48 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, [July i, 1893. 
I make out that Assam not only got 400 lb, 
BgainBt our 340 Jb. per acre over all the tea in bear- 
ing in 1892 ; but got in addition to this crop of 60 lb. 
an acre more tb tn Ceylon, a penny per pound more 
for ite teas 1 
, Of course we sannottell the cost of production 
in Assam whici 1 regulates the profit, but it one 
esfate in * eylrn gave ^00 lb at lid and another 
340 lb at 10^1 per lb, the extra profit made by the 
former wi uld be it loaEtBSO an acre. 
Is Ceylon going to permanently " take a back 
Eeat"?l L. D. 
[From an official statement before us, wo see 
that the average .yield of 188,329 acres in bearing 
in Assam during 1888 was 386 lb an acre ; in 
1889. the bearing; area was 196,689 acres giving 
391 lb per acre ; in 1890 the average was 409 lb 
from 200,658 acres; in 1891 it was 434 lb from 
208,407 acres; but. in 1892 it must have been 
less, for though we have not the crop figures at 
hand just now, V7e see that the estimate for 
1893 is only 88,930,560 against 90,399,.362 lb 
plucked from a smaller area in 1891. This is the 
result of fine plucking. Assam beat Ceylon in 
average price last year not by a penny as L. D. puts 
it ; but by the dvlierenoe between llfd and 'J^<1 or 
2Jd per lb.— Ed. T.A.] 
No, XVII. 
NEvrs usovT China Teas. 
June 3. 
DeabSie,— I think the object of "Philpot's" letter 
too obvious to I'equire comment, I naturally as- 
sume he is one who wishes to revive the trade in 
China tea and wlrio does not scruple to endeavour for 
this end to disorudit the produce of Ceylon. 
My London rejJortB as well as my own experiments 
convince me tha,t speaking broadly our teas now 
are as g od as e rer they were ; but that at certain 
seasons the quality does vary on every estate in 
the island, indepiendently of the style of plucking or 
manufacture, ordinary care and attention in regard 
to each process b eing of course presumed. 
The late boom in teas for price was caused by 
scarcity of low Chinas : and our low-priced teas 
being what are called " self-drinking," whereas low 
Chinas require to be blended with fine Indian or 
Ceylons lo be drinkable, accounts for the absence 
of demand for high-priced teas for blending pur- 
poses. 
What then is the situation ? Why, just this. 
Bleeders have been able to lay in large stocks of 
fine teas at low prices, and London has for months 
past been siftnulling to China for stuff to blend 
' with these finer teas at a price which will out out 
the " self-drinking " teas of Ceylon. As a result 
we see Ceylon teas for price receding and a 
slightly firmer tendency in the finer gi ades. 
Mail advices from London report that financial 
troubles in the City have adversely effected Produce 
Markets, but that the sharp fall in common tea has 
been more immediately brought about by the size 
of the first crops in China which are wirt-J as much 
larger than those of last year. It is nlfo thought 
that buyers at Fooohow will have muuh difficulty 
in financing against teas to the Australian markets : 
consequPDlly that the stream will be diverted to 
London. FOBT, 
NO. XVIII. 
June 4th. 
D. AE Tie,— So far as my own expurience goes, 
and jud(jiog by my brokers' reports, I find no evi- 
dence in' support of " Philpot'a" contention that 
the quality of Ceylon tea ia not what it was, 
Witb the exoeption of twQ. - periods, when I 
plucked fine, (witb a decidedly worse result fioan- 
cially) I have adhered to oidinary ooaru 
plucking, but in no instance have my tete 
been described ae possessed of any one of the 
wonderful and mysterious peculiarities of 
our candid friend. In fact my teas are 
reported on in almost identical terms now, 
with an average of S^d to 8^1 only, as when I wu 
getting lOd to Ud average for my whole crop. 
The trade by the price they pay for fine teas, 
hold out no inducement whatever to pluck fins 
especially at medium elevations. If we have 
pekoe Eoaohonge down again to 5d, we may be 
compelled as in the early part of 1692 to pluck 
finer all round, and so reduce oar output and 
thereby bring supply and demand into a more 
healthy condition. We have no doubt this very much 
in our own hands. On the other band while the 
main demand ie for teas for price the present fall 
will I anticipate drive our teas again into oonf-amp- 
tion. The low prices ruiing io 1891-92 for the lower 
grades was I expect the chief cause of the increasrd 
consumption of our teas during that periol and 
which more than kept pace with our increasing 
output. It was candidly admitted to me in the 
Lane, when I was last in England, that ordinary 
Ceylon pekoe souchong was 50 per cent, better for 
drinking purposes than ordi nary China congou, 
and that the only advantage the latter bad was 
in its appearance. No doubt the teas from tbe 
yearly rush of leaf in March, April and May are 
inferior to teas made at other seasooB of tbe year, 
but the wordt that can be said of them, is that 
they are thin and more or Itss common; though I 
have good authority for stating if they are fer- 
mented during the period of rol ing only, that they 
ripen up to be sweet teas, mizing well witb milk 
or cream. 
The " bitter cry " it seems to me is tbe aeual 
one at this season and I do not think need cause 
us any alarm. D. 
" Tea and Chemical Manutie" is the bead- 
ing of a letter on another page which gives an 
interesting account of Eome "■ rough and ready" 
experiments which are being made by a Tea-planter 
if we mistake not on the Ni'^giris. Ho is greatly 
interested in Mr. Hughes' letters and it will cer- 
tainly be instructive to learn bow " Creighton" eao- 
cecds in his experiments. Mariawatte has, we 
believe, chiefly deperded on cattle manure and 
the scavenging of Gampcla with, we Euppose, a 
proportion of castor-cake or poonao ? At any rate 
on bulky, rather than chemical manures. 
Cinchona. — The prospects of the Cinchona 
market are by no means brilliant ; but the Java 
planters undoubtedly can pretty well control the 
situation if they choose to do eo, or rather if they 
are able to form a synd eate to regulate harvest 
ing and shipments. It is no wonder though prices 
should be low at present, for, Java elone shipped 
no less than a million lb. of bark in Ai,ril — a 
quantity equal in percentage of alkaloid to about 
2J million lb. of Ceylon bark. In the case of 
Ceylon, the exports to date are 1,963,835 lb. compared 
with 2,410,784 lb. to same date last year; but unless 
prices improve there ought to be a tig com- 
parative falling-off henceforward. There tire autho- 
rities in our midst who believe that Ceylon has 
many more million of cinchona frees growing than 
are reported to us for Dirf ctory purposes, bee:- use 
many planters do not count on their cinchona 
now, though the trees are allowed to grow all the 
same. For India, the area under cinchona ia 
put down at 10,862 acres, nearly all in the Nilgit 
division of tbe Madras Piesidenoy, 
