May 1, 1901.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 787 
they would probfibly be able to stand alone. There 
should be no difficulty in raising such a Company, as 
I should ima-gine every planter in l!i6ia would b« glad 
to take a share. The packets should c insist of at least 
20 per cent of the finest tea and a fair proportion of 
commons. Then there is the green tea trade withPersia 
and Afghanistan estAblished years ago and which paid 
well even in those days when tea was selling at more 
than double its present value ; this needs only a little 
pushing to develop enormously. I see they have just 
made up their minds to despatch a large caravan of 
tea to Persia ; it is to be hoped that this will be Green 
and not Black Tea, as I know that neither Persians 
nor Afghans will drink black tea; and if the Indian 
planters send Black Tea there, they are hound to fail. 
With regard to making a small packet, it is absurd 
to contend that this would be too costly and trouble- 
some to pay. See how neatly even matches are packed 
and labelled, a properly arranged factory couUl turn 
out hundreds of thousands of these small packets daily; 
and the labels, which should be in the native languages, 
would cost a mere trifle to print owing to the number 
required. In many of the large cities, China Tea in 
neat little paper packets can be bought for a few pice 
and these constitute the chief supply, not only for the 
natives but Eurasian and poorer class Europeans who 
all prefer to get their daily requirement in this way 
rather than buy even a lb. of tea at a time. This is the 
sole reason why China Teas still continue to hold their 
own in India. 
The I. T. A. would do well to devote their whole 
time and attention to developing the local market 
rather than waste their money in trying to capture 
foreign markets ; it would cost less money than is re- 
required for America a'lone.and the possible results are 
practically unlimited. It would not be a matter for 
great surprise if, in a few years, India ceased to ex- 
port tea ; their total crop does^ot amount to 1 lb. per 
head of population, a rate of consumption already 
about in Ceylon. 
I make no charge for the above, but if the I. P. A., 
after testing its value, should desire to express their 
gratitude by sending me a handsome bonus, I promise 
not to refuse it. 
AN OLD EX I. P. 
CACAO PODS AND SEED. 
Dear Sir,— Will you kindly allow rae space 
to comment on Mr. Carruthers' article on 
" Cacao Pods and Their Seed," appearing in 
your issue of the Tropical Agriculturist for 
April, of this year. 
Mr. Carruthers' examination of a certain 
number of cocoa pods leads him to the con- 
clusion that "the character and size and 
weight of tiie fruit do not afford any criterion 
of the weight of contained seed." 
There is, however, one way in which re- 
cognition of a variety may well be made, 
namely, by its name, wliich, in connection 
with the diagrams of pods and their contents 
which you publish, has unhappily been 
omitted. This cannot but rob the table of 
half its interest, and all its utility. Will Mr. 
Carruthers be good enough to name his 
diagrams? Nos. 2 and 7 are presumably 
Forastero ; but for all we know perhaps Nos. 
1 and 20 are too, and in view of the great 
importance of sorting out aud making known 
the more remunerative varieties of Forastero, 
I am surprised such an obvious sign-post as 
a plant's name should have been omitced— 
doubtless by oversight. — Yours &c., 
POD. 
P.S. — In reference to your Editorial note on 
my cocoa letter, I was not aware " that 
hemileia vastatrix, first appeared on young 
coifeo which had never been manured, but 
was growing near jungle where the fungus 
had its habitat." In this case the ' dirt ' was 
generated in the jungle, and not therefore 
through drastic manuring. But drastic 
manuring — the suggestion is not original — 
may have had a hand in nursing the fungus 
elsewhere, may it not ? Further, from the 
extract you quote from Berthelink, is it im- 
plied in the sentence "have not only not lost 
a jot of their original value, but have rather 
increased in productiveness " that the original 
cacao trees are still living? If this is so, 
local conditions must have changed every- 
thing; and that certain varieties of cocoa 
greatly vary in behaviour even in this island's 
localities seems to point to a. very sensitive 
appreciation of surroundings in the cacao 
tree. - P. 
[Any treatment that left coffee weak or 
played out undoubtedly made it an easy prey 
to the fungus when once it had found its 
way all over our coffee country. — The rich 
deep cacao-growing soil of Dutch Guiana is, 
we suspect, without parallel in any part of 
Ceylon.— Ed. T.A.] 
TEA CULTIVATION AND MANUFAC- 
TURE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 
17x11 April, 1901. 
(By a Ceylon Planter). 
Drar Sir,— Ten year.s have elapsed since I 
assisted Dr Shepharil, the proprietorjof Fineliurst, 
Suininerville, sixteen miles from Charleston, s C. 
The acreage then under tea was only twelve 
acres in patches, ail doinw remarkably well and 
looking very promising. There was also a small 
Government tea g.irden located near a lagoon and 
Dr S advised me to leave it .alone as it wa.s coa- 
sidered unhealtliy. 
However, I was very keen on i estoring to cuki- 
vation the Government patch of tea and should 
have applied to Wasliington, had I rot been em. 
ployed liy Dr Sliephard who through correspon- 
dence with Mr Keed, tea inereliaut of 13th street 
Philadelphia, engaged me as a tea expert to make 
an improvement in the manufacture of Pinehurst 
teas. Through Mr Reed I was engaged for one 
hundred and fifty dollars or £30 for one week's 
work and gave Dr Shephaid nsaterinl assist- 
ance. I went round from New York 
by steamer and met Dr Shephard at Charleston. 
The first question I put to him was— Have 
you got any sieves for grading your teas; his 
reply was " not one sieve ''; so we went imme- 
diately to the Ironmongers in Charleston and pur- 
chased wire work of Nos. 16, 14, 12, 10 and 4 
mesh. We then took train to Sammerville, carry- 
ing the rolls of wire with us, and the estat« 
carpenter made the sieves according to my in- 
.structions. Dr. Shephard made me very comfort- 
able in his beautiful house suriounded by one of 
the most valuable botanical gard^ins in the world. 
For i must tell you Dr. S. is a botanist of no 
mean order. Roses from all parts of the \vorld 
flowers, shrubs, ornamental trees, both indi je oug 
and exotic, tastefully arranged, a list^ of wjjijh I 
lio.^sess and will send yoii some day when settled 
down. The largest rose bush in the world was 
growing over Dr. S.'s house iu Meeting Street 
Charleston, the stem as thick as a man's body and 
climbing over the roof of the house, festoons of 
