Fkb. 2, 1903.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
525 
drinkers on tha sam6 scale as the British people 
geiierallj, nr oveu, say, they take three lb. of Lei par 
heiid, iu a very £e v yearn to come vvu sh iU h i ve 
no fear of ovtr produollo!!, aa Ariuiici al me wiil be 
able to take nearly all the ouipiit of lailau and 
Ceyloii It ia tnerefore, a tielJ we hive tjcouaider 
and daring the last few injiitha (when Jxpua teas 
have been very hiKh), we had a chan ;e of getting 
Ceylon green teas into favour, but the price hrfld 
out for by the planter or merchant iu uolombo, has 
prevented them from being more readily trtktn. 
The grades wanted here are Hyson No. 1 and 
Hyaon No. 2, and for these people are willing to 
pay f;o'n 6id to Td for the llvfiou N.>. I and about 
5id to 6d. fur the Hyson No. 2. The Young Hyson 
grade ia geiioially coloured in New York, which c u 
bo done for hi-, per lb. and it ia then sold aa China 
Green tea. 
A great many of the Ceylon greena sold in the 
Slates are col jured. repacked and either sold as 
colonred J-ipans or as ' hina green teaa, being picked 
in China packages and faced with the u^ual niper 
exactly, to represent them as China or Japan 
teas. 
With regard to Canada; this oonntry is difierent 
as there is a larne pcpal ition who have now become 
accustomed to Ceylon uncoinured greens, and tiio 
loyalty that exista in Canada piompts the consumer 
to support British ti'a in prefeieiice to Japan tea. 
Hjre again the q leation of price comes in and the 
only way that Ceylon greens can oua'' Caina and 
Japan is by selling ihem at reasonable prices, as 
the grocer will nlways push the teas that show him 
the largest profit. 
The labour in Ceylon and India is cheaper than 
in Japan, so one would thiuk th 't the planters wonld 
have a great deal in their tivour. Tue duty of 10 
cents per lb., which was a war 'ax. is to be repealed 
on the 1st January, 1903. and it is anticipated that 
a much lirger trade will be done. 
Some of the favourite grades here are the Nor- 
wood, Labukellie, Condegalla, Meeriab-ddie, Warwick 
a 'd similar liquoring teas, so this will guide many 
of the planters (who are in these districts where 
this class of tea can be madn), to get samples and 
follow them very carefully and closely, as there is a 
regular demand for theliu'ht liquorinsj, tl ivoury, good 
quality (so called lemon flavoured) Ce> Ion teas. 
If a few of the estates chipping desirable and 
suitable teas for the American market vi^ere to create 
a demand here by shipping direct, they would find 
that iu a very abort time the venture wonld pay 
as the wntdr hns se^'n tea sold here 2 .1. and 3d. per 
lb. above the price that they sold for iu the London 
auction, 
There are other matters I could wiite about in cou- 
nociion with the tea planters of Ceylon -nd India, 
the tea cess, the packages thit are required for this 
maiket, the question of shipment, and several other 
miitiers which I will touch upon in my next letter. 
— Local " Times " 
IMPROVING JAFFNA TOBACCO. 
Mr. Gibson's idea as to the destination of his cured 
leaf is to send the samples of necessary weight to the 
various European markets he has decided upon , but 
the bulk he considers should be made into cigars. The 
present country-nande cigars are moJtly of a v. ry rank 
na uro ; and he believes there is an inci ea-'ing raai ket 
to be built up anionsist the niaiiy C'-ylo -born lawyers, 
doctors, clerks, and the moneyf d classes in the island, 
who are beginning to get tin d of the black, dirtv Jjiffua 
oheruot 80 long in nse. They would, he thinks,, pur- 
chase cigars of betier cured tobacco at an increased 
|)rioe, Aa to his futqr« lutoBtlous Mv, Gibaoa is most 
anxious to po on. His faith in the capacity of the 
island o tnrn out good tobncco is unbounded, and he ia 
h' pi fii! tliR^ the result of the present experiment will 
make Eoiopears who are in ihis island and many 
O hers an ions to give his experiment a muih extended 
tr'al. Jaff la melhcds of cob ivation in smal gardens 
will not, however, satisfy his requirements, and the 
system of watering the tobacco carried out by each 
em <ll cultivator wonld never suit a large property. His 
idta is that some of the excellrut land lying near the 
Kaia( hi tank could be very snccessfnlly utilised. Since 
he has been in Jaffna Mr. Gibson has not been passive 
in the mitter of the grant of land, which Government 
led him to believe may be given to hiui. He has 
applied mere than once to Government to get the 
matter on a more flssnrfd basis: but the absence of 
H, B. Sir West Kidgeway from the island has, donbt- 
less. been the cause of bis making no progress. We 
trust everything he has been led to expect iti this 
connection will be accorded to him, for the opportunity 
to test such pa important new product a, tobacco ia one 
which may not oc ur again for a long lime, (-honld Mr, 
Gibson be illiberally treated. It was suggested to him' 
in one of these cc mmunicationa that he should wait 
until the experim. nt v.as a success before a definite 
answer could be expected; bntwesnbmit that this is 
sc^rcly the way to lock at Mr, Gibson's effort for 
experiments aie not always euccesRful «t the first start, 
and it must be remembered that Mr, Gib-'on is working 
sn, to him, an entirely new country. We understand 
thfitthe Oejlon leaf acco>-diag to Mr. Gibson s idea 
will not cl.ish, for instance, with Sumatra grown 
tobf^oco which is so excellent for covers in the great 
niaikets. The jat of tobncco which is proi'uoed in 
Jaffna is more useful for filling than for being used as 
outside covers for cigars. It is a tobacco with a flavour 
and ihat is the desideratum. As a pipe tobacco the 
J: ffna lenf will it is also believed, be well received.— 
Local " Times." 
COFFEE CULTURE IN QUEENSLAND 
{From Report 3Ir, Neviport the Instructor), 
Sir,— I have the honour to submit my report 1900 
19iil:— The past year has, on the whole, being a 
faiily good one for ceSee, The crops throughout 
the colony have been fairly good, in seveial local- 
ities averaging well over 10 cwt. to the acre. A 
somewhat oudous though not very serious effect of 
the long ciry season was noticed this year in the 
parchment skin, or puMimen, being thinner than ia 
usual The crops in this past season have, in direct 
cousi-quence of pruning and cultivation, ripened up 
much more uniformly. L hour for picking has been, on 
the larger estates, somewhat of a difficulty, except to a 
few eX'iepiionaly situated ones. In the North where 
aborginal labour was available, uaeAvas made of it, but 
picking by contract by white men, women, and 
children, has been much more general. Kates for 
picking have varied from 2 to 3 lb. of cherry. Id. ; 
and wages of 30s. -ud over per w ek with rations 
have been made. New machinery, both for drying 
and pulping, has be^n erected and put in nse this 
year, for the first time by a number of growers in 
all distrscts ; others have replaced, by good machine, 
their rough-and-ready or home-made apparatus. 
Stores and drying sheds have also been built 
and more nse made generally of time and labour 
saving appliances, the building of a very mill, replete 
with modern machinery, by .Messrs, De Molyns and 
Butter, of the L 'wer Russell being a noticeable 
ins ance. Crops have iu raoat instances been locally 
bought up this year, and a few growers, not having 
pulp.ug machines of their own, diapoaed of their 
crop to their neighbours, who have generally par- 
chased it outright at rates varying fiom IJ. to IJd. 
per lb. iu the cherry. No coffee this yenr has been 
seut to the Loudop market, duo mainly to the fac\ 
