3o 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
[July  r,  1892. 
name  very  many  gardens  that  formerly  were  con- 
spicuous for  the  excellence  of  the  teas  which  now 
never  produce  any  but  good  medium,  medium,  or 
common  qualities.  I believe  the  statement  in  your 
article  is  generally  accepted  by  those  most  largely 
interested  in  Ceylon  teas  here  to  be  a correct  one.  I 
was  talking  to  one  of  the  leading  Ceylon  tea  brokers 
and  to  one  of  the  largest  buyers  of  Ceylon  teas 
on  this  market  today  on  this  subject,  ond  they 
both  expressed  their  opinions  as  distinctly  opposite  to 
those  of  Messrs.  Thompson.  It  is  certainly  extraor- 
dinary, when  for  the  last  six  or  nine  months  choice 
Indian,  Ceylon,  and  China  teas  have  been  exception- 
ally scarce,  and  on  all  sides  the  want  of  better  teas 
has  been  acknowledged — particularly  that  of  Ceylon 
teas — and  in  various  brokers’  circulars  the  hope  haB 
been  constantly  expressed  that  Ceylon  planters  should 
make  more  good  and  less  oommon  teas,  that  they 
should  not  have  done  so  it  they  could. 
As  Messrs.  Thompson  state,  “ there  is  ample  evi- 
dence that  the  Ceylon  tea  industry,  as  a whole,  has 
the  elements  of  stability” — it  may  have  stability; 
but  still  may,  and  I venture  to  say  has  every  fear 
of  deterioration  of  the  plant,  if  the  present  whole- 
sale pluoking  is  continued.  Unfortunately,  a good 
profit  can  be  made  by  growers  out  of  medium  and 
oommon  as  well  as  of  fine  teas,  if  the  supply  does 
not  overrun  the  demand,  aud  so  reduce  ordinary  to 
extraordinary  low  rates  here. 
The  humid  atmosphere  and  fertile  soil  of  Ceylon 
cause  the  plants  to  grow  fast  and  yield  abundantly, 
and  the  greed  of  the  average  planter  makes  him 
take  from  the  plants  all  they  will  yield,  not  giving 
them  the  proper  time  to  rest.  The  tea  plant  is  in 
the  position  of  a human  berng,  or  any  animal : over- 
work them,  without  sufficient  rest  and  nourishment, 
and  in  due  time  their  systems  become  enfeebled,  and 
they  break  down.  Regarding  what  Indian  as  against 
what  Ceylon  planters  may  do,  I think  Messrs.  Thomp- 
son’s comparison  is  a mistaken  one,  as  the  climate, 
soil,  and  various  other  conditions  are  different.  Again 
when  Indian  and  Ceylon  teas  were  first  imported, 
and  were  from  newly-planted  gardens,  and  mostly 
from  virgin  soils,  there  was,  in  comparison,  much  less 
common  and  much  more  fine  teas  than  there  are  now. 
Of  course,  many  estates,  both  in  India  and  Ceylon, 
in  exceptionally  favoured  positions,  and  under  good 
management,  may  for  a more  lengthened  period  pro- 
duce a finer  class  of  tea  than  their  less  favoured 
neighbours;  but  I am  speaking  of  tho  majority,  not 
the  exceptions.  The  immense  quantity  of  common 
teas  we  have  had  from  India  the  last  two  seasons, 
which  we  know  have  not  generally  realised  profitable 
rates  to  the  growers,  when  fine  teas  would  have  been 
remunerative,  does  not  give  one  the  idea  that  they 
are  so  easily  made  as  Messrs.  Thompson  would  have 
us  believe. — I am,  sir,  yours,  &c.,  F.  Sutton  Hawes. 
14,  Mincing-lane,  E.C.,  May  9th. 
FEMALE  ENTERPRIZE  IN  THE  TEA  TRADE. 
It  is  undoubtedly  the  ease  that  the  weaker  sex 
have  in  times  past — namely  those  of  the  days 
whioh  followed  the  collapse  of  the  ooffee  industry 
in  this  island — been  among  the  chief  sufferers 
from  the  reduotion  of  means  caused  by  that 
failure.  There  oan  scarcely  be  one  among  us 
who  has  not  heard  of  the  straits  to  which  many 
ladies  well  known  and  esteemed  among  us  were 
reduced  during  those  sad  times.  The  husbands 
or  fathers  in  very  many  instances  had  succumbed 
to  the  intense  strain  whioh  then  had  to  be 
endured  ; and  many  ladies  of  high  culture  found 
themselves  oast  with  their  children  upon  the 
world,  and  faoe  to  face  with  embarrassments  and 
difficulties  whioh  they  were  but  ill-fitted  by  their 
training  to  endure  and  overcome.  We  could  nar- 
rate, were  it  now  our  objeot  to  do  so,  many 
suoh  sad  instances  known  to  us ; but  the  almost 
universal  knowledge  as  to  these,  and  the  reflection 
that  they  are  now  happily  things  of  the  past, 
render  it  unnecessary  that  we  should  do  this. 
But  apparently  time  is  bringing  about  its  re- 
venges, and  those  to  whom  we  have  above 
referred  as  having  suffered  so  greatly  dur- 
ing our  former  experience  are,  we  are  told, 
at  length  participating  in  the  happier  stato  of 
things  produced  by  the  success  of  our  tea 
cultivation.  We  do  not  know  whioh  amount 
of  dependence  may  be  placed  upon  the  statements 
of  the  paragraph  appearing  in  the  Daily  Telegraph, 
which  has  found  quotation  in  the  last  letter  of 
our  London  Correspondent.  These  may  possibly, 
and  not  impossibly,  be  wholly  correct;  and  it  may 
be  that  among  our  numerous  readers  there  will  be 
those  able  to  fully  verify  them.  There  oan  be 
nothing  extraordinary  in  the  fact  of  seven 
ladies  combining  together  to  beoome  the  proprietors 
of  a Ceylon  tea  estate,  or  in  their  further  efforts 
to  dispose  of  its  produoe  by  their  own  direct 
agenoy  and  labour.  The  openings  for  female 
employment  at  home  are,  as  is  well-known,  ex- 
ceedingly few  ; and  we  shall  be  glad  indeed  if  th:s 
recorded  effort  to  open  up  a new  one  should  result 
in  the  fullest  success.  There  Beems  to  be  some- 
thing sentimentally  appropriate  in  the  handling 
of  suoh  a delioate  article  as  tea  by  the  dainty 
hands  of  English  ladies.  The  packing  of  it  in 
packets,  and  the  many  other  ways  in  whioh  it 
may  be  manipulated  for  the  retail  trade,  is  a 
work  not  necessitating  any  heavy  amount  of  manual 
labour.  Indeed  we  may  regard  such  work  as  being 
specially  adapted  for  females ; and  we  should  be 
pleased  to  hear  that  the  example  now  said 
to  have  been  set  had  found  a wide  circle  of 
imitators.  But  although,  as  we  have  above  ad- 
mitted, we  are  in  no  position  to  vouoh  for  the 
accuracy  of  the  information  given  by  the  Daily 
Telegraph,  it  is  a thiDg  well-known  to  us  that  in 
a less  direct  way  hundreds  of  English  ladies  have 
for  a good  many  years  past  been  adding  to  their 
income  by  acting  as  the  agents  of  friends  or 
relatives  resident  here  concerned  with  tea  pro- 
duction. The  sad  pinch  of  necessity  that,  as  has 
been  pointed  out,  told  so  sadly  upon  the  means 
of  many  ladies  formerly  resident  in  Ceylon  com- 
pelled these  to  lay  aside  all  scruples  which  the 
prejudices  of  a lost  position  had  engendered ; and 
amoDg  the  many  who  have  taken  an  aotive  part 
in  aiding  towards  seouring  for  our  teas  tho 
popularity  that  they  now  enjoy  few  have  contributed 
more  largely  than  former  friends  of  ours  of  the 
opposite  sex  who  have  tempted  by  ekilful  infusion 
and  dainty  accompaniments  their  numerous  friends 
and  acquaintances  into  a thorough  appreciation 
of  the  flavour  and  qualities  of  Ceylon  teas. 
We  can  scarcely  imagine  a male  oreature  so 
sternly  moulded  as  so  be  able  to  resist 
the  pleadings  of  a fair  hostess,  who,  after 
supplying  the  most  efficient  proof  of  the 
qualities  of  her  “ brew,”  pleaded  on  behalf 
either  of  herself  or  her  relatives  that  her  guest 
should  in  future  supply  himself  with  tea  furnished 
by  herself.  We  all  know  how  efficaoious  is  female 
pleading;  and  if  reserve  were  not  too  far  maintained, 
a hint  that  its  own  necessities  aotuated  the  pleader 
could  not  fail  of  insuring  a willing  and  satisfied. 
— 
Coffee  Cultivation  on  the  Karen  Hills. 
— In  his  report  on  cultivation  during  1891-92  at  the 
Nanoho  Estate,  Karen  Hill  Tracts,  Mr.  Petley 
says : — 
The  outturn  of  this  year’s  crop  of  ooffee,  the  gathering 
and  clearing  of  which  has  just  been  completed,  has 
been  very  disappointing  ; there  is  only  half  of  what  was 
was  at  first  anticipated,  from  the  following  causes  : — 
1.  At  the  blossoming  of  the  trees  in  April  heavy 
