Dec. 1, 1893.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
CHINA. VERSUS ASSAM TEA. 
A valued correspondeat writes :—" There is no 
doubt that equally good tea can be made from Ohma 
and Assam plants, and often in appearance the 
China product could give points to Assam. Well- 
Dlucked China tea, carefully manufactured, should 
be as brokers term it ' full of tip '—and gams 111 
appearance what it loses in strength as compared 
with Assam ; but for this reason I would not re- 
commend planting out very inferior tea. Taken all 
round China will not yield equally with Assam- 
and as a rule the manufactured article is not equal. 
'Goomtee ' years ago known as the 'Sink of Kurseong,' 
is an exception, and has surprised everyone under 
its present proprietor.but ' Margaret's Hope ' and 
' Turzun' are not entirely composed of low jat plants. 
The enterprising manager of ' Nonsuch ' in his note 
in vour issue of the 8th instant, does not prove 
anv thing, as be only tells us a mixture of Hybrid 
and China fetched the same price as Assam 
indigenous. . . , , ■ . r 
H?s tarden is all of superior jit, and he has few 
bu-bei that oould be ranked as low China, and 
besides he gives no details of ouitarn per acre from 
the plots plucked. . tt u • 1 • * 
My experience is tb»t a really gool Hybrid is far 
superior for hill cultivation to inaigenons Assam. It 
is hardier, etands the frost, yields well, and with care- 
ful cultivation the manufacturer makes a tea second 
to none.— iSoitfA of India Observer. 
" The Droog" writes with regard to some former 
notes of bis which appeared under this heading in our 
issnn of the 8th instent, as fol'ows :— 
" The two exp irimeuts on Nonsuch tea were on the 
oneh«nd China and Hjbri i mixed in the proportion 
of l-6th of the former to 5-6 hs of the latter, and on 
the otbei- hand pure Assam Indigenous. In the case of 
the gampl- s neut home to lie v»lued to which you re- 
ferred in the same issue, you do not state whether the 
cultivation and general treatment of the t ushes, pre- 
vious to plucking, was idectically the same in both 
cases. But there is however no doubt that much de- 
pends upon manufacture, as you very correctly remark." 
1 We confess that as regards this last case, tho cul- 
tivation w»s M0< identical, but again we would point 
out th<t the Nonsuch experiments prove very little. 
The only conclusion to be druwn from them is that 
Hybrid (what class is not btated) mixed with a little 
China makes as high-priced a tea as pure Assam.— Ed.] 
Writing cn the same suhjpct a Kotagiri pi ntereays 
that he agrees with us tbat one cannot turn out a 
eood class of tea from a low-class China Hybrid. The 
tea is always weak in the cap. At the sometime, 
however, o ir correspondent thinks that a good class 
Hybrid wiU turn out -^s good a tea as from a high- 
class A^sam bush. In fact he says that he prefers the 
former kinds for these KiUs.— Ibid. 
TEA AND COFFEE IN CEYLON. 
The London correspondent of our morning con- 
temporary indulgea in a little dream based on 
an "it" as follows : — 
Thinking of the vicissitudes of Ceylon sgricnlture 
one is Ui to specubite what wouli hiive been the 
courie o? evn.ti if Tta h:id been tho first love of 
the Oeylon Planter and it hid been left for Coffee 
in these la^er days to rehabilititj the prosperity of 
the Colony. Imagine Oeylon, under the conditions 
of to lay, a proBp>;roa3 Cotfee produoiog country with 
fstates bearing crops from 5 cwt. to 15 cwt. per 
acre as was the case thirty years ago. With prices 
over RlOO per cwt., with oxohante at Is 3d. per 
rupee w"h traispurt by rail, with freights at 
26, and Loud n chargis re.lnoed to competition 
level d eims of avarice could hardly fashion a 
greater poteatialit/ of wealth than a gooii coffee 
totum. C'lffoe pat on boardship at Columbo at 
RIB to R20 per cwt. would in such case bring a 
return of K75 per cwt., a clear profit of K250 to R900 
per acre, full value for the free hold of l.iud under 
53 
tea. Fortunately perhaps for Oeylon and her planters 
the temptations of cent per cent profits have not 
fallen to their lot: and it has bpen reserved for them 
in these singularly favourable timei to devote the m 
selves to the more certain, if less lucrative, oultiva 
ti'ou ofTei, with reppeot to which it may well be doubted 
whether unrler the more trying conditions of the old 
coffee days it could have been ma'le to pay at all. On 
the whole then wamay well re t content with the pios- 
pcrity that at present pievaila. 
TEA EXTENSION IN CEYLON AND 
MESSES. FINLAY, MUIR & CO. 
Large shipments of tea seed are arriving here 
from Calcutta, for opening up the extensive tracts 
of lacd that have been purchased by this influential 
firm on behalf of the Syibet Co. In addition to 
Warwick estate purchased for ±'8,650 sterling and 
New Cornwall for R40,000 and blocks of forest lands 
in Bambarabotuwa, it ia rumoured in business circles 
that two blocks of forest in Yakdessa have also 
been purchassd, altogether an extensive area to start 
with. The firm, we understand, will start business 
in the Fort in its own offices on the arrival of Sir 
John Muir and we wish it all the success its high 
reputation entitles it to. 
THE AMSTERDAM CINCHONA AUCTIONS. 
Amsterdam, Nov. 91h. 
At the auctions held here tolay 4534 bale?, or 
nearly tbe whale of the Java bark offered, sold at 
au advance of about 20 per cent at an average unit 
of 3|c per lb. (equal to S-5tha d. per lb ) The 
followitio; prices were paid : Manufacturing barks in 
quills, whole and broken, and in chips 6|o to 34Jo 
(equal 1^(1 to 6id par lb.); ditto root lOio to 24'ia 
per lb. (f qual to l|-d to 4id per lb.) ; druggists' 
bark in whole and brokeo quill and in chips 80 to 
65o (equal to Ijd to Is per lb. ; ditto root 7^0 to 7^0 
(equal to Ifd to l§d per lb.) 'Iha chief buyers in tbe 
er'ier of their quinine purchases, were the Fra^ikfort 
factory, Mr. Gustav Briegleb, the Brunswick, Auer- 
baoh and Mannheim qu'nine factories. The manu- 
facturing bark offered contained 16 tons sulphate o{ 
quinine, or 4-43 per cent on the average. About 1 
one ton contained 1-2 per cent ; 44 tons 2 3 per cent ; 
113 tons 3-4 per cent; 95 tons 4-5 per cent; 94 
tons 6-6 per cent; 17 tons 6-7 per cent ; 9 tons 7-8 
percent; 1 ton 8-9 per cent ; and 2 tons 9-10 per 
cent sulphate of quinine. — Chemist and Drwjgist. 
TEA AND SCANDAL. 
As proving how appropriate the combination of me 
title is, I find that one of the cant words for "tea" 
is " scandal broth," and as your readers might like 
to know what the other slang terms Cinnrcted with 
our staple are, I herewith give as many as I have as 
yet come across. 
Tea is Called : — Scandal broth, chatter broth, 
prattle broth, cat lap, slip slops, split pea, and slop 
(as in the sentence — ' How the blowens lush the slop, 
how the wenches drink the tea.') 
QUEEB Cat Lap.— Bad tea. 
Dish of Lap. — Dish of tea. 
To Lap Congo.— To drink tea. 
Bitch. — Among the students of the University of 
Cambridg^e a common name for tes. 
To Bitch. — To take or drink a cap of tes. 
Twist.— A mixture of half tea and half coffee, like 
wise brandy, beer, and eggs. 
Smouch. — Dried leaves of the ash tree used by the 
smugglers for adulterating the black or bohea tea. 
Box-H&ARY. — Tea and dinner at one meal. 
Nei\'tman's Tea Garden's — Newgate. 
Tea Boabdy (Studio Term) — An epithet applied to 
an inferior picture, which reminds one of the old- 
fashioned lacquered tea-trays with landscape on them. 
Tea-Chop (Nautical).— Small craft used to bring « 
cargg of tea alougsitle tli« ocean-going Vessel. 
