Dec,  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
393 
CEYLON  TEA  IN  AMERICA. 
The  visit  of  Mr.  Farr,  of  the  [well-known  firm  of 
Messrs.  Wattson  & Farr  of  New  York,  to  London, 
of  which  we  are  informed  by  our  London  letter 
by  this  mail,  may,  we  hope,  be  of  good  augury 
for  the  future  of  the  enterprise  so  energetically 
pushed  on  by  Mr.  Eiwood  May.  With  the  ap- 
parent misunderstandings  between  the  gentlemen 
last-named  and  Mr.  Grinlinton,  as  the  speoial 
Commissioner  for  Ceylon  at  the  Chicago  Exhibition, 
we  are  all  now  well-acquainted,  and  we  have  the 
fullest  assurance  that  these  have  been  fully  removed 
and  that  the  oordial  co  operation  which  had  been 
hoped  for  between  those  two  gentlemen  will  not 
be  hindered  by  anything  that  has  taken  place. 
We  are  told  that  Mr.  Farr  had  expressed  himself 
as  confident  that  he  will  now  be  able  to  secure 
the  monetary  assistance  which  his  firm  consider 
to  be  necessary  for  the  full  carrying  out  of  their 
schemes  for  the  due  representation  of  Ceylon  tea 
at  the  Chicago  Exhibition,  and  for  the  further 
prosecution  of  the  enterprise  with  which  their 
names  and  that  of  Mr.  Ehvood  May  have 
been  so  prominently  associated.  Confidence 
appears  to  have  been  felt  by  Mr.  Farr  that 
the  Ceylon  Tea  Fund  would  give  him  sufficient 
assistance  to  warrant  its  being  represented 
that  the  Company  in  whioh  he  is  interested  has 
the  full  recognition  of  the  Planters'  Association  of 
Ceylon.  It  is  this  recognition  that  we  know  has 
all  along  been  sought  as  being  most  deidred  by 
those  who  have  been  working  in  the  interests  of 
Ceylon  in  the  United  States,  and  when  this  has 
been  fully  obtained  there  would  seem  to  be  good 
reason  for  hoping  that  the  work  so  energetically 
commenced  may  erelong  have  full  fruition. 
Information  that  has  readied  us  from  London  is 
to  the  effect  that  the  shipments  thence  of  Ceylon 
tea  to  America  have  largely  increased  within  the 
last  few  months  ; and  Messrs.  Gow,  Wilson  and 
Stanton,  a firm  which  deals  so  largely  in  Ceylon 
tea,  we  know  to  have  strongly  depreoated  what 
they  deem  to  have  been  the  shortsightedness  of 
our  local  publio  associations  in  not  granting  in  the 
fullest  sense  to  Mr.  Eiwood  May  the  authorization 
of  their  names  in  his  dealings  with  the  Amerioan 
publio.  But  our  London  letter  above  referred  to 
gives  us  further  items  of  intelligence  that  have  a 
direot  and  most  important  bearing  on  the  future 
of  the  enterprise  with  whioh  our  present  remarks 
deal.  It  tells  us  of  sundry  parcels  of  our 
teas  having  been  forwarded  by  a well-known 
company  largely  interested  in  Ceylon  to  New 
York,  and  of  these  having  been  submitted  to-  the 
judgment  of  tea  experts  in  that  city.  To  the 
astonishment  of  the  consignors  these  gentlemen 
assigned  a lower  plaoe  in  their  valuation  to  broken 
pekoe  than  they  had  given  to  the  pekoes  ! This 
is  a complete  reversal  of  the  customary  judgment 
of  the  long-experienced  London  brokers,  and  we 
may  well  inquire  as  to  the  meaning  of  this 
singlar  decision.  Then  agaiD,the  New  York  brokers 
valued  muoh  of  the  Ceylon  tea  submitted  to 
them  at  eightpenoe  when  the  same  break  of  tea 
was  being  sold  at  the  Mincing  Lane  sales  at  one 
shilling  and  twopence.  Here  we  have  the 
astonishing  discrepancy  between  the  two  prices 
of  no  leas  than  six  pence  per  pound,  and  this 
fact,  added  to  that  above  stated,  leads,  we  think, 
neoessarily  to  the  doubt  as  to  whether  our  teas 
are  likely  to  be  fairly  dealt  with  by  those  interested 
in  the  tea  trade  of  America.  It  will  be  within 
the  reoolleotion  of  our  readers  that  it  was  one  of  the 
complaints  made  by  Mr.  Eiwood  May  that  the 
tea  broker  and  firms  of  New  York  had  shown  them- 
selves to  be  inimical  to  the  work  he  had  undertaken. 
He  stated  while  in  London  that  those  brokers  and 
firms  felt  that  they  could  make  more  money  out 
of  the  coarse  teas  of  Japan  and  Java  with  which 
they  were  accustomed  to  deal  than  they  could 
out  of  the  finer  and  more  expensive  teas  of 
Ceylon.  We  think  we  may  see  proof  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  that  statement  in  the  information  row 
supplied  to  us.  Either  the  brokers  and  dealers 
consulted  have  shown  themselves  to  be  very 
ignorant  of  the  value  of  our  teas  and  the  relative 
qualities  of  the  different  sorts,  or  else  they  have 
wilfully  set  themselves  to  bring  about  a deprecia- 
tion of  their  value  in  the  American  market.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  whether  the  cause  of  the  deoision 
given  be  due  to  ignorance  or  wilfulness,  we  can 
appreciate  the  difficulty  that  the  New  York  traders 
have  thrown  in  the  way  of  the  Amerioan  Ceylon 
Tea  Company,  and  the  faot,  should,  we  consider, 
make  our  public  bodies  more  determined  than  ever 
to  grant  the  fullest  assistance  towards  breaking 
down  the  barriers  that  such  a course  of  action  is 
likely  to  oppose  to  our  teas  receiving  full  acoeptanoe 
by  the  American  publio.  We  are  glad  to  hear 
that  Mr.  Farr  has  stated  it  to  be  the  intention  of  his 
company,  if  all  his  hopes  are  realized,  to  establish 
an  outside  store  in  Chicago  which  will  be  able  to 
respond  to  all  references  made  to  it  by  our  repre- 
senlative  at  the  Exhibition  to  be  held  in  that  city. 
« 
NOTES  FROM  OUR  LONDON  LETTER. 
London,  Oct.  28. 
MR.  fare’s  VISIT  TO  LONDON  AND  PUSHING  CEYLON 
TEA  IN  AMEEICA. 
We  are  just  now  having  a visit  in  London  from 
Mr,  Farr,  of  the  firm  of  Wattson  & Farr,  of  New 
Yoak.  The  name  of  this  firm  has  bean  repeatedly 
mentioned  as  having  given  most  valuable  assist- 
ance, monetary  and  otherwise,  to  Mr.  Eiwood  May 
and  to  the  American  Ceylon  Tea  Company  that 
that  gentleman  represents.  I have  not  been  for- 
tunate  enough  to  meet  Mr.  Farr  myself,  but  a 
friend  who  has  done  so  tells  me  that  the  (Mr.  Farr) 
has  expressed  himself  very  hopefully  with  regard 
to  the  future  operation  of  the  company  mentioned 
above.  He  told  my  friend  that  he  felt  there  ■ was 
now  exery  chanoe  that  the  Ceylon  Tea  Fund  would 
grant  assistance,  and  in  that  sense  beoome  as30- 
ciated  with  and  lend  the  cegis  of  its  name  to  the 
enterprise  in  which  hie  firm  has  so  largely  engaged. 
Mr.  Farr  said  that  the  sum  wanted  to  enable 
them  to  continue  the  work  so  ably  begun  by  Mr. 
Eiwood  May  was  £5,000,  and  that  he  had  no 
doubt  that,  if  the  hopes  he  expreseed  with  regard 
so  the  Ceylon  Tea  Fund  were  realized,  this  sum 
oould  be  raised.  It  has  always  been  under- 
stood by  me — if  my  memory  serves  me  rightly — 
that  Messrs.  Wattson  & Farr  would  further 
adventure  a similar  sum  if  that  outside  aid  were 
forthcoming.  We  hope  therefore  soon  to  hear  that 
a deoision  favorable  to  Mr.  Farr’s  hopes  has  been 
taken  in  Ceylon.  Relieved  as  it  has  now  been  of 
responsibility  for  the  Chicago  Exhibition  expendi- 
ture by  the  public  step  of  late  taken  in  the  way 
of  taxation,  the  Tea  Fund  might  well  be  able  to 
give  liberal  support  to  an  enterprise  from  whioh 
so  much  may  be  confidently  hoped  to  result.  It 
has  been  mentioned  to  me  that  your  Planters’ 
Association  has  already  made  a recommendation 
of  such  a purport  to  your  Tea  Fund  Committee,  so 
little  doubt  is  expressed  here  that  that  Committee 
will  respond  to  it.  Mr.  Farr  speaks  most  highly 
of  Mr.  Eiwood  May  and  of  what  that  gentleman 
has  already  accomplished.  Indeed  he  describes 
him  as  having  “ done  wonders.”  Mr.  Farr’s  pre- 
sence in  London  has  no  direot  connection  with, 
50 
