114 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1893. 
a difference of only lOs betweeu the ooarEe 
Brazilian kinds and the beet Ceylon plantation 
it was time they changed their operations and 
bought the latter. They were tempted by the 
narrow margin. The demand for Bio fell off 
and prices began to dwindle correspondingly. 
That for Oeylon improved, and prices went up 
as the result. Now that is precisely the same 
state of things, it seems to me, that we ha?e 
to face now. The cry is everywhere for cheap 
nesB. It is probably the blending trade which is 
largely accountable for this, but certainly the 
reduced means of the general consumer is quite 
SB largely responsible tor it. What do we see as 
the consequeDce ? Pekoes and Souchongs ap- 
proaching each other so nearly in price that the 
margin is a very narrow one indeed. Directly 
the large buyers begin to see that there is no 
appreciable relative difFerencp, they will seek the 
better sorts again. Then up will go Pekoee, 
and Souchongs wi'l probably remain stationary, for 
I do not think it possible they can fall much 
lower than they are at present." It is evident 
Mr. Boberts does not think anyone can oiler 
your planters reliable advice as to the quality 
of the tea they shall send home. At the 
same time he admits that it is a disgrace 
to Ceylon that its name should father a very 
larg6 proportion of the stuff now sold at the 
aaotion as Ceylon tea. He fully endorsed the remark 
made to me by the broker who, as you were told 
by me recently, was seen by me fuming with rage 
over a dozen or so of liquored samples of your tea. 
IS TEA EXHADSTINQ AS COMPARED WITH COFFEE ? 
In the matter treated of above you will see that 
I failed in getting any directly useful suggeetion 
from Mr. Boberts, but further conversation had 
with him on another point of recent controversy 
bad a more useful retult, On my aeking Mr. 
Boberts if he was of opinion that tea was an 
exhausting crop as compared with ccflee, he re- 
plied :— " I should say decidedly not. No doubt 
Mr. Hughes was perfectly oorrest in all that he 
stated to you, but it does not seem to me that 
chemical analysis alone should decide this 
question. There are other important points which 
must not be lost sight of in determioing this 
matter, one which we know has been left open to 
much dispute. It is my belief that, as regards 
Oeylon, tea has every prospect of being permanent. 
It may be true that the tea bush requires great 
nutriment, but then it certainly derives much of 
this from the air and also from moisture falling on 
its leaves without calling again the soil to furnish it. 
I think sufficient distinction is not drawn between 
the structural characteristics of the tea and coSee 
plants, and those have a most material bearing on 
this question, Cofiee has wide-spreading roots, 
but they go to no great depth. It is dependent 
therefore upon the first foot or two in depth of 
soil for its nourishment, and readily takes up 
manure applied on the surface arcund it It has 
no great bold on the soil, acd my belief is that 
the weakening of the plants by repeated attacks of 
leaf disease so relaxed the roots that they were 
powerless to supply from the surface soil, that 
there was no strength to support the tree. The 
roots did not nourish it. Now with tea the condi- 
tiona are quite the reverse. It sends down a tap 
toot deep into the soil, soil which bad never been 
drawn upon in any way by the roots of the expire 1 
coffee. In Ceylon, therefore, when tea took the 
place of the latter cultivation, the planters had 
what was practically a virgin soil to draw upon. 
From this arose no doubt the vigour with which 
tea flourished in Ceylon from the first, and my 
view is that it must be oentariee yet before 
tea, which draws only a proportion of itt 
nutriment from the soil, shows any Ei^ns of 
exhaustion or could suffer materially by 
any attack of wide-spread diFeare. Under 
these corditions it appears to me that it muEt be 
useless to apply msnure unless it was dug down 
to a very coneiderable depth ; and moreover, ae I 
have said, the deeper subcoil is yet of too virgin 
a character to nee>l this, of oouree I don't at 
trmpt to deny anything of whitt Mr. Hughes has 
written, but I should like to know whence the 
soil wu>< takfii of which ho made analysis. If, 
as may be suspected perhaps, it was only surface 
soil, it seems to me that the oonstiturots found 
do not affect the case of the tea tree as they did, 
undou! t dly, that of coffee. In the latter instance the 
surface Eoil had certainly become preutly exhauEted 
had no nourishment to yield. How then can the 
facts be explained that, following the almost entire 
failure of coffee, tea, flouriebtd from its first 
planting in Cejlon in an almost uopreoedented 
depree ? Simply becaubC its roots drew nourish- 
ment from a soil which had never been, and could 
ntver have been, drawn upon by ccffee. Now it 
seems to be evident that a few years of tea cul- 
tivation could not possibly have produced exhaus- 
tion in a preat depth of feeding ground, acd, 
I have said, it is my belief that for centuries 
to come the tea bush is likely to flourish 
in Ceylon as greatly as it has hitherto 
done, and I really think that manuring is 
ard would be for a long time yet, quite an un- 
uecessary expenditure. Arration of the eoil 
by turning it over to a considerable depth must, 
however, always be a good thing, whether manure 
be applied or not. You denude the tea bush of the 
greater part of the leaf through which agency it 
takes up both nitrogen and moisture from the air. 
and therefore it might be well to aid the plant 
by thoroughly aerating the soil as deeply as poE- 
sible. Beyond doing this, it does not seem to me 
to be necessary to adopt any meaEures. Bely upon it 
tea has practically an unlimited life before it in 
Ceylon, at least that is the opinion of my own 
experience, and what I have been able to learn from 
experts, has led me to form." 
So much has been written of an alarmist charac- 
ter respecting the permanence of tea that no doubt 
the favourable view expressed by so practical an 
authority as in Mr. Boberts will be consoling 
to many. His opinion seems to me to be supported 
upon a common Eenee reasoning. 
TEA IN AMEBIC A, 
I found that Mr. Roberts is not at all sanguine 
as to the future chancee of tea in America. 
He doubts if the climatic influences of 
that country will not prove too strong 
for you : — " Look," he observed, " at the character, 
and Variety of the drinks which the Americans 
prefer. They are all strong and highly flavorued. 
They evidently meet some want due to climatic 
causes, Hence strong coffee must always remain 
the favorite beverage of the Yankees. If they 
drink tea, it must be sharp and biting, and a 
large amount of green tea is in consequence drunk 
by them. The delicate flavored teas of Ceylon 
will never meet this requirement, and it is im- 
possible to ignore the demands naturally due to 
the peculiar character of the American climate. 
Const quently I never expect to hear that Ceylon teas 
will ever obtain a bold upon the people there 
except among the more refined classes, who have 
probably acqu.red a taste for delicate teas during 
repeated visits to Europe. But that it will ever 
become popularized I more than greatly donbt." 
