August i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
197 
CEYLON TEA AND OTHER PRODUCTS 
%T THE MELBOURNE EXHIBITION: 
Being Extracts from the Letters of the Ceylon 
Commissioner with Remarks thereon. 
4th November 1880. 
I send you a catalogue of yesterday's tea sale with 
the prices, per lb., filled in at which the various 
lots sold. I said to Mr. Sibthorp and Messrs. Henty 
& Co., that all the adjectives of the English lan- 
guage having been exhausted in describing the Indian 
tea, nothing remained but to resort to the highest 
Latin terms where Ceylon came to be sold, and to 
call it " Gloriosa superba. " There was a largo at- 
tendance of actual dealers as well as wholesale buyers, 
and you will observe that the lots were judiciously 
made lar^e and small to suit both classes, an exam- 
ple which one of the principal dealers advised should 
be followed in consignments of Ceylon tea. 50 lb. 
per chest was recommended as a good average quantity, 
and the hope was expressed that the packages would 
be better and more secure than those from India. 
Champagne and ppeeches being over, the auction com- 
menced : the competition was keen, and a large quanti- 
ty of property changed hands in an incredibly short 
time. These who grew the tea would not agree in the 
opinion of my Mentor that the prices p lid were 2d. 
too dear, — "for this market," he added. But if, as 
described, they were all ' Pekoe, " it does not seem 
to me that even 2e. 7kl. per lb., the top price of the 
sule, is very good except in comparison with the 
wretched prices recently obtained in England. You 
will see that tho highest price was paid for Darjeel- 
ing Pekoe. This seems to promise well for our high- 
grown Ceylon teas. But, it was impressed on me at 
the sale, that we must pass our big leaves through 
"tea cutters"* to reduce them to the size tho trade 
and the consumers desiderate. I was assured that 
this process would not endanger the teas being classed 
as broken. I fancy there will soon be another sale 
of Ceylon tea, and I trust the prices obtained may 
compare well with those realized yesterday. I may, 
perhaps, obtain and send to Ceylon specimens of the tea 
which fetched the highest prices. 
19th November 1880. 
The Indian teas are evidently makii 
market, and I hope that our Ceylon 
rank even better than a good second, 
have said that they enjoyed the Ceylon tea at once, 
while some of the Indian seemed harsh. The Aus- 
tralian tea drinkers, however, are prejudiced against 
big leaves and big prices. Mr. Moody of J Henty 
& Co. told me that his firm realized a large profit 
on some large-leaved tea which they secured at a low 
price and passed through a tea-cutter. Mr. Moody 
says that the cutting of the tea has no effect in class- 
ing it as broken. 
in this 
zt will 
persons 
(From the Ceylon Observer, 1st December 18S0.) 
At length the Australian press have found the op- 
portunity of noticing the Ceylon Court and Exhibits, 
and from tho reports we append it will be seen that 
a fuir amount of justice is done to tho enterprise of 
this Colony. There arc many other ways, however, 
besides notices in tho press of subserving' the interests 
of our planters and exporters in a large commercial 
city like Melbourne, and the Commissioner's official 
report when it appears will shew that ho has not been 
idle. Hit special telegram giving the Result of further 
sales of Ceylon tea affords increased encouragement to 
the cultivators of this important new product. Tho 
I statement, that if the Itookwood produce hid been 
put up in chests of half the size, twopence per pound 
more would have been realized, is borne out by the 
fact that the shipments of Calbodde and Kandaloya 
t a made by Messrs. Mack wood & Co. in 40 1b. chests 
fetched 2s Ojd to 2s Old per pound. Through the 
courtesy of Mr. Bruce we have received a copy of 
the catalogue with the prices realized for Indian tea, 
season 1880 81, sold on 1st November, and we notice 
that the highest price obtained was 2s 5d per lb. for 
four half chests Assam Pekoe, but this fancy price 
we ijannot help thinking must have been due more 
to the smallness of the lot, and to it being sold near 
the end of the sale, than to the quality. At any 
rate lots No. 6 and 7 described as follows :— 
15 half-chests Assam Pekoe very handsome wiry 
greyish leaf, full Flowery Pekoe leaf, splendid liquor 
thick heavy malty flavor with immense strength 
7 half-chests Assam broken Pekoe, sma'.l very even 
handsome Golden Pekoe leaf, pungent rasping and 
strong line rich flavor 
realized only 2s ljd and 2s^0d respectively. Of 
other Pekoes we have : — 
4 half-chests Dooars broken Pekoe handsome small 
very even black leaf lull Golden tips, s'rong thick 
heavy richly fired malty flavor. 
51 half-chests debar Pekoe, very handsome wiry 
blackish h af full Elowery Pekoe tips, immense strength 
and briskness with rich flue malty Pekoe flavor 
both of which were bought for 2s per lb. The Sou- 
chong and Pekoe-souchong qualities realized from Is 
l^d to Is 9|d. We shall give the full eales-list for 
this consignment of Indian tea in our next issue. 
Since writing this, we have been favoured by Messrs. 
Lecehman & Co. with tho following memorandum, 
shewing that Agrawatte tea has topped the market so 
far as Ceylon produce is concerned. This sale took 
place before the present mail left : — 
Memo or sale of Agrawatte Estate Ceylon tea in 
Melbourne. 
Pekoe 2s 2Jd per lb in bond 
Pekoe Souchong 
Souchong {&M I » 
Congou Is ljd ,, ,, 
Sold at public sale. 
Uaohines made for the purpose. 
50 
(From the Ceylon Observer, 21st December 1S80.) 
The following communication from tho Ceylon Com- 
missioner to the Melbourne Exhibition, kindly placed 
at our service, with the accompanying reports, will 
be read with much interest by all in the island in- 
terested in "tea." Every effort should now be made 
to meet the requirements of Australian merchants 
and consumers, so as to maintain the high reputation 
they already concede to Ceylon teas. Australia can 
take all the tea this Colony is likely to produce for 
a good many years to come, and our merchants ought 
in return to develop an import duty of considerable 
importance. Meantime, for the promotion of tea inter- 
ests in Ceylon, capital, such as apparently only a 
Limited Company can readily command, is required. 
Suitable buildings and machinery cost money which 
ordinary planters in thoso times of depression, can ill 
secure. It has been demonstrated satisfactorily that 
we can produce tea more cheaply than our neighbours 
in Northern and Southern India, and yet capital still 
continues to How into new " tea concerns " in :he Assam 
and Nilgiri districts. May wo not hope that, with 
two Indian Hanks represented in Colombo, attention 
will be drawn to the advantages Ceylon presents for 
the application of capital to tho cultivation and prepara- 
tion of tea. A Company to start central factoriiM 
and buy tho leaf would do good, but there is plenty 
of room for tho purchase of cultivated laud, or forest 
