Junis i, 1889.J fMf. TR6PICAL AGRICULTURIST* 
841 
TEA CONSUMPTION AND INFUSION. 
(From a Correspondent.) 
With reference to the tannin in tea, your 
" Tea Slip " gave the substauce of Dr. Hule 
White's statement re the harmful properties of Indian 
and Ceylon teas if injudiciously infused. 
That the increase in home consumption of ten last 
year was only 1 per cent more than 1885 requires 
no comment ! The stronger teas have without question 
been over brewed and stewed, and stewed again in 
order to extract not tea but tannin out of them. If 
tli is thing goes on, the stomachs of the people must 
suffer, and we shall experience without doubt, in 
time, a falling-ofp in the consumption of Indian 
tei ; for medical men, as well as the late clear-headed 
Ddan of Bangor, will protest against the use of such 
strong teas. 
Mr. J. Praser, who lately left for Carlsbad, is said 
to have owned that lie is suffering from drinking 
strong tea, stewed to blackness, and that it has 
tanned his stomach ! His doctor has told him that it 
would have been better for him if he had drunk 
whisky in place of such tea. 
« 
THE FUTUEE OF TEA. 
It may be well to summarize the figures we gave 
yesterday as follows : — 
1889 lb. 
.Required for Home Consumption in the 
United Kingdom say 190,000,000 
Required for re-export trade 35,000,000 
lb. 225,000,000 
U. K. will receive from India in 1889 
say lb. 102,000,000 
From Ceylon lb. 40,000,000 lb. 142,000,000 
To be made up by ) lb. 83,000,000 
China, Java, &c. j ... ... lb. 83,000,000 
« 
THE LONDON MABKET FON CEYLON TEAS 
is by no means so unfavourable at present as has re- 
cently been supposed. The average of prices for the 
week reported today is 9£d, but the very heavy sales 
of Ceylon teas during the past two weeks, amounting 
to 29,000 packages or the equivalent of over two 
million lb. of tea, must be deemed eminently satis- 
factory. During the same two weeks of last year, 
the sales of Ceylon tea only equalled 10,200 
packages. The advance is very gratifying and, we 
suspect, does not augur well for China teas being 
in great demand when the Far East market opens. 
FINE PLUCKING OF TEA. 
A planter with a big charge, writes : — 
" I would like to pluck fine but 400 lb. tea at 1jJ= 
4,000 pence ; 200 lb. tea at 15d=3,000 pence. It does 
not require much calculation to say which pays best." 
But supposing the price of the coarser fails to 9d or 
even Sd, while 200 lb. per acre tea realizes Is 2d, how 
would the comparison be then, allowing for the 
saving in labour in the field, factory &o. in attending 
to the smaller quantity? 
A proprietor asks, however, who is to guarantee 
that prices for fine teas will keep up in this 
proportion ? — Another proprietor asks : — 
" If London market can take off middling Ceylon 
Teas (bulk of which they strongly disapprove of) at 
the rate of one million lb. per week what would they 
•probably lake of teas of the quality of which they 
entirely approved." 
A further remark made has reference to the 
strangeness of the fact that three -fourths of the 
Ceylon, of the India and of the China teas sent 
to London are " not approved of " by connois- 
seurs ; that is, they may be classed as common 
teas. Now every manufacturer is supposed 
to study the wishes and tastes of his customers, 
and why not so in respect of tea. This raises 
another question : if with medium plucking (the 
tip, leaf and a half), as much of leaf as will 
make 600 lb. tea per acre, can be gathered, and 
the quality depends mainly on its treatment 
in the factory, will it not pay the owner to 
increase the supervision, accommodation and 
machinery, until his 600 lb. receive as careful 
treatment as the 300 lb. of his neighbour on a 
less prolific estate ? How often is the remark 
made :— " I could make better tea, if I had not 
such a rush or quantity of leaf, or if I had more 
time to give to its treatment, or if I had more accom- 
modation, or another drier, &c," Certainly the circum- 
stances in each case have to be studied, but generally 
a higher standard of preparation must be aimed at. 
^ 
THE EASTERN PRODUCE AND ESTATES 
COMPANY, LIMITED. 
Dikectobs. — Norman W. Grieve, Esq.; C. J.Lindsay 
Nicholson, Esq.; David Eeid, Esq.; Christopher B. 
Smith, Esq.; Charles H. Stewart, Esq.; Edward Whab, 
Esq. Ralph A. Cameron, Esq., Managing Director. 
Report — To be presented at the Second Ordinary 
General Meeting, to be held at the Offices of the 
Company, at 12 o'clock noon, on the 25th April, 1889. 
The Directors herewith submit Report and Balance 
Sheet for the first year's working, ending 31st De- 
cember, 1888, which it is satisfactory to find fairly 
accords with the expectations held out at the forma- 
tion of the Company. 
The profit for the year has enabled the Directors 
to provide for payment in full of the 6 per cent De- 
benture Interest and 5 per cent Preference Share Divi- 
dend, amounting to £11,741 19s 70, and to carry to 
credit of Reserve Fund the balance of £435 13s lOd. 
It will be in the recollection of the shareholders that 
in terms of the Company's Articles of Association, such 
Reserve Fund is to be created to the amount of £10,000 
for the purposes of ensuring payment of interest and 
dividend on above Debentures and Preference Shares, 
the profits of the Company to be devoted to the re- 
demption of £3,000 Debentures yearly after such Re- 
serve Fund has reached £10,000, and next to payment 
of dividend on the Ordinary Shares, such dividend not 
to exceed 3 per cent per annum until the Debenture 
debt is below £50,000. 
The Company has now 8,635 acres in tea, of which 
about 3,600 acres are over four years old, and by end 
of current year the total tea acreage will be about, 
9,500 acres. The rapid decadence of the remaining 
coffee on the Company's Estates during the past year 
from the combined effects of green bug and leaf 
disease has prejudicially affected the year's Profit and 
Loss Account, and has necessitated a considerable 
acreage being interplanted with Tea earlier than would 
otherwise have beon called for. The yield of tea in 
18S8 from the Company's estates was 986,8001b., and 
the average gross price obtained, including purchased 
leaf, was Is per lb., which compares favourably with 
the market average cf ll^d for CeylonTea for the same 
period. The Directors have pleasure in recording 
their appreciation of the zeal and ability shown by the 
manager and staff in Ceylon, which has so largely 
contributed to this satisfactory result. The crop of 
tea for 1889 is estimated at 1,150,000 lb. 
The Shareholders will observe a sum of £4,904 14s 2d 
standing at credit of Estate Reserve Account. This 
consists of the surplus arising on realisation of Pro- 
duce at a value over and above that placed on it by 
the Liquidators of the Ceylon Company, Limited, and 
the proceeds of the sale of one Estate. In accord- 
ance with the Articles of Association, all the Directors 
retire from office, and, being eligible, offer themselves 
for re-election. In the exercise of their powers, under 
the Articles of Association, your Directors appointed 
I Messrs. Weltou, Jones &Oo., Auditors of the Company 
for the past year. It will be for the Shareholders to 
elect Auditors for the current year, and to fix their 
remuneration.— C. J- L- Nicholson, Chairman. 
