212 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept. 1, 1899. 
MARKET RATES FOR OLD AND NEW PRODUCTS. 
(From Lewis <b Peats Fortnighthj Prices Current, Lundon, August 12th, 1899. J 
!^ No Price Current having reached us by latest Mail, we omit the usual. quotations 
and lill with other matter, 
FOREIGN MARKETS FOR TEA. 
At the meeting of the United Planters' Asso- 
ciation of Southern India on the 16th inst., 
Mr. AcwoRTU said: — Yon are doubtleaa all aware 
that, some few years ago, the Indian Tea Asso- 
ciation and the Ceylon Planters' Association 
started a fund to push the consumption of British 
grown tea on the Americsin Continent. This Fund 
was called the American Market Fund and its suc- 
cess has justified expectation. It began work in the 
face of the greatest opposition and the position 
seemed at first almost a hopeless figh\ and yet fiom 
a consumption of nothing per annum when they 
started, the returns last year showed that 12 mil- 
lionslb. of British grown tea were consumed in the 
Uuited States of America and Canada ; and 1 have 
no doubt that the consumption is annually increasing. 
I am aftaid, gen lemen, it is only fair to say that 
the joint action of the two Associations would have 
had far greater success had the Indian subscription 
to the Fund been on the same lines as in Ceylon. 
In India the subscriptions were voluntarj ; in Ceylon, 
by the wish of the pluuters themselvep, it was com- 
pulsory. Now there is much to be said for voluntary 
contributions when all do their duty, but the policy of 
the Indian governing body did not meet with a very 
liberal response from the Indian planters, some 40 per 
cent, holding aloof. We are larger producers than 
Ceylon, yet the Fund fell short of that raised in Ceylon, 
by almost half. I am proud to say, however, that my 
own Association has from the inauguration of the 
Fund subscribed annually its full quota throughout. 
I believe I am right in saying we are the only 
body throughout the length and breadth of India 
that has done so, and that several of our members 
are so diogusted with the inaction, apathy and 
sheer selfishness shown by others that they are 
inclined to hold aloof. To me it appears that the 
apathy of India in this matter is more than un- 
fortunate, it is almost disastrous. Messrs. Gow, Will 
son and Stanton wrote that the London market 
had been relieved of 58 million lb. of tea. I tremble 
to think to what point the market would have drop- 
ped if this had not been accomplished by the joint 
action of the two Associations. Again a prominent 
member of the Indian Tea Association, speaking at 
Calcutta in May last, stated that the London market 
had been relieved of an additional 10 million lb. 
We would never have seen the slump that did take 
place, and could have been averted, if India had 
done its duty. There is no doubt to my mind that 
we have only just reached a critical state. Pro- 
duction is increasing and competition is increasing. 
Japan, our shrewdest and most popular rival, is 
making gigantic efiorts to oust us from our present 
position and improve her own. She has spent al- 
ready £80,000 in pushing her produce and is pre- 
pared to go further. Who can foretell the enor- 
mous injury the opening of China and her vast tea 
districts will do ? Thus 1 believe, gentlemen, the fight 
for the tea markets of the world has only just 
begun, and it depends on our own action whether 
the tight shall be for us one of life or death. The 
Anglo-Saxon ia neter beaten when he sets his teeth 
and determines to fight ; but the time has come 
when he must make that determination. Tl ey 
raise by a levy of a cess of 20 cents per 100 lo. 
of tea in Ceylon rather over R3 lakhs a year, and 
by spending this money in judiciously advertising 
and puuhing their produce they are able to relieve 
the London market and raise the average prices of 
British grown tea from Sid to 8,^d per lb. That 
ia to say the producer gets an extra farthing on 
the lb, of his crop. This sura on the total output 
of India for the year amounts to '2J million, omit- 
ting Ceylon from the calculation altogether. Will 
any one tell me the game is not worth the candle ? 
The thing is self evident and requires no argument. 
The only pity to my mind is that the Indian Tea 
Association riid not some years ago move on the 
same lines that Ceylon has done (cheers). I there- 
for beg t > move " That the Secretary be instructed 
to write to the Indian Tea Association and press 
upon that body the great importance of obtaining 
funds for the American and Continental Funds and 
to request it to approach the Supreme Government with 
the object of securing an acton the samelinesas Ceylon 
Act IV of 1894." 
The resolution was seconded by Mr. H M Knight. 
Mr. Hodgson said the subject of Mr. Acworth's 
speech was new co him and he was not prepared 
to vote for it without first consulting his Associa- 
tion. The principal was fair, no doubt, but the Re- 
solntion called upon all planters in South India to 
consent to a self-imposed taxation, which was a 
proposition he was not prepared to assent to without 
consideration. 
The Resolution was carried, coffje planters holding 
aloof and not voting. — .1/. Mail, August 17. 
"ALL ABOUT RUBBER." 
The third edition of this useful compilation 
has been issued by Messrs. A. M. <t J. Fergu- 
son, of Ceylon. It is revised and enlarged and 
brought thoroughly up to date, having die late.'^t 
slati.stics and information with regard to cul- 
tivation, and scientific experiments in Trinidad and 
Ceylon. The table of contents shows how thoroughly 
every source of information has been ransacked, 
and in the .350 pasres of the book there is a vast 
aiHoniit of information useful and instructive to 
the planter of what is believed to be the coming 
industry. — 6. F. Press, Aug. 1?. 
ASBESTCS IN {'EyLON.— Supplementing previ- 
ous information respecting Asbestos in Ceylon, 
the discovery of which the Ceylon, Observer was 
the first to announce, we qoute the following 
lines (signed J. J. G.) fioni our evening 
contemporary : — 
On enquiry from one of the largest owners of 
plumbago mines in the Province, who has an ex- 
perience of over thirty years' mining in different 
localities, I learnt that he cams across " asbestos " 
in several of his pits ; but he did not take any notice 
of it beyond looking at it out of curiosity, as he 
was not aware of its value. Some two or three years 
ago he came across a pretty large quantity of the 
"oily stuff" — that is what he calls it — in one of 
his pits. It was so oily that, if it touched the 
body of a man while working in water, he says 
not a drop of water remained on the man's body. 
Asked as to the nature of the soil in which the 
'• stuff " is usually found, he replied tha^ all the 
instances ha came across in pits on the slopes of 
hills adjoining fields. It is found at every depth at 
which plumbago is found, but only in a peculiar 
kind of soil which is dark-coloured and clayey ; 
and which, wiien exposed to the sun, turns to a red 
colour. " Asbestos," so far as he has seen he says, 
is found in small crevices, about the size of the 
pockets of a billiard table, between the illama " 
rock and plumbago. It is of a whitish colour, weigh- 
ing one to two pounds, and has the appearance of 
well-prepared putty. The pits in which he found 
asbestos were situated in ttie following villages: — 
Karayaldeniya, Hali ela and Atanikita — about thirteea 
miles from Galle, near about Ahangama. 
