March i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
593 
THE TEA INDUSTRY OP CEYLON. 
Royal Colonial Institute. 
(From the " Colonics and India.") 
1 he third meeting of the preseut session was held at 
the Whitehall Booms, H.tel Metropole, on Tuesday, 
January 10th, when the following Paper on " The Tea 
Industry of Ceylon, with a brief Reference to Tea 
Culture in India and other British Possessions," was 
read by John Loudoun Shand, Esq., late a Member of 
the Legislative Council of Ceylon. 
Tho chair was taken by Sir John Ooode, K.c.M.a., a 
Member of Council. 
Among those present were the followiug : — The 
Bight Ilov. Bishop Marsden, Sir Charles Clifford 
Bart, Sir Henry W. Peak, Bart, Captain J. S. 
Hay, c.M.G., Administrate r of the Gambia ; Sir 
Arthur Hodgson, k.c.M.g., Colonel Arbuthnot, Messrs. 
E. Noel Walker, c.m.o., Oolouial Secretary, Ceylon; 
J. Denu'stoun Wood, F. P. Labilliore, Frede- 
rick Young, Lieutouaut-Geueral R. W. Lowry, c.B., 
Captain Arthur Brooke, C. B., Deputy-Surgeon-Geu- 
cral O. G. Irwin, Bermuda; Messrs \Y. H. Treacher, 
British North Borneo ; 0. Washington Eves, C. S. Far- 
qubarson, M. L. 0. Jamaica; D. Morris, M. A., Assist- 
ant Directur Royal Gardens, Kew ; Arthur Lyttelton 
Young, Franois Hogarth, Queensland ; A. P. Hogarth, 
O. R. Woodward, Queensland; Randall Pye, Cbina; 
John Coles, Ashplant, J. Dull' Dawson, George S. Dutf, 
Hamilton Rankin, Herbert Brooks, H. T. Brooks, W. 
H. Glen, Victoria; Oeorge Hughes, Barbados; Ste- 
phen Bourne, Henry Douglas, J. K. Mossc, Ceylon; 
llonry M. Raul, Arthur Folk ird, Ceylon; J. Van Lang- 
i nberg, Vandersmagt, G. Vane, c.m.o. Ceylon; 
Major Oraigie, Messrs. D. W. Lindesay, J. W. Bars- 
ham, J. H. Alexander, James Meuzies, 0. J. Ash, 
Shillmgr/in, F. \V. Fox, J. W. Evans, John Gray, 
ThcmasG.ay, L.J. Bell, W. Hall, H. Grant, A.Mur- 
ray, H S. Sauu ters, XV. S. Murray, Ceylon ; W. 
W. W. 'Hi line, J. It. 1). Drake, W.L, Watson, A. G. 
Low, Murray Mumford, Leopold Ware, G. Seton, 
A. E. Stauton, 11.0. Haldane, Alexander Brooke, 
W. M. Leake, Ceylon; W. R. M- Leake, Ceylon; 
Miss U. Hall, Messrs. XV. 11. Davie, Lindsey Hobson, 
W. H. Liddell. W. H. Anderson, R. Porter, Ceylon ; 
D. Reid, W. H. Koid, Alfred E. Campbell. J. M. 
Greig, Dr. B. H. Paul, Messrs. J. Lascelles, Victoria; 
A. G. Archer, Crick, G. W. Gordon, Mr. and Mrs. 
W. Hollo, Ceylon ; Messrs. E. A. Filhy, W. Pears, P. 
White-White, W. Christian, Colonel Freeth, .Miss 
Woodd, Mrs. O'llalloran, Mrs. Dominic D. Daly, Misa 
Coode, Mr. and Mrs. Win. King, Ceylon ; Messrs. C. 
Taylor, Mr. E. M. Bossitor, Mr. C. McEntee, E.B. 
McEuteo, Harold Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Pemhertou, 
Mrs. Randolph, Miss Garfoith, Mr. J. S. O'Halloran, 
Secretary. 
The Secretary announced that siuce the last meet- 
ing 11 Fellows had been electod— viz., 8 resident and 
t> non-resident Fellows. 
The Secretary read the following letters of regret 
from Sir Frederick Weld, n oi (;., late Governor of 
tin' Straits Settlements, and Mr. W. II. Ravenscroft, 
Auditor-General of Ceylon : — 
Chideock Manor, Bridport, Jan. Oth, 18S8. 
My dear sir, — I am very sorry to find myself unable 
to go to London to attend tho meeting tomorrow and 
to be present at the dinner. 
I hnvo this morning received the advance copy of 
Mr. J. Loudoun Sh mil's Paper on " Tho Tea Industry 
of Ceylon," and have read it with very great interest. 
Its wonderful development is, ind I, a remarkable 
instance of the pluck and facility of resource which 
characterises British Colonies, and, as Mr. Loudouu 
Shand well points out, leads to results not only of 
commercial importance, but which tend to weld the 
Empire together. 
I have great hopes of the future of the Straits — 
rftpurinlly of 1 Vr k , *e!nngor, and the peninsula 
• ;i uer.illy— as tea-growing countries; the plant nourishes 
admirably there, and the pro line Wams to bo of 
excellent quality. .V. wild native tea shrub has been 
fouud in tho mountains, as well us several varieties 
75 
of coffee.— Believe me yours very truly, (Signed) 
Fred, A. \Vku>. 
The Secretary Royal Colonial Institute. 
3'J Eaton Place, Brighton, Jan. 8th, 1888. 
Dear Sir, — I am extremely obliged to you for send- 
ing me tho Paper on " The Tea Industry of Ceylon.'' 
It would give me great pleasure to be present on 
the 10th to hear Mr. Shand read his Paper on the 
subject, but I am compelled to deny myself this plea- 
sure, as an important engagement that I cannot defer 
will detain me in Brighton on that day. 
It would be difficult to find anyone more competent 
than Mr. Shand to deal with the question, and, while I 
greatly regret that I shall not have the advantage of 
hearing bis views from his own lips, and of hearing the 
subsequent discussion, I especially regret that I shall 
lose an opportunity of renewing my acquaintance with 
Mr. Shand. — Yours faithfully, 
(Signed* AY. H. Kavensoiioit. 
The Secretary, Royal Colonial Institute. 
The Chairman : It is always a source of pleasure to 
tho Council of the lloyal Colonial Institute to lay be- 
fore you, and through you before the public, reliable' 
and authentic information bearing on our Colonies, and 
never more so than when the subject is connected with 
the industrial products of any colony. The paper that 
will be read tonight is, you will agree with me, on a most 
important subject, and I will only now say that you 
may accept, Mr. Shand as an authority on the subject 
equalled by very few, if by any, and certainly surpassed 
by none. 
Mr. Shand then read his Paper on tho Tea Industry 
of Ceylon. 
So greit is the interest attaching to the sources 
of supply of one of our most important articles of 
food, and so much in tho record of the Coylou tea 
industry applies to the cultivation of the tea plant 
els where, that I preface my remarks with a short 
reference to the origin of tea, so far as it can bo 
ascertained, and its present position as an agricultural 
industry in India and elsewhere. 
Though tho tea plant is not indigenous in China, 
it was by the Chiueso that the leaf was first u-ed 
as an article of food, and it was among them a house- 
hold beverage several centuries before it reached Europe. 
Like much other raw material used in daily food, 
the green tea leaf shows no sign of the properties 
which the leaf when manufactured possesses, and 
how these qualities were discovered will ever remain 
a mystery. It is probable that some wandering 
Mongolian tribes found the tea tree in its native homo 
far north in India, and made a decoo'ion from its 
leaves, from which they derived real or imaginary 
comfort; but as the tea leaf as at present used has 
to go through five distinct proci 8 cs before it is lit 
for market, each of which has to be carried out with 
mathematical precision, and the neglect of any one 
of which causes the liquor to lack the agreoable and 
stimulating properties which aro developed by careful 
manufacture, there were doubtless long years of ex 
perimeut before tho present system of manufacture 
was discovered. 
It was possibly this entire di««imilariiy between tbe 
green ami Manufactured leaf which gave lise to the 
idea, lone accepted and doubtless encourage I by the 
shrewd Chinese, that thero were secrets connected 
with the manufacture of tea known ouly to themselves. 
At all events, uutil fifty years ago, they retained a 
monopoly of the cultivation and manufacture of te>. 
It was very early in the seventeenth century th it. 
tea first found its way to European matkets. small 
quantities being brought over by the Dutch Ea-t India 
Company. It was an ago when strong drinks were 
good and plentiful, and the enormous price of tea 
and the prejudice which it had to overcome for a 
long time, prohibited its general use. It, however, 
steadily gaiued ground, and towards tho end of Inst 
century, when it had lieon known in Europe nearly 
tw> hundred years, tho trade with China had as- 
sumed considerable proportions. Europe t > >k 1 s,i)<yt,0ni) 
■ pounds, of which l'.riUin took about two-thirds; tho 
Anglo-Sa*ou thus early taking k tho lead a* a tea eon- 
I sum«r, which ho has all along maintained, aud the 
