of daily consump- 
tion, which is being more generally neglected because 
of a decided change in the public taste. What Ceylon 
tea has gained in reputation and patronage China has 
clearly lost ; and instead of being larger, as before, 
both the imports and deliveries of the latter sort into 
London during past ten months have been strikingly 
smaller than in either 1887 or 1888, the difference 
between the respective totals being reckoned by be- 
tween 20,000,000 lb. and 25.000,000 lb. in the last 
two seasons. 
Having recognised the fact as above explained, the 
next thing to do is to point out the cause of these 
remarkable changes in tha position of Ceylon and China 
teas, and this is traceable to the superior quality of 
the former as judged by consummers themselves, who 
have grown tired of the poor, tbin-liquoring teas of 
China, however soft and mild their flavour may be, 
and have preferred the stronger, more pungent, and, 
as some think, much ooarser kinds of Indian and 
Oejloo. In support of this opinioD, we quote that of 
an eminent firm in the China tea trade, who may 
be depended upon for speaking in an unbiased and 
unprejudiced manner even upon a subject which so 
closely touches their own interests, when they assert 
that — " If we compare Indian and Ceylon growths 
with China teas, we can only come to the conclusion, 
taking the intrinsic value of the article, that the 
public are right ; and although we hear of the 
wonderful teas China used to produce in the old East 
In lia Company's days, we are somewhat sceptioal on 
thut point. The teas were fine because there was no 
other standard to gauge them by, and as China pro- 
duces at the present moment as fine Oolongs and 
as fine Green Teas as we have ever seen, there is 
no tangible reason why Black Teas »hould have to 
much deteriorated." 
