Feb.  x,  1893.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
Si  3 
MANURING  TEA  : A QUERY. 
(From  a Planter  in  a High  District.) 
Is  there  any  objeotion  to  putting  fresh  oattle 
manure  mixed  with  mueh  litter  to  the  tea, 
applied  in  shallow  holes  in  the  centre  of  the 
lines,  18”  x 18"  x 4":  I mean  on  a gentle  elope, 
not  on  steep  land  or  on  absolutely  flat  land  on 
whioh  pools  of  water  stand.  My  own  experience  is 
that  this  is  the  beet  way  of  applying  oattle  manure. 
The  extra  cost  of  transport  I leave  out  of  the 
question,  as  if  taken  by  estate  carta  and  applied, 
within  easy  distance  of  the  road,  it  does  not  amount 
to  much.  Of  course,  well  rotted  manure  has  quicker 
efleot : but  it  is  not  so  lasting. 
I ask  this  question  as,  on  page  404  of  the  T.A, 
for  December,  Mr.  Shelton  is  reported  to  have 
said  “ he  would  not  put  the  manure  direot  to 
the  roots  unless  the  manure  was  thoroughly  rotted.” 
He  was  speaking  of  manuring  an  orohard. 
[What  do  the  planting  authorities  whom  we  quoted 
eattrday  say  to  thi3?— Ed  T.A.) 
ON  THE  PRONUNCIATION  OF  TEA. 
In  Gay’s  Trivia,  bk.  ii.  1.  249,  “ prey  ” and 
“ sea,”  and  1.  297  “ pay  ” and  “ tea  ” are  given 
as  rhymes.  Were  “sea”  and  “tea”  ever  pro- 
nounced in  this  way  generally?  G.H.T.  (Notes 
and  Queries  6th  S.  vi.,  Aug.  12,  1882,  p.  129.) 
In  his  English  Grammar  Ben  Jonson  illustrates 
the  diphthong  ea  by  the  words  earl,  pearl,  meat, 
seat,  sea,  flea-,  then  adds: — “To  which  add  yea 
and  plea ; and  you  have  at  one  view  all  our 
words  of  this  termination.”  That  is,  according  to 
Jonson,  there  are  only  four  words  ending  in  ea. 
Prof.  Earle  ( Philology  of  the  English  Tongue,  p. 
171)  continues  the  list  thus : “ He  forgot  the 
word  lea,  or  perhaps  regarded  it  as  a bad  spelling 
for  ley  or  lay.  This  makes  five.  A sixth, plea,  has 
come  into  existence  since.  To  these  there  has 
been  added  a seventh,  viz.  tea.”  It  seems  likely 
that  the  diphthong  ea,  from  the  15th  century 
onwards,  was  sounded  like  modern  ay.  - * * * 
The  word  tea  is,  of  course,  comparatively  modern, 
the  pronunciation  in  the  18th  century  being 
due  to  French  influence.  Here  again,  however, 
one  cannot  but  note  the  coincidence  there  is  in 
that  pronunciation  with  the  original  sound  of 
the  diphthong  in  the  small  class  of  words  with 
which  tea  is  grouped.  Pope  was  not  only  using 
a fashionable  utterance,  but  also  speaking  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  genius  of  the  language,  when 
(j Rape  of  the  Loch,  iii.  7)  he  apostrophized  the 
queen  thus : 
‘ Here  thou,  great  Anna ! whom  three  realms  obey, 
Dost  sometimes  counsel  take  and  sometimes  tea.” 
See  Archbishop  Trench’s  English  Past  and  Present, 
pp.  120,  292-3. — Thomas  Bavne,  Helensburgh,  N.B. 
This  question  strikes  a student  of  English  as 
a little  odd,  but  it  is  probable  that  many  English- 
men have  never  even  heard  of  Mr.  Ellis’s 
wonderful  book  upon  early  English  pronunciation, 
in  which  it  is  only  too  conclusively  shown  that 
the  pronunciation  of  modern  English  differs  in 
every  conceivable  way,  and  always  for  the  worse, 
from  that  of  Middle  English  and  Anglo-Saxon. 
The  word  sea,  spelt  see  in  Middle-English,  was 
universally  pronounced  for  many  centuries  pre- 
cisely as  we  now  pronounce  say : and  the  pro- 
nunciation of  the  Anglo-Saxon  see  did  not  greatly 
differ  from  that.  The  German  see  and  Dutch 
zee  have  preserved  the  true  sound  of  the  ee  to 
this  moment.  The  word  tea,  being,  comparatively, 
a late  word,  is  in  somewhat  a different  case,  but 
was  certainly  pronounced  like  Fr.  the.  Gar.  thee 
the  17th  century  and  later,— Walter  W.  Skeat, 
As  rhymes  to  “ tea  ” Pope  gives  aivay  (Rape 
of  the  Lock,  i.  62),  obey  (ibid.  iii.  8),  stay  (Misc. 
Poems,  ix.  28)  : and  to  “bohea”  way  R.oftheL. 
iv.  155.  Dr.  Watts,  in  his  Lyric  Poem  to  John 
Locke,  make  day  and  play  rhyme  to  sea. — William 
Platt,  Callis  Court,  St.  Peter’s.  Isle  of  Thanet. 
(Notes  and  Queries,  6th  S.,  vi.,  Aug.  26, 1882,  p.  171-2.) 
It  may  be  worth  while  to  note  the  few  survivals 
in  good  English  speech  of  the  former  sound  of 
the  diphthong,  great,  bear,  wear,  tear.  Are  there 
any  others  ? The  cause  of  the  survival  is,  I pre- 
sume, to  be  found  in  the  awkwardness  of  the 
confusion  with  other  words  in  familiar  use  which 
would  have  been  produced  in  these  cases  by  the 
change  to  the  modern  sound.  In  the  popular 
speech  of  Ireland,  as  we  all  know,  the  old  sound 
of  the  diphthong  is  generally  preserved,  bate  for  beat, 
mate  for  meat,  &o.  This  usage,  therefore,  is  not 
a vulgar  correction,  but  a survival  amongst  an 
isolated  people,  whose  talk  in  this  particular  has 
remained  stationary,  being  separated  from  the 
main  current  of  English  speech.  Matthew  Prior, 
in  his  ballad,  Down  Hall,  written  in  1715,  has : — 
“ Near  a Nymph  with  an  urn,  that  divides  the  highway, 
And  into  a puddle  throws  mother  of  tea.” 
W.H.  Husk. 
(Notes  and  Queries,  6th  S.,  vi.,  Sept.  9,  1882,  p.  213.) 
That  tea  was  even  spelt  tay,  between  1608  and 
1650,  might  be  proved  from  the  record  of  the 
old  East  India  Company.  I have  a distinct 
recollection  of  a visit  I paid  to  John  Stuart  Mills, 
many  years  ago  at  his  office  at  the  India  House 
in  Leadenhall  Street,  when  he  pointed  out  to  me  a 
framed  autograph  letter  from  the  authorities  there 
to  their  agent  (at  Bantam,  I think)  desiring  him 
to  send  home  twenty-five  pounds  of  the  “best  tay 
he  could  get.”  The  date  of  this  letter  was  within  the 
above-mentioned  years. — Fredk.  Hendriks.  (Notes 
and  Queries,  6th  S.,  vi.,  Sept.  30,  1882,  p.  277.) 
— -€> 
THE  COLOMBO  TEA  SALES  FOR  THE 
YEAR  1892. 
details  of  bales  and  averages. 
The  last  public  sale  of  tea  to  be  held  in  Colombo 
during  the  year  1892  took  plaoe  yesterday — Tuesday 
December  20th— and  brought  up  to  the  total  quantity  of 
tea  sold  in  safe  duriDg  the  year  to  11,618,869  lb,, 
equivalent  to  l6§  per  cent  upon  the  total  shipment 
for  the  year,  say,  70,500,000  lb.  The  figures  showmg 
the  quantity  of  tea  offered  and  sold  in  Colombo 
duriDg  the  last  three  years  compare  as  follows: — 
Offered 
lb. 
Sold 
lb. 
Percentage 
to  total 
shipped. 
14 
14 
14£ 
16| 
1889  ...  6.841,529  ...  4,627.762 
1890  ...  8,807,610  ...  6,114,525 
1891  ...  13,933,793  ...  9,578,611 
1892  ...  15,060,681  ...  11,518,869 
The  figures  are  taken  from  the  brokers’  weekly 
reports;  but  it  would  cot  be  far  out  if  we 
calculated  that  all  the  tea  offered  was  sold  locally, 
for  much  that  is  withdrawn  from  sale  is  sold  after* 
wards  privately.  We  feel  certain  that  over  14,000,000 
lb.  has  been  actually  sold  in  Colombo  during  the 
year  now  closed.  In  calculating  the  percentage  sold 
to  total  quantity  shipped,  however,  we  have  only  taken 
into  consideration  the  actual  amount  which  passed 
the  hammer  in  the  sale  room.  It  will  thus  be  observed 
that  the  proportionate  quantity  of  tea  sold  locally  to 
that  shipped  haB  increased  a gcod  deal  during  the 
paBt  year,  the  percentage  having  risen  from  14J  to 
16f,  more  than  half  the  quantity  (6,500,000  lb.  out 
of  11,518,869  lb.)  being  shipped  to  countries  other 
than  Great  Britain. 
The  following  table  compiled  by  us  will  show  the 
weekly  quantities  offered  and  sold ; whilst  the  average 
for  each  sale  may  be  relied  on  as  accurate,  taken  as 
they  are  from  MeBsre,  Forbes  ond  Walker’s  price  qur» 
