Sept 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
191 
results, than this of His Excellency, (either with 
or without his Legislative Council) at onoe ap- 
pealing to tlie Eiiiporor of Germany on the niaiter 
of reduction of the duty on teas into that great 
country. It is needless to point out in a leLter 
to tlie press the vast benefits a country like 
Germany would derive from the greatly increased 
iniporlatiou of good pure tound teas, at prices 
within the means of the poorest iuhabitaut 
At present our teas are said to be beyond their 
means owing to the prohibitive duty, and t!ie 
difficulty in obtaining it. Tea in Germany is 
still an article found in few but chemist's shops, 
I believe, not that the Germans who knows its 
good properties wish it to be so, but tiiat so 
few of the people who know good tea c-n afford 
to jiay the price charge! for it. In a country 
like Germany this ought not to be and our 
Thirty Committee might, antl ouglit to do far 
more towards spreading a knowledge of our teas 
there, than they are doing. Why should they 
wait for agents to come forward and ask aid ? 
Are there no more men of the Kogivue type 
to be found to pioneer Ceylon tea throughout 
Gerauiuy ? Cannot the Thirty Committee ad- 
vertise for men thoroughly qualitied to do the 
work in Germany as Kogivue has done in Paissia ! 
Or must we all wait in the hopeful expectation 
of such persons presenting themselves ? I appeal 
to you Mr. Editor to stir up the planters and 
the Government to do more for the country's 
great industry and not to go on in the old track 
we have quietly been following in the vain hope 
of times improving. My letter is already too 
long or I should urge the latest reports from 
London in proof of the great need there is for 
immediate action. — Your faithfully, 
JAMES WESTLAND. 
[The duty in Austria is 9d ; in Germany 6d 
per lb,— Ed. T.A.] 
GREEN TEA. 
Sir,— I am very glad to see that Mr. Mackenzie 
has at last spoken plainly about the advisability 
ot making Green Tea for America. He has 
hinted it all along, but now that times are so 
very hard lie has hail the courage to advocate 
it openly. 
You will not grudge me the jjleasme of saying 
"I told you so." Yon will see by my letters in 
1894 that I said a good deal about making green 
tea for America. I was looking ahead. To do 
any real good we must all look ahead 
in 1894" our prices were not low enoug!) to en- 
courage any change in our programme but now 
the time has come when something in ucf he done. 
If we had only had a few men in 1894 who were 
looking ahead, we might by this time have had 
a large market for green ten. It is all right 
now, and we shall begin, and we shall succeed be- 
cause we have the material ready in the sh.ipe of 
good leaf, and we shall very soon lind oat how- 
to ax;quire the lost art of maldng green tea as 
good as any that comes from Ciiina. I believe 
that in course of time we shall destroy the taste 
for green tea because it is unfernieuted and in- 
jurious. The Americans will iirst demand un- 
fernientod tci, irrfidually they will take (auil 
like) ver\' liijhtly fcuiiauted teas; later on they will 
ask !or fully fermented (or oxydized) tea. The 
change will not be noticeable fr-mi year to year, 
but we siiall succeed by humouring the taste 
of the consumers, and we shall be able to follow 
their taste as it gradually changes from flavoured 
dish water to the liquor of our noble fer- 
mented teas, 
The Americans are absolutely blind to the 
merits of our teas. But you dou't re-tore sight 
to weaic e^es by :..ho-ving an electric l!.:;ht in 
front of them. ifou siiade the w^oak eyes with 
green shades, and remove them gradually, and 
increase the light little by little. 
That is wliat we are now going to do to the 
American "tea eye." Bat now that we intend 
to imitate the character of China tea, it will be 
the vastest mistake if we do not also imitate 
their methods of dealing in tea. 1 presume that 
we shall (uutil taught by severe experience) as 
is now our custom send olt small breaks of 20 
chesis. and ilia^ each garden will send teas difier- 
i'lg from the rest, !^o t^htt no dealer can know 
w!i ■■vdl become of his venture, aad whether he 
cim ever get the same tea again if the venture 
pi' >vr;5! proli able. 
We must syrid large " chops '' of tea a?u! we 
muit be prepared to repeat them as ofteii as 
I'.'quired. 
OiU^ hundred estates from ditiVrent distticts 
should send, each, a contribution of 500 lb. of 
green tea each mouth to a common bulking house, 
and risk getting much or little for the tea. 
This bulk of .50,000 lb. should be forced on 
the American market month by month. Let 
theui have the lot at 2d per pound as an ad- 
vertiseuient and then let it take its- chance in 
their market. 
Whatever we are, let us be "big." The spirit 
of the day requires big things. Big estates, big 
factories, no p-;ddling in smail plots of land, and 
tiny breaks of tea. The Aiuerieans require big 
things, irrespective of quality. 
We don't want to upset the system of tea 
dealing ; we want only to replace the China 
tea with British tea. So w;-^ must copy as closely 
as possible the ways nnd customs of the China 
trade even to the shape and a[)pearance of onr 
boxes, to ll'.e size and quality of the breaks, 
to the giving of the usu.il trade credits, &c., 
&c. And all this can Jje attempted by a Syndi- 
cate of Tea Estates. The syndicated estates 
would steal a march on Ch'ua by taking the 
place of both grower and nier hant. Looking at 
recent tea_sales from Sylhet, Cacliar, Ceylon, &c., 
it is not rash to say that the same leaf which 
sold at 4 to 5 ainias as black tea would have 
got the same (and possibly more) price if it had 
been made into uufe inented tea and sent to 
America. 1874. 
WHITE ANTS ANO THK TEA-BUSH. 
Veyangoda, August 3rd, 1898. 
DEA.K Sir,— Will you please give your opinion 
on the point involved in the following discussion ? 
A maintains that white ants attack a per- 
fectly liealthy living teii-bush. 
B denies this and holds that the white ant 
only attacks the tea-bush when the bush is' un- 
healthy — suffering in some mysterious way frum 
fuogas growth or pooehie-, etc. 
In a word i?"s argume it is that the white ant 
tinishes the deadly work conunenceil by some 
other enemy of the bush.— Youis faithfuily 
WHIST. 
[This is a revival of a coiitr.,VL'i -y wiji.jh fi'c- 
quenily occ!!i)ied our colunms in "days of ohl." 
Undoubt-edly, the wtiglit <if opi;iion is that 
white ants cannot touch a living healihy plant 
of any kind, and wo do not see wliy ;i lea- 
bnsh — regarded as exceiitio-uilly hardy— should be 
an exception. But we must confess that in 
days gone by, evidence was afforded of appar- 
