Feb. 1, 1899.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
563 
INDIAN AND CEYLON TEA EXPORTS: 
HAS THE MAXIMUM OF EXPORTS 
BEEN ATTAINED ? 
Our question may seem a f tartlinj,' one to some 
people ; Lut there is more ia it than appears on 
the surface. India has made very little advance 
iu her tea exports durins; the past three seasons. 
The average up to tiie season closing March- 
April nejct, will probably be under rather than 
over 159 million lb., and it would not be svir- 
prising if this were found to be about the maxi- 
mum crop— a little more in a food season: rather 
less when not so favourable. We n?.ay, of course, 
be reiniuded of the wide area of young tea— in 
Southern India especially —but one has only to 
read Dr. Geo. Watt's book regarding the pests 
affecting tea in Afisam to realize that there may 
be agencies at work, calculated to counterbalance 
the returns from tea yet to mature,— apart 
from the discouragement which lower prices must 
offer to further extensions. 
So in Ceylon. It is quite possible that with 
120 million lb, of tea exported, we may have 
reached our practical maximum,— running up 
some millions beyond perhaps in a favourable 
season, but falling behind when adverse circum- 
stances prevail. For 1899, few men anticipate 
a much, if any, larger outturn than that for the 
past year, —indeed the district estimates are 
coming in for ratli«r less. Nor is this due simple 
to "finer plucking," nor to the influence of low, 
non-profitable prices, shutting up native gardens 
and also poor fields on regular plantations. Il 
is useless to deny that over a considerable ex- 
panse of our country, the crops are now allected 
by the same agencies as in Assam, namely the 
biiglits and other pests described by Dr. Watt. 
Olio Visiting, Agent wit'.i a cousiderable area 
of young tea, has distinctly told us that the 
additional crop from this source will not do 
more than make up for the shortage he estimates 
from the older lea in his charge, from tlie causes 
wc h ive referred to. There is nothing alarming 
in tills. Tlie pests referred to can be fouijht and 
they are more or less fugitive according to 
season. The tea planters concerned mush soon 
comnieBCC a systematic attack on the enemies 
of their plant albeit that the tea-i)lant is one 
of the liarilicst and most persistent that has 
ever come under cultivation in the tropics. Nor 
is ir ncecllul to take a, long view of things or 
to say UKire than that, probably, the maximum 
export of Ceylon tea— m"/c.?* price permanently 
improve been attained. Wiiat is of imme- 
diate practical importance is tliat Ceylon is not 
likely to do better in 1S9J tiian in 1S9S, and 
that, therefore, I.onilou dealers must be prepared 
for a coMsidcrabiy shoiter sujiply, since Russia, 
Au-^tralia and -America aie bound to increase 
larijoly their direct demands. With no more 
Uian from SS to 90 million lb. of Ceylon tea 
going to Miiii'ing Ijaiio during the current year, 
surely pricei are bound to improve? 
71 
DUTCH COLONIAL TEA versus ENGLISH 
DITTO IN CONNECTION WITH THE 
RUPEE EXCHANGE. 
Under the above heading the Indische Mcrcv.ur 
of Dec. 17 last, has a further communisaiion 
from Mr. J. van dor Chys, dated Delft, Dec. 17, 
as follows : — 
A certain John McEwan writes in the Grocer 
of the .3rd inst. the following, which, in com- 
plement of my too former articles on this subject 
in the Indische Mercaur, is perhaps also of inter- 
est for a portion of its readers : 
[Then follon-s a translation of Mr. McEwan's 
letters ; and Mr. van der Chys concludes as fol- 
lows : — ] 
In connection with the foregoing it appears 
from the report of the directors of the " Tea 
Corporation of Ceylon" for the year en<ling 30th 
June last, that the results were anything but 
brilliant. That period, iiowever, was distinguished 
by an uneasiness in the whole (English) tea 
industry. The rise in the rupfe exchange, the 
increased prices of rice, togetlier with the high 
freights which during the course of the year 
were the order of the day, have caused a con- 
siderable increase in the cost of production, 
whilst on the other hand the low jirices of tea 
in general aggravated the position of affairs still 
further. Our lea production amounts for the year 
to 1,112,6061b. The profits realized on the 
plantation amount to £1,702, after writing off 
the loss for the first six months and the expenses 
incurred in Ceylon. After deducting the expenses 
in London and interest on capital the loss is 
reduced to £1,620. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
The Russian Tia M.irket. — The Baku correspondent 
of the Time) in a communication, in which he discusses 
the Russianising of the Black Sea trade, makes an 
interesting reference to the tea trade. He says : 
" Meanwhile Russia, by the creation of the Volunteer 
Fleet, rendered it possible to take into her own 
handi her trade with the Far East. This fleet, the 
joint product of national patriotism and of Govern- 
Bient aid, was designed to fulfil the double yurposa 
of commerce and defencf, to serve as a mercantile 
marine daring peace, and as a subsidiary naval force 
in event of war. I( received an annual subvention 
of £31,000 from the State, and by low freights quickly 
increased the eiporta from Odessa to Vladivostolf 
fire-fold, from 6,607 tons iu 1890 to 32,225 tons iu 
1391. Daring later years it has nndergone a de- 
velopment of much interest to the British tea industry 
in India and Ceylon. From the first it bronght back 
considerable qnautities of tea, and it determined to 
increase this branch of its business by calling at 
Colombo. The Ceylon planters promptly took ad- 
vantage of the cheap transit thus afforded, aud a 
considerable quantity of their tea is now tinding its 
way into South Russia, aud even across the Caucasus 
aud CaspiEQ into Central Asia. The efforts of Russia 
to destroy the ludiau laud trade with its Asiatic 
territories told in favour of the sea route. Under 
the regulations by which the Khanate of Bokhara was 
included in the Russian castoma' zone, the duty on tea 
imported from India through Persia and Afghanistan 
was raised, while the same »rticle, if lauded at tho 
Russian port of Bitnm on the Black Sea, was 
passed on in trsasit without paying duty, and 
was charged by the Bokhara customs house at loss 
than oue th;r,l of the duty levied on teas entered for 
consupiution at Batum. Such transit tea is of an 
inferior green quality and itromaius to be seen whether 
tho Indian tea e.xportera can ricjver by tho Ru^siau 
