August i, 1893.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
113 
ME. J. H. ROBERTS ON THE PERMANENCE 
OF TEA IN CEYLON. 
At a time when the question of the permanence 
of our present staple industry is widely discussed, 
the opinion of a practical authority in the tea 
tide with respect to it, i's of considerable in- 
terest. Such a critic s undoubtedly Mr. John 
Roberts of Messrs. S. Rueker & Co. Ho has 
b1 own himself not only oae of the most reliable 
authorities as to our teas in the home market ; but 
he seems to have seen the various metht ds of tea 
plaoting in many of the couQ^ries wherein it is puv- 
sued. There has been muoh contlictiL'g testimony 
adduced from time to time relative to this question of 
permanency. The importance attached to it by the 
planters of this island waj strotgly evidenced by 
the expression of adverse feeling which followed 
remarks by Mr. J, L, Shand in his speech at the 
■ dinner given by the Ceylon Association in London 
to Sir Arthur Havelock. Mr. Shand assigned a 
possible failure to what is a comparatively remote 
epoch, but even this view did not find a willing 
acceptance by his audience I It is but natural that 
the planters of U.ylou should wish to remain 
under the assurance that as regards tea they have 
not to look forward to such a failure as attended the 
cultivation which preceded it. Therefore they 
will gladly rend what Mr. Roberts said on the 
topic to our London Correspondent, as reported in 
his present bttor. Not only does Mr. Roberts 
fully believe in the permanence of the tea-bush, 
but he further credits it with exceptional p jwers 
of resistance to visitations of the character which 
have almost entirely destroyed the coffee trees 
that once thickly covered our hill-sides. The ar- 
gument advanced by him to support this opinion 
would seem to be cogent enough to warrant hia 
holding it. The facts he adduced are well-known 
to all of ua. In this respect he is no doubt in a 
muoh more safe position than that multiplicity of 
counsellors in whom we fear that as yet we have 
not found the safety traditionally assigned to them. 
In fact no matter that has as yet ooiue under 
public discussion has evoked a greater loatrariety 
of opinion than hss this particular one of the 
permanence of tea. Foremost among those who 
have of late contributed to this subject h:;s 
been Mr. John Hughes. That well-known expert 
has told us that tea is a most exhausting crop, 
far more so than is coffee, and that therefore it 
behoves us to take heed how we continue to draw 
upon the constituents of our soil without in 
some way ensuring to it the return of those 
constituents. Mr. Roberts does not dispute 
that from the chemical expert's point of 
view alone, this advice is to be justified, but 
he contends that in his judgment it has been 
based upon insufficient consideration of the struc- 
tural peculiarities of the plant itself. These, he 
contends, make it to a great extent independent 
of the constituents of the surface soil, which he 
presumes to be that from which Mr. Hughes ob- 
tained the sample upon which he has experimented; 
Daductiona based upon such experiments, Mr. 
Robert asserts, might be fully justitied in the oaae 
of coffee, while they must be utterly misleading 
in the case of tea. He reminded our London 
oorreapondent that the roots of the first are esaen- 
titiilly Buifaoe roots, baving but little hold ou the 
soil. When those roots, as the result of leaf disease, 
became weakened, they could not take up the 
nouriahment, however liberally provided in the 
shape of manure. The case of tea Mr. Roberts 
believe to be entirely different. The long deep root 
beeks a soil which coffee had never touched. It 
was, in the caae of Ceylon therefore, a purely 
virgin soil, and fo that fact Mr Roberts attributes 
the wonderful vigour which has been developed by 
the tea bush in Ceylon. Such a soil, be further argues, 
cannot become exhausted for centuries (?)yet to come ! 
— and it promises to give the tra tree a permmence 
and hold of the soil that could never be antici- 
pated for the coffee tree. In addition he points 
out that the taa bush is uow known to take up 
a large proportion of its nourishment from the air 
and from the moisture falling upon its leaves, and 
he contends that this fact largely increases the 
relative probabilities of the permanence of tea 
when compared with coffee. He declares his con- 
viction that with respect to tea, thia island is 
possessed of a virgin toil abundantly supplied with 
all the constituents required for its healthy and 
long-continued life. Practically, he believes that 
we may regard our present cultivation as one having 
a very permanent character. 
So far as the comparison between the cotfee and 
tea bushes and the greater vigour and longer life 
of the latter in an average Ceylon soil and climate 
are concerned, we are with Mr. Roberts. But in 
speaking of a permanence covering " oenluries," 
we fear he goes too far. The subject is, however, 
a very big one ; but on the facts related by our 
correspondent, two qualifying questions arise in our 
mind First, did Mr. Hughes analyse soil taken from 
the depths reached by the tap root of the tea bush, 
or only that obtained merely from the surface, or a 
footer two below it? Secondly, — has Mr. Roberts 
Butlioiently borne in mind the fact that in many 
localities wherein tea has been planted the depth 
of scil, though ample for coffee, can hardly be 
sufficient to satisfy the needs for any long number 
of years of the deeper-seeking tea bush ? On the 
replies to these two queries must depend to a 
considerable extent, the amount of relative value 
to be given to the opinion of Mr. Roberts and 
Mr. Hughes respectively. 
TEA AND " THE BITTER CRY." 
London, June 23. 
The letter which expressed to you " the Bitter 
Oiy of Mincing Lane " has called forth a large 
amount of remark and attention here. Observing 
how widely this was the case, it appeared to me to 
be desirable to seek the opinion of Mr. John 
Roberts of Messrs. S. Rucker & Co. with respect to 
that letter. That gentleman had not seen anything 
of it or of your editorial remarks upon it before the 
interview had by me wit J him. He was much interj 
ested in the perusal of the extracts shown to him, 
and observed : — "I confess myself unable to even 
suggest any present solution of the question as to 
fine and coarae plucking. It seems to me that in 
time it will find that solution for itself, but without 
any attempt by any expert to forecast it. To do 
that, in my belief, is a simple impossibility, for it 
depends on so many varying considerations and 
conditions. Still we are not with-out a precedent to 
guide us. Dom't you recollect when the continental 
demand was all for Rio coffee, and when tine 
Ceylon fell as low as 70/ and remained at that 
figure for an appreciable terra ? Well Rio went 
up and up in the market until it reached 
60/. Then the buyers for the Continent— 
mainly Geimaus— began to tbiub that witb 
