408 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Dec. 1, 1899. 
OUK PLUMBAGO INDUSTRY. 
Obowbobo', Oct. 27. 
A Itlet-chailt laygeiy interested irt Our one 
iiiioeiral df cttnirilerciai importance, although 
He knows nothing df Ceylon, has been placing 
some enquiries before me as follows : — 
" Plumbago, which a couple of years ago, could 
be. bought at £25 a ton is now up at £7.5 per 
ton, a corresponding increase having; taken 
place in the inferior (qualities. To what is this 
owing ? Are the mines exclusively in native hands 
or are. they subject to any control from European 
or American buyers ? Are the different qualities 
of plumbago taken from different mines? Does 
the working of a mine require much capital ? I 
ftm told that the principal expenses is timbering. 
What is the present output ? And is the supply 
likely to .run short? Perhaps you can say what 
probability there is of the present abnormal prices 
being maintained. Could a laree consumer depend 
upon receiving a regular supply all the year round? 
At present it seems to be very scarce as well 
as dear." 
My answer was that he (my correspondent) as 
vising plumbago, ought really to know more 
about the cause of the rise in price than I, 
a Ceylon man. That, we have heard, is the 
greatly multiplied requirements for crucibles 
in view of increased armaments of the 
United States, and European Powers. But 
I must enquire about all this on my return 
to town, or it is possible some light may 
be thrown on the matter after my lecture 
on the 7th November. A trebling of price 
is certainly phenomenal ; and t see the 
total export this year is not to be less than 
(500,000 cwt. in all probability, or 33 per cent 
above the last year's export ! Thirty thousand 
tons at an average of £40 to £.50 a ton will 
mean an enormous amount of money to divide 
among the Ceylonese mine-owners. Probably 
not less than twenty million of rupees ! 
How much of this will go into the liands 
6£ the labourers ? Some years ago, Mr. de 
Mb\ had one mine that gave him £2,000 
profit a year for eleven years. With prices 
trebled, he and other fortunate plumbixgo 
pit-owners must be making very large sums. 
Let us trust they see to the comfort and 
(lafety of their workmen and their proper 
remuneration. It would be interesting to 
knovy if any mines are worked on the co- 
operative system? Then surely the Govern- 
ment should make "hay" for the general 
revenue while the sun is shining. The royalty 
on 600,000 cwt. expected will be only R150,0d0 
or not one per cent on the value ; but that 
Cannot be helped. It is the royalty from 
plumbago dug on Crown lands that should 
yield more revenue at such a time, or the 
sale outright of such land. 
Turning to the question of my correspond- 
ent, I was able to tell him as an excep- 
tion to the native owning of mines, the case 
of the late Mr. Tottenham (how far-seeing 
was our friend to bring out a Mining Engi- 
neer to develope his property when he did), 
and that since then other English capi- 
tftlistH had entei'ed the field. As regards the 
supply running short, I ventured to say that 
1 saw no reason for its doing so ; and that 
in fact with the advent of a Geological 
Survey Staff early next year, there ought 
to be a fresh impetus given to plumbago 
i^ining ; but as to the price keeping up, that 
is a matter, I supposr, for which the answee 
must be sought in London or Now York 
rather than Ceylon. — Now should be the 
time to get Intelligent progressive Ceylonese 
like the Messrs. He Mel, Fernando and some 
dther)! in plumbago, to confer some lasting 
boon on their countrymen— why not provldfe 
a Young Men's Institute fob OoiiOMBO ? 
PKODUCE AND PLANTING. 
Amekican Tea Buvees.— Our New York contem- 
poriry, " The Commercial," has the followiog on tha 
iDfliience exercised by tiie American tea buyers 
on the London market. It says : " The Loudon 
nsaiket, the great tea mart of the World, was until 
lately controlled by a few large buyers, who, by agree- 
ing between themselves to remain out of the market 
for a sale or two, could readily depress prices. These 
buyers were, and are, by force of circumstances ne- 
cessarily ' bears,' because the tea they buy is put up 
in packets and eold at fixed prices, to which the 
consuming public has been educated. It can ba 
readily seen that with every change of the market 
tb a higlior basis, the price of the packet to the con- 
sumer could not be changed, hence the packet tea 
buyer must purchase at a low price or sustain a scrioua. 
loss. lu this cunnecliou a leading dealer in packet 
teas said yesterday : ' With the American business 
an important factor in the London market, snch a 
combiualion brcomes iinavailiug at once, as there are 
always rtady buyers of Ceylon and India tfa here 
when London prices go below a certain limit. For- 
merly China tea, at S cents a pound, came into 
competition with the pure teas of Ceylon and India, 
which cost 1'2 to 13 cents to land. Through the 
stiict enforcement of the standards by the United 
States Government, those inferior "compounds" are 
entirely excluded, and China tea cannot be bought 
under 12 to 13 cents a pound, which brings the two 
classes of tea practically to a parity, and ai the same 
time the more desirable for blending or any purpose ifr 
ttie machine made tea of Ceylon and India. Thus, it 
will be seen that the operations of the American 
buyers immediately nullify any contemplated "hear" 
movement in London, as the offers to buy at a price 
for exp irt to America are always in evidence there. 
The rcfult will be that possibly after one or two bear 
attacks the combination will have to fall into line and 
buy at market prices in self defence. With the con- 
sumption of Ceylon and India tea increasing here, 
in Great Britain and, in fact, all over the world, 
the trend of price is upward, and after the British 
•'bear" combination has been compelled to buy at 
current values, the American buying interest will 
have to raise its limit also, and in that way values 
will reach a still higher level. Certainly it is that 
prices are looking upward, and there is nothing in 
existing conditions that would make shrewd tea 
buyers hope for or expect lower values. Another 
strong factor which tends to lessen the influence of 
the " combine " of packet tea buyers in London upon 
the world's market is the great number of orders now 
sent direct to Colombo and C'lculta from houses in 
America, Russia and Australia." By the way, apropos 
of tea in America, it may be mentioned that twe- 
thirds of the total tea importations of the Unitea 
States go in through New York, and amount to 
nearly 60,000,0001b. a year. Although Americans are 
not especially known as a tea-lovin^ or tea-drinking 
people, they consume 90,000,000 lb. of tea annually. 
Tea Cultivation in the United States. — The 
" New York Commercial," commenting on the report 
of the tea crop of the Pinehurst tea estate. Summer^ 
ville, SE , says "The 'Commercial' has from time 
to time published opinions of members of the tea 
trade in this city to whom samples of the Pinehurst 
tea were tubraitted. These opinions varied but 
little regarding the quality of the prodocl. 
In all cases it was described as inferior (o 
