December r, 1887,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
425 
CEYLON UPCOUNTEY PLANTING REPORT : 
AORICULTURATj WEALTH OF CEYLON — TEA PROSPECTS— TEA 
FOND SCHEME — WEATHER — CAOAO CROPS. 
21st November 1887. 
The estates which go in for a variety of products 
are kept pretty busy just at present. The weather 
is so favourable to growth of all kinds, and especi- 
ally to the ripening of fruit, that if one were to 
name the whole circle which constitutes tho agri- 
cultural wealth of Ceylon, a very large proportion 
would now be found to be in full blast. 
Regarding tea, everybody has a better account 
than another as to tho flushing capabilities, of their 
trees, and some have sorrowfully to confoss that 
even doing their best they can't keep up. Estim- 
ates which a few months ago looked as if they were 
altogether unrealizable are now securod, or all but, 
and with six weeks of the year to run those that are 
still behind are far from despondent, if the present 
style of things should just continue. The talk is of new 
rollers and driers, enlarged stores and increased 
labour force ; indeed with the rush of flush at this 
ond and the good prices, and fair prospects at the 
other there is considerable exuberance of spirit and 
" high falutin." The falling-off in the deliveries 
of China tea, and the marked advance of the 
public taste for the superior article produced in 
Ceylon, is taken as a matter of course. That 
"heathen Chinee" whoso competition wa all so 
much dreaded, and of whom we were well told that 
he would take a good deal to beat him, is now 
looked upon as a bankrupt Mongolian, who has 
gone down, before we were fairly girded for the 
tussle. As to the Tea Fund, and what it won't 
do, its possibilit os loom very much larger than 
the number of ostatos who have agreed to sup- 
port it. We have tho Continent of Australia, the 
ancient Kingdom of Scotland and the European 
nations to be educated — to appreciate and thirst for 
our now product, and when Mr. McCombie Murray has 
distributed his 112,000 worth of gratis samples it will 
want a goodly number of American " drummers " 
to book tho orders that will flow in from the great 
Republic of the West. That interesting fact that 
the namo of Ceylon was worth 2d a lb. on tea, 
which your Spooial kindly forwarded the other day, 
has mado us all feel as if in the tea line we 
wero the favourites of Providence. It 's a long time 
since that feeling has crept over us ; we have had 
a good deal of rubbing against the hair from 
time to time, have come to look upon that style 
of things as our heritage, and now that tho order 
changoth, and a more excellent way obtains akin 
to the golden past, it 's the poet's longing realized — 
tho touch of the vanishod hand. 
Wo havo been a long time in travail in tho 
valley, and are perhap; a littlo affected by the 
rarefied air as wo toil upward, but a change is 
always good, and >ve will do and are doing our 
best to got ono. 
Tho cacao crop is on, and tho pods are ripening 
up. It is not a pleasant thing to learn that the 
Sinhalese are cultivating a tasto for cacao curry. 
Yet this sci'ius as if it wore so. The young pods 
aro found to bo toothsome, and in somo parts are 
now stolen by the peasantry, and used as an 
article of daily food. Squirrels that prey upon 
the cacao can bo kept down by tho gun. Porcu- 
pines move off to tho martial music of tho tom- 
tom, hut the thievish native, who is stoalthy in 
approach and (loot of foot, is not quito so oasily 
aetllod with. His having bo littlo to steal too, 
now that cofloo is all but extinguished, is an 
addod horror, for although tho Sinhalese lias no 
great persistency of purpose, yet when ho doe-i 
61 
apply his mind to raiding into cacao having so 
little e'se to occupy it, he certainly manages to 
make his presence felt. 
Peppercorn. 
THE DETERIORATION OF CHINA TEA. 
(From the N.-C. Herald, Oct. 27th.) 
The slep which the Tsung-li Yam3n has taken in 
directing Sir Robert Hart to ask foreigners what faults 
aro found with the teas now brought to market in 
China, and what remedies can be adopted for their 
removal, is one of the most important, as regards 
the foreign trade of China, that has ever been taken. 
Tho Chinese mind is nothing if not practical ; a falling- 
off in the export of China tea this year, amounting 
already to some thirty million pounds, is an unanswer- 
able argument. As long as foreigners wont on buying 
all the tea that was produced, the Yamen could afford 
to neglect the remonstrances that havo been made for 
some years past against the continuous deterioration 
of its quality, and the warnings that India and Cey- 
lon were rapidly supplanting China. As long as the 
revenue from tea kept up, the disasters which foreign 
buyers had to suffer were unheeded by the Yamen, 
but such a falling-off in revenue as the returns shew 
this year has at last opened its eyes. Chambers of 
Commerce and private merchants have been implor- 
ing Sir Robert Hart to take somo steps to improve 
the trade, and however good his will has been, as 
we know it has, he has not been able to secure the 
attention of the Yamen ; but the deficiency in the 
revenue has mads the Yamen listen, and, "being fully 
impressed with the importance of tho interests at 
stake," it "is anxious to obtain the fullest inform- 
ation possible ;" and, putting its pride in its pocket, 
tho Yamen asks the foreign merchant to assist it 
with its advice, so that " detailed instructions may- 
be framed for the general guidance of producers iu 
the interior." It is probably the first time in the 
history of the foreign trade of China, that the high 
authorities at Peking have acknowledged that tho 
Chinese and the foreign morchauts have common 
interests, and that the former may get from the latter 
information which will be of mutual benefit. 
The interests involved are so important to the 
foreign buyer as well as the Chiuese producer, and 
the new departure taken by the Yamen is so satis- 
factory in itself, that the latter m ly rely on gettiug 
all possible information with the greatest readiuess 
from the foreigners concerned, .V roviog commission, 
which would have visited the various tea-ports and 
taken evidence, sifted it, and combined it into a re- 
port, would probably have comuieuded itself to a 
European Government; the plan adopted, of addres- 
sing tbo various Chambers of Commerce, is rather 
more cumbrous, but will no doubt produce as valu ible 
results. 
Iu a discussion which took place at a meeting of 
our Chamber of Commerce last year, oue plnu sug- 
gested for rehabilitating the China tea trade was the 
abolition of the export duty aud the transit duties, 
with which the product is now loaded. There aro 
no such duties in India and Ceylon, and those coun- 
tries thus start with au advantage over China of 
about two-pence a pound, at the ouisile. With these 
duties abolished, tea could be laid down choapcr to 
this extent in Europe: but in tho first place we may 
be mire that the Yamen would uot entertain the 
abolition of the export duty, it being the loss of re- 
venue this year that has moved it to net in the mat- 
ter; aud in the second place, it is not the cheapen- 
ing of the pro.luot of China that is required, but the 
improvement of the quality. Keally good tea can be 
made iu India by the largo plantations to sell in Loudou 
at an average price of /Ad a pound, and in Ceylou at P.I, 
and in the face of thoso facts, the cheapening of 
China produol two-pence a pound all round, will not 
rstoro it tj its old position. Tho advantage which 
India has over China is the advantage that tin- niinu- 
facturor has over tho handicraftsman. The small 
I'l. .n. ati >n i rannot compete with the targe ones iu 
