June 1, 1903.] 
THE TROPICAL AGHICULTURIST. 
857 
full particulars for each estate, the same as 
the <J. T. P. Company, the Eastern Produce, 
NuTvara Eliya, Ceylon Land and Produce, 
and other such large Companies invariably 
give ? Some of the smaller Companies* are 
the worst sinners and give the most meagre 
Reports.— Yours, &c., 
DIOGENES. 
[ * " Directors '' of course are to blame and 
the only cure in the cases complained of is 
for them to be "heckled" at tiie annual 
meeting ; but we understand " Diogenes " 
refers more to sterling, home, rather than 
to Rupee, local Companies' Reports as the 
ones deficient in information.— Ed. T,A.] 
CHINA. AND J.WA TEAS IN GKEA.T 
REQUEST IN LONDON. 
May 2. 
Sir, — While once again lowcountry and 
cheap teas generally are in great request in 
the Colombo market and are fetching much 
above intrinsic value compared with price 
for high-grown, what will become of fine 
plucking and green-tea making? We shall 
see. liut meantime there is authentic news 
of large quantities of China teas from New 
York and of Java teas from Holland, being 
imported to London to make up for the 
absence of common Indian and Ceylon teas. 
Surely there is in this something to make 
us planters, (in the lowcountry) 
STOP AND THINK ? 
INDIA AND GREEN TEA. 
Calcutta, May 4. 
Dear Sir,— Judsing from the discussion excited 
I seem to have served a useful purpose in 
ch allenging "G T '"s statemeul. with regard to 
alleged deficiency of percentage of weight in greeu 
tea compared to leaf against percentage of black- I 
note the useful remarks of a Ceylon merchant 
in your issue of 18tli A.pril as well as the record 
of Mr. Hunter of Sunnycroft and your other 
correspondent in issue of 27tli April and am glad 
to sec that our Indian experience of careful green 
tea manufacture is confirmed in the islimd. The 
comparison I made upon Indian and Ceylon green 
tea was, as you know, purely suppositions, being 
based upon "G T" 's figures, and I am glad to see 
that the writei 's experience is not general in Cey- 
lon- There is no reason as I took the liberty to 
point out why it should be even partial, except 
that your assured bounty enables producers 
working even on such faulty lines to keep afloat, of 
which more below. The "note of admiration" I in- 
serted was intended to convey that I considered ihe 
comparison called forth by " G T " too good (from 
an Indian grower's point of view) to be true, and I 
thoughtthat a hint tha': there were better standard 
10 work to would be useful to "G T" and others (if 
^ny) in a like predicament. In reply to his second 
communication in yours of 22nd April, the matter 
18 really beyond such experiments as he proposes. 
The results I gave you were based on an amount 
of crop exceeding half a million pounds, and it i« 
^.^nlirmcd by Ceylou experience as shown by your 
other correspondents. The matter is not of small 
importance. I suppose all tea men are interested 
ini heir various ways quite af* much as myself iu 
the succe-jS of the green lea iudusuy, and 
damaging .'statements based on faulty workiu" are 
likely lo check a desirable development which 
also works in the interests o"f black tea pioducers. 
A manufacture at such a disadvantage in point of 
cost ot pro duction as stated by "G T" can only be 
kept goiiigl.y ihe compensating bonus, and even 
in Ceylon the bonus cannot be continuaJ for ever 
The orcen tea industry must get ou its own leg. 
or die. In India our tea agency firms have put 
the bonus out of the'r calcu latiuns so far as com- 
pensation for cost of manufacture or deficiencv in 
price of the article compared with black is con- 
cerned. We are working without any definite pro- 
mise of a bonus, the London IT A C'lmmittee's 
proposals on the subject being quite nUra vires 
considering that the decision of the m itter rests en- 
tire'y with the new "Twenty Committee" to admin- 
ister the ^ ess, unconnected with the Associaiion. 
If the boijus is given at all, it will only be a small 
one. Tliis is understood by those wlio are going 
in for the manufacture and they would leave ft 
alone if they did not hope to make it pay for 
itself, thankfully receiving anything that may be 
given them towards cost of initial installations of 
machinery, not towards equalising prices or 
miking up for increased cost of* produc- 
tion or loss in manufacture. It; seems to me that 
this view of the question is sound. Compensa- 
tion for extra initial expenditure, more or less in 
the interests of the whole industry, is sound in 
principle. An attempt to supply inherent defetjts 
in results, on the other hand, cannot succeed in 
the long run. We, iu India, have got to make 
green tea pay by itself in the nerr future, or we 
have got to drop it and this nucessiiy makes our 
Indian men who take up the process e.^^pecially 
keen and critical. There would be no chance of 
their continuing the attempt with such a handicap 
as 4 cents extra in cost of manufacture as per 
.,G. T." If your long-coniinned bonus system 
encourages such lame ducks to play with green 
tea for a time, only to throw it up as soon 
as the bonus is withdrawn, as they must do 
it seems to me that you are spen ling a certain 
proportion of your Cess funds to no permanent 
gooa. The matter needs looking into. Only such 
green tea makers as can show results giving a 
reasonable hope of establishing the new industry 
as a i)aying branch of tea manufacture deserve 
sai)port. In India this result will be obtained 
by the restricted support which I am, at 
present, informed will onlj' be accorded, 
and I am in a position to know more of the 
difficulties than the facilities of the matter. As 
a typical instance of the manner iu which our 
men are working, I may say that one of our 
veil/ prominent tea agents, who is a power on 
every Committee, while putting one or two of 
his gardens in+.o green tea, is totally opposed to 
an'j bonus being given. He was deterred at first 
from taking up the process at all by just such 
uninformed statements as those of your corre- 
spondent's with regard to weight of output in 
greeu till I showed him the testimony of the 
managers who calculated ou the half million 
pounds of crop as above mentioned. — Yours faith- 
fully, 
CEJAKLES JUDGE. 
