198 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept I, 1900. 
TEA versus COCONUTS IN CEYLON. 
ERRONEOUS VIEWS CORRECTED; ROOM 
FOR EXTENSION OP PALM 
PLANTING. 
A covrespotident inquires whether we noted 
an editorial jiaragraph in the columns of 
our evening contemporary, a week or two 
ago, setting np Tea against Coconuts. We 
had marked the ijai'agraph for comment, but 
the pressure of other important matters 
caused us to lose sight of it. After all, what 
the local "Times" says can.not mislead those 
who are interested in either product, or in 
both (as ti growing number of planters are) ; 
for there is no antagonism betweeji the two. 
Tiie idea of rivalry in n bad sense is a crea- 
ture of a disordered imagination— just as 
was some years ago the attempt to set up 
Ceylon Ten, against Indian Tea, when, really, 
;as British-grown Teas they had a common 
destiny, namely to oust the China product 
from its pre-eminence which they have so 
largely done— tliongh it is equally a morbid 
iinagination which would regard om' com- 
'mercial success as the true origin of the Boxer 
movement— a casus belli, in fact ! 
Tea and Coconuts are, without doubt, the 
most important products of the Island ; and 
,cn them mainly, if not wholly, depends its 
prosperity. But European .and Native alike 
grow both products, manufacture them, and 
'jd,eal in them ; and the success of one in no 
wise depends on the failure of the other. 
Where our contemporary of the "Times" 
got the confused, if not wrong, idea 
that "some have gone so far as to hint 
; that the various products of the coconut 
palm Vv^ere as large in amount as the total 
value of estate produce," we cannot divine. 
We ])resume he means that his "men in 
buckram" had asserted, or implied, that the 
total value of all palm produce exported 
was equal to the value of the Tea sent 
out of the Island ; for, of course, one can- 
not compare the amount, or quantity, of 
one with the value of the other, any more 
.than one is Justified in speaking of Coco- 
vnuts as if they were not estate produce. 
We have certainly not come across any 
one who claims equality of value for Coconut 
and Tea exjiorts ; and yet our contemporary 
offers a comparison between the value of 
the exports only of the respective products ! 
We have seen it stated, and we have asserted 
ourselves over and over again, that one great 
dilference between the two products is 
this : thii.t, whereas, pr.actically, all the Tea 
we grow— save at most li per cent — is 
sent out of the Island and appears 
in the Exjiort Tables, — only about one half 
of the produce of the Coconut palni 
(we doubt if so much,) is shipped beyond 
seas. Even then, however, we are not 
'''JiWare that it has been claimed that the 
total value of produce of the palm is equal 
tf) that of the tea produced in the Island. 
Apart from other considerations, the latter 
"is valued as a manufactured article, while 
■'ninch of the former is sent away, and 
mf)st of it is consumed locally, in a raw 
state. Whether the snuffing-out of Tea or 
the'snnffing out of Cocf)rmts — may the Fates 
forfend either blight !— would be the greater 
calamity to the country and the people, is 
an academic question which we see no 
advantage in discussing. 
Can it be that our contemporary was 
thinking of what Governor Ridgeway said 
when he opened the Legislative Session of 
1898, and recalled only a very hazy idea of 
the comparison then instituted between the 
chief Island products and the object of the 
comparison ? His Excellency, whether rightly 
or wrongly, deprecated the ]jessiniistic views 
then held l)y some about the position and 
prospects of Tea; he asserted his own 
confidence in it : and then compared tlie 
condition of trade in 1897 with that of 
1877, to show tliat the Island was far more 
dependent ou Coffee in 1877 than it is now 
on Tea. When Coffee v.-as at its highest 
value, was the reasoning, it stood in the 
Export Tables at 81 per cent of the total 
value of our exports, while Coconut ))ro- 
duce was then valued at less tha!i 4 per 
cent. The value of Tea exported in 1897 was 
but 50 per cent ; while the products of the 
Coconut palm had risen to 15.^ per cent ; 
and in the interval the total" trade had 
risen from 1,234 to 1.831 lakhs, of which 
exports represented 611 and 850 lakhs, re 
spectively. The object of the comparison 
was nottomagnifv Coconuts at the expense 
of Tea, but to show that the Island is less 
dependent for its present and prospective 
prosperity on one product then, than it 
was in the days of Coffee —surely an un- 
deniable fact, and a very desirable one at 
the same time, as it is not only in respect 
of " eggs " that the concentration of all o'ne's 
hopes on one object is unwise. It may be 
mentioned that, although the exports of Tea 
have increased by 15 million Ih. since 1897 ; 
yet, owing to the fall in price and the inci'ease 
of other exports (Plumb igo especially). Tea 
only counts in value for about .52 per cent 
of the total value of Exports (by the Cus- 
toms) in 1899 ; Plumbago counting for 22 per 
cent ; Coconut produce between il and 15 
percent; Cinnamon nearly 3 ; Cacao sca.rcely 
2 : Coffee not quite "per cent (what a 
falling-off for the old king !) ; Cardamoms 
and Cinchona together scarcely 1 per cent, 
and .all the rest about 4 per cent. 
One other point, however : the Customs valu- 
ation of produce is by no means conclusive. 
It is at best a rough-and-ready estimate ; 
but Coconut products are at a disadvantage 
in last year's statistics. As we pointed 
out in a review of the Chamber of 
Commerce Export Tables soon after 
their publication in Januai'y, there was a 
falling-oif in 1899, as compared with the 
previous year, in Oil, Copra and Nuts, 
which represented about .59 million Coconuts 
or a deficiency in value of about If mil- 
lion rupees. This wfis due to the two 
droughts of last year, which, indeed, told on 
the crops of this year, as well. But there is 
evidence of a recovery beginning now ; andas 
we have no present apprehension of over-pro- 
duction in Palm products, we have' no 
hesitation in saymg that we welcome the 
extension and development of the Coconut 
Industry far inore readily than that of Tea, 
