August i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
137 
in sago will result very differently, and it is to be 
hoped tbat profitable results will be enhanced by the 
recovery ol prices from their present low level.*" It 
is for the interests of every one in the Colony that 
produce should maintain high values; the more the 
Chinese and natives get for their merchandise, the 
more money they will have to spend on English 
manufactures, opium and alcohol, and the colony is 
to bo congratulated on the very satisfactory range 
of prices now ruling. 
» ■ 
CHINA AND JAPAN TEA EXPOBTS : 1887-88. 
It will be seen by the subjoined returns, talcen 
as usual from the Hongkong Chamber of Com- 
merce price current, that the large comparative 
decrease in the shipments this year of 28 millions 
of pounds remains unaltered, and, however the 
figures may ebb and flow during the remainder of 
the season, there appears to be every probability 
that this season's exports from China to the United 
Kingdom will show a large short-fall, unless 
prices of low classed teas advance considerably. 
The Chinese dealers are so satisfied this will be 
the case, that, in the face of unfavourable results 
of the first shipments of the new season's teas, 
they have refused to sell, except at higher prices, 
and strange to say they have succeeded in obtain- 
ing them. The Chinese dealers at all the treaty 
ports assert that the second crop will be at least 
fifty per cent short of last year's, and that the 
quality of what comes forward will not be lit for 
the English market. When we consider all the 
disadvantages which teas selling in England at 
•lul to 6d per pound (which forms so large a por- 
tion of the China supply) have to encounter, we arc 
not surprized, that those interested in the China 
tea trade take rather a doleful view of its prospects. 
At one time, we thought it would be a very good 
thing for Indian and Ceylon tea, if the home duty 
was reduced to threepence per pound by cheapen- 
ing tin commodity, but we now see that it would 
be just the reverse. Until quite recently the home 
duty on Indian and Ceylon teas amounted to 50 
per cent of their value ; on a large portion of the 
China supply, it is at least 100 per cent. Good 
teas, therefore, have an advantage of 3d per pound, 
as regards duty, over low classed China teas. 
Then again, the advantage of 10 per cent at 
present gained in exchange is equal on good teas 
to about l.Vd per pound, which leaves more than 
100 per cent over the English charges. On low 
classed China teas, the 40 per cent barely covers 
them. We are at present paying thirty shillings 
per ton freight, the Chinese pay more than double 
our rate. When we reckon up the lekin and ex- 
port duties in China, the cost of manufacture 
and manipulation to obtain the various qualities 
which constitute the China supply; the cost of 
packages, transport, and middlemen's profit, it 
will bo admitted that the Chinese grower 
docs not get much out of the ltd to (id per pouud, 
which his second crop realizes at Hankow and 
Foochow. We need not therefore be surprized if 
tho general opinion amongst the Chinese of a short 
export this season ultimately proves to bo the case. 
.John China-nan is not likely to go to tho trouble 
of plucking his second and third crop leaves and 
carrying them to markot for little or nothing for 
n very long time. 
To Ceylon planters who pluck all the year round 
overy eight or ten days it must be a puzzle to 
understand what is meant by the Chinese first, 
second and third crops, and wo confess our in- 
ability to throw much light on the Chinese sys- 
* The onorinous numbers of tho palms said to exist 
renders a rise in prico improbable. Sago is used 
ROinotimcs to feed calves. — Kn. 
lfj 
tern of cropping. We certainly require more inform- 
ation on the subject. 
It will be noticed by the figures below that the 
shipments direct to the Continent are double what 
they were last year; this is owing to the "Glen- 
eagles " and the " Moskwa " taking full cargoes direct 
to Odessa. Although the Foochow market has been 
open for a fortnight, the returns show no exports 
to Australia, but since the returns to the 8th inst. 
were made up, four steamers have cleared for the 
colonies: — ■ 
Export of tea from China and Japan to 
United Kingdom. , 1.887-8 38,658,472 
» » >. „ .1886-7 67,106.716 
.. i) » „ ..1885-6 54,258,088 
America 
, .1887-8 
..1886-7 
,.1885-6 
Continent 
of Europe . .1887-8 
„ ..1886-7 
„ ..1885-6 
Australian 
Colonies ..1887-8 
„ ..1886-7 
„ ..1885-6 
15,077,261) 
14,461,820 
10,759,275 
11,323,194 
7,798,919 
0,785,000 
PEBAK GOVEENMENT COFFEE. 
A supplement to the Government Gazette publishod 
on Thursday contains the following letter Irom Messrs. 
Sandilauds Buttery & Co. to Jno. F. M.Cock, Esq., Super- 
intendent of Government Plantations, Perak. 
21st June, 1887. 
Dear Sir, — By the mail just arrived, we have received 
advice of the sale of l'erak Government Coffee. On 
6th instant, we sent you copies of report aud valuation 
of the same, and from which you would note that, 
after being husked, it was re-packed iuto 41 bag-;. 
The sale prices are as under : — 
10 bags Bold, ... at 106/ perewt. 
15 „ Medium, ... at 103/ „ 
11 „ Smaller, ... at 98 6 „ 
2 „ Friaga, at S3 6 ,, 
3 ,, Peaberry ... at 105/ „ 
I packet Elephants, ... at 91/ ,, 
Our London firm writes thus : — 
"We offered the whole for public sale ou ISth May, 
and sold the whole with good competition at very high 
prices, and we have uo doubt the result will be con- 
sidered very satisfactory by the Purak Government. 
On landing the shipment weighed. ..69 cwt. 2 qr. 20 lb. 
After husking the weight was 57 „ 3 „ 2 ,, 
" At our request Mr. Swettenham inspected the 
quality, which is a kind in high estimation with the 
trade, and if planters could be induced to opeu plant- 
ations in the district where this quality was grown, 
planting from the same seed, tho enterprise would prob- 
ably bo a very successful one." — We are, &c. 
Sandilands Butteuy & Co. 
— Straits Times. 
[The coffee seems to have been well dried in the 
parchment, and the soil and climate are doubtless gnod, 
but planters in Ceylon will smile at "planting from 
the same seed." — Ed.] 
♦ 
CEYLON UPCOUNTBY PLANTING BEPOET. 
KXTlUOItniNAltY WEATHER — CACAO — DADAP AS A SHADE 
Eon cacao — nco Coming to an end — kkkina 
poonac. 
1st August 1887. 
We are all agreed that as far as weathor is 
ooncerned this is an extraordinary season. As for plan- 
ting, unless you were fortunate enough to have put 
your plants out very early, the work is still to be done, 
and here wo are, past tho middle of the monsoon, 
witli the worst half to come. It is the bold man 
\vl>o lias scored this season, where he Jins suffered 
