50 8 
THE TROMCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. I, 1894. 
TEA 
To the Editor, 
A COMPLAINT ABOUT CEYLON 
PACKAGES. 
Dear Sir, — For the information of planters and 
in the interest of the trade, we send you for pub- 
lication the enclosed correspondence. Please omit 
B.11 names.— Yours faithfully, 
pp. Bathgate, Pim & Co., F. F. STREET. 
Colombo, January 5th, 1894. 
To 
Dear Sirs, — We purchased in sale 30th ef August laft 
a parcel of pekoe from the above estate. The con- 
stituent to whom we shipped this tea complains that 
it "wta badly tainted with the smell of the wood - 
a strong smelling pine most unsuitable for tea. ' 
We have no record in our books as to whether these 
were local or imported packages ; but from the de- 
scription given them by our correspondent, we think 
they must have been Japanese Cedar. If this ia the 
case we think planters' attention should be drawn 
to the matter through the medium of the press, 
that their use may be discontinued in future. 
We have always contended that Japanese cedar 
packages ought not to be used for tea, but that 
■Tapanese Moml packages are the best in use. — We 
are, dear sirs, yours faithfully, 
pp. Bathgate, Pim & Co., 
(Signed) F. F. STREET. 
Colombo, December 18th, 1893. 
Messrs. Bathgate, Pim & Co. 
Dear Sirs, — We much regret the complaint to which 
you refer in your letter of the 18th instant. The 
tea in question was not made at , but we 
passed your remarks on to tbe superintendent of the 
estate, and he informs us that the packages were 
not msde of Japan Cedar but of Pine wood obtained 
from English packing cases. — We are, dear sir, yours 
faithfully, 
Colombo, December 29th, 1893. 
GERMAN EAST AFRICA: INFORMATION 
WANTED. 
Sir, Will you or any of your numerous readers 
please furnish, through the medium of your 
invaluable journal, the following information 
lor the benefit of the Young Ceylon Craeper ? 
A certain metropoUtan firm, I ste is advertis- 
ing for Ceylonese, understanding planting, and 
wishing to go abroa^, to proceed to German East 
Africa to join the planting lioe thither, on a 
term of engagement for three years. The salary 
held out by them is 5, 6 and 7 sovereigns' for the 
first, second and third year respeatively. 
Do you think this is a sufficient inducement 
for " Young Ceylon " to proceed to distant A'rica 
and will this suffice to keep them agoing com- 
fortably there and enable them to bring a " renny" 
on their return?— Yours truly, "wREEPER." 
A HINT TO DIRECTORS OF TEA AND 
PRODUCE COMPANIES. 
Sib,— Now that the Directors of the various Tea 
and Produce Companies in the island will soon 
be iBBuing their Reports for the paBt year, there 
~ * Per nieniem ? equal to B80 to RH2. It depends en- 
tirely on the cost of living in Germaa East Africa .-for 
many ypars at the beRincing of thel'iantilis Enter- 
rtriBe' in Gevlor, tbe allow»uoa to joucg European 
Plaiitiig AsSiVt'snta w»s £8 3s 4d (under R82) per 
riieijjem— and t or. a few saved money, m those very 
cliaip days for food, aad eerranta.— Ed. T.4.3 
is a Bugge6ti3n that I should like to makr, and 
which I am sure will reccmniend itself 10 all 
eb^ireholderB and to others lo- king oat for iavest- 
mentg, and that is, that each report should eontain 
a detailed aocount of tbe acreage of the Company 
i.e. BO many acres of tea (or other prsduoe) 
planted such and such a year, and so many acres 
of forest, do. 
The only Company that gives this information 
in detail in its report at present, so far as I am 
aware, is the Yata-leria Tea Company, and I 
should like to recommend to other Direotori, the 
embodyment of this useful information in iheir 
raports. SHAREHOLDER 
CHINA V. CEYLON TEA. 
Kandy, Jan. II. 
Sib, — The eTer-increaaing area cultivated with 
tea seems certain in the near future to produce 
a lower range of pricts than now prevails. In view 
of this and uf a probable struggle uf the iurvival of 
the fittest it teems strange that so much apathy ii 
displayed by pliinters and exporters on the grtut 
experiment now being tried in India to make 
the rupee ariificially dearer, and so to force and 
unnaturally high exchange that tells directly against 
the exporter of tea from India and Ceylon atd 
oflers a premium to his competitor in China. 
Sir John Lubbock and other strong mc- 
nometalists are now said to be urgent 
for the imposition of an import duty on 
silver entering India ; should their counsels 
prevail C hina will be the only great market left 
for tbe metal. Certainly there is no danger of the 
Chinese imposing a duty; they want all they can 
get, and are not at all particular wheih-r it is 
coined or in bars. It looks as if at no dis'.ant 
date the Mongilisn will get for a shilling as much 
silver as is contained in a rupee, and if simul- 
taneously with this the Government of India eu:- 
ceeds in establishing the artificial value of sixteen 
pence for the same coin (which is what they pro- 
fess to be aiming at). Itneeds but a small arithme- 
tical calculation to show that the tea exporter from 
India and Ceylon will be handicapped to the extent 
of 33J per cent as against tbe merchant exporting 
from china. 
Surely this cannot be fully understood by those 
interested in tbe great tsa industry or they would 
speedily make their voices beard in coudemnaiion 
of this great financial experiment which has 
already increased tbe deb: of India by many 
millions sterling and is rapidly leading the Govern- 
ment into unknown financial depths. 
I am not at all intsr^^^ted in tea. but beg to 
Eubsoiibe myself A STUDENT OF THE 
GREAT SILVER QUESTION. 
CARNIVOROUS PLANTS. 
Dear Sir, — I should like to know if your readers 
have foucd in Ceylon those prelty little plants 
the Sundew?, or Droserss. I do not find men- 
tion cf them in Trimen's Fiora of ( eylon, in the 
first vol. where I should ihink they ought to appear 
if at all. Two epeoies, the rotundi folia and longi- 
folia ere found on the Pulney Hills, b. Icdia, 
at an elevation of 5,000 to 7 000 feet. A few days 
since I fouod the filij'orm's at the tea level. Loudon 
puts its native country es Ntw Jerspy. I have 
ee n it near there, but h»d no idea it wou'd grow 
heri=. The little plants with their purple flowers 
almost covdiel tiia ground for some distince with 
their dewy fly trapi. Numeioas flies had le^n 
caught, tiome ol them of ordihary size. Tfie 
