April i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL 
During the six weeks under notice I only find 
one quotation of Diyagama, and that is a small 
break and therefore no standard of market value. 
By an explanation of the above you will much 
oblige 
ONE WHO DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. 
[The above comparison surprises us very much, 
for we had only a few weeks ago to remark to 
our London Correspondents that we thought their 
market reports and quotations rather lower than 
Router's and other messages justified. We must 
now ask Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton to look 
at the above figures and explain how discrepancies 
all the other way have occurred, or where the mis- 
conception comes in ? — Ed. T. A.~] 
INDIAN TEA EXPORTS. 
Sib,— According to your Calcutta telegram of 7th 
instant the total export "from Calcutta" to date 
this season to the Uniled Kingdom, Australia, &c. 
is 102,000,000 lb. Are the words I have put in italics 
(from Calcutta) correct, or do the figures represent 
the exports from all India ?* Now that tea is 
falling so rapidly it is as well that we have the 
situation put clearly before us. Therefore in 
answering the above query would it be convenient 
for you to give your readers information as to 
what precise period " this season " referred to 
in your telegram actually refers— and at the same 
time give the figures for the preceding five seasons 
— and for the same period in each, of course. f If 
the figures for exports from India and Ceylon were 
computed from the same date, yearly it would be a 
great advantage, and of course the London figures 
for Imports, Deliveries and Stocks should com- 
mence from the Earno period. Then the figures would 
be of some value. All should commerce 1st January 
and end 31st December in each year alike. 
Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton, in their circular 
of 27th December 1889, give imports of Indian 
teas into the United Kingdom for twelve months 
commencing June and ending May in each ; year 
say for 1887 ... 78,209,334 1b. 
1888 ... 86,37ii,S56 ,, 
„ 1889 ... 94,95,4,287 ,;, 
Now if the Indian season extends to end of May j: 
we have still almost 3 months to run to complete 
seascn 1889-90, so that a large addition may yet 
have to go to the already large figures of 102,000,000 lb. 
referred to at the commencement of this letter. 
What period does the Ceylon tea season now 
comprise ? docs it still begin 1st October and end 
30th September ? TEA PLANTER. 
* From Calcutta, we believe. — Ed. 7'. J. 
■|- We are unable to give our correspondent the figures 
for five years • but tbo following show the exports of 
Indian tea from Calcutta for the past three seasons, 
from lit May to 31st Jan., as given in the latest letter of 
the Secretary of tbe Indian Tea Association, Calcutta : — 
1st May 1887 to 3ist Jan. 1888.. .82,403,713 lb. 
Do 1688 do. 1889.. .30,478.489 „ 
Do 1889 do. 1890 93,829,219 ,, 
(hit of which were exported to Great Britain : — 
1st May 18b7 to 31st Jan. 1888... 79,437,936 lb. 
Do 1888 do. )889...86,&26,585 „ 
Do lir89 do. 1890... 89,129 802 „ 
From 1st Feb. to 7th March 1890, the exports were 
about 6 million lb. bringing the total up to lU2milliom. 
—Ed. T. A. 
% The Indian season runs from 1st May to 30th 
April, but vi ry Hi t'e is shipped during (be last two 
nontbs. The Ceylon season bus just been changed to 
tlo calendar year.— Ed: T, ./. 
AGRICULTURIST. 703 
FINE CEYLON TEAS FOR RUSSIA. 
Central Province, March 11th. 
Deab Sir, — Your leader in your issue of the 
6th inst. how to open a market for Ceylon tea in 
Russia, is calculated to do much good at this 
juncture. The prices in London are wired lower and 
lower every week, and exchange being firm is also 
against us. 
I do really hope the Ceylon Tea Fund Com- 
mittee will push Dr. Duke's scheme at its meeting 
next week, and at onee arrange to send a suitable 
agent to China to meet the Russian buyers. The 
Hankow market opens in the end of April aDd 
Foochow later on, so that there is no time for 
delaying decisive measures. It is quite impossible 
to send a sufficient number of agents through the 
length and breadth of Russia to make known the 
excellencies of Ceylon tea to a tea-drinking nation. 
Dr. Duke's scheme meets the difficulty in a compara- 
tively inexpensive manner and with every proba- 
bility of success. These Russian tea buyers in 
China practically control the whole of the Russian 
tea trade, and if our teas have the intrinsic qualities 
we are so fond of extolling, it is only necessary 
to bring them to the notice of these Russian 
experts in this simple and thoroughly practical 
manner and thus lay the foundation of a very 
large business with Russia direct. 
Our best teas must only be brought to their 
notice by the agent to begin with, for if we 
are able to send our best teas where good 
tea is appreciated, the London market can take off 
our hands the commoner qualities through cus- 
tomers who only give us a penny more for broken 
pekoes than for pekoes. 
If the Tea Fund Committee do not act promptly 
in this matter, many of the subscribers will 
give up faith in its power to push our Ceylon 
teas in countries where tea is now the favorite 
beverage. — Yours faithfully. 
ONE LARGELY INTERESTED. 
TEA BROKERS AND THE TEA TRADE. 
Sib, — The following extract from a Planting Note 
may be fairly taken to represent the opinion of the 
planting infallibility, whose opinion on tea in general, 
and on nothing in particular, is frequently a source 
of amusement to the less favoured species of the 
sea-board capital and of the little town across the 
water. 
Under the head Yatiyantota, 4th March, is written: — 
" I observe that tea prices, though somewhat better 
than ab same period last year, are very far 
from satisfactory. Strange to say that brokers' 
reports seem at the same time to be unsatisfactory, 
and why is to me a mystery, because I believe it 
would be the same were I to forward breaks of the 
identically same quality, I would get a better report 
on tea shipped in say October and November than 
I would get on the same if shipped a month ago. I 
suppose it is that when prices are* satisfactory 
brokers don't bother themselves picking out minor 
faults as they do when prices are otherwise." 
The above note if properly expressed would read 
thus:-! believe that, brokers, tea tasters and the 
tea trade generally are a lot of consummate asses 
and don't know gooi tea when they see it. I believe 
that merchants, brokers, tea tasters, Ac., &e., &o. 
(barring the V. A.'s) are a set of rogues and parasites. 
I believe that wo are the men who know 
all things, that the sun, moon, earth, water, and 
particularly the railway, were created and made for 
our sole use and enjoyment, and that the Planters' 
Association is the Legislative Counoil of earth, or 
ought to be. Wonderful oh planter iB your belief 
(particularly in yourself). 
