4J3 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Dec, I, 1S9S 
CEYLON TEA IN LONDON. 
Our advices by last mail show the market for 
the previous two weeks had been very disappointing. 
It was fully expected that the rise which set 
in BO Etron|];ly about the middle of September 
"would have been increasingly maintaioed until 
early in December when the attention of grocers 
is generally diverted from tea to special Obrietmas 
requirements ; but the very heavy arrivals from 
India and the very large quantities said to be coming 
forward, checked any advance in price. Gene- 
rally, the quantity of Indian tea available for the 
United Kingdom is estimated at the maximum 
figure, from vthich it gradually recedes 10 or 12 
millions pounds; but this year it has remained steady 
at 118,0Q0,000 lb. and as many of the 'gardens are 
now nearly closing and there seems no abatement 
of estimate, it looks as if the home market must 
be prepared for that quantity. The strikes in the 
manufacturing districts depress the market and 
tend to keep prices down, but so far have not 
checked deliveries. Hard times too may mean, — 
less beer and gin and more tea. 
" We talk of the benefactors of the Ceylon tea en- 
terprise, but no man" — writes a well-known London 
Tea-Dealer, — 'has ever succeeded in getting so mucb 
work done for so little money as Etwood May ; 
that he should never have been allowed to do 
so much was plain from the first and that he 
deceived himself or had been deceived was clear; 
but that all he has done should be ucdone and 
worse than undone, because disappointed friendship 
often becomes bitter hostility, is very lamentable. 
The London as well as Ceylon Association ought 
to have long ago recognized the fact that 
Ceylon could not afiord to play at being one 
of the ' great nations of the earth ' and that for 
the expenditure of £8,000 or at the very most 
£10,000, a thoroughly practical and sufficient 
Exhibition advertisement could have been obtained. 
" The Indian Tea Districts Association have spent 
less than this, and before the opening of the 
Exhibition got in touch with a very large firm with 
travellers all over the States. If the result of your 
expenditure of £30,000 or so in Chicago, is a further 
subscription to establish a tea store in Chicago, — 
which is an investment of a dangerously doubtful 
character — not much has been achieved. 
"Again have tea-growers realized that they are 
paying the refreshment contractor at the Imperial 
Institute a bonus of more than a shilling on every 
pound of tea he sells in the Institute, simply for the 
honour and glory of being able to say that Ceylon 
tea only is sold there? 
" A few years ago the million or two pounds of 
Ceylon tea which goes into consumption from 
sentiment and the million or two which goes into 
consumption by personal push, formed so large a 
proportion of the whole crop, that a fictitious 
value was given to Ceylon tea ; but that has long 
ago ceased and the 70,000,000 lb. sold in the Lane 
is sold entirely on its comparative merits with Indian 
tea. The two rise and fall in exact harmony, and the 
traders over the country no more oare whether 
their teas are Indian or Ceylon than the bakers do 
whether their flour comes from Europp, Asia or 
America : all they want is the best value for money. 
■' We have all lived long enough to know that ail 
Oeylon tea is not good tea, and that all good tea 
does not come from Ceylon. It matters very little 
whether Indian or Oeylon tea is used in the 
Imperial Institute, The Eandapolla planter has 
more in common with the Darjeeling planter than 
with the Eelani Valley planter ; and the last more 
in common with Assam than with Dimbula or 
Dikoya, What ia of great impottanoe is that the 
taste for good tea ehoald be slimalftM and 
oouraged. 
" Why did not the Planters' Association avail 
itself of the experience of its London repreaenlativeB 
in the management of Chicago afiairs ? The first 
thing the London body would have dona would have 
been to recognise the abeolute necesbity tor blend- 
ing the energy of an Elwood-May with the genius 
of the Grinlinton and for establishing a inodu$ 
Vivendi between them." 
We leave these reflections with our readers, 
merely reminding them that Mr. Qrinlinton'a bill 
may not be more than £12,000 or £1:^,000 after 
all ; and that the waste of money over tea loUi la 
the Imperial Institute, is now closed. 
NEWS FROM THE CENTRAL PROVINCE: 
PLANTING AND OTHERWISE. 
Nov. 23rd. 
Mb. Whittall's Visit to the Inland, though short 
has been a busy one. An onlooker often sees more 
of the game, than the players themselves; and planters 
do wisely in noting his shrewd observations. He 
notes how well tea grows everywhere in Ceylou ; 
also that planters in all districts are planting up 
reserves; and he ia optimistic in bis ideas of the 
output of Ceylon tea. The Obstn.-rr ie not in it lo 
that respect, with Mr. Whittall. He also statei that 
there is too much English capital invested in Indian 
estates to allow of slowing on the exports of Indinn 
tea. China he beUeves not to be in the running 
now, and he also believes silver has touched its loirest 
point, so cheap silver will not enable China to send 
cheaper teas than it does at present. He therefore 
believes that a coutiuuance of paying prices rests 
on our getting new markets in Australia, America 
and Russia for Indian and Ce3'ion tea. 
Cocoa.— I Q Matale planting notes, which appear in 
the Tropical Agrictdtnruit for November, the writer 
makes a great mistake when he states that this year, 
80 far from showing an increase on the last year, 
■\nll more likely approximate the returns of the post 
year. The exports up to the 13th November are 
10,000 cwt. more than they were at same date laet 
year, and 8 000 cwt. more than the total Ceylon crop 
1S92, and 5,000 cwt. more than the total crop 1891 
The cocoa area is rapidly increasing in Ceylon, and 
the editor of the Tro^tical Agriculturist coold not do 
better by his readers, than get from his Java cor- 
respondent the area of cocoa now planted in Java. 
TEA PLUCKING IN INDIA— A PRACTICAL 
TALK— PINE Vs. COARSE. 
The question just now exercising many miods ia 
that of fine or coarse pluckiog, and it is a very vexed 
one. Perhaps the greatest preventive to either course 
being strictly adhered to, is the saspioiousuess of one 
planter of another, in case he scores an anna off him. 
At the present moment tbe prices g^iven for oommOD 
teas are anything but paying. Poxtr exami>lc, a garden 
g^iving 5 msands per acre, of 6 anna tea, yields pre- 
cisely the same financial result as a garden giving 6 
manuds of 5 anna tea ; or a garden giviog 7 maanda 
of 6 anna tea, the same ag a garden giving 5 maunds 
of 8 anna tea. It will be said by lome, that 6 anna 
tea is much more easily made in these times than 8 
anna ; but consider tbe difference in yield per acre, 
and we think tbe comparison does not come out so 
unevenly, and, over and above, in the caie of 6 anna 
tea tbe extra wear and tear upon machinery has to 
be taken into contideration, in addition to the extra 
(ei lead, boxes, etc. It is difScult to say how moob 
tbe wear and tear would represent, but we think we 
may safely say a 5 per cent, deduction all round. 
Under ordinary circumstances, 5 per cent, is written 
off for deterioration of machine' y, and adding the 5 
per cent, mentioned abovej we have bn annual de- 
terioialioa of 10 per cent, in maobinery account; to 
