726 
TITK TlJOPlCAL AGEICULTUBIST. [Aphil 1, IfiM. 
TFIE AMKl'JCAN VKK T\[:J)E. 
MK y. VI '•<) '< vii;v\ 
Mr. H. i\. ■ , . ,.11-:^ 
(Jeyioii I'-'i vj ' - J V • ■■ a i,' ... i .j ttn iVi •! 
1)V the N.L. ' • r. z i'-li " a Jew drtyt* go. 
yimrtly iifter "iie (if oui iiipresentai ivet. Imd a 
conversation witli him at tlic Galle Face Hotel 
rf'gartliiif^ the progress of Ci-yloii lea iu Ameiica. 
'I'he increase he said hud befn very slow. In the 
lirst place the averai^e of tea con^'llnlt•li in iheBiatee 
WHS only altoiir a jionnd an<l h l liiid per aniniiii 
|)er head wheri-as (•olf<-e wen ink -u iu ' inch lai>;er 
(jiliiiititieR :haii i' \> .ir* 'in K <,-.'} \< ii(*o|de. 
THK tFKKCT OE IHK W\B. 
In answer to u (juu^tioii .i« ihf i-ttect ihi- war 
had on Ceylon u a, Mr. Pineo -aid that a 
heavy duty was put on tea in-st^-ad of tioihing as was 
formerly the c.ise. whereas cuflee wah exempted. 
The effect of this was that ihu lar-re dealers bought 
up lar^<e quantitic.", previoii" to i he iniposit ion of 
the duty in July las>t and did not;,'oto the rnat ket 
again till recently when their neciiinlated ntot-k hail 
been exiiausted. " Did this le!<sen the amount of 
teaRenerally sold" asked our reporter ?— Mr. I'ineo 
thou^iht it was about the same as usual and would 
show no decrease in Ceylon, 
CHINA AM) .lAI'AM. 
The bulk of the tea sold was Ironi China and 
Japan, and the latter country was working very 
energetically to increase its sale by advertising 
in the pap'-rs with arput success. » eyhm tea 
was however finding its "ay .'inionvst tlie p'-cple. 
Ceylon tea was otien blei'ded wiih the China 
and Japan teas. The traders wfie very reluctant 
to let (>eylon become [)opnlar amongst the people 
considering that the prulits on China and J.ipan 
were grfatcr than on Ceylon. The idea was that 
one pound of our staple product displaced t ivo 
and a half pounds of china and Japan ti-a a- 
it went so much further and so here the trade 
suffered a loss. Theprolibon Ceylon was as hall as 
greatinth* aggregate as China and Japan teas. 
TIIF, PRKSS. 
A great deal had been saul in the American 
press but the papers !iad as a whole taken 
very little interest in the subject and he had tried 
to work through the |)ress by advertisiny; laryely. 
It w,as Mr. Mackenzie who had initiated the ad- 
vertisement about I^aily Cnrzon Idcii.g Indian and 
Ceylon tea and it evidently pleased the Yankees. 
The tendency was now to make tiie Ameri- 
can feel veiy friendly towards England Every- 
where he had lieen, the feeling h.id entirely 
changed. Formerly the American press 
never allowed an opportunity to escape of 
talking against England, but now in the 
same way they always praised her up. The 
American tariff was a great blot on their Go- 
vernment, but so long as the Government of 
the country changed every tour years there 
seemed to be uncertainty of its being done away 
with. The control of politics more or less seemed 
to be in the grasp of the great monopolists ami 
railway and other corporations 
Our reporter asked Mr. Pineo what he tliouoht 
was the result of the Tea Campaign in America. 
He rei)lied they bad every reason to wish to keep 
the American market open which could only be 
done by wise methods and expendinj; a good 
deal of money. Of course, Mr. Pineo said : I 
mean a judicious use of money. You do nob 
want to spend money right and left, tor you 
might as well threw it into the sea. Mr. Pineo 
said I think the method pursued by Mr. Mac 
kenzie at tlie time he commencecl was the bes 
that could have bc< n devised, but I ilnnk 
now that he lias gained exi»»"innce of the 
.\nieiicHn market and the Aiueiic«ia people 
-oitieihiiig better could be done by him. ^\ hat 
tliHt better, waw Mr. Pineo did not ►uggeet. 1 ho 
ir^Je in the United Stales hated the idea of 
Ceylon tea gettinij a firm footing in the market 
and would do all they can to prevent it. On 
the other htnd in Canada indifference was ex- 
pressed In both the States and Cana«la the 
trade want a low priced tea to sell at a high 
one. »o that the people did not get the quality 
they Hhould for the money. The part where 
tea was most used in Canada waa the maiitime 
province, where they drink 6 lb. per head per 
annum, a favourable eonuasi lo the Slatt*. iu 
the latter country Ceylon tea wax consumed the 
most in the Central and Eastern Htatee. lo the 
South coffee reigned supreme and in the Western 
and P.icitic Stales the trades was in th« 
hands of China and Japan. 
A " KEEPING" TEA WAKTID. 
In conclusion Mr. Pineo «aid vliat «as 
wanted was that Ceylon fhonid improve the 
(jiiality of the tea ei'pecially with ttg&rd to 
its pioperty and keeping powers as Cejion 
tea werjt olf very quickly. He had risited the 
most celebrated of the Japan districts and he 
must say the methods u«ed for k^ping the pro 
perties might be learned with adfantajie in Ceylon. 
Mr. Pineo is about to join one of t^e firms in 
Colombo with a view to buying tea and shipping 
direct to Canada. 
CEYLON TEA IN* RUSSIA. 
Mr. 8. J, Tokmakoff, who is in charge of 
the newly opened local branch of Messrs. 
Tokmakoff, Molntkf)ff & Co., Russian tea 
buyers, who do business in Foochow, Kin- 
kiang, Tientsin, Moscow and Ki.ichta, has 
been interviewed by a representative of our 
contemporary to whom he said that in Rus- 
sia they did not drink pure Ceylon tea be- 
cause it was not sufiftoiently soft in fiavoiir. 
Ceylon tea, however, was used for bU-nding 
with China's. Tea which came to Russia 
over the European frontier and hy saa was 
dutiable to the extent of 21 gold "roubles of 
2s fid each on every pood of 4ii Jb., a Ru.s8ian 
Sound being equal" to I'l English lb. The 
uty on caravan teas was only 13 gold roubles 
upon the same amount of tea. A much 
higher rate— about 'SO to 40 per cent— was 
charged for railway freight of tea brotight 
to Odessa by all ves-sels other than Russian, 
and this affected all tea alike. He was now 
buying entirely for the Russian market, but 
would buy for any other country if he got 
orders. He was also prepai-ed to do busi- 
ness in other products. Darjeeling teas were 
very much liked because of their soft flavour, 
but the consumption of Indian tea was not 
advancing so fast as that of Ceylon. 
Black tea made into bricks was always drunk 
in Siberia. The bricks were made by machi- 
nery out of " fannings " and dust. Green tea 
was also made into blocks, the old green leaves 
being used. 
Mostly cheap and medLum teas, fi-om 6d 
to 8d, were in demand. They did not like 
a large leaf. They were rather dissatisfied 
with Ceylon packages. They liked paper 
between the lead and the tea. Lead was 
very bad. The lead got broken, and the tare 
was very heavy. Momi wood Traa too heary. 
