Nov. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
329 
To help men wlio help themselves is not an 
unlio|iefal business— and if tlie Govei uiiient would 
but realize that, as trustee for the revenue, it has 
the deepest interest in the ]iros(>erity of the 
Plantin;; Industries of the island, it would at once 
see that for it to provide trained seientilic advice 
open to all, would not be a heavy tax on its 
resources for the splendid returns it draws from 
its share in the business. We must not allow 
it to be said that we are inconsistent in urj,nrg 
fresh expenditure with one hand, while calling 
for relief to Planters and Poor on the other. 
The actual practical outcome of our preaching 
today is the retention of Mr. C^arruthers, if not 
a^ a permanency, at least for a term of years ; 
and this would not cost more than a very few 
of the Cadets who are dancinf^ their heels about 
Kaclicheris to very little piactical result. Had 
the Revenue Department in 189,'J been cut down 
as Sir Arthur Havelock pronii.'^ed, and a pio- 
perly Scientific Agricultural Department estab- 
lished with the savings, well would it have been 
for the Staple Industries of this i.sland. 
COUNTRy PADDY AND THE COURSE OF 
TRADE. 
(By a Sinhalese.) 
The ordinary course of the trade in country paddy 
is through Coast Moormen who have boutiques in 
the villages and are the principal buyers of local 
surplus crops. They are accustomed to advance to 
the cultivators, money, cnrry stuffs and even rice, 
on condition of being paid after the harvest, and 
besides going about to collect the paddy for their 
advances, they also buy any paddy that may be offered 
for sale by the cultivators. The Coast Moormen 
Bometimea store up the paddy they buy, aid sometimes 
if the market is uood they send the paddy to their 
brethren in Colombo. They also occasionally con- 
vert the paddy into rice and sell the same at their 
boutiques.* 
There are also Sinhalese people who go about 
the villages after the harvest for the purpose 
of buying paddy, but this is seldom intended for 
sale, but for their own use. The trade in country 
paddy is not spread over Colombo, but in a few 
boutiques atthePettah, and in one boutique at Maria- 
kadde, and the trade is only brisk for a few months after 
the reaping season, the boutique keepers being supplied 
with country paddy by the village boutique keepers, 
who buy rice from the cultivators. Amongst the 
well-to-do Sinhalese there are residents in Colombo who 
own large extents of paddy fields, and thereby obtain a 
large quantity of pad iy from the cultivators as 
groundshare, — most of these gentlemen reserve the 
paddy they obtain for consumption at their houses 
and for their dependents, and it is very seldom that 
they sell any paddy. Some land owners lease 
out their paddy fields to the cultivators on a 
fixed annual rental. There are also natives who ad- 
vance seed paddy, and money to cultivators, — on 
condition that the paddy is delivered to them at a cer- 
tain rate per bag, when their crops are gathered ; but 
even these people, I understand, do it for the pur- 
pose of obtaining paddy for themselves, and not for sale. 
According to what I gathered from some of 
the natives, there are some houses in Welikade, 
Borella, and in tlraniipass where paddy is sold to 
neighbours after the harvest. These aru people who 
ol)tain paddy as their ground share of the fields in 
the villages clo?e to Colombo. It is however net 
customary for people to buy this paddy for the pur- 
pose of converting it into vice in the town, as the same 
could not be had in sufficient quantities hy the poo- 
plo for this purpose. This is however bought by 
hopper boutique women for converting into raw rice, 
when obtainable. 
The regular trade in paddy in the to-^n 
s confined to a few boutiques in the Pettah— 
m Bankshall Street, First Cro^s Street, Second c'o.s 
btreet, &c.-where there are about a dozen boutiques 
-fhree or four boutiques at Mariakaddein Mara^.a- 
and a couple of boutiques at Grandpass. Most of these 
boniiques are carried on by Coast Moormen, who 
carry on this trade along with poonac and other horse 
and cattle food. Their supplies are by imports from 
Kangoon, and some South Indian Ports. These 
mports are not very frequent, and are of small 
quantities ranging from two or three hundred 
to seven or eight hundred bags at a time the 
largest imports, according to one of the boutique 
keepers being consignments of 1,000 ba"s. The trade 
IS earned on in a very small scale," each of the 
boutiques having only two or three hundred bags at 
a time. The average sale in a boutique is said to 
oe between twenty to twenty-five bags per week. But 
at timps tliere are] larger sales when purchasers come 
and buy 20 or 30 bags at a time. The purchases made 
at ttiese boutiques are not for conversion into rice 
but It appears paddy in large quantities i; gathered 
in some other provinces, and a large trade in coun- 
try paddy IS carried on at Trinoomalie, Batticalo-i, 
Uabautota, Matara, Tangalla and several other towns 
where paddy, as well as rice made from this paddy 
are soid, in large quantities : a good deal being sent 
away from -Matara to other Provinces, and also from 
Batticaloa, in the latter case chiefly to Jaffna 
GREEN TEAS FOR AMERICA. 
We do not see any justification for the attitude 
adopted in some quarters towards the "Thirty 
Committee" for their deci.sion to encourage the 
shipment of "green teas" by a bonus according 
to quantity, certified by broker and bill of lading. 
How IS "black tea" to be benefitted by tliis 
lirocess ?— ask two or three indignant planters who 
do not mean to bother about "green" tea, and 
have no faith in the enterprise. Now, supposing 
the experiment to prove anutter failure, we shoulS 
suppose " black tea " men would realize that there 
is still undoubted benefit to them in .so much less of 
their product being exported or thrown on the 
London market? P"or our part, we think it most 
advisable to try and cut out the Japane.se— 
even more than the Chinese— by supplying the 
American people with a natural, wliolesome 
•■ f'reen " tea, not only unadulterated, but with no 
artiheial addition or "facing " whatsoever. lb may 
be remembered by some, t hat, in crossing from Japan 
to San Francisco in 18S4, we had the authority 
of the largest American buyer of Japan tea 
for stating that there was not an ounce of it, 
but was artihcially treated, coloured with Prus- 
sian blue or some other artificial sub.stance. Now 
is the time for Messrs. Mackenzie and Blechyndeu 
to inake capital of this fact. We give them 
permission to quote our authority as a visitor 
to .lapan and America in the year referred to, 
making special enquiry as to teas, and never once 
did we have the fact denied of the many million lb. 
of Japanese green tea.s being all artifi-ially 
faced. 
In this connection we call attention to " A.C"'s. 
pajjer on the making of Green and L'nfermcnted 
Tea for America, given on our second p.ige. It 
appears rather opiiortniicly and we tiu-^t may 
contain hints ot some use to local planters about to 
make " green ■' teas, although our Indian corie- 
-spondent so mixes up his "p'actic.al advice with 
speculations as to"Association,"c'l-c. ,on a bii: scale, 
that it is sometimes dilliculL to follow hini. It will 
be time enough to plan for clearing out the -10 
millions of Japanese te-Ts, when it is seen that 
the first millioa or 500,000 lb. of green tea sent 
