92 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. fAuousr i, 1893. 
the duty, were selling m certain brand of tea for la 
6d., are now retsiliog the name article, though it 
ooetR lees than before, at Is 9(1., and the public is 
delighted with it. Yet there are some coDnoisaeurH, 
and the beet Chinese teas would. I am aseured, rasily 
oomtuand 3s per lb. in tbe wholesale matket, not to 
mention the sale in August. 1891 of a apeoisl con- 
signment of Golden Tip Ceylon tea at tbirty-five 
guinea? per lb. This ridionlous price was merely 
the resnlt of a vulgar advertising triok. 
THB BFrECT OF BIS ABDBEW CLABK's ATTACK, 
Witboat for the moment considering tbe merits of tun 
as a; national drink, we may note that there is no doabt 
that the ebief reason why tea has sapplaoted coffee 
in this country is oar Euglish impatience of the arts 
of cooking, coupled with tbe comparative ea'e with 
which tea can be prepared for aae. Yet. rasy as the 
proces<i is, it is rarely properly carried oat. Our 
favourite beverage ia left far too Ung on tbe leaves, 
with the consequence that not only is there extracted 
its aromatic essential oil, " theine," but airo that 
other and distinctly harmful ingredient, " tannin." 
This latter is present in very large quantities in 
Indian and Ceylon teas and many doctors have spoken 
strongly as to its effects on the nervous and dif^estive 
systems. Sir Andrew Olark, in a rt^cent lecture to 
tbe students of tbe London Hospital, speaks tbn^ : 
— " Indian tea has become so powerful in its effrot 
opon tbe nervous system, tbat a cup of it taken early 
in the morning, as many people do, so die' rdera tbe 
nervous system that those who take it actually get 
into a state of tea intuzicatinn, and it produces a 
form of nerve disturbanoe which is most painful to 
witnecs.!' — H: and 0. Mail. 
THE COCONUT INDUSTRY. 
Ever since tbe cu'tivation of tea became an assured 
success in this island, tbe tea planters have been from 
time to time warned againat tbe imprudence of putting 
all their egga in one basket, and they do not deny the 
wisdom of the advice, altbongh few of them seem to 
show much inclination to act upon it; but while every 
one from ti e Governor downwards (io his Message 
on the abolition of the p»ddy-tax) believes, iu thi ory 
at least, in tbe imprudenoi of rel.ying with too much 
cofitidence on the permanence of the pr sperity of 
the tfa industry, nobody, at tbe s>ime time, seems 
to think it nece«eary to £nj;geBt the making ot some 
provis'on aoainst a possible collapse olthe cjconut 
industry. Yet the warnirg does not seem to be less 
needed in the latter ea;e than in tbe former one. It 
has been lately discovered that there is in this island 
a larger extent of land cultivated with coconuts than 
with any other product, and the coconut plantf rs — 
for some reason which they perhaps could not them- 
selves very well explain — appear to be gratified at 
tbe discovery ; but the circumstaiica of there beirg 
in this island more laud cultivated vrith coconuts 
than with any other product is all the more reason 
why tbe coconut planters should take timely precau- 
tions for lettiog themselves down easy in ease there 
should be a collapse of the industry on which they are 
dependent. 
Should the cultivation of tea ever cesse to be a 
generally profitable business in this island, it ia prob- 
able that the decline of the industry will be brought 
about by overproduction, and not by aoy blight af- 
fecting the tea plant. As coffee had, previously to 
its .failure here, failed in Guiana and in some of tbe 
islands of the West Indies, its being affected here by 
some fatal blight iraa a. c^lapiity to. be expected and 
eveir if that ,bad not happened, the coffee estates 
mnat in onurpe of time have ceased to yield pro- 
fitable crops in consequence of tbe exhaustion of the 
soil and of the vitality of the coffee bushes being 
impaired by old age; but there is no rtason to 
anticipate a similar failure in the case of the tea 
plant because it baa teen cultivated for hundreds 
of years io China and Japan without being af- 
lected by any fatal bl^gtit or showing any 
eymptoma of deor«pitu(ie, and expcriepce in tbis 
country has proved that when it is abandoned for 
tnavy ycare it can liold its own agair^'C weecls aud 
jungle vegetation iu tbe, stru'- gle for existmce. But 
the coconut palm has not everywhere ehown a simi- 
lar exemption from (iieeare, nor is i', in this oouutry 
at lea«t, similarly capable ' f existing inf'epeudeBlly of 
the care a' man. Cocoaut trees have been affected 
by fatal diseate in the West Indies acd Buriaa. and 
in tbis CGUGlry when a CiKonul gardcLi is &t)aL.do»e4 
for Bijme}earB nud alluwed to be overrun witti jung'.e 
growth, tlie trees present a b ckly appearance, cease 
to bear and by decrees die out. Wo have uo desire 
to dimiDieb by evii rorebodinga tlie h< pea which bave 
been raised by tbe present luorperity of the coco- 
nut imtnstry, but it would be foclieb to ignore tbe 
poeeibility of tbn failure iu tliis couLtty from natural 
cautes of A tree which has been proved by experience 
to be liable to fa'al diaeate in other laudr, and which 
has aUo been proved by experi'^nce to h>ve t03 delicate 
a con titut on to be capable of thriving long io this 
country when left entirely to nature. It is not likely 
tbat tbe coconut industry <«ill tv< r become bo an- 
profitable through overproduction as tu caase many 
acres of coconuts to be abandoned, as may possibly 
happen in the oa e of tea; but it is unwise to be to 
confi'lent that a tree having so many natural enemies 
ae the ccconut palm will continue in tbis eonotry tu 
be as exempt for all time to come from fatal blights 
as it has betn ia tbe past. 
The recognition of tbe possibility of a failure of coco- 
nuts needs not have the effect of checking the exten- 
sion of tbeir cultivation, tutitiia reason for endeavour- 
ing to grow other products in combination with 
th^-m. In some cases tea has been planted among 
coconut trees, and the experiment seams to be laore 
successful than similar attemptg with cinnamon and 
coconuts have generally been ; but there is quite 
enotjgb of lea planted in Ceylon already, and it would 
theretore be advisable to try something else a« an 
auxiliary to coconuts. Tbe African palm oil tree 
thrives well in this country, and when planted among 
coconuts, it seems neither to injure them nor to be 
injured by them, Being a jungle tree, it is not so 
likely to be affected by disease as a tree which can 
thrive only io a cultivnted state, and palm o'l is more 
easily made than coconut oil. Tbe value of pa'm oil is 
about tbe same as that of coconut oil, and as the 
United Kingdom imports about six times as mnoh 
pblm oil as coooLut oil, there would not be much like- 
l^hoo't of the market for the former ever I eicg swamped 
by overproduction. — Ceylon " Catbolio Msisenger." 
TRAVANCOEE TEA. 
(From Patry and Pasteur, Limited.) 
May 31st, 1893. 
Prices have ruled easier for all classes, owing to 
the large supply of similar quality from Ceylon. 
a 
(30 
o 
o 
Ol 
a 
o 
Jl 
6 
.a 
,M 
o 
a 
u 
o 
m 
!U 
03 
Peiishurst 10|d T^d.TJd 6|d 
Vembenard gi^ "^^d, 7Jd, 
7id, 7d 
Biaemore 
8Jd 
7id 
71d 
Stagbrook 
8Jd 
7d 
Poonmu ii 
8d 
7id 
e'l'd 
Gltnbrittle 
S^d 
7d 
6jd 
Brighton 
8d 
7d 
Parvithi 
8d 
7d 
6id 
T P C 
TJd 
7d 
6id 
Mount 
Unas. 
6|d 
Seenikali 
6|d 
^ -5 
11-1 chs 8d 
105 „ 7|d 
6id 59 §-ch 7*d 
6d 65 ch9 7id 
6id 141 J-ch 7id 
5id 65 „ 7id 
20pkgs7id 
77 i-ch 7d 
6id,5jd 55 chs 7d 
29 „ 6|d 
41 i-ch 6|d 
lb., against 
for corres- 
Total 771 packages, averaging 7Jd per 
8Jd for week ending May 17th, and 6jd 
ponding week last year. 
June 7th, 1893 
The quality continues fair medium, but in almost 
every case the liquors are too light . coloured to at- 
