54^ 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1894. 
HOW TO WIN NORTH AMERICA FOR 
BRITISH GROWN TEAS. 
THE NEED OF HEARTY CO-OPERATION 
BETWEEN INDIAN Ar>D CEYLON 
PLANTERS. 
" Amerioa for honest, pure teae — and away with 
faoe'1, deleterioue Japan and China trasb," may 
well be the ory herceforward of i vtry Indian a d 
Ceylon tea planter! We are face to face wiih 
the moat important, practical problem aff o iog the 
future of British-grown teas. There ia a s iff contest 
before at, and if British tea planters are only 
true to thtmeelves, end to «avh other, it is 
one in which they must conquer and that 
right speedily. They have a good, pure 
article to offer, — they challenge inspection and 
korutiny and testing in every shape,— and they 
especially demand that the truth should be 
known about the absolute trash which eo many 
Ani<^rioanB are now drinking as tea. There is not 
a lb. of the 50 million lb. of Japanese tea eent to 
the StBtes, which is not arlifioially treated with 
substances more or less deleterious. We had ihe 
fact acknowledged by the largest Am' rican tea 
buyer in Japan, when we crossed iha Pao fio 
with him in 1884. His terra of service was 
nearly over then and he was indifferent as to 
a change in the tastes of his ftUow-ccuctry- 
men. Thirty years ago Japan teas were prob- 
ably unknown in Amerioa ; but they were taken 
in hand and very speedily ousted those from 
China to a large extent. Now, of both Jai^an 
and China, ii is eEtimated that from 80 tu 90 
million lb. are consumed in North Amerioa ; and 
it would be a real service to the consumers 
themselves— not to speak of the planters,— if 
they could be induced to transfer their 
taste and custom to Indian and Ceylon 
tea instead. The Americans are the least 
conservative people on the face of the g.obe 
They have no deep-rooted prejudices against a i.ew 
article. The experier ca of the Ceylon and Indmn 
Tea Courts at the Chicago Exhibition thuw that 
they are quite prepared to apprtciate our pure, 
wholesome teas and the time is fully ripe for 
that advertising crusade right through the country 
from North to South and East and West, wbioh 
would bring home to every intelligent man in the 
country, the deleterious nature of the tta now 
mainly consumed, and the bentfi. in every way from 
using a pure article. It is not simply that we wunt 
to supersede 80 million lb. of the China and Japan 
product in the United States and Canada ; but we 
want to see the mass of the people realising wha 
a wholesome infusion of tea really means,— 
" The cups that cheer but not inebriate. 
For it is quite certain that the reason why vast 
numbers of Englishmen, Scotchmen and Irishmen, 
who always drank tea in the old country, have 
taken to coffee in their new homes across the 
Atlantic, is found in the impossibiluy of their 
being able to get good tea such as they had been 
accustomed to. Here again, the opp rtunity for 
an advertising campaign is a golden one ; for coffee 
is now both scarce and dear beyond all recent 
precedent, while good, pure tea is uncommonly 
"''we'hopa our planting readers have given atten- 
tion to the information we were yesterday enabled 
to lay before them respecting the condition U the 
American tea market through the courtesy of 
Mr P R. Buchanan. The conditions o( the 
case having been laid down and the grand 
opening created by the Exhibition advertising 
fully realized, it remains to point out how the 
planters should follow this up. and initiate an 
advertising campaign in aupport of the wbol^le 
dealers who have already taken, or who sr» willing 
to take, up Ceylon and Indian teas. We think 
it will be generally acknonltdi<ed that Mr. Bueba- 
nan is right that the time lor anything 1 ke an 
"Offidal" or Planters' Sture ie now past. It ie not 
simply that Euoh bouses as Mr. Buotanan'a own 
bavr established Tea A)2»noieB in America, but 
there ie Mr. Lipton — anott erC>ylou te>a estate pio- 
prieior — »ho has begun work in earnest as a wbi leaale 
tea distr/but it ; and there are oiher mi rcantile fi'mi 
in London — as the late Mr. Whittall aaBoud us 
a few months back — and in Colombo who are 
betiioning to do an increasi' g lea buairese with 
America. If the Chicago Bfjre opened by Mr. 
Grinlinlon be continued by our Commia»i uer 
and certain individual Ceylun plantera on theit 
own account, go d and well. Eut it is quite clear 
t^at the planura of Ceylon aa a body — the A9B3- 
cia ion cr the Tea Fund — should have no more 
official connection with it. We have the auihority 
of Mr. Buchanan fi'r stating that the two very 
hrgest and oloest wholesale tea houses in Chicago 
ha^e bei/un to take en active interest in India 
and Ceylon teas and that if enccnra. «d — and not 
aonoyed— by the producers or Ly sooalled " official" 
ri^al agi^neits, they will speedily take up cur t>a8 
very freely and h<-artily. Mr. Buchanan most 
fully approves of what Mr. Lipton ia don g as a 
wholesale merchant of acknowledged Btanoing in 
Chicago and Nuw York. None of the regular 
American bouses will feel jealoas of him, or 
of any other individual whoUaale cr even retail 
effort. Their country ia " the biggest in creation," 
it may be r<P'iittd; there is room enough (or all, and 
the population is increaeing by leaps and starts. 
All that India and Ueylon planters require to do 
in order to attract trade and conquer, wiib their 
teas, is to pursue an open, straightforward, 
busineEslike course, in mutual coi fideooe and 
co-operation, making known the goodnesB of their 
proouct and loyally backlog up all the dealers 
who are prepared to take it up. 
We have said that the lime has come for 
India and Ceylon planters to co-operate — to fight 
shoulder to sboulder— at any rate eo far ab the 
America m .rket is concerned. We are most fully 
convinced of this, and we think no time should 
be lost by the Pla ters or Tta Fund Committee 
in inviting such co-> p^ration from the Calcutta 
Association. We itgrtt very much that our 
evening contemporary ahonld have bieo led into 
writing as be did a ftw evenings ago ; but we hope 
he will, on reflection, gee the wisdom of a charge 
of attitude. It is a gieat pity that the part we 
italicize in the following otherwise Bensible passage 
should have been written : — 
That the limit of expansion in the consumption 
of tea at home has now nearly been reached can 
no longer be concealed, and it behoves ali who 
have the interest of the entt-rprise at heart to 
bring this point forcibly home to those who con- 
template extending the area under tea. It is well 
they shoul heve the fact brought home to them 
that the market bids fair to be overstocked with 
tea in the near future ; and we are glad that 
Messrs Gow, Wilson and Stanton have not hesi- 
tated to set this point clearly forth. New markets 
are sadly wanted, and it i annot be said that 
Cejlon planters have not done their beat to open 
them up. The otdy jiity is that oxir efforts are so 
poorly supported by India; lut we have long ceased to 
look for hearty co operation in that direction. What- 
ever is done must be done by om selves onaided, 
and we hope that the 'J ea Fand Commitiee will 
take a large and eomprebensive survey of their duties 
during the coming seas n. 
i We are at a loas to know to what car contem- 
