June i, i88i,] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
'35 
tea-growing produced scarcely a sufficient quantity to 
bring it commercially into use. But after 1860 it 
began to be used by appreciative consinners for the 
purpose of adding strength and flavour to China tea. 
The prices of the finer sorts ranged them from 4s to 
4s 6d per pound, and there seemed to be such a future 
before tea of such excellence, that tea-growing became 
the specnlatiou of the time. Tbe next few years 
showed wretched results. The tea was badly made, 
and nearly half tbe crop bad become sour when it 
reached this country. Prices fell to a very low point. 
Planters saw that they must improve the quality if 
they were to keep their position ; and a steady im- 
provement may be dated from 1870. Several grocers 
introduced Indian teas into their blends with excel- 
lent results ; in many instances as much as one-half 
being Indian tea. We do not propose to offer any ad- 
vice on the use of Indian teas ; our object is rather to 
mark I he steady development of the trade, and let 
our readers draw their own conclusions. A reference 
to the 'dock returns for the pz'esent year shows an 
increase in the consumption of this tea of nearly six 
million pounds over last year, which fact alone is 
.sufficient to establish the correctness of the heading 
of this article. We are informed that in many towns 
in the north of England and throughout Ireland, In- 
dian tea is retailed alone, without any mixture of China 
tea whatever. This, no doubt, would be a bold ex- 
periment in some places, but if care be taken in 
the selection of the right sort, no doubt it would 
succeed . 
We venture to thiuk that the best results may be 
obtained from Cachar and Dnrjeeling teas mixed to- 
gether. The Assam growths are almost too strong to 
drink alone ; but every grocer finds, by experience, 
what suits his customers best, and acts wisely in 
giving them just what they like, and always alike 
A good plan, we should think, ivould be to mix three 
or four sorts of Indian tea together, say one heavy, 
strong, thick tea, another a brisk, pungent tea, a third, 
of a juicy, full, soft, character, and the fourth, perhaps, 
a fine, flavoury, Darjeeling or Kangra Valley tea to 
give a distinctive tone to the blend. These, of course, are 
mere suggestions on our part. We do not presume to 
lay down fixed ideas for carrying out what must in 
all cases depend on individual tastes ; our object is 
to point out the wonderful popularity of Indian teas, 
and to suggest to all our readers the advisability of 
studying their character closely. We feel sure it is 
bound to be as our heading puts it — lc The tea of the 
future," and the wisest course, therefore, will be for 
every tea-dealer to join the winning side, and realize 
in his own trade the truth in the old saying that 
"Nothing succeeds like success." 
The writer in the American Grocer has gone wrong 
only in the statement that it was in 1842 that the 
attention of the Indian Government was first directed 
to tea cultivation. It is now certain, that long be- 
fore the era of the " discovery " of the indigenous tea 
in the jungles of Assam, by the brothers Bruce in 
1826, the existence of an Indian tea was known to 
Indian civilians and others. The utilization of the 
plaut was long hindered by Dr. Wallich's persistent 
opinion that the true ten was merely* camellia But its 
true nature was placed beyond doubt aud the atten- 
tion of Government and individuals devoted to the 
enterprise much prior to 1842. The details I need 
not enter on. I may say, however, that he would be 
reckoned wild who in 1842 had ventured to predict 
that in less than forty years Iudia would be success- 
fully competing with China in the supply of tea to a 
great and advancing population in Australia. Ceylon 
also giving promise of taking her place in the same 
field. 
10 
(From April 25 to April 30 J 
GOLD AND GEMS IN CEYLON. 
We have received from Mr. Auwardt specimens of 
quartz from his property, Mount Pleasant, near Galle. 
In these there is no appearance of gold, but a good 
deal of black mica. In some samples previously fur- 
nished, Mr. A. C. Dixon discovered traces of gold. 
The professional reports of this gentlemen hare also 
been laid before us, and we may extract a few pass- 
ages to shew his opinion of the prospects of gold reef 
being found in the Southern Province near Galle. On 
the 15th December last, Mr Dixon wrote : — 
" I have examined the specimens of gold, gems and 
bag of sand which I received from you on the 9th 
instant with the following result : — 
a. The small nugget was pure gold and weighed 
over 6 grains. 
b. The stones in the paper parcel were fragments- 
of gems such as corundum, sapphire, garnets, tour- 
maline, zircon, &c. 
c. The bag of sand contained fragments of the same 
mineral as b, abounding especially in garnet*, I did 
not find any gold in the sample sent in bag." 
On the 27th December after a personal visit, Mr. 
Dixon was able to say : — 
"I saw the man who found the gold and examined the 
place from which he took it. 1 requested him to dig 
more and wash it in my presence, after whichl exami- 
ned the residue. I found no trace of gold in it, but 
numerous fragments of gems and quartz. I then follow- 
ed up the ravine to its source with the expectation of 
finding a quartz reef from which the gold might have 
come. I found two small reefs crossing the ravine and 
took specimens from them. These I have exami ned 
and find only a sligth trace of gold not in quantity 
to warrant its working. There is evidence of the occur- 
rence of gems in the vicinity. I saw several which had 
been taken from the opposite side of the hill, and 
judging from these they appear tobe of as good a quality 
as the gems at Ratnapura but not so large in size. 
They were chiefly ruby, sapphire, tourmaline and cat's- 
eye. I have no doubt larger ones will be found. 1 
spoke to your kangani respecting thequartz reefs and 
have no doubt th it if they were broken into, it would 
set the matter at rest as to whether gold is tobe found 
there in quantity worth working. From what I saw 
it did not appear to be so." 
Again : — 
" I have examined the specimens of quartz sent on 
the 17th March and find in it slight traces of gold at 
the rate of a few grains per ton. There is other metal- 
lic matter in thequartz, viz : iron as a sulphide. I 
have no doubt from what I saw when there that better 
samples will be seut you." 
So far therefore search at Galle has been unsuc- 
cessful, although Mr. Dixon holds out encouragement 
of persevere in blasting for a reef. We trust Mr. 
Auwardt's further efforts may be crowned with success. 
We learn that the result of Mr. Harvey's hurried 
visit to the Dolosbage, Matale and Ambagamuwa dis- 
tricts has been to leave matters very much as they 
were, save that certain out-crops of quartz were pro- 
nounced non-auriferous aud that of other places an 
opinion was expressed favorable to investigation. Mr 
Harvey is a very high authority in the gold-mining 
world and is naturally, therefore, correspondingly cauti- 
ous in the expression of his opinion. He was the 
first, it seems, to inspect and report favourably on tin 
auriferous land belonging to the late firm of Messrs 
William Nicol & Co. of Bombay, aud his report led 
to the establishment of the Gleurock and other Gold- 
mining Companies. His inspection of our hill regioi 
