June r, 1895.) THE TROPIC \L AGRICULTURIST. 
8i3 
CEYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 
At length we are in possession of the views 
of the Planters' Delegate to America. Mr. Wm. 
Mackenzie refers to previous Correspondence with 
the Committee ; but the letter we publish 
elsewhere evidently includes all his matured 
conclusions and recommendations. Before we come 
to these conclusions, however, we have, as might 
be expected, a good deal of criticism. The 
Delegate is well-known as a keen man of busi- 
ness and an equally keen writer and indeed, 
lie might fearlessly say, — 
I am nothing if not critical I 
We are not surprised, therefore, to have a good 
deal of criticism and some of it very much to 
the point, more especially where it is shown 
how large are the profits of the American 
tea importers from the sale of China and Japan 
teas, and how unnatural, therefore, it is to 
expect them to take cordially to the less pro- 
fitable, because dearer and purer Indian and 
Ceylon teas. Again we are told of the hold 
"green" teas have on the American people, and 
that is also a very true as * well as old piece 
of news ; but we are surprised that Mr. Mac- 
kenzie makes no reference to the large popula- 
tion there must be — especially in New York 
and out West who would far sooner drink 
" black" than "green" teas, if they could only get 
them readily and cheaply. We refer, of course, 
to the immigrants coming from England, Ireland 
anil Scotland during the past thirty years. These 
men and women never tasted green teas in their 
lives till they got to America and we feel sure 
that however much their taste may have been cor- 
rupted, they would still gladly hail the lay when 
the sale of " black" teas — Indian and Ceylon far 
better than they had in their younger days — be- 
came as universal as the sale of green tea now is. 
The Irish are well-known as a pre-eminently tea- 
drinking people, and New York is said to be 
full of Irish. Surely, there we have a people ready 
to be got at abundantly with Indian and Ceylon 
teas. Then the advice given to all enterprising- 
arrivals in America is that of Horace Greely : — 
" Young mango West"— so that, undoubtedly there 
ought to be a splendid field for supplying the new, 
or rather the old "black" teas among the settlers 
in Western States ; and this, no doubt, accounts 
for the success of the Iowa (Davenport) Tea 
Company to which Mr. Mackenzie makes special 
reference. 
But of all the Delegate's criticism, the keenest 
as well as the most unexpected, is that which he 
directs towards Exhibitions or Expositions on a 
large scale. 1 1 look our breath away when we lirst 
realized the exact position and yet who can deny ' 
the force of the argument ''. Not, certainly, the 
Chicago Commissioner, unless lie changes his 
lone over the Ceylon Tea Store opened in that 
City. The Delegate's syllogism would seem to 
run somewhat as follows:— (1) The Ceylon Tea 
( nuri in the Chicago Exhibition had every justice 
done to it ; money was lavished upon it; there 
never was such a Ceylon Tea Show : and yet (2) 
the Commissioner's own Tea, Store opened almost 
under the shadow of the Exhibition and with all 
the erlal appertaining bo his position, with the 
advantage of numerous friends and customers 
secured during the Exhibition, and with a handsome 
grant-in-aid from the Planters' Association -has 
yet, according to Sir John Crinliuton himself, 
after IS months' trial, simply "spelled" 
financial failure: — therefore (ii) money spent on 
Expositions or Exhibitions for Ceylon tea musi 
boas good as thrown away! Wo must leave the 
Delegate and Commissioner to settle the extent 
m 
to which the conclusion from the premises may 
be considered to be justified. There is, un- 
doubtedly, a good deal of force in the way 
Mr. Mackenzie puts the matter and as the 
"Committee of Thirty" are almost certain 
to adopt his view, we may at once tell 
Mi - . Bierach (who sends us another Exhibition 
! letter given elsewhere) and Mr. T. A. Cockburn, 
that there is no chance now of Ceylon taking 
any part in either the Atlanta, the Canadian or 
the Baltimore Exhibitions— these being all on the 
large scale with which the Planters' Committee, 
if they follow the advice of their Delegate, 
will have nothing to do in view of the experi- 
ence gained of the Chicago store following the 
Great Exhibition. 
But now, with relief, we turn to the positive 
side of Mr. Mackenzie's letter and take stock of 
what he does recommend, and of the encourage- 
ment be has to offer his brother planters. And 
foremost of alL we attach the greatest importance 
to Mr. Carnegie's statement founded on the purity 
of our teas. It is no news to us of the Tropical 
Agriculturist. Since 18S4, we have preached from 
that text. In that year, the largest American buyer 
of Japan teas confessed to us in Mid-Pacific, that 
there was not a single lb of such teas, un- 
adulterated — all being faced with Prussian blue or 
other ingredients. It was the same ar- 
gument that was offered to Mr. P. R. 
Buchanan on his third visit to America 
in the interests of the Sylhet Tea Company to 
which the Delegate refers. Mr. Buchanan was 
told by a big dealer M'ho had begun, rather 
unwillingly, to hold stocks of Indian and 
Ceylon teas : — " You have a good pure article ; 
" go and make it known to the million ; ex- 
" hibit, advertise ; sample it at the stores for 
"their customers with native servants; and 
" a demand must spring up for it and we 
" (importers and dealers) will have nolens 
" vole ns, to meet that demand." We scarcely 
think the advice here given in 1892-3, 
has yet been improved on — not even 
in the letter of the Delegate. For now, we 
come to his recommendations and we are sur- 
prised how largely and liberally they loom up 
before us, in spite of the very free negative 
criticism which fills the earlier part of the 
letter. Mr. Mackenzie, for instance— and we 
are very glad to see it— is (1) a thorough be- 
liever in General and Special Advertising — in 
household daily and weekly papers and in 
monthly periodicals especially Ladies' journals • 
(2) while discarding Expositions 011 a big scale, 
lie approves of putting in an appearance at 
the State " Food Shows "; and here we have 
in themselves two very' large orders if justice istp 
be done in these departments, all over the CJnitotl 
States; [ndeed, we question if the Planters' Fund 
would do more than rover the expenditure which 
attention to the Food Shows and Advertising would 
involve. But the Delegate goes oh^ to speak of 
a special Agent (on 4,000 to .">,0l)0 -dollars per 
annum) who is to have complicated duties in con- 
nection with grants of tea, inspecting accounts, 
&c. This, to our mind, verges on the extrava- 
gant. Such an Agent could scarcely he expected 
to attend the Food Shows ; for these, smaller 
men would be required and we do not know 
that the planters could get better Showmen for 
: travelling round the States than Messrs. Bierach 
and Coekhuni with all the experience they have 
gained. Bui that is a matter for the Committee 
to decide. In the meantime, we would certainly 
say the motto should bo Festina Itsntt as to 
making free grants of lea tg certain good friends. 
