May i, i88g.j 
THt TROP'CAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
747 
it behoves us to be up and doing betimes. To be 
forewarned is to be fore-armed, and if we know what 
our enemy is and with what weapons he can be 
exterminated, half the battle will be gained when 
the fight really begins. So far the disease has not 
been serious. 
The first disease I drew attention to was in i's 
first stages Bimilar in appearance to Hcmeleia vasta- 
irix. We have a new development of it now. The 
leaf discolors along its entire length and eventually 
withers. I was at first inclined to attribute it to the 
action of the sun, but it is spreading with the rains. 
We have scaly bug too, the disea-e that has proved 
fatal to the palm in the West Indies, but happily 
its attack is limited. Herewith samples. See whether 
it is " unmitigated bosh." — Truly yours, B. 
[" B." begins by saying : — " I have repeatedly 
stated that this is no new disease, but an aggra- 
vation of what had been noticed for years back." 
Well, that makes all the difference between it and 
the coffee-leaf fungus which was never known in con- 
nection with coffee anywhere the world over, either to 
scientists or planters, before it appeared in Madul- 
sima, Oeylon, in 1869. That was Dr. Thwaites' 
opinion and it has never been disproved. — It is 
of no use for editors or even scientists to inter- 
fere in the present instance, until old coco- 
nut planters settle the point whether the pre- 
sent "development" has not been one familiar to 
them off and on at intervals for many years back 
and whether it has always followed a bad drought 
and disappeared again after a time. In some cases, 
attacks by " poochies " and fungi seem to have 
followed on the drought, but in Mr. Akbar's ex- 
perience, good cultivation and a change of condi- 
tions have resulted in the disappearance of the 
trouble. The case as now presented is just one 
where the " Ceylon Agricultural Association " — if in 
existence — might well have been asked to appoint 
a Committee of coconut planters to inspect, take 
evidence and draw up a report.— Ed. 
CEYLON TEAS AND HOW TO PUSH 
THEM : NO. II. 
Dear Sie, — If Mr. Kutherford has not inserted 
in his note book (and I see no mention of it in 
the published index) a list of duties levied on tea 
in all countries he has omitted, I think, a very 
valuable table. Now what, for instance, is the import 
duty on tea levied in France ? I leave you to in- 
form your readers.* 
This is what Mr. J. L. Shand, our great tea 
prophet in the world's wilderness of Exhibitions, pro- 
claims it to be, in his attempt to prepare the 
way in the forthcoming Paris Fair of all nations : 
— " The duty on tea imported from Oeylon direct is 
/208 per 100 kilos, say 2s 3d per lb., and sent from 
England it is/268 per 100 kilos, say 2s 9d per pound, 
more, so a considerable saving is effected by im- 
porting direct." 
In a local print I find it given : — " The duty 
on tea imported from Ceylon direct is F. 208 per 
100 kilos, say 9s 3d per lb., and sent from England 
it is F. 268 per 100 kilos." Duty on tea if sent 
direct from grower to France 2s 3d per lb.! and if 
sent via England 2s 9d per lb !! (Mr. Shand says 
2s 9d per lb. " more. ", but this is evidently a slip). 
No wonder that France is not yet a tea drinking 
country I A "miracle" of some sort will have to 
be performed by some one before it is, and that 
will be no doubt done in time by "the people," 
seeing that the years of the " lean kine " are 
now about setting in with respect to the Frenchman's 
much beloved coffee. He must either fly to tea 
*To our inquiry today the French Uouaul (ML 
Ruinat) is good enough to reply as follows : — " At 
present, duty on tea in France is f2-0S per kilog. It 
has been reduced from fii 50 which was paid for many 
years before. Of courso this means (f208) duty 
from foreign ports." A kilogram being 2 l-5th lb. we 
make this <.Ud per lb. — Ed. 
or cocoa as a subsistence. The barriers to tea should 
be broken down from within at once if France is 
to be saved from becoming one of the greatest 
alcoholic drinking people of the world as already 
there are signs in the afternoon teas of the 
Parisians. But if I give Mr. J. L. Shand credit for 
sending to the Ceylon Planters' Association true 
information re duty on teas in France, what am 
I to do with Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton, the 
great creators of tea diagrams, statistical tables, 
<fcc. &c. ? Their offices lie nearly opposite to Mr. 
Shand's in Bood Lane, E.C.; well they must be 
left to fight out among themselves any rudeness 
that this question of duty on tea in France may en- 
gender. This is what Messrs. G., W.& S. say it is: — 
Tea. Coffee. 
France Duty.. 9d to lljd 6|d to 9d 
Now who can make head or tail of these two state- 
ments. One man distinctly has " won the kettle." 
Again G., W. & S. in their latest pyramidical 
diagram, showing the world's consumption of tea, 
accord 4 blocks, each representing one million of lb. 
to Germany. How can this be reconciled with their 
figures given in their table attached to the diagram? 
Here they are, say for Germany. Comparative quan- 
tities of tea (in lb.) exported from Great Britain 
during 1884-85 and 1887 :— 
Average exports during 
1884 & 1885 1887. 
Germany ... 17,879,000 8,617,648 
So much for our great authorities on tea I 
Again in G., W. & S.'s diagram they place the 
consumption of tea in that country (France) at 0 03 
per head. If such a country still taxes its people 
at the rate of 2s 9d per lb. per duty on tea, the sooner 
that the head of the country is changed the better. 
A baker or butcher would certainly know 
better how to administer the revenues of Frauce 
to the benefit of the poople, but " the people " 
must be a poor lot to stand such nonsense ; they evi- 
dently require waking up ! Well, send Ceylon emissa- 
ries into the poorer quarters of Paris, Lyons, and all 
the great manufacturing, towns. Here is a grand 
mission for Ceylon planters who know the " lingo," 
Clad in blouses during the day and appearing as 
" Mashers," not of tea, but after the manner of 
not Arabian, but of Ceylon (k)nights, armed with 
thousands of packets of Ceylon Ua, they would open 
if necessary— (in the poorest quarters small shops 
or boutiques) (one active man might easily 
supervise a dozen) where they could get at the 
Millions and with pamphlets printed in French 
(and assisted by G. W. S.'s grand diagrams — war 
maps they would be) they would preach the great 
gospel of tea to the people, who would soon begin to 
open their eyes and to ask why they were longer to 
be debarred from a beverage so much enjoyed in 
England by the working man there and at so 
cheap a rate ? France is a perfectly free country 
and the people would soon assert their rights as 
regards tea at all events, moreover, they would if 
assailed, no doubt protect their teachers who would 
sell good tea to them without profit and at the 
lowest possible price. British tea growers must, 
in fact, get in amongst the teeming millions of the 
world — anywhere and everywhere. If the tea planters 
will not attempt this great work (and every great 
reformation has sprung from tn s people, due per- 
haps at first to a few apparently, at the time, 
insignificant leaders), then let them form an alli- 
ance with the Temperance Societies whose organiza- 
tion everywhere is already complete. This new means 
of doing good would, no doubt, be hailed by 
them with enthusiasm. These Despised World's 
Beformers at the present day are doing an in- 
calculable amount of good 1 — Yours, 
A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. 
P. S. — In Lancashire manufacturing towns today 
