383 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
f t>EC. i, 1894. 
The other store to which I refer is a branch of 
A VERY LARGE CONCERN 
in this city. They have 100 branches all over the ,Ute. 
but I think deal in lower grade and poorer teas. 
I asked for their " Ceylons " ; they had only one 
grade, poor, coarse, grey, dull, untwisted, without a 
single tip!!! they charged 60 cents for this or ovei B/9 
per lb. now I am sure they could lay it down (or under 
considerably, and I told the manager they mn.it be 
making over 250 per cent on such tea!' He said 
he had inquiries for Ceylon tea, and wrote to Sun 
Francisco for some, and this was what his people had 
Bent him. I informed him his inquiries would soon 
cease if that was what he supplied and charged BO 
cents for. He asked me to go and interview the 
firm on my return here, and speak to them as to the 
advisability of sending out good fair Ceylons with 
point, flavour, and appearance, and I toll him what 
was wanted was a good tippy broken pekoe, if only 
one grade was to be kept in stock, and (io cts. would 
be ample to charge the consumer for such a tea. 
THE IIEAUTU'I'L TEA 
I saw being sold in Detroit, Mich, at 60 cts. out 
of the original chests was far and away ahead of 
the stuff I speak of. These people had another 
branch in Los Angeles, the manager asked me to 
send him samples, but I told him I could not do 
so at present, as all the Exhibition samples were use- 
less. He informed me that only one hour previous 
a lady and gentleman had been in asking him. 
" what was the nature of Ceylon teas, how was it 
different from any other tea, why was it considered 
superior, and so much more expensive, Ac, Ac. Ac. 
and he said, "I could not really tell them, for I 
knew nothing about it myself." 1 had half-an- 
hour's talk with him at the counter* and 111 time- 
had several of his customers listening, and some 
of them took home Cei/luii tia instead of 
Japan or China which they had come in to btt) : 
he seemed quite grateful for the information supplied 
at first hand, and will no doubt be able now to do 
better with such Ceylon tea as he has even, than 
he was before. It was much the same with others 
I visited, but one example is sufficient to show you 
in Ceylon how ignorant these tea dealers are about 
our teas. 
LOS ANGELES 
is a pretty place, thriving and go-ahead ; they do 
not seem to have felt the hard times so much there 
as elsewhere, and house-building is going on at a 
great rate. Southern California is the winter resort 
of the United States, there are a great number of 
"resident" people if I may say so, those who have 
come there to live, and settle, from elsewhere ; a 
very nice class of people, the town is rapidly 
extending, and will soon number 100,000 inhabitants. 
It would be a great pity if California were to be 
left out in any scheme that may be decided upon by 
the " Committee of 30." 
If I can get away next week, I am going North 
to Sacramento, the State Capital, and Stockton and 
some other towns, and you may be sure Ceylon 
tea will be the object of my continued exertions. 
I found three issues of your overland edition 
awaiting me on my return from the South, and two 
more came together next day ; I skimmed through 
them hurriedly to see what was being done in 
reference to 
" CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA" 
and am much pleased to see that there is a better 
prospect of something being done in the immediate 
future. Whoever is to come here, let him come 
soon, valuable time is being lost, and India is 
getting ahead of us. Now that this war between 
China and Japan is likely to be prolonged over the 
approching winter, it seems to me the present 
moment is a very opportune time to push our tea 
with the trade, as existing arrangements with those 
countries may be interfered with by the war. 
! and he hopes to be back iu Ceylon before Christine*. 
I During his absence Mr. U. Garrath bis assistant 
1 will be in charge of the engineering work of the 
' Firm. We understand Messrs. Davidson A Co.'s 
local staff is to be further augmented by another 
I Engineer, Mr. Farbridge. who has booked hi* pat- 
sage for Ceylon per ss. •• Staffordshire " due here ou 
!>th hist. 
THE SIROCCO WORKS. 
Mr. F. G. MacGuire, Representative Engineer to 
Messrs. Davidson & C. left for Calcutta by the 
ss. "Chusan" on 7th ult. on a matter of urgent 
business, His visit to India will be a yery brief one, 
THE TEA TRADE WITH MK KIM. 
Information lias reached u* from an authentic 
mnree that, a- <»ne«»f the results of the Sikkim Til>et 
Convention, the importation <>f ten into Sikkim 
from Tibet luw l>een stopped by the Tiltelaiis. This 
appearsto lie a case of pure obstruction to trade 011 
the part of this most obstructive people, ;u> t«a is 
one of the articles of commerce which is left by the 
Convention without any restriction. The opportu- 
nity seems to be a favourable one for the Darjiling 
planter to avail themselves of; the livid is oi»en 
for anyone's enterprise, ami we trust that Dnriilin^ 
tea, adapted to the peculiarities of the Sikkim 
palate, will now replace oin-e for all in that State 
the supplies of brick tea. which, have hitherto l»een 
imported overland all the way from China. Mr. 
White, the Political Officer in Sikkim, will, no 
doubt, be Willing to give ev ery assistance iii tliin 
direction in his power.- -EngtutoMm. 
TKA PLUSH AND VTBATHKft. 
The interesting discussion started in our 
columns by our rorraawndant " K. T. H." and 
continued by u An Old Coffee Stump" an to 
the bearing Of rainfall ami sunheat on the Hush- 
ing of tea, is sure to attract mucli attention 
among planters. We thought it well to ask 
for the opinion of the Planting Kepresentativ e 
iu Council, as a gentleman who has jierhups ^'iveu 
more attention to meteorological observation*, 
and conditions than any other upcountry resi- 
dent. Mr. Walker is. in this res|>ect, the 
successor of Mr. I{. II. IJarties of Gangaroowa 
(son of Governor Harries) who so Jong 
made observations and studied the weather 
cycles and conditions near Kandy. Mr. 
Walker's own observations for a series of 
years pretty well settled the ordinary record 
for the climate of Bogawantalawa, so far an 
approximate average rainfall and temjierature 
were concerned, and it is very instructive to see, 
what a trained careful observer as well as ex- 
perienced resident planter, ha* to say on a matter 
which so closely affects planting prosperity. 
Mr. Walker is good enough to write : — 
St. John Del Rev. Bogawantalawa, Nov. 1st, 1894. — 
In reply to your letter of October 27th I have much 
pleasure in giving yon my opinion. The correspon- 
dent whose letter you allude to is wrong, I think, in 
attributing the falling-off in tea flushing to excess of 
rain ; heavy rainfall with sunshine and a warm 
temperature is favourable to flushing. What checks 
flush is want of sunshine and a low temperature. 
My observations lead me to the conclusion that the 
" mean maximum temperature " during anv given 
period is the best guide as to whether such period 
was favourable to flushing or the reverse. 
The "mean temperature" is not a safe guide, 
because it does not necessarily denote a high mean- 
maximum, i.e. day-temperature, or in other words sun- 
shine. 
For example, a mean maximum of 70deg. with a 
mean minimum of 50deg., and a mean maximum of 
62 deg. and a mean minimum of 58deg. would both 
give a mean temperature of (approximately) Gddeg.; 
but the former would mean more or less sunshine, 
and (assuming a sufficiency of rain) good flushing 
weather (for the comparative cold " minimum " i.e. 
night temperature would have but little adverse effect), 
whereas the latter would mean cloudy, overcast 
skies, and bad flushing weather. 
