March i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
595 
with style and fair plaiu liquor have ruled at a low 
range of prices throuahout tbe yoar, viz , 7d and lOd 
per lb., ond we clo?e the year at Id Iq 2 1 per lb. lower 
average on pako^ souchmga aod p ^koes between Gd and 
8d than 1892. The f xports from Calcatta toAviatralia 
and Uombay .ire much heavier tli's aaason, and if prices 
keep low there, direct exports are likely to increase 
and 80 curtail anpplies to this m\rkef. Everything 
points to a healthy market in tha new year. r)ealer4 
do not hold heavy stock", and prices are in a low level." 
The CEyLO>i Te4 Market Last Yeab. — Referring 
to UayloQ Tea in 1893, the Grocer says: "This 
favourite class ol tea with the publio neems so have 
almost reached a poini at which consumption cannot 
get beyoad for the present. Every year delrvery hai 
shown enormous inoraases, but 1893 is like'y to ba 
about the sime as 1892, viz., million lb. The 
imports f.)r the first five mouths were only 1 million lb. 
inexnesa of 1832, but since then the increase amouoba to 
ij^ ixi lion lb., or say 69 millions for the year, bo 
tUat we shall oon uenca the new year with over 
2 milliona more Rtook. Of cour e, the high prices 
of common tea for the ficot five months of the 
ye»r brought down congamption by IJ' millions lb., 
but the prea'; drawbick to Ceylon Tea now is the 
uontinued poaruejs of the crops. Even cs they 
are, it is almost impossible to displace them in 
favour as far aa the Urge blenders and paoket 
peopla are cincerned, and they are used up as 
fast as they oome in. Since June 1st we have im- 
ported 41 million lb. more than iu the ^ame period 
lust year, while the deliveries have been 1 million lb. 
mote tha'i the imports, by which Chiua suCFered very 
heavily this November." 
The Oonsumption op Food and Spirits. — "Within 
tha list forty years there has been an enormous in- 
crease in the consumpti n of Brticlcs of food and drink 
in Great Britain, and it has been estimated that 
the 35,000,000 of British peoijle annually ooneume 
upwards of 300,000,000 quartern loaves, 93,000,000 cwt. 
of potatoe ",17,000 000 cwt of vegetables, 30,000,000 cwt. 
of meat, 700,000,000 lb. of fisli, 5,000,000 owt. of butter, 
1,000,000,000 lb. of sugar, 17ii,0O0,000 lb. of tea, 
2,000,000,000 g.l«. of beer, 37,000,000 gils. of spirits, 
and 14,'i00,000 gals, of wine, the total C03t to the 
constun'^rs beiug about £500,000,000, or if we take the 
net or national expenditure, about £349,000,000. — 
H. and C- Mail, Jan. 12. 
♦ 
FROSPEOTS OF TEi. PLANTING IN CEYLON 
THE lliUAQINa DIP.ECIOE OF THE OKYLON TEA 
PLANTATlOMa CO.. LD , MR. H. K. BDIHEKFORd'3 
VISIT TO CiS . LON. 
Th-re are certainly few more sac;acio.is or 
abler men counectel with the Ceylon Piant- 
ino Enterprise — and withal none more modest 
and retiring; —than our recent visitor Mr 
H. K. Rutherford, Managing Director of the 
premier Tea Company of the island." It is 
always as pleasiut as it is profitable to 
have a chat with Mr. Rutherford and this 
last occasion when he kindly looked in upon 
us, on the eve. of his departure, was no 
exception to the rule. We have already 
referred to the general impression of satis- 
faction left on Mr. Rutherford's mind by his 
inspection of tea plantations during his 
recent visit. The 7,200 acres of tea owned 
by his Company comprise estates from au 
altitude of a few hundred feet, in the 
Kelani Yalley up, to a considerable area in 
our very highest district, Nuwara Eliya. 
Mr. Rutherford's experience is therefore as 
widely reprosontntive as it is valuable. 
iJfoavily spe.ikiiig, lie would divide the tea 
planting rogi ^n of Ceylon iiitj three great 
divisions — lowcoimtry, medium- jlcvation, and 
high districts— with very distinct character- 
istics as to average quality and quantity of crop. 
Mr. Rutherford has taken a special interest 
in the recent discussion in our columns — 
bpgan very much, owing to his presence in 
the island— and he has promised to send us 
back his opinion on the Uttle pamphlet 
containing all the letters, copies of which 
we were able to give him. Mr. Rutherford 
is not a believer in very fine plucking 
(leading to exceptionally high price.s) as 
an example to be followed; nor does he 
believe that any estate in the higher 
districts can— with ordinary plucking "and 
treatment — keep for very long, much ahead of 
its neighbours, although for a few years 
until pruning begins to tell, exceptional re- 
sults may be noted. Still, as shown in the 
Company's own experiecce there are certain 
plantations and factories which afford some 
puzzling questions as to why their averages 
should be so much better than those'^of 
others under, apparently, the same condition.?. 
Mr. Rutherford thinks a good or bad climate 
for " preparation" occasionally explains discre- 
pancies, and certain very high (and wet) 
places are, obviously, at a disadvantage on 
this account. In judging of the Ceylon Tea 
Plantation Co. with its 7,200 acres of tea 
yielding (last year) an average of 418 lb. per 
acre and securing an average of about S^d 
per lb., it must be remembered that little 
or no old — or at any rate, worn-out— coffee 
land is included in this extent; but on the 
other hand, it has to be recorded that very 
Httle manuring has taken place, save on 
Mariawatte which has benefited by cattle 
manure and the scavenging of Gampola. 
Otherwise, Mr. Rutherford is chary of apply- 
ing manure to Ceylon t-a as yet -and es- 
pecially of an artificial character. He thinks 
there is risk of introducing some disease, 
or doing some mischief to the tea, through 
experiments in the latter direction. At any 
rate he has seen no sign as yet on his 
unmanured fields of the need of strengthen- 
ing the trees. On the contrary, nothin'g lias 
surprised him more than the distine"t im- 
provement which has tak'-n place in certain 
fields which, fire years ago, he considered 
doubtfully poor and weak. The additional 
age, cropping and ti'l^.ge have vastly im- 
proved the tea bushes, no doubt owing to 
the roots spreading and going deeper ; and alto- 
gether Mr. Rutherford leaves us witli a greater 
belief in the permanency of tea than h-; held 
after his previous vis't. 
Part of Mr. Rutherford's mission to Ceylon 
was to visit the plantations of the Oriental 
I Bank Estates Company. He considers tuey 
own some very fine properties, and that if 
a responsible system of local estate manage- 
j ment is set up without interference from 
home, improved results s^hould speedily follow. 
Mr. Rutherford— like Mr. 'Wra. Mackenzie, 
the lion. W. W. Mitchell and some other local 
proprietors — is by no means keen about Rail- 
way Extension to tho Kelani Valley. He 
will not at all oppose it, of course, and the 
tea ol tiio Company's plantationa will all 
bo sent by tho line t j Colombo: but lie docs not 
expect to effect the slightest ecouoiuy 
' thereby ; while ho has n wholesome dread 
