Sept. i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
" Columbian of itrium," I take it, is meant for 
" C jlumbian " (or niobium) "and yttrium." 
Marganese is mentioned as a mineral: the oxide 
or some other form ia probably meant, einoe the 
metal is hardly evtr known to oeour in the free j 
state like gold for instance, — G. 
AN INDIAN TEA PLANTER ON NEW 
MARKETS. 
Dear Sib,— Will you kind y refer to the 
Englishman of July 20vb, 1894, " News of the day," 
ana the para beginning as Dr, Wat/S poi.Hs out, 
' India could ill-afford to loss hat tea-planters 
now." I am glad to find that I have BU.h good 
support for my pet theory, that we should make 
tpa to suit the consumer. You should give the 
pira (above noted) in full, or better still, get the 
whole subject of '• Tea " by Dr. Watts reviewed 
by some praotioal planter. Toe book (Economic 
Plants) is not available to all. This one sentence 
ruD8 exactly with my views : — Br. Watts urges the 
planters to give this subject serious consideration, 
and he suggests that the education of the people to 
the appreciation of Indian tea should be accomplished 
by studying the flavour and other peculiarities of 
the imported kind that find a ready market. 
Now, if planters and others interested do not 
listen even to the charming of Dr. Watts they 
are indeed beyond persuading. 
An outsider would say that the planters must 
have tried to follow the advice, but have 
failed to make good tea of the sort wanted. 
The planter is supposed to have too much to 
do and to be too near his margin of profit, to 
try any wild schemes. If that is so, then ap- 
point special men to make trials, and have the 
trials made on some of the estates which give 
over 10 per cent profit. Ask those estates for 
only one-half per oent (5 maunds out of every 
thousand) of their leaf. Or olub together and 
buy up a moribund estate and reserve that for 
trials of making oheap tea suitable to various 
tastes. 
Do anything and everything to vary the 
quality and oharaoter of teas. Fill the markets 
with every sort of known tea, but don't oram 
it with tea of one charaoter. The ship is going 
down 1 Let us all rush to the highest end ! 
Down goes that end, let us all rush back to the 
opposite one , and so on till only a few bubbles 
are left on the surfaoe of the Trade Ocean to 
show where the good ship " Thea" sailed so 
proudly. And John in his junk seeing them 
says: " White devil, thinkee, savee, pieoee 1 Gone 1 1 1 
Ho! Ho! ' 
You havo Prize Essays. I do believe that if 
Bomeone cut out Dr. Watts' ideas and sent them 
as a prize essay they would be rejeoted. Beoause 
the idea of striving in a new line of suiting the 
consumer seems to be utterly hopeless. 
Dr. Watts thinks that we planters only have 
to try i\nd the thing would be done. What is the 
reason of our not making tin attempt. Our market 
ba i BO judiciously praised our tea to get the sort 
it wanted, and run down our tea so that it oan be 
had oheHrdy, that we all believe firmly that our 
article is buporior to all others. 
In faot almost oVly wo see comments on China 
rubbish. If it is ru bish we could surely oomrele 
easily ; prices tell Li's that our teas are rubbish. 
What is dirt ? It - matter out of place. Our tea 
r dirt. It seems t be the season for impassioned 
utterances. So 1 must follow suit. Unless you 
can compete with China bv making the same tea 
at a amaller cost you aic lost— you are lost!! 
Take it this way : Mr. Blechynden will Bucceed or 
fail. Either way you can follow suit or not, but 
spend your money and this year's thought and 
endeavours to making the similar but better and 
cheaper than Chinese rubbish. 
Perhaps India will then have to follow your lead. 
Get a chest of China tea sold at Is per pound 
see whether you can land a duplicate in the same 
market at 11 penoe per pound. If you can do so 
you will promptly oust China. How the Amerioans 
must be laughing ! 
The War between Japan and China may let us 
in to their tea markets, but by all that is reasonable 
take the ohanaa of putting in teas as nearly like 
the ones in favour as possible. 1874. 
TEA LEAVES AND SPOTS. 
Alton, Norwood, Aug. 2. 
Dear Sir,— Can you tell me what oauses the 
spots on these tea leaves ?— Yours truly, 
C. E. WELLDON. 
[We referred the leaves to Mr. Green of Pundalu- 
oya who kindly reports : — " The leaves have evi- 
dently been punctured by one of the several 
species of bugs that frequent our tea bushes. 
From the small size of the soars I do not think 
that the Helopeltis is the enemy. In attaoks of 
Ilelopeltis the disooloured patches are usually more 
or les3 confluent. No importance need be attached 
to the present affection ; but the field should be 
watched and if the symptoms increase, a sample 
of the affected shoots (packed in a tin box to 
keep fresh) should be sent for examination," — 
Ed. T.A.] 
VARIOUS PLANTING NOTES. 
Ceylon Cinchona Association, Limited. — The 
Annual General Meeting of the Ceylon Cinchona 
Association, Limited, was to be held at Kanapedi- 
watta, on Saturday, 25th ulfc. 
" The Low Price of Tea."— Our London 
Correspondent furnishes us with a further series of 
the opinions of experts on this subject — and very 
varied they are (see page 161). Mr. Eoberts of 
Messrs. Ruoker & Co., it will be seen, is as strong 
as ever in hiB faith about Ceylon tea clearing China 
eventually out of the . London market but we 
regret to see that he is still sceptical about 
Amerioa becoming a heavy consumer of our teas. 
Mr. Roberts ref rs this to the " olimate "; but he 
surely forgets that the olimate of a considerable 
portion of the vast North American Continent is 
closely allied to that experienced by the Australians 
who are the largest tea consumers in the world. 
Coffee and Cccoa in Java. — The annual report of 
the Agricultural Company der Vorstenlandon con- 
tains the following particulars :— The coffee and 
indigo estates were generally worked at a loss, 
owing to small production ; but the prospects for 
this year are muoh better, and a portion of the 
oeffee crop has been sold already at a good price. 
The reports regarding the cultivation of Liberian 
ooft'ee and coaoa continue very eatisft otory. The 
sugar manufac ories have shown a favourable re- 
suit. A new manufactory, situated in Madiven 
is to be opened. The crop of the twenty-one 
unlertakirg-i is estimate! at 8_'0,000 p'culs. of which 
25S.000 picu's have been sold at f.9}- to f.8. The 
ten estates own j d by the Company have delivered 
in 189a 1,015 pic uls coffee, 896 piculs cocoa, 19,854 
pounds indigo, and 142 piculs Kapok. Tho net 
profit is fl. 703,50: . 1 the dividend 10 por cent, on 
I the preference a ,i 5 per cent, on tin common 
slurea. — L. and C. Express. 
