6g2 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST 
[May  i,  1893. 
THE  REGULATION  OF  HOME  TEA  IMPORTS. 
When  last  writing  on  this  topic  we  notioed  a 
suggestion  from  home  that  it  might  be  possible  for 
oar  Planters’  Association  to  negotiate  arrangements 
by  whioh  its  members  should  bind  themselves  to 
prepare  a eertain  preparation  of  tea  of  different 
grades  for  shipment  aooording  to  the  requirements 
of  the  home  tea  trade.  This  suggestion  was  the  out- 
come of  complaints  made  by  Mr.  Peek,  the 
Chairman  of  the  London  Wholesale  Tea  Dealers’ 
Assooation.  We  have  little  faith  in  anything  of  the 
kind  being  practicable.  We  are  now  informed  as  to 
the  further  proposal  discussed  at  a meeting  of  the 
same  London  Tea  Association  summoned  to  consider 
Mr.  Peek’s  letter.  Unfortunately  we  are  without 
details  of  the  disoussion  that  followed  the  bringing 
forward  of  Mr.  Peek's  proposal ; but  the  main  facts  of 
it  are  known,  and  sure  at  least  to  warrant  considera- 
tion from  those  who  are  interested  in  the  prosperity 
of  our  tea  planting  industry.  Those  who  appear 
as  yet  to  have  chiefly  interested  themselves  in 
this  matter  apart  from  the  Wholesale  Tea  Dealers’ 
Association  are  the  Indian  tea  planters,  and  we 
are  told  that  Mr.  Wallaoe,  of  the  Johore  Tea 
Company,  has  taken  the  foremost  lead  in  bring- 
ing Mr.  Peek’s  suggestion  to  active  disoussion. 
The  scheme  most  in  favour  at  the  meeting  seems 
to  be  that  a union  of  the  ohief  importers  should 
be  formed  with  the  object  of  binding  themselves 
to  limit  their  orders  to  certain  proportions  of  each 
grade  of  tea  ; and  it  must  be  admitted,  that  the 
formation  of  such  a union  affords  the  prospeot 
of  at  least  some  degree  of  controlling  acticn. 
Certainly,  more  so  than  would  any  course  that 
might  be  followed  by  a single  tea-growing  country. 
It  seems  likely  that  the  importers  would  be  able, 
did  they  all  work  in  unison,  to  influence  the  pro- 
ceedings of  planters  in  nearly  every  locality 
wherein  tea  is  grown.  But  at  the  same  time, 
while  admitting  so  much,  it  must  be  recognised 
that  in  many  directions  they  will  fail  to  present 
independent  aotion,  and  their  best  calculations 
would  be  liable  to  be  upset  and  the  effect  of  their 
aotion  to  be  materially  impaired.  Many  planters 
are  their  own  exporters,  and  some  proprietors  are 
even  their  own  importers,  direct  their  own  sales, 
and  act  with  full  independence  of  the  professional 
importers  who  simply  buy  (he  produce  of  estates 
as  it  is  brought  forward,  and  who  can  exercise  no 
control  whatever  upon  the  producers.  While  suoh 
independent  aotion  may  be  possible,  the  question 
must  remain  how  far  the  professional  importers 
oan  direot  the  course  followed  by  planters  who 
may  remain  unfettered  by  any  aooepted  obligations  ? 
So  long  as  the  latter  choose  to  stand  outside  of 
any  combination,  so  long  will  they  follow  their 
own  judgment,  and  it  may  well  be  that  these  may 
deem  that  their  private  interests  could  be  best 
served  by  proceedings  direotly  at  variance  with 
the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  an  Importers’  Union. 
Notwithstanding  these  difficulties  it  may  be  ac- 
cepted as  a fact  that  all,  whether  producers  or 
simply  dealers,  are  injuriously  affected  by  the 
severe  fluctuations  in  ihe  price  of  tea  to  which  Mr. 
Peek’s  letter  directed  attention.  What  that  gentle- 
man wrote  as  to  this  fluctuation  and  its  most 
leading  oause  oannot  be  gainsaid.  If  an  Im- 
porters’ Union  should  be  formed,  we  should  hope 
to  see  it  receive  the  co-operation  of  tea  planters  as 
far  aB  possible,  for  it  would  be  to  their  interest  to  do 
anything  to  aid  the  object  it  would  have  in  view. 
PLANTING  IN  EAST  AFRICA. 
AN  ASSISTANT  WANTED. 
In  directing  attention  to  the  advertisement  by 
Mr.  W.  H.  Cowley  for  an  assistant  in  East  Afrioa 
we  make  the  following  extract  from  a letter  from 
Mr.  Cowley  : — 
You  will  note  I state  the  assistant  “ must  be  in 
sound  health,”  and  I am  taking  the  precaution  to 
state  this,  not  because  this  is  a bad  climate,  but 
because  anyone  with  a weak  constitution,  and  there- 
fore more  susceptible  to  any  malaria  knocking  about, 
has  no  business  to  apply ; and  medical  certificates 
will  be  called  for  from  the  eligible  applicants.  Of 
course  at  certain  seasons  when  land  is  being  cleared, 
and  whilst  the  rotting  vegetation  lies  on  the  ground, 
it  is  feverish  more  or  less,  but  it  is  the  same  in 
almost  every  tropical  country,  and  as  the  land  gets 
opened  up  the  chances  of  getting  fever  rapidly 
diminish. 
The  free  copy  of  your  Overland  and  the  T.  A.  came 
to  hand  a few  days  ago  and  very  many  thanks  for  both. 
Sinclair’s  letters  are  most  interesting  and  when 
reading  them  I was  wishing  myself  in  Peru.  There 
is  lots  of  work  yet  for  Ceylon  planters  to  do. 
The  Chief  Engineer  of  the  railway  line  has  come 
out,  and  others,  I fancy,  will  soon  follow  to  begin 
work  in  earnest,  I hope.  Every  steamer  coming 
here  now  brings  railway  material  of  all  [kinds. 
BRAZIL  COFFEE  NOTES. 
The  price  of  ground  coflee  has  risen  to  2$  per  kilo. 
The  Lamport  and  Holt  steamer  “ J.  W.  Taylor  ” 
left  Santos  for  New  York  on  the  8th  inst.  with  a cargo 
of  52,110  bags  of  coffee,  one  of  the  largest  cargoes 
which  ever  left  that  port. 
From  the  Gazeta  de  Noticias  : — “ Your  coffee  has  one 
very  good  feature  and  one  very  bad  one.”  “ How 
so?” — "Its  good  feature  is  that  it  contains  no  carnauba; 
its  bad  feature,  that  it  contains  no  coffee.” 
Incredible  ! On  the  8th  some  police  and  sanitary 
officials  “ raided  ” an  establishment  in  Rua  Barao  de 
S.  Felix  where  coffee  is  roasted  and  ground  for  the 
retail  trade,  where  they  found  a large  quantity  of 
coffee  mixed  with  Indian  corn.  And  this  in  Bio,  the 
greatest  coffee  market  of  the  world ! — Rio  News, 
Feb.  14. 
A CUP  OF  TEA. 
BV  CLEMENT  SCOTT. 
“ Tea  or  coffee,  sir  ? ” The  question  is  asked 
countless  thousands  of  times  all  over  England  every 
single  day  of  the  year.  But  few  at  home  are 
aware  how  very  important  is  the  answer  to  it  to 
the  industrious  planter  of  Ceylon,  the  cheery,  open- 
hearted  fellow  who  by  pluck  and  determination 
has  turned  the  once  most  productive  coffee-ground 
in  the  world  into  the  best  tea-bearing  island  that 
is  blest  with  burning  rays  of  tropical  sun  and 
almost  daily  tempests  of  tropical  rain.  This  is 
what  the  sturdy  little  tea-plant  loves,  and  so  she 
has  flourished  exceedingly  on  the  highlands  of  India, 
and  has  indeed  “ flourished  like  a green  bay  tree” 
both  in  the  lowlands  and  the  highlands  of  Ceylon. 
Tea,  and  tea  alone,  has  become  the  salvation  of 
this  sunny  land,  where  you  can  be  in  a moist, 
muggy,  and  truly  West  Indian  climate  at  Colombo,  and 
in  a few  hours  as  braced  and  invigorated  on  the  green 
uplands  as  if  you  were  on  a summer  holiday  in  the 
Swiss  Engadine,  basking  at  St.  Moritz  or  Pontre- 
sina,  or  “ dreaming  the  happy  hours  away  ” in  the 
hill-country  of  our  own  Scotland  and  North  Wales. 
Since  I arrived  at  Ceylon  1 have  been  trans- 
ported in  imagination  to  one  and  all  the  places  I 
have  .mentioned,  so  exactly  does  Upper  Ceylon, 
smiling  with  vegetation,  well  watered  and  full  of 
roaring  cataracts,  cultivated  and  1 ecidtivated  in  every 
available  inch,  correspond  to  the  best  and  most  popular 
holiday  grounds  of  England  and  Western  Europe. 
