2 26 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Aucust I, 1881. 
be known by, and sell at fixed prices. The general 
consumer will never come to know a Ceylon tea by 
the name of an estate. He can find no indication of 
quality in an estate's name, and not one consumer in 
500 will put himself to the trouble of asking samples 
of different estates' tea. It 's by price he speaks of 
his tea :— " It 's the 3s 4d Ceylon tea, or the 3s Ceylon 
tea." I would suggest — to meet all grades of tea 
drinkers — that blends to sell at 3s 4d, 3s, 2s 6d, and 
2s be made, and put up in 1 lb., J lb., and \ lb. 
tin foil packets bearing name of " Company " and 
price. This is how some large firms put out their 
teas to agents all over the country. In large towns, 
it is principally bakers, confectioners and druggists 
who sell packet teaB, but in country villages the 
general merchant goes in for them, grocers preferring 
to sell from bulk. Doubtless they too would keep 
them if it were not that their own blends are as a 
rule of better value. There are two ways of opening up 
the trade. One by advertising and inviting applications 
for Agencies. This plan is adopted by the Assam Tea 
Company. Here is their advertisement : — " Agents, 
&c, wanted to sell our celebrated teas at eighteen - 
pence per lb., and prices upwards ; in packets or 
loose ; good profits. Write for price list, etc. — Assam 
Tea Company, 132 Upper Thames Street, London." 
1 don't think they dispose of much by agents, as I 
have seen no one, either by card in window or news- 
paper advertisement, announce his being agent for this 
Company's teas. The other way is to send out travel- 
lers to induce shopkeepers to order a stock and push 
it among their customers. There is a big difference 
between acquiring a set of new customers and push- 
ing a new thing among one's 'regular customers. If 
the price at which the tea is sold to grocers, leaves 
them the same profit as they get on their bulk teas, 
they would have some inducement to push it, in its 
being made up and an article they could honestly 
recommend. These " hints " lead directly in the 
teeth of my own interest, as they recommend opposition 
to the business I am trying to establish. " Sufficient 
until the day be the evil thereof " — one agent will do for 
Aberdeen. The mighty " Date-coffee-abomination " 
Company has but one agent in this town, and he 
supplies grocers with all they manage to sell. 
I see a London starch manufacturer, Orlando Jones, 
has gone in for advertising on an expensive scale. 
He has Bent men over all Aberdeen calling at shops 
and private houses with a sample of his starch. The 
presented packets are neatly put up and contain about 
2 oz. If he has made a like distribution in all the 
large towns of the kingdom, as likely he has, before 
he would have sent so far, it must have cost him a 
tidy sum. 
We feel sure Ceylon tea planters will appreciate 
the energy and perseverance of their agent for " Aber- 
deen and the North." We have had to-day a visit 
from Mr. Paterson, junr. , of Cranley, who is about 
to proceed to England in order to devote his whole 
time and attention to the establishment of a Tea 
Agency or rather Tea Agencies for the sale of the 
Ceylou product. Mr. Paterson will not confine his 
attention to the sale of the produce of any one planta- 
tion or group of plantations. He will be impartial in 
this respect, and in another direction, he will take care 
not to clash or interfere with the provincial agencies 
already started, for instance, in Glasgow and Aberdeen. 
There is undoubtedly abundance of room, in the metro- 
polis fur instance, and all over England, in the North 
of Ireland (where the strongest and best teas are drunk), 
anil in those large Scottish towns which are so far 
unoccupied. We trust Mr. Paterson, in conjunction 
with other friends of Ceylon in London, will be able 
to give effect to Sir Wrn. Gregory's suggestion, by 
the establi-hment of a West End store and, perhaps, 
restaurant, where Ceylon tea and coffee (and by-and- 
bye cocoa) would be specialties. To such an under- 
taking all old colonists ought to lend their support 
and patronage, aud if, in the same way, the many 
old Coyton residents scattered througout Krigland at 
different provincial centres took some interest in the 
establishment of local agencies, a great deal could be 
done to create a steady demand for Ceylon tea. A 
correspondent has already shewn in our columns, that 
a very considerable quantity of tea would be called 
for if only every family in the old country connected 
with, or interested in Ceylon, made a point of using 
no other than this Colony's produce. Let this become 
a point of patriotism with retired planters, mediants, 
and civilians, as well as with gentleme n going home 
on business or on furlough, and very soon throughout 
the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, 
Ceylon tea will become as familiar in the mouths of 
the great English tea drinking public as " household 
words." 
GOLD IN CEYLON. 
We learn that Mr. Evans, the gold-miner, is hard 
at work on the Dolosbage reef in the property of 
Messrs. Alstons, Scott & Co. He has made a pro 
tern, report of a satisfactory nature, but more work 
must be done before a conclusive opinion can be formed 
of the value of the reef. 
On the other hand good news comes from Maskeliya. 
The best sample of Ceylon quartz that Mr. A. C. 
Dixon has yet seen, he has received from Mr. Grigg 
of Theberton estate. In it gold is clearly visible, and 
there is every reason to believe that a paying auri- 
ferous reef must be available in this neighbourhood. 
It is stated that Mr. Jas. Theobald, who hae had 
experience in quartz mining in Australia, is projecting 
in Eangala. Mr. E. P. Eastwood, who also in "the 
days of old" had a practical business acquaintance with 
a great many Bendigo and Sandhurst mines, is good 
enough to remind us of the simple passing tests 
which the ordinary prospecting miner used to apply 
to quartz to distinguish between mica, pyrites and 
gold. These tests are based on the fact we have al- 
ready mentioned that gold does not lose its colour 
or become tarnished as the inferior metals do— and 
hence in wetting glittering mica or pyrites with the 
tongue, or in looking at them in different, lights, a 
change of colour will be perceptible which is not 
observed in gold under similar circumstances. 
NEW " ZEALAND" FLAX. 
A correspondent writes: — "I sent you a book on 
New Zealand—' The Official Handbook of New Zea- 
land '—edited by Sir Julius Vogel, from which you 
could probably give ! rt. R. ' the information touch- 
ing New Zealand Flax." There is little or nothing 
of a practical character in the book in question ; 
the following being almost the only references. In 
writing of Otago one contributor says : — 
" Another enterprise in which the Province must em- 
bark is the growth of flax and hemp. Every element 
of success exists, and there is only wanted skilful 
adaptation of labour to briDg about a profitable result. 
It will not do for the farmers to confine their atten- 
tion to the production of the ordinary graiu crops 
alone, as these change so much in value. The growth 
