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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1889. 
THE YIELD OF ORDINARY TEA ON 
OLD COFFEE ESTATES IN CEYLON. 
London, 18th Jan. 1889. 
Dear Sir— Ceylon publications deal very fully 
with ihe cost of bringing tea gardens into culti- 
vation when planted in forest land, and the 
returns to be expected at 200, 300, 500, and 5501b. 
made tea per acre. As three-fourths of the tea 
estates in Ceylon were formerly coffee plantations 
with very varying soils, and in the case of the 
greater portion of which returns of 550, 500, or 
even 350 lb. tea per acre will be found unobtain- 
able, and, as the figures of authentication referred 
to do not bear exactly on tea cultivation under 
these latter conditions, I write this letter in the 
hope of drawing forth expressions of opinion in 
your columns with regard to this matter. 
I do not wish to show as a pessimist, or write 
anything to discourage capital from the colony ; 
but a word of warning as to the extent to which 
tea is being planted in the island and the pro- 
fit to be expected, will not be out of place. 
I am afraid that, given 200 lb. to 300 lb. tea per 
acre from former coffee land, and an average of 9d 
to lOd per lb . (which seems to be what we are coming 
to) sold in London, the profit is not such as to 
induce a capitalist to invest his money in a tro- 
pical cultivation like tea, with its vicissitudes, 
wear and tear of mind aB well as wear and tear 
of factory machinery, 
You will doubtless have letters from fortunate 
planters owning exceptionally favoured gardens ; 
but I would like to have the opinion of one or 
two good visiting agents giving their ideas of what 
they think will be the average yield per acre over 
all the tea gardens— once coffee estates— when the 
whole lot are say, 5 years old, and what the ex- 
pense should be of putting free on board (not 
including freight or insurance) tea at a yield of 
200, 300, or 350 lb. per acre from an estate with 
a factory and with no extraneous charges for 
young tea fields, and with an exchange calculated 
at Is 5d per rupee ? 
Factory charges, I suppose, are pretty well 
known, and taking all items from delivery 
of leaf to f.o.b., Colombo, and including tea-makers' 
salary, cooly labour in factory, cost of chests, lead, 
solder, hoop-iron, &c, how many factories can 
do it under 8 cents per lb. and is not the average 
nearer 10 cents ? . 
The cost of the. factory and machinery should 
at least yield 10 per cent over and above the profit 
that should come from growing the leaf, but it 
seems to me that there is little margin left to those 
who buy leaf at 10 cents to sell the tea made 
from it at 9d to lOd per lb. in London, and with 
the quantity coming from India, Ceylon and Java, 
to say nothing of China, I doubt if a higher price 
can be calculated on for "tea for price" m the 
future, than the figures I have named. 
The buyer of green leaf at 8, 9 or 10 cents 
per lb. must work out his own salvation, but let 
the planter inform us what profit be calculates on 
obtaining when he sells his leaf at 8, 9 or 10 
cents from an average tea estate (formerly coffee) 
yielding 200 lb. to 350 lb. per acre. 
Some recent Indian Tea Company dividends have 
been announced :— Luckimpore 24 per cent, Moa- 
bund 2J per cent, Dooars 4 per cent, although 
the crop of the latter for season 1888 was 1,038,400 
lb apainst 745,200 lb. for 1887. — I am, yours faith- 
! u j 1V) J MERCATOR. 
[It is well to look at all sides of a case, and 
we should readily publish responses to the ques- 
tions thus raised.— Ed.] 
TEA-BULKING AND LOSS IN WEIGHT IN 
LONDON WAREHOUSES :— A PROTEST 
AGAINST STATEMENTS BY PLAN- 
TERS AND OTHERS. 
London, 25th January 1889. 
Sir, — Our clients, the reuresentatives in London 
of several tea planters, called our attention to your 
paper of the 18th December, with reference to 
a letter from one of yeur correspondents on the 
subject of " tea bulking" and loss in weight be- 
tween Ceylon and London, in which he states from 
information received that teas are plundered in the 
bonded warehouses. We think, before allowing such 
a statement to be made in your paper, some better 
authority should have been given than " a boy from 
a broker's office in the Lane. " After many years' 
practical experience in the working of teas, we can 
safely say that the statement made is false, and 
further can show that it is impossible to plunder 
importers' tea. 
On arrival of the ships in the docks the packages 
are landed and conveyed either by lighter or covered 
vans under Customs lock. "When received in the 
warehouse (before the lids are removed) they 
are weighed gross by the Customs officer and the 
gross weight inscribed on each package, and the 
teas are not allowed in any case to be bulkel, before 
the gross weights are taken, which at once secures 
the merchants' tea from being plundered; after being 
inspected by the broker, if found necessary to do 
so, they are bulked, the empty packages tared and 
refilled. After refilling they are again brought to 
the scale, regulated and made up to the full gross 
weight in the presence of the Customs Officer. In 
the case of netting they are likewise weighed gross 
before being netted. With regard to the other 
operations of taking off lids, turning out, &c, great 
care is taken and the tea immediately returned to 
the packages, papered (not with brown paper) care- 
fully, and the lead drawn over the paper and then 
nailed down. 
Mention is made about opening the packages with 
a crowbar : that is not the case, they are opened 
with a mallet and chisel, and your correspondent 
will admit that some force must be used to open 
the packages, which are securely nailed down in 
Ceylon. With regard to the loss in weight, which 
is accounted for by the Customs regulations, who 
weigh only to the pound, and if the packages are 
made up in Ceylon to meet the Customs regulations, 
there would not be any difference between Ceylon 
and London weights, except the pound draft allowed 
to the trade, over which we have no control. 
We enclose name and address, and shall be 
pleased to furnish any gentleman connected with 
estates information on the making up of the 
packages to meet the regulations of the Customs. 
— Yours faithfully. 
BONDED WAREHOUSE-KEEPERS. 
[One obvious criticism on the above narrative is 
— why are the tin boxes when refilled not soldered 
down again? Again, we believe a well-known 
Ceylon planter saw a crowbar very unnecessarily 
used in the London warehouses, while the men 
walked on the tea with dirty, heavy, hobnailed 
boots. Just as we are writing, a Colombo merchant 
sends us a report of a case (in the Grocer's Gazette) 
where damages were claimed for negligent storage 
of China tea— so that the Bonded Tea Warehouses 
are by no means immaculate — Ed.] 
TEA LEAF PEST. 
Jan. 31st, 1889. 
Dear Sib, — I enclose a few tea leaves affected with 
some disease, and shall be glad of your opinion on 
them. I have observed the disease for some time, and 
should like to know what it is. It is sufficiently serious 
