Jax. 2, 1809.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
483 
JAVA CINCHONA. 
The report of llie P itavia Government on the 
operations of the Governnienc cinchona-planta- 
tions (luring 1897 lias just been publi.-,hed, but 
it contains lew features of special interest or 
whicli h.ive not been referred to already m this 
io'.iriial. During;- the year the plantations sold 
321,77.S kilos of"bark, and tlie profit for the year 
was 9,9U0 florins— nob a large figure, but the 
director says it wouhl have been double were 
he not bound down by rules which prevent free 
acii)!). The report concludes with a paragraph 
of sigiiilieant advice to orivate planters, which 
is notable since it has the endonsenient of the 
Bataviaii Government— viz., that if the planters 
are far-seeing enough to support the Badoeng 
cpiinine-factory, and only send moderate sup- 
plies of bark to Kurre. the future should be a 
bright one for them, and they should have iio 
dirticulty in keeping up \->iicea, --Chemist and Drug- 
fjist, Nov. 26. 
DUTCH COf.ONIAL TEA Vs. 
ENGLISH TEA : 
(A hint for the Board of the " Soekabocmische 
Laiidbottwveri'.cni'iing " and those interested 
in the growth of Dutch Colonics -and trade.) 
Under the above heading, Mr. .J. van der Chys, 
head of the lirm of WeL J. van der Chys en Zoon's 
tea department, Delft, writes as follows in the 
disehe Dlcrrunr oi Nov. 19: — 
Knowing that the Indische Mcrcuur lia.s a 
place in the ollioes of all Indinn branches, and 
is read by Dutch capitalists as well as by the 
planters of Java, so that a communication pub- 
lished in it reaches the eye of every interested in- 
dividual, I prefer to take advantage of this means 
of bringin-z the following under the notice of the 
abovementi~onc<l Company and all others in- 
terested. , ^ ,. , 
The cultivation of lea in Ceylon and English 
[5/f]India has developed in only a few decades to 
an nnpieceilented degree. 
The pro<luction of hath countries together 
amounts to about 250,000 OCO English pounds 
per annum. In loth colonies some li 
million natives by tJiis find emjiloyment, whilst the 
place of sale -London— becomes therel^y provided 
with hundreds of offices, the source of subsistence 
and welfare of stall' and dependents. 
Java now after improvement of method yields a 
productthat competes with the best Englislicolonies. 
New plantations are now opened in Java on a 
conaparatively modest scale, yet the crop thereat 
most amounts to only 10 to 12 million pounds, or 
about as much as thirty years ago, when British 
colonial tea was as good as an unknown quantity. 
By the reports of those engaged in the cultivation, 
and according to well-known published figures of 
dividends, it is in Java very p;ofitable to the 
grower.-^. 
Cinchona estates also that no longer give re- 
turns are now being altered for the giowth 
of tea. 
The world's consumption is steadily increasing, 
and Java tea must find an entrance in every 
place where, the English* houses have pushed 
</(«»• product and have known how to guide the 
popular taste in this direction in their own 
interest. , ^. , 
Java tea therefore with greater production finds 
a way already opened up for eventual surplus crops 
and the supplanting by our product of the English- 
Indian teas, whicli arc exactly parallel to it, pre- 
•sents tlierefore few dilficultio.s. These difficulties 
are however considerably less than those that the 
English combination had from the cominenceruent 
to overcome, viz. the alteration of the taste ac- 
customed to China tea to that of the teas of their 
own cohmies. Truly a gigantic leap, and upon 
which every business man is agreeil. 
I think the above introduction necessary in order 
with greater emphasis to bring before the eyes of 
those interested the enormous importance of the two 
following reports, both of which I ap])tnd in the , 
original Engli.-h text : 
The firm of Carritt & Co. wiote in tlicir report, 
dated Calcutta, Sept. 1 : — 
" The return to prodncers at the present low rates 
for tea generally is most discouraging, and in many 
instances the margin of profit to growers has reached 
vanishing point. The position may in a great measure 
be attributed to the fact that coiisamption has not 
increased to the extent as was the case with tlie supplj ; 
the prosperous days of low exchange led to a great 
opening out of the country, the produce of which has 
now to be dealt with uuder the burden of an appreci- 
ated rupee ; and whereas, when exchanee was low, 
prices were high, the exact reverse now obtains. By 
materially reducing the acreagennder tea, which means 
the loss of thousands of pounds of British capital, and 
working up new markets, the level of prices ma}' by 
slow degrees be raised, always supposing that i hina, 
with aueniimous bounty of nearly 50 per cent iu her 
favor*, does not attract English- energv and capita!. 
The outlook, with the rupee on its present appreciated 
basis, is therefore far from reassuring, and it is not 
surprising that it is viewed by those holding large 
stakes in the industry with less equanimity than 
that displayed by many supporters of the Govern- 
ment." 
Since writing this I have read in the Groecr of 
Nov 12th last the following repvut under the 
heading " Indian Tea Growers ami the state of 
E.Nchange ": — 
" The Dirjeeling Tea Planters' Association has 
resolved to hold a special moe'ing on November 14, at 
which the following resolu'ious will be propoee 1 : (1) 
that this meeting views with great alarm the present 
proposal before the government for fixir:6; ext-h vuge at 
Is 4d as calcnlnted verv seriously tn injure, if no' to 
ruin, the Indian Tea Industry, and re.^olvi-s that the tea 
Associations of Assam, Cachar snd all o'her tea dis- 
tricts of the Indian Tea Association, also the Tea As- 
sociation of London, be addressed on the subject with 
the object of taking united action and, if tlionsht 
advisable, of diaiving up a petiti n to < he Secretary cf 
S ate praying that some aid may be afiforded. either by 
imposing a higher duty on foreign-grown teas in pro- 
portion to the dilt'erence in exchiOKe or by altogatlier 
removing the duty from British-r;rown teas, as a countei • 
balance to the abovemeiitioned rate of exchxnge. ('2) 
That in \iewof the critical position of the tea industry 
in India and i eylon a cnnfeienoe bp held iu C dcutt.i, 
which one or iwo delegates froa^ all ihe Associations 
shall be invited to attend, to disiuss means for ameliorat- 
ing the same, the proprietors also being invited to 
attend." 
In my opinion, English industry (especially Man- 
chester, which, to mention the single exam|de of the 
cotton goods industry, has a monoiioly of sale for 
this article among nearly the whole of the ]>ritish 
Indian population, and the gigantic liguie of 
which is well-known) has interests at too great 
variance with the tea jilanters, whose biancli of 
business is at once allowed to sink into iiotliing, 
* The firm takes no account of the tc a export duties 
in China, which amount to about 35 per cent of the 
value of tea (tnken in round numbers). Their estininte 
is therefore reduced to only ITi per cent, which gives 
China the advantage overEuglish India. Why is uotli- 
ing said iu the report about Java ? Perhaps: Sleeping 
logs , , . 
