February x, 1889.] THF. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
500 
OEYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 
10th Dec. 1888. 
The Editor, the New York Times. 
Dear Sir, — Referring to the admirable letter on the 
subject of tea, which appoared in your Sunday's issue, 
wo would take exception to one remark which is not 
strictly true, and is apt to mislead. We refer to the 
statement which reads as follows: — "Oolong, which 
is really the purest and best, is the favorite," [The 
whole paragraph reads : — 
" Tea may be divided into three general classes — 
green, black, and scented — and these are again sub- 
divided according to the size of the leaf after its 
manipulation, the division being effected by sifting. 
Of green tea there is gunpowder, which is in 
mii ill round pellets, and imperial, which is larger. 
When the roll is long it is called hyson and when 
long and narrow it is young hyson. Of black teas 
there are Moiling and Kaisong, Oougou, Souchong, 
Oolong, Orange Pokoe, Canton, Foo-Choo, and Caper 
plain and scented. There are al6o different kinds of 
Imlia tea. This tea has a more penetrating flavor 
and full, r bodv, qualities that are more highly ap- 
preciated in England than in America. A good deal 
is imported into this country from India, but it is 
chiefry used for mixing with other teas, the people iu 
this country preferring a more delicately flavoured tea, 
and Oolong, wliich is really the purest and best, is the 
favorite. When picked it is almost already sun-dried, 
so that it is finished in the pans at once aud is al- 
most exactly the samo as when taken from the bush, 
except that the moisture is evaporated."] 
That Oolong is the favorite tea among Americans 
of today, is true, aud that it is an exceptionally 
pleasant tea to the palate, is equally true. But is it 
the purest and the best ? Having been for many 
years a planter in Ceylon, the writer can speak with 
gome authority on tho subject of tea manufacture, 
and while Oolongs only be freer from impurities than 
most China and Japan teas ; they can scarcely be 
called the purest wheu compared with Ceylon teas, which 
to the writer's certain knowledge, have never been and 
probably never will bo subjected to any manner of 
ad alteration whatsoever as for being the best. In 
what reBpeot is an Oolong superior to a Ceylon tea? 
The latter contains more theme than the former. 
It is twice as eoonominnl in that it is a fuller 
bodied tea and only half the quantity is required 
lhat is used of Oolong to get a tea of equal Strength 
and flavour. It is more wholesome, as the astringent 
qualities are not so marked as they are in Oolongs. 
We have no wish to write at length as critics 
of the able article before us, but would fain correct 
what we know to he a misstatement, no doubt un- 
wittingly made by the writer who has favonred the 
public with the interesting sketch referred to. 
We refer you to a pamphlet we circulated a year 
ago on tho subject of tea cultivation in Ceylon, 
from which you may glean some interesting infor- 
mation regarding tho rise and progress of the tea 
intcrprizo in that island and the mode of preparation, 
of which differs materially from that of China tea, 
inasmuch as it is prepared hy machinery without tho 
introdnctiuii of any manner of scenting or colouring 
matter. 
Krom onr pamphlet you will learn that from 2.">,000 
lb. of tea exported in 1878, the exports in 1856 
reivcle d 10,000.000 lb., and we can now report that 
the estimate tor the current season ..f 32 iH) i,000 lb. 
is likely to be realized. How iu this for progress '( 
As regards quality, Ceylon toa, by tho latter 
figuri - that e hi- under our notice stood first in 
the Biigliali maillot. Ahuimus next; so that if the 
English arc, what tin y are generally raooguisod to 
be, the best judges ol tea in tie World, where are 
the »>,. longs? We can answer tho question.— Just a 
iilllt lower on the list I 
Before olnamtf, I. t us aud that a proposil subjected 
L. us ffr approval, la no* undei ouusideratioa on the 
■t the I 'lantern' AvKa-'iatiou uf Ceylon, to I lie 
", that at the earliest poa-ohlc , n'e, i|, lit , r i , i 
till trailing newnpapora, of at lcn.it N, w York and 
P . tdelphlu, l>o presented with a caddy of pure Oejflon 
lea, and Ihua afforded au opportunity »i touting tin 
quality for themselves. We heartily supported the 
scheme, and hope that in about ;j months from date 
we will have the pleasure of sending you a sample 
caddy with the compliments of the planters of Ceylon. 
— We are, dear sir, yours truly, 
J. M. Murray & Co. 
«. 
Use and Value of Manganese. — With re- 
ference to the existence of manganese in the 
formations through which the Haputale railway 
will run, we make an extract from a notice in the 
Indian Ennincer of minerals in the Hyderabad 
(Southern India) territory : — "Then, there are Man- 
ganese ores, valuable alvvavs, but of peculiar value 
just now, when steel is fast supplanting iron in 
English ship building yards. For it is a well 
enough known fact that, owing to magnetic attrac- 
tion, the compasses on steel-built vessels are some- 
times betrayed into untrustworthiness, and mislead 
those who look to them for guidance — only too 
often with disastrous results. Now, lately in England 
a process has been invented, by means of which 
Manganese, in the proportion of about 27 per cent, 
is mixed with steel ; and it is contended that this' 
admixture frees the steel from magnetic influences. 
Manganese used to be worth, on an average £2 5 0 
per ton in England ; it will probably bo worth 
much more now." 
How Silk Culture and other Industries 
— can best be promoted in Ceylon may be learned 
(more particularly by the Director of Public In- 
struction) from the Chairman (Mr. James Samuelson) 
at the la9t distribution of prizes to the Liverpool 
Science and Art classes. Among other things he 
said: — 
As far back as 18fi!) he found an institution at 
E'herfeld, iu Rhenish Prussia, where young girls were 
taught, amongst other things, silk weaving, and some 
beautiful work clone hy the pupils was shown to him. 
Such institutions were numerous in Germany and 
elsewhere in connection with textile and other manu- 
factures. Even in countries which we were iu the 
habit of looking upon as half-civilised, technical in- 
struction in the b»st sense was pushed forward with 
great vigour. In 1882 he visited in the neighbourhood 
of Bucharest a most comprehensive School of Agri- 
culture and Forestry, in which thn youth ot the country 
were tnught to cultivate and utilise every product of 
the soil that Roumania was capable of growing, and 
Inst year, in the neighbourhood of Sofia in Bulgaria 
ho bad paid a visit to an institution, for giving in- 
struction in the working of wood and metnls, which 
he ventured to say, though on a limited scale, sur- 
passed any institution of the kind elsewhere. Out 
of England, io our own Empire, great attention was 
being paid to technical instruction. In Ireland the 
agricultural school at Glasnevm was a model institution. 
We ought to have 50 such in England, iustiad of 
constantly clamouring for State intervention to protect 
our farming industries — (hear) — and the country which 
was attracting almost ns much notice as Ireland, 
nam. ly, India, whs miking a vigorous move in the 
same direction. (He ir, hear.) As reearded education 
in India, he (the chairman) hoped to be able to speak 
from personal experience on his return from that 
country to which he intended goinc very shortly, and 
where he shout ' -i> lid the winter inquiring into that 
amongst other objects of public interest. In c n- 
Olusioo, he spoi< h verv strotu'lv of the necessity for 
comhiuii g technic it with plemeutarv education in 
this com try, as it existed abroad. Such a combina- 
tion wonld make technical instruction popular with 
the working 01**861, as might be -een by the move 
now being made hy the trades union iu that direc- 
tion They tilkod about "making the man abetter 
mechanic and the mechanic » be or man," hut tiny 
lost aipht of the flp<» part of the adage, which waa 
absolutely neceaaary to unable iw to compete with 
foreign nation*. 
