Dec. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGEICULTUEIST. 
435 
All these highly favorable results have beeu at- 
tained not by putting in excess quantities at tlie 
Factories but by putting in the minimum quantities 
recommended and by carefully following the 
Brokers' instructions. 
You will note that in one instance the gain 
was equivalent to £50. All these teas were 
packed in Venestas. — Yours, &c. A. S. PENNY. 
Secretary of "Veaesta Limited." 
ALLEGED DETERIORATION IN TEA. 
Sir, — "The Deterioration of Quality in Tea." " Tea 
for price and the great combine will ultimately Isill 
fine teas." See " Old Fogie's" amusing and instruc- 
tive letter page 271 Iropical Agriculturist, Oct. 1, 1898.) 
Reasons and suspicions are numberless in this ques- 
tion. We want to find out why the brokers run down 
the teas of the present day as compared with those 
.of say 20 years ago. I do not think that anyone 
has as yet attributed the cry of deterioration of tea 
to its actual improvement. 
But! as the quality of the low grades improves so 
will the appreciation of the best teas decrease. When 
we plucked five and six leaves we made dreadful 
trash, and at that time worse " muck'' was accepted 
as saleable from Ohina. The retail price wa3 23 6d, 
and high prices were paid for strong teas which 
wonld enable the buyers to sell the trash. And this 
strong tea was of course praised and looked for, and 
it stood out in very strong contrast to the bulk of 
British tea. 
Since those days the planters have abandoned one 
leaf after another until we have come to two leaves 
and a bud, with exceptional cases -of three leaves 
and the bud; and by the vast improvement in ap- 
pliances there is no really bad tea made. By bad 
tea I mean such stuff as Cacbar planters made in 
187G. The red leaf tea was soaked in iuk, made by 
boiling old leaves in an iron pan, and his ink black 
ened the red loaf and put on an anna or two per 
pound. Blackened red leaf sold for ten annas instead 
of seven and eight annas. 
Again in Assam in 1880 I saw tea made out of 
''slates" I.e. fifth to seventh leaf on the shoot. 
They used to say that it was dangerous to stand 
below when the leaf vi'as tumbled down from the lofts. 
A hundred other facts will prove that the average 
tea of today is much better than that of 15 years 
ago, or even ten years, or even five years ago. And 
still the complaint comes out that teas are deteriorating. 
The brokers may be honest — and I thick they are — 
but they probably forget, or perhaps they are misled 
by the want of contrast, and one can understand 
that because bad teas have improved, good teas have 
become less important, and consequently are reported 
to have deteriorated. This improvement of the bulk 
is removing the necessity for blending for price. 
Blending for tasti will continue, but the present 
dealer is able to make a decent tea out of several 
lots varying at the most from eight to six annas, 
and this fact will gradually remove the necessity of 
Erocuriug stromj teas. In a few years the only possi- 
ility of getti 'g high prices will be to make teas of 
peculiar and distinct flavour, and to make these in 
quantities sufficient to keep the demand from a par- 
ticular set of buyers who cater for a special market. 
In 18S1 this estate got an average of seven annas 
for the year, pluckmg three and four leaves, no 
machinery, very little accommodation of any sort 
this year with ample accommodation, no loaf rolled 
nnwithcred, plucking two leaves and a bud and good 
machinery. I have barely gob 0 annas average. 
And yet I hear that tea has deteriorated. 
This idea is absolutely sickening to planters. It 
seems to be such absolute rot, as to be hardly worth 
refutmg, or else to be so absolutely false as to re- 
require stronger measures than mere words. An 
Alderman at tho end of a big feed wonld net give 
much praise to a juicy mutton chop, and would pro- 
bably say that muttou had deteriorated from tho 
^ays wbcn he got it ouly onco a wesk. Eij wvuU 
not be telling lies, but he would be very wron"!! 
And the fact remains that we shall have to go on 
improving our tea and taking less for it, dropping 
out those who cannot move with the times, and land- 
ing eventually into a very hai'd earned 5 to 10 per 
cent. This is the meaning and reason of Free trade. 
Producers have :o improve and take less while the 
consumers get better goods and pay less for them. 
Nothing but monopoly, or rings, or some unholv 
form of bolstering up incompetence will enable Tea 
Estates to coutinue to make large profits. There is 
enough new tea planted to run the average down to six 
pence unless sufficient new outlet I's found. ]3ut new 
outlets vnll be found because of the good tea now 
made and sold so cheaply." If there are any more 
complaints of deterioration we should ask those who 
complain whether they allude to tea in general, to 
tea from any district or Estate, and if it is stated that 
tea in general has deteriorated I would say that this 
statement is deliberately made to deceive, in order 
to gain some particular end. ■ A. C, India. 
THE MANURING OF COCONUTS. 
Nov. 17. 
Dear Sie,— In your issue of last night, I lind 
a reference to my remarks on the above subject 
which appeared in the November cumber of the 
''Agricultural Magazine." 
I mast take exception to your correspondent's 
expression, " critic of Mr. Cochran," by which 
he refers to me. It does not sound nice and 
makes it appear as though I wrote with the 
avowed object of criticising Mr. Cochran of whose 
work I have the highest opinion. Why cannot 
two people carry on a discussion for mutual and 
general edification without importing objection- 
able elements into it ? 
But let me examine your correspondent's con- 
tention. He says " I assume that castor cake con- 
tains no phosphoric acid whatever." This he has 
no right to state as the question of the nresence 
or absence of phosphoric acid does not crop up 
in the course of my remarks and no calculation 
given by me is at all affected by this circum- 
stance. If, in valuing the castor cake, I had 
taken no account of the phosphoric acid present, 
or in considering its fertilising qualities, ignored 
the amount of the phosphoric .acid iniijorted 
into the soil, ic would have given your corres- 
pondent an opportuniiy of pointing out the omis- 
sion which he lays to my charge. The only re- 
ference made to 3Ir. Cochran was to the effect 
that his formula gave larger quantities of bone 
dust and castor cake than are usually used, while 
the amount of Tlionias' phosphate was— as given 
by him— considerably lower than it should be by 
calculation according to his formula. As to re- 
vising my figures I really cannot see how I can do 
It, so as to alter anything, or I should be only too 
glad to do so and admit my indebtedness to Mr. 
Cochran, and even to your correspondent. 
Without going to Tatloch's obsolete figures, we 
have local up-to-date analyses, furnished by ■ 
Colombo merchants, that will not allow us to 
lose sight of the fact that there w phosphoric 
acid in castor cake ! 
Here is the latest I have received, made by 
the newest agricultural chemist in Cejion :— 
^jfixture .. ., 8-35 per cent. 
Organic matter . . 60-69 
■^sh ,. ..• 10-31 
Containing nitrogen ammonia 
,, Pliosphorioaoid 
Potash , , 
n iSiVlid .. 
99-85 
8-J6 per cent, 
2-20 
i'5i jj 
