THF TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1889. 
is the effect ? A large city like Colombo drinking 
almost vile Ceylon tea and passengers by the 
thousand leaving our shores with withering con- 
tempt expressed everywhere with regard to the 
much vaunted rich and delicate Ceylon teas ! I 
submit the idea for what it may be worth. — Yours, 
A BELIE VEE IN GREAT EESULTS PROM APPA- 
RENTLY INSIGNIFICANT MEANS. 
P. S. — Talking of the bad quality of tea at pre- 
sent to be had in Colombo, a very great authority 
on, and one of the largest engaged in the tea enter- 
prise, and who has just gone home (H. K. R.), 
gave his reason for it thus. He said there was a 
great deal in the water used. Tea that might not 
taste very pleasant in Colombo might prove to be 
very pleasant tea upcountry ; it was more or less 
a question of water. The Colombo shopkeepers 
might be able to get some special teas made for 
them in such a manner that they would give good 
results with Labugama water. Any way it is worth 
the trying, for there ought to spring up a large 
demand for tea in the district of Colombo ere 
long, seeing that coffee is likely to prove too dear 
soon for the natives 1 1 buy even if the berry does 
not disappear altogether from our midst, as some 
assert it will before many more years are past. 
An effort should be made to supply coolies at 
the wharf in the Fort with good, wholesome tea at 
a trifling cost ; thousands of Tamil immigrants 
might be tempted to try it at the coolies' stall 
and to carry away a fondness for the beverage 
when they return to India, where a large local 
consumption of tea must eventually take place. 
Suitable premises for coolies where they could get 
cheap and good refreshments, and not too far 
distant might help to free our streets of objection- 
able and insanitary cooly eating shops in our 
midst proving themselves offensive in every pos- 
sible way. What cannot apparently be effected 
legally may perhaps be effected plvilanthropically : 
even at Home it has been proved quite recently 
that dinners for the poor can be made for an in- 
finitesimal sum. How much cheaper here with 
rice and fish ! 
BOURBON COTTON. 
Mutwal Lodge, 14th March 1889. 
Dear Sib, — Can you inform me whether, the 
cotton I now send you, along with a flower and 
leaf from the tree, is a variety worthy of our 
attention ? If so, it is a perennial, and grows 
from sea-level to an elevation of 2,500. That is 
as far as I have seen ; but it may flourish higher. 
If it is a worthless cotton, commercially, we should 
know it, in order to avoid the danger of cultivating 
a useless variety. If as good as the American and 
the Egyptian in staple and quality, then it is a 
variety best suited to the Sinhalese, whatever its 
merits and recommendations to the European 
planter, from the circumstance that it is a perennial. 
You will notice also that the seed can be taken 
out clean, without any loss arising from cotton 
adhering to it.— Yours truly, JAS. H. BARBER. 
[The cotton is beautifully fine, and we recognize 
it as Bourbon cotton, a superior variety, which is, 
as our correspondent remarks, a perennial. In 
cultivation, however, it is found generally advisable 
to treat all cotton plants as annuals. It is better 
also to grow plants from introduced seeds. — Ed.j 
THE PROPOSED CEYLON-AMERICAN TEA 
CO., LTD. 
Dear Sib,— While waiting for the issue of the 
prospectus of the company proponed to be formed to 
trade with our teas in America, I amused myself with 
drafting a few clauses I thought such a document 
should contain. The prospectus has since appeared, 
and is all that is good and necessary ; but as 
"every little helps," I may, perhaps, be allowed 
to put some of the ideas I then set down in the 
form of a letter. 
The necessity that exists for the " speedy open- 
ing up of new markets " is a fact for which our 
pockets vouch. Such new markets we find in 
Germany, the Argentine Republic, France, the 
Australian Colonies, and America; The principle 
of "companies" to work each of these separately 
is a good one, and ought to be forthwith put into 
practice : a separate company for each country. 
America is in the field first, let it, therefore, have 
the start ; then Australia, and the others in the 
order in which the "right man" to work them 
may turn up. For America we have Mr. Pineo ; 
for Australia Mr. Sinclair, and I know that a 
German firm in Colombo is working earnestly for 
Germany ; and Ceylon is about to have a tea-room 
in Paris. 
At the low average of three pounds a head of 
the population the United States would at once 
jump into the position of being the greatest con- 
sumer in the world. The people spread over its vast 
extent do not drink our teas because they can- 
not get them. Let these be made known and 
the supply be kept up, and they may be 
trusted to make their own way everywhere ai 
they have in Britain. Let them only be brought 
into competition with the cheap, low grades from 
China, and their success is assured, as proved by 
the decision of the discriminating tea-drinkers of 
Great Britain. 
But for the purposes of a " company" there are 
other reasons why America offers inducements to 
operate on a large scale, boldly, and with confidence. 
The absence of " duty" and the low purchasing 
power of the American dollar will enable the com- 
pany's agent in America to nett a price per pound for 
all he sails that could not be obtained elsewhere in 
the world. This will put the " agent" in his 
mettle, but he can be trusted for that. 
It would be useless to form a company at all if 
the " working capital" is not large, and pluekily 
employed. The profits will, undoubtedly, be very 
large, and the secondary advantages springing from 
the company's operations will also redound to the 
prosperity of the supporters as well as to the general 
good. 
Those large estate owners first in the field, who, 
for so many years have reaped the profits arising 
from high prices, should now take the lead in this 
and all kindred efforts, and small thanks to them 
seeing how profitable such investment is sure to be. — 
Yours faithfully, R. W. J. 
THE COCONUT LEAF DISEASE. 
Veyangoda, March 20th, 1889. 
Dear Sir, — All interested in coconut cultivation will 
hail with pleasure anything that will throw light on 
the above subject. The letter of a Npgombo planter 
in your issue of the 18th, though it pretends to, 
gives us no information on leaf disease, thougli it 
certainly does give one an insight into the qualinc- 
tioDs of the writer to form an opinion. The com- 
munication under notice is distinguished for rash 
assertions, hasty generalizations, and a hazy idea of 
manuring and its effects. 
First, as to rash assertion. What are the- means 
your correspondent had for forming so damaging an 
opinion of the depth of soil of the districts between 
