790 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1889. 
spacious terrace overlooking gardens, fountains, band- 
stands, &c. 
If the tea-house is properly managed, I predict 
that thousands of people will crowd it daily and it 
will be found to be about five times too small. 
The site is the envy of all refreshment caterers, and, 
should be worth to Mr. Shaud, if taken full advantage 
of, several hundreds of pounds after refunding the 
Association the K6,0U0 voted in aid of the scheme. 
The Indian Palace will have about 20 bazaars with a 
tea verandah and bar. The building is in an out-of-the- 
way place, and I fancy for every pound of tea consumed 
in the Indian tea-house there will be ten pounds in 
the Oeylon house. 
M. Joubert who has had to do with previous Exhibi- 
tions in other countries informs me that without doubt 
the Paris Exhibition will eclipse everything. I can well 
believe it, for what I have seen of the various arrange- 
ments and structures &c. 6 weeks before the opening, 
has given me some idea of the magnitude and mag- 
nificence of the show when complete. 
The fittings of the Oeylon tea house aie being made 
by M. Joubert's firm in London and are expected here 
about 1st April and all will be in readiness by the 
opening day. 
Some means ought to be taken to follow up the 
effects of the Ceylon tea-house, by providing for the 
sale of Ceylon tea in several shops in the city of 
Paris. 
I have gone into several shops here which sell 
tea and enquired for Ceylon tea, but they never heard 
of it. Steady enquiries by all Ceylon friends during 
the Exhibition period for Ceylon tea in Paris will 
prove a good advertisement for us. It is a mistake 
to tbiuk there is very little tea drunk in Paris. There 
is a considerable quantity, but it is most vile stuff. 
I do not suppose the Ceylon tea-house at the 
Exhibition should require more funds from the Asso- 
ciation, but should it do so, I would strongly advise 
the Association not to hesitate for one moment in 
increasing the vote. 
Being on the spot and having seen the site conceded 
to us, I can wich almost absolute certainty predict 
that tho tea-house will be a magnificent success. — ■ 
Yours sincerely, H. K. -Rutherford. 
THE EEMEDY FOB THE TEA CRISIS. 
Dear Sir, — The suggestion to pluck fine and 
reduce our exports by 25 per cent is a good one, 
for not only would the shipments of Ceylon tea 
be appreciably reduced, but what went forward would 
probably meet with a ready sale on arrival — "a 
consummation devoutly to be wished" — in place of 
" hanging fire" as now. The tea would in fact go 
off like gunpowder or more vulgarly speaking 
"hot pies"! Ai. the very low prices tea, even of 
good, rich quality, now is selling at, the working 
man would not hesitate to pay an extra Gd per lb. 
to obtain what best suits his palate. 1 believe 
that if -10,000,000 lb. of really good Ceylon tea 
were sent home it would all find buyers. Teas 
without any redeeming feature would, under such 
circuinst nces decline .still further and these alone, 
and rightly so would continue to suffer. Listen 
to whitt tiie leading Mincing Lane Brokers say by 
the mail of 29th March, just to hand. 
The production of tea as everyone connected with 
it unfortunately knows is ever increasing. In the 
good old dajs of King Coffee we used often to de- 
plore bad blossoming seasons, causing short crops 
in Ceylon, the same experience often overtaking 
coffee planters in Brazil and elsewhere. There 
was in consequence in coffte pr.ces, always an 
element of uncertainty prevailing, one year they 
would be down in the gutter and the next up in 
the skies 1 When wo Ceylon planters took to 
growing tea it was pointed out how immensely the 
tea enterprize would be benefited by the absence 
of such crop fluctuations ; but this picture seems 
to have been overdrawn, and it is now shown only 
to be a pleasing one bo long as consumption was 
equal to, or exceeded, the supply of tea. Today the 
tta markets open to us, are rapidly becoming glutted, 
and it takes no prophet to point out what this 
must end in unless new markets are speedily 
found. Mr. Chalmers (of 20 years' experience in 
the tea trade principally in China) foresaw this dif- 
ficulty and warned Ceylon tea planters of it about 
a year ago and he urged them — nay pleaded with 
them — to make only good tea. Some of your corre- 
spondents accused him of writing as he did " from 
interested motives and in the interests of China." 
His advice was scoffed at and held up to derision. 
It is but due to Mr. Chalmers that they should now 
be brought back to the memory of tome who were 
guilty of very " bad form" in combating Mr. Chal- 
mers' views in the ungentlemanly way they did. 
One of your correspondents, I see, refers to tea as the 
" burning question" of the day; to many it is 
certainly becoming a most seriou3 question, espe- 
cially to those who are shipping BUBNT TEA. 
FINANCIAL BESULTS' OF FINE PLUCKING 
OF TEA: IMPOBTANT COBBECTIONS. 
Dear Sir, — Allow me to point out to you an error 
in the letter signed " Quality," in your paper of 
20th instant, and another in your second note 
appended to the letter. 
100,000 is 25 per cent more than 80,000; not 
20 per cent more. That is the error in the letter. 
Your note is wrong in stating that the gain by 
selling 80,000 lb. at Is 31, instead of 100,000 at Is, 
is, of course, in the less expense, not in larger 
receipts. If the word " receipts " do not mean 
money received by the grower, it is misleading. For 
80,000 lb. sold in London at Is 3d the grower would 
receive about B2,I00 more than would accrue to 
him from the sale of 100,000 lb. at Is ; or 78 cents 
per lb. instead of 00 cents. The gain by "less ex- 
pense" is actually not so large as that already 
shown, being B1,G00 or the cost of manufactur- 
ing 20,000 lb. of tea, the cost of the whole of the 
raw leaf being about the same in each case. J. S. 
[We are much obliged to our correspondent for 
his corrections, which tea plantei'3 will do well to 
note carefully. — Ed.] 
FINE PLUCKING AND ITS CONSEQUENCE. 
Dear Sir, — I see your correspondents advise fine 
plucking ; but don't you think, if we were all to go 
in for it that there is a possibility of the existing 
markets becoming overstocked with fine teas, and 
the prices of these will also fall ? What keepsup the 
prices of. the fine teas is their scarcity, as they are 
mostly used for mixing purposes ; but when the 
article gets plentiful in the market, is it not likely 
to fall considerably in price ? We have not far to 
go to seek for illustrations of the kind. 
What we all must do is give every assistance 
in our power to suitable efforts now being made, 
and which must yet be adopted for the opening of 
new markets. It has been remarked with reference 
to the Amer can Tea Company that a great mistake 
is that none of the 0. lombo gentlemen were placed 
on the Beard of Directors by the shareholders at 
their meeting in Kandy last month. This was 
explained at the meetii.g. It being impossible to 
place any on the Board who were not shareholders, 
but at the shareholders' next meeting they will 
have no difficulty of the kind, let us hope, as they 
will have every influential member of the Colombo 
