84 
[August  i,  1892. 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
to  eeod  a lower  or  medium  grade,  of  whioh  they  got 
from  50  to  100  per  cent,  more  crop.  I stated  further, 
that  not  a few  planters  have  been  led  to  think  that 
apart  from  the  bigger  harvest  compensating  for  lower 
quality  and  prices  medium  rather  than  fine  plucking 
of  leaf  best  suits  the  healthy  development  and  vigour 
of  their  bushes. 
Nevertheless,  let  the  London  buyers  establish  such 
a difference  in  price  between  fine  and  common  or 
medium  teas  as  will  show  to  the  planter  a decided 
pecuniary  advantage  in  supplying  the  former,  and  sure 
am  I that  there  will  be  a response  from  Oeylon  and 
that,  too,  from  some  of  the  gardens  whioh  used  to  be 
famous  for  fine  quality  teas. — I am,  sir,  yours,  &c., 
May  25th.  J.  Ferguson. 
In  the  same  paper  the  following  sub-editorial  para- 
graph has  appeared  : — 
A Ceylon  tea  grower  has  been  investigating  Southern 
California  in  regard  to  its  adaptability  for  tea  culture, 
Bnd  is  favourably  impressed. 
And  this  has  provoked  me  to  give  the  Editor  a 
few  facts  of  which  I hope  he  will,  with  Captain 
Cuttle,  “ make  a note  on  ” to  obviate  such  absurd 
intimations  in  the  future  : — 
TEA.  CULTURE  IN  SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA. 
To  the  Editor  of  The  Financial  News. 
Sir, — Kindly  note,  once  for  all,  that  you  ought,  edito- 
rially, to  meet  proposals  or  suggestions  about  tea  cul- 
ture in  new  countries — America,  S.  Africa,  Australasia, 
&o. — with  the  simple  but  indispensable  question,  “ Can 
an  abundance  of  field  labour  be  commanded  at  from  6d 
to  9d  a day  for  each  adult  man  or  woman  ?” 
If  not,  there  is  scaroely  any  use  trying  to  grow  tea 
for  market  against  India,  Ceylon,  Japan;  Java  and 
China,  which  already  produce  in  excess  of  the  demand 
for  the  world’s  present  consumption. 
I found  the  tea  plant  flourishing  in  the  open  air  at 
Washington  in  1884;  but  in  California  I could  not  get 
my  boots  blaoked  for  less  than  6d,  and  in  Florida  I 
found  no  Negro  man  or  woman  could  be  got  to  work  in 
a garden  for  less  than  a dollar  a day.  This  may  do  for 
thejculture  of  the  prolific  orange  tree  ; but  it  is  of  no 
use  for  tea  plucking  which  can  scarcely  afford  J dollar 
per  day’s  labour. — Yours  truly,  J.  F. 
Among  other  comments  provoked  by  my  long 
letters,  the  following  is  from  the  letter  of  a City  tea 
authority : — 
“ I have  rend  both  your  articles  on  tea  (OeyloD)  in  the 
Financial  News  with  great  interest.  And  certainly 
the  planters  in  Ceylon  owe  you  a deep  debt  of  grati- 
tude for  championing  their  cause  in  the  way  you  have 
done.” 
Mr.  J.  H.  Barber— clever  tea  planter  as  well  as 
lawyer  and  musioian,  “admirable  Crichton”  indeed — 
is  also  good  enough  to  write : — 
“ I am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  instructive 
communication  by  you  in  the  Financial  and  I am 
glad  that  you  have  noticed  again  Sir  Andrew  Clark’s 
rash  assertion  to  give  it  your  contradiction.  His  ipse 
dixit  will  do,  I am  sure,  incalculable  misohief  to  both 
tea  growers  and  drinkers.  That  there  should  be  one 
man  in  Great  Britain  to  champion  China  against 
British  grown  teas,  is  only  the  exception  which  proves 
a good  rule.  But  as  even  the  devil  can  quote  Scripture 
to  suit  his  purposes,  so  the  unscrupulous  vendors  of 
China  muck  will  misquote  Sir  Andrew,  for  their  own 
ends,  in  order  to  villify  our  pure  article.” 
‘ Tea  ” is  indeed  quite  a stock  subject  for  dis- 
cussion in  the  home  press  now-a-days,  and  your 
attention  will  no  doubt  bo  oalled  to  an  article  in 
The  Statist  of  21st  May,  whioh,  though  dealing  with 
facts  already  familiar  to  Ceylon  readers,  may  as 
well  be  partly  quoted  here  : — 
THE  CHANGE  IN  THE  TEA  TRADE. 
Tea,  in  common  with  the  depressed  state  of  the  market 
for  Eastern  produce,  has  in  recent  months  fallen  very 
severely,  and  some  China  descriptions  have  deolined  to 
unprecedentedly  low  quotations.  From  time  to  time 
in  past  years  we  have  referred  to  remarkable  varia- 
tions in  the  source  of  supply  ; at  one  time  it  wa  s 
the  displacement  of  China  teas  with  Indian  that  oalled 
for  comment,  and  later  on  it  was  the  rapid  develop- 
ment of  the  production  of  Ceylon  tea  that  excited 
so  much  interest.  Never  before  in  the  history  of  the 
trade  has  the  proportion  of  China  tea  to  the  whole 
home  consumption  of  tea  been  so  low  as  it  now  is 
Out  of  a total  import  of  231,500,000  lb.  from  June 
1st  ast  to  end  of  April  this  year.  India  and  Ceylon 
together  have  sent  us  168,600,000  lb.  or  approximately 
if  Per  cent-i  and  the  deliveries  for  home  consump- 
tion and  export  have  been  on  such  a scale  that  the 
enormous  production  of  tea  grown  in  British  possessions 
has  been  absorbed,  Whereas  the  stock  two  years 
ago  was  equal  to  almost  exactly  six  months’  consump- 
tion, at  the  present  time  the  supplies  on  hand  but  little 
exceed  four  months’  requirements.  It  would  conse- 
quently appear  that  large  as  the  increase  in  supply 
has  been,  it  is  other  reasons  than  the  statistical  posi- 
tion that  have  brought  about  the  great  fall  in  prices  ; 
indeed,  on  the  statistical  position  alone  a rise  rather 
than  & fall  should  have  occurred. 
The  real  causes  that  have  brought  about  the  fall  in 
the  price  of  tea,  some  qualities  having  since  a year 
ago  declined  as  much  as  30  to  40  per  cent.,  are  firstly, 
the  keen  competition  between  British-grown  tea  and 
China  ; secondly,  the  Baring  crisis,  which  stopped 
speculation  all  over  the  world,  and  restricted  credit 
iacilities  ; thirdly,  the  fall  in  silver,  enabling  ex- 
porters from  the  Far  East  to  Bell  far  more  oheaply  ; 
and,  fourthly,  speculation  for  the  fall  encouraged  by 
the  foregoing  reasons.  In  the  twelve  months  there 
has  been  a fall  in  silver  of  about  5d.  per  ounce,  or 
ovef  H per  oent.  Bnt  the  exporter  of  tea  evidently 
could  sell  in  London  for  11  percent,  less  than  twelve 
months  ago,  and  yet  get  precisely  the  same  price  in 
rupees  or  in  dollars  in  India  or  China,  as  the  case 
may  be.  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  fall  in 
silver  only  partially  aocounts  for  the  state  of  the  tea 
market,  for  the  fall  in  tea  to  the  extent  mentioned 
has  occurred  at  the  same  time  that  there  has  been  a 
fall  in  silver  from  44Jd  to  39|d  per  ounce,  whioh 
is  little  more  than  11  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand, 
tea  a year  ago  was  considerably  higher  than  twelve 
months  previously,  and  the  last  few  days  there  has 
been  s decided  turn  for  the  better  in  the  tea  market. 
It  is  worth  glancing  at  the  modification  shown  in  the 
sources  of  supply  ; and,  parenthetically,  it  may  be 
noticed  that  the  United  Kingdom  uses  about  44  per 
cent  of  all  the  tea  that  is  consumed  in  the  world  out- 
side those  countries  which  produce  tea  ; the  next 
countries  that  rank  in  importance  as  tea  consumers 
being  the  United  States  and  Russia  ; Australasia  and 
Canada  showing  a fair  consumption  per  head  of  popula- 
tion, very  much  larger,  in  faot,  than  either  Russia  or 
the  United  States.  All  these  countries  might  be  sti- 
mulated to  greater  consumption  now  that  sound  teas 
are  produced  in  British  possessions.  The  decadence 
of  China  tea  is  continuing,  as  late  accounts  bv  wire 
report  the  Hankow  market  to  have  been  opened  for  the 
new  season  at  prices  30  per  cent  below  those  current 
last  year,  and  the  teas  show  no  improvement  iB  quality. 
The  advent  of  India  as  a tea  produoer  was  about  30 
years  ago.  In  1864  the  consumption  of  Indian  tea  in 
this  country  was  some  2,800,000  lb.;  by  1874  the  con- 
sumption had  increased  to  18,500,000  lb.,  and  now  we 
use  about  100,000.000  lb.  Ceylon,  however,  has  literally 
raced  ahead  as  a producer,  and  of  the  total  tea  we  con- 
sume Oeylon  contributes  more  than  25  per  cent.  The 
figures  given  below  show  how  China  tea  has  gone  out 
of  favour,  and  British  grown  tea  has  come  into  use  : — 
Home  Consumption  of  Tea. 
China,  &o. 
lb. 
India. 
lb. 
1864.. 
1874.. 
1864.. 
1885 .. 
1886.. . 
1887.. . 
1888.. . 
1889.. . 
1890.. . 
1891.. . 
85.799.000. 
118,751,000 
110.843.000. 
,113,514,000, 
104.226.000. 
90.508.000. 
80.653.000. 
61.100.000. 
67.530.000. . 
49.287.000. 
..  2,800,000.. 
..18,528,000.. 
..62,717,000.. 
.‘.65,678,000.. 
..68,420,000.. 
.83,112,000.. 
..86,210,000.. 
..96,000,000... 
101,962,000... 
..98,942,000.. 
Ceylon. 
lb. 
1.500.000. 
3.217.000. 
6.245.000. 
9.941.000. . 
18.553.000. 
28.500.000. 
34.516.000. . 
51.227.000. 
Total. 
lb. 
..  88,599,000 
..137,279,000 
..175,060,000 
..182,409,000 
..178,891,000 
..183,561,000 
185,416,000 
..185,600,000 
..194,008,000 
..202,456,000 
