June 2, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
841 
CEYLON TEA AND NEW OUTLETS: 
THE NEED OF PLANTERS SUPPORTING THE 
COLOMBO MARKET IN ORDEH TO EN- 
COURAGE OUTSIDE ORDERS. 
( Communicated.) 
Every one admits the absolute necessity of 
obtaining outlets for Ceylon tea other than, and 
in addition to, the London market : but it not so 
generally recognized that the only way such outside 
markets can obtain regular supplies of our tea is 
direot from Colombo. Samples and trial ship- 
ments are, of course, often sent from London : 
and in this way a liking for our teas has 
been established ; but no large or regular business 
can be carried on for long through London. The 
reason is plain. The merchant in Canada, New- 
foundland, America or elsewhere who buys in 
London knows very well that his teas have to 
bear London charges and commissions, which would 
not be incurred if he bought in Colombo and he 
naturally concludes that unless he can obtain sup- 
plies direct from Ceylon it is not worth while his 
going in for our teas at all. He may perhaps be 
oontent to begin a tentative business by drawing 
his first supplies from London, but he knows very 
well that if the trade is to continue he must 
arrange to import direct from Ceylon. The natural 
result of the vigorous measures that have been taken 
to advertize our teas in many lands is seen in 
the goodly number of orders that have been and 
are being received in Colombo. All this is very 
encouraging to those who have the interests of the 
Ceylon tea industry truly at heart. It remains for 
those who can sell their teas locally to encourage 
business with new markets by offering their teas 
for sale here. The 150,000 lb. or so, which is all 
that is offered weekly, is quite insufficient to supply 
even the present demand ; and unleBS the quantity 
offered be largely increased, extension of trade with 
markets other than London — which is so essential 
a matter to the Ceylon tea interest,— cannot possibly 
be accomplished. 
HOW TO PUSH CEYLON TEA AT HOME. 
(From a Ceylon Colonist on Furlough.) 
London, April ISth. 
Ceylon tea is freely advertised everywhere, and 
Ceylon has a great name for tea, but the good name 
sells the tea and the shopkeeper in many cases 
sell the public by supplying other than Ceylon tea. 
I am pushing sales all I can among Mission centres 
as well as other places, but Ceylon tea at Is 5d and 
even less is freely advertised and sometimes "Ceylon 
Tea " in large type on the label and " mostly from 
Ceylon" in very small underneath. The advertis- 
ing of Ceylon tea is complete ; now we want a large 
Company (all shares taken in Ceylon by Planters 
and those interested) to sell direct to the Public 
There is a grand ohanoe for investors and I will be 
glad to help all I can. 
4, 
" BYE PRODUCTS." 
Coconut Leaves — Olas. 
We should say that there can be but few of 
our readers who are not acquainted with the very 
important part which the residuals of various forms 
of manufacture have lately occupied in the attention 
of different trading interests at home. These 
residuals have gradually come to be known under 
the generic term of ' bye-products,' and as such 
they were until comparatively recently regarded 
as waste, their disposal having been a matter 
of great difficulty in many varied trades. We 
need only oite as a particularly prominent example 
106 
the refuse arieing out of the manufacture of coal 
gas. Many of us will recollect the filthy, irridescent 
pools which befouled the yards of all gasworks 
some twenty-five or thirty years back and rendered 
the neighbourhood of such works almost uninhabit- 
able owing to their unsavory exhalations. Since 
then all has been ohanged, and these pools of 
stinking refuse have been discovered by science 
to yield the most valuable dyes and the most tasty 
of artificial flavorings. Nowadays, for nearly every- 
thing — even for the decayed cheese of cheesemongers' 
shops — there has bean found a use, the last- 
mentioned substance (decayed cheese) being the base 
from which is now extracted the flavoring given 
to the jargonel pear-drops so dear to the palates 
of childhood, as well as to the confections delightful 
to more advanced age ! 
Apropos to this subject, a correspondent remarks 
that among the various suggestions we have from 
lime to time made in this journal for the 
extension of what we have generally termed " minor 
industries " for Ceylon, it may be that we have 
not given due inclusion to such bye-products aa 
the island may yield. We certainly do not claim 
for those suggestions that they may always have 
been of a practicable character, or that our views 
respecting them have invariably been soundly based. 
But in the endeavor to open out new methods for 
the employment of our native population, even the 
wildest of speculations may sometimes go near to 
the mark. They may — even if in themselves im- 
possible of realization — give a start to fresh ideas, 
ad threfore it is that we feel we need not when 
giving publicity to our theories necessarily be con- 
fined within narrow limits. On such a ground 
we venture to think that what has been 
suggested to us on this subject of bye-products may 
not prove to be altogether useless. We are referred 
specially to the leaves of the palmyra and coconut 
trees, millions of which are annually buried or 
burned, in some degree certainly as fertilizers, but 
for the most part in order to gat rid of them. 
Such leaves come undoubtedly within the category 
of bye-produots. They are to a large extent the 
waste of our coconut and palmyra cultivation. 
We believe the late Dr. Ondatje was the first 
to endeavour in some degree to extend the use of these 
olas or leaves. He introduced them to the notice of 
horticulturists in England as affording admirable 
material for labels for plants, and we believe 
that such labels have now a wide use 
throughout Great Britain. But it is further 
suggested that these leaves furnish a mate- 
rial which, if properly treated here for export, 
might find an even more extended use. One 
who has been struck by the large importation 
of rattans and other oanes into England for the 
purpose of basket weaving, chair-seating and other 
similar uses, expresses to us, the opinion that 
the mid-ribs both of the coconut and palmyra 
leaves might, if properly prepared, compete 
successfully in the home market for such industries. 
They would of course have to be split— or rather slit 
— into the lithe bands required, but this operation 
would not be one of any particular difficulty. We do 
not know howfartheminor ribs of the serrated leaves 
which are so largely used here for native broommaking 
may have been introduced into Europe for similar 
purposes ; but if this has not been attempted, it 
would certainly seem to us that a useful endeavour 
might be made in that direotion. Perhaps some 
local correspondents may be able to favour us 
with information and suggestions on this subject. 
For it is primarily in the hope that such may 
be given to us that we have from time to time 
ventured to put forward our own ideas upon similar 
topics- 
