350 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov. 1, 1899. 
order so happily combined. Putting on one side 
the mattsrs of labour and time, the cost of pro- 
ducing such a work is great. It is not too mucli 
to ask tl.at naturalists who can afford to subs- 
cribe to it will do so, and public libraries should 
possess it. — R. McL. 
THE FUTURE OF THE CEYLON TEA 
INDUSTRY. 
London, Oct. 6. 
I MAVE had the opportunity of discussing 
this all-iniportant question during the present 
week with several representative authorities, 
all more or less interested in the welfare of 
our staple industry and the important trade 
based upon it. I will mention no names, 
because I have not yet completed my circle 
of enquiry and observation. But I may at 
once give you a resume of the information 
so far placed at my disposal and of the con- 
clusions 1 liave attempted to deduce. And 
first, it is cheering to remark on the general 
confidence maintained in the futiu'e of Ceylon 
and its "tea. ' The check given to over-pro- 
duction by the enhanced rupee, and the 
recent fair supply of labour have undoubtedly 
strengthened the jjosition ; while the dis- 
astrous experiences in Darjiling, affecting 
not a few Avell-known "gardens," has once 
more attracted attention to the wonderful 
exemption of the planting districts of 
Ceylon from earthquake, cyclone or hurri- 
cane and so far tended to enhance the esti- 
mation of 
PLANTATION PROPERTY IN OUR ISLAND. 
On the other hand, I find myself always 
asked " What about these 
BLIGHTS, 
of which we hear so much in the papers 
and in correspondence of late ? " Now my 
reply has been uniformly and honestly re- 
assuring ; for I firmly believe that, while 
there was occasion at first to rouse the at- 
tention of planters in certain districts to the 
need of "witching and working" towards 
checking the evil, and while I felt strongly 
that both Mr. Willis and Mr. Carruthei-s 
took too light-hearted a view in Avhat was 
no doubt a preliminary (as well as inade- 
quate) Report ; yet, during the present year, 
planters, it seems to me, have rushed to the 
other extreme and are making too much of 
the " blight " enemies with which tea has 
to cope at certain times and in certain dis- 
tricts. I have had placed before me re- 
liable evidence that not a few are inclined 
to attribute to " blight," injuries or dis- 
coloration of their tea-bush leaves, due to 
the puncturing of insects, to climatic, local 
and temporary causes, .lust as some men 
at the outset refused to recognise the pre- 
sence of the grey blight, even when pointed 
out to them,— so, of late, the other extreme 
is seen in many superintendents discovering 
blight in every trivial attack of minor enemies 
from which no product is free. I do not 
for a moment say that there are ni,t, 
in some parts of Ceylon, attacks — and seri- 
ous attacks— of what Dr. Watt points out 
to be the w(n-st enemy of our brethren in 
Assam ; but I do maintain that they are 
far less widespread than has been re- 
(;<;utly supposed ; that they are often very 
temporary and due to causes (such as too 
long delay in pruning) easily overcome ; and 
that the time has come now for planters to 
be very careful in their observations and 
cautiots in reporting " blight ", before they 
are fully convinced that the real " .Simon 
Pure" is amongst them. Even then, of 
course, the fight, which can be made in de- 
fending and clearing so hardy a bush as tea, 
is very satisfactory as compared with any 
other sub-tropical product with which we are 
acquainted. 
All this, however, only shows the import- 
ance of 
A CRYPTOGAMIST OB MYCOLOGIST 
being at woi'k among the Ceylon planting 
districts ; and it is satisfactory to know that 
the authorities are fully alive to this fact. 
Negatively, in showing where there is no 
blight, his work may be nearly as important 
as positively in experimenting where blights 
exist and in writing out the life-history and 
practical remedies for such evils. With, in 
addition, the presence of an Entomologist, in 
the person of one so specially qualified as 
MK. E. E. GKEEN 
— himself a practical planter— and the pro- 
longed engagement of 
MR. KELWAY BAMBEB 
as Chemical Analyst and general adviser, 
surely the Ceylon tea planter may look the 
whole world in the face, and more especially 
the commercial (capitalist) world of London, 
and maintain that e\"ery thing possible is 
being done to ni a intain the industry and the 
value of properties in the Colony itself — a 
colony, moreover, where there are the great- 
est possil)le couveuieiices for thorough ex- 
amination .'iu<l careful experituents- Ceylon 
in this res|)ect beating both Java and 
Northern India with their far more scattered 
and diverse planting interests. 
The next division of my subject for the 
present, should be the continued progress 
made in opening 
NEW MARKETS 
and in this connection I am pleased to read 
Mr. Renton's encouraging ud interim report ; 
and no less to remark on the important fact 
brought out by your Hewaheta correspend- 
ent, that coffee, even at its present unpre- 
cedentedly low price, is by no means so econo- 
mic a drink as tea, if the test be the quantity 
of enjoyable, or avei'age beverage got from 
the same Aveight of each product. Discus- 
sing this point with a tea merchant in the 
City interested in the American market, he 
pointed out that good coffee could be sold 
in the LTnited States at one-fourth to one- 
fifth the price of good tea (in view of the 
duty on the latter and other causes) ; but I at 
once replied that, even taking this somewhat 
extreme comparison, tea gave eight times 
the return that, coffee did, in a reliable re- 
freshing beverage ! This fact mxist be pressed 
home on practical Americans as well as on 
all careful housekeepers on the Continent of 
Europe (where their name is legion,) and I 
am sorry I did not embody it in my little 
French slip of instructions printed at Vichy, 
in addition to the note I gave on the greater 
economy of using Ceylon, lutliei' than China, 
