xMarch i, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
607 
@orrospondenci3. 
To the Editor. 
CEYLON TEA IN CANADA. 
HOW TO INDUCE A CONSUMPTION OF TEA IN 
NORTH AMERICA IN EXCESS OF THAT IN 
THE UNITED KINGDOM. 
Toronto, Jan. 8th. 
Dear Sir, — We had put into our hands a few 
days ago a small pamphlet written by your good 
self, and previously we were in receipt, from some 
good friends in Colombo, of a half dozen copies of 
your paper, from the contents of which we found 
that there had been several meetings in your town, 
of the Tea Planters' Association, and that they 
were anxious to obtain opinions of the best way of 
enlarging their market on this Continent, and we 
note from your pamphlet that they have adopted a 
plan of campaign which, if you will permit us, we 
would like to criticize, as we are more interested in 
any advertising that Ceylon tea gets in the Domi- 
nion of Canada, than any other firm in the tea 
business, as our speciality for four years past has 
been Ceylon Tea and we advertise " Salada " 
Ceylon Tea (a tea which is packed in lead packets) 
from one end of the dominion to the other. It is 
now running in over forty newspapers, and we might 
add, to show you the progress that Ceylon tea has 
made within the last three or four years, that we 
believe, judging from our own trade, that fully one- 
fifth of the people in the City of Toronto drink 
Ceylon Tea today : therefore, as we said before, 
any plan of campaign that the Tea Planters 
may adopt, is indirectly of benefit to us, and the 
better the plan the more benefit we will reap from it. 
We note that the first item on the plan is ; — 
I. " That a 5 lb. box of Ceylon Tea be sent to 
500 or more Editors of American Newspapers, with 
pamphlet in box." 
II. " That simultaneously they be asked to insert 
advertisement, say: "Drink pure Ceylon Tea," and 
that they be requested to send a copy of each 
paper to the Ceylon Representatives." 
Will you permit us to assure them, through you, 
that their box of Ceylon Tea, In our opinion, will 
be returned to them from every prominent paper on 
the Continent, and only the very obscure country 
papers, with very small circulation, will accept the 
tea and give you quid pro quo.* 
We note that two representatives are to be sent 
to America, and if they are thorough business men 
and find out the prices of teas that will prove 
popular to the public, they can be of benefit, but 
as to their " entertaining expenses ", they will find 
that this money is wasted, We can well understand 
that if a merchant in a large way of business, is 
entertained by their representatives, he can easily 
be induced to stock up with a few chests of 
Ceylon Tea but a year will soon pass by and 
when the time for stoc -taking comes around, he 
will still find himself burdened with the 
same quantity of Ceylon Tea that he purchased 
the year before, and he immediately determines 
that he will cease to handle this tea, and 
will have nothing more to do with it, whereas if 
the consumer asks for Ceylon Tea, the retailer will 
quickly demand it from the wholesaler, who will soon 
find a means of satisfying that demand, and there- 
fore any money expended in advertising the tea to 
the public direct will result in more benefit to the 
Tea Planters' Association than twice the amount 
spent by sending out Commissioners to entertain 
the merchants. 
The next item on their plan of campaign, that of 
sending out Sinhalese in their native dress, who 
would visit all the principal towns to serve tho 
* The idea never was propounded in Ceylon to 
seek a free advertisement in return for a 5 lb box of 
toa. Ihe idea was to contract, separately for the 
advertising. E», T.A. 
76 
new tea, we consider an excellent plan of adver- 
tising, because it is advertising to the consumers of 
tea. As far as " The Ceylon Delegates placing them- 
selves at the disposal of the Press, in order to tell 
the story of the Ceylon Tea industry," they will find 
that the Press throughout this Continent will have 
no use for their " story of the Ceylon Tea industry" 
unless they are paid for inserting it. It is hard here 
to get any Newspaper to advertise any new indus- 
try, without being paid for it, and they are quite 
right too, we take it, and therefore we think it would 
be well for the Tea Planters to permit their Dele- 
gates to spend monies in this way viz : paying for 
reading notices. 
Will you permit us to suggest to the Associa- 
tion through you columns, what we consider would 
be the very best plan ? — viz : to send through the 
mail, say two or three ounces, to every consumer, 
good Ceylon pekoe or pekoe souchong, costing 
about, say 8d to 9d today in Colombo, — teas, that 
should they be liked by the consumer, they will be 
able to obtain from their retailer at about 30 to 40c 
per lb. Of course it would be impossible to serve 
every household in the country with a sample 
without a very large outlay, but this could he easily 
tried in the Province of Ontario, where a great 
many people are changing gradually from Japan to 
black tea, the expense of which would not be more 
than say $3,000-00 or $3,500-00 including, say the 
package and postage. 
Next to this plan, there can be no doubt about it, that 
reading notices in the papers (and now we are speaking of 
Canada) showing the people how wholesome, etc. 
Ceylon teas are, and on the other hand how 
the preparation of China tea lies in the hands 
of the small native farmers who are by no means 
cleanly in their habits, and where many diseases 
prevail, etc. Reading notices of this kind, inserted 
in the newspapers, would have to be paid for, but 
if pursued systematically, there is on doubt about 
it, your island would reap the very greatest benefit 
from it. We ourselves, can see the market that 
can be opened in this country, for Ceylon teas and 
and the benefit of advertising, as we are by far the 
largest advertisers of Ceylon teas in Canada; but, of 
course, in all our advertisements we always make 
the word "Ceylon" subservient to "Salada," which 
is our registered trade mark. 
Our trade has grown so rapidly during the last few 
years in this particular line that we are now purchas- 
ing through two firms in Colombo, — Messrs. Bath- 
gate, Pirn & Co. and Messrs. Delmege, Forsyth ' & 
(Jo., instead of, as hitherto, in London. We are 
commencing our purchases in a small way in 
your market until we see how the thing works 
out, but we can say confidently, that if properly- 
expended the $50,000 or thereabouts that the 
Association will have to expend yearly, can in 
the course of three years (and we are not saying 
this without due thought) bring you a larger "sale 
in the United States and Canada for Cevlon teas 
than there is at present in Great Britain, for remember 
there are 70 mllions of people in the United States 
and Canada, the greater part of whom, in the 
United States, drink coffee, but a judicious system of 
advertising, such as we suggest, showing the people 
the ill effects of coffee on the system, it being pro- 
ductive of dyspepsia (which the Americans are 
greatly troubled with) and pointing out to them in 
these advertisements, that whereas in Canada their 
neighbours the consumption of coffee is small and 
the consumption of tea large, dyspepsia is practically 
unknown, we say that this system of ad- 
vertising cai-ried on energetically and the reading 
notices changed often, will, in our opinion, quickly 
change the people from a coffee-drinking people 
in the United States to a tea-drinking people, ami 
in this country from the use of Japans and China 
teas to the use of the fine teas produced on your 
island, which we know to be the finest teas produced 
in the world. 
We would be glad to give any information in our 
power to the Secretary of tho Tea Planters' Asso- 
ciation, at any time, but be confident of one thing : 
that the way to introduce teas as a substitute for tho 
