190 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept, 1, 1903, 
To the Editor. 
TEA IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND AMERICA 
GENERALLY. 
Summerville, South Carolina, July 3, 
Dear Sirs,— Looking over the pages of your 
valued journal (Tropical Agriculturist), I find 
from a reference in the September, 1902, number 
that I should have received with the August 
Huraber, the tabulated statement of Messrs. Gow, 
Wilson & Stanton for 1901, 1 believe. It failed to 
arrive. Be so kind as to have it forwarded to me. 
The repeal of the war duty has lowered the price 
of tea to the extent of robbing the importer of any 
profit. The retail price of cheap teas remains about 
the same. The rubbishy teas are fortunately for 
us being re-shipped home. The present situation 
is annoying to the American producer, but only 
temporarily so. The free breakfast table " 
sentiment must finally yield. 
Just now I am amusing myself with reading the 
statements as to the relative yield of black and 
green teas from green leaf. That a lot of liquor 
may be pressed and twisted out of the steamed 
leaf and the same weight obtained, I eat not see 
how, unless the product be sold insufficiently dried. 
Nor do I understand the statement that green 
teas (of any real, competitive value) can just as 
well be made out of rather indififerent leaf. My 
experience in this country is that it pays to employ 
the smallest and best leaf for greens, and to cull 
the product very carpfnlly — Ynnrs very truly, 
CHARLES H. SHEPAKD. 
[Mr. Shepard is right : good green tea wants 
good leaf. But the price paid for it will not permit 
of the best Ceylou leaf, that is leaf grown at our 
highest elevations, being manufactured into green 
tea.— Ed. T.A.} 
sell readily, and it is the inferior tea that 
requires an enlarged demand over a larger 
area in order to get sold. As pointed out 
some years since, professional assistance 
VFas required in the cultivation and manur- 
ing of the plant aud in the manufacture of 
the leaf into tea, rather than in the 
analysis of the soils ; and in time no douht 
attention vrill be directed to these points 
in the manner suggested. 
JOHN HUGHES. 
PRIZES FOR MANAGERS TURNING 
OUT THE BEST TEAS. 
Analytical Laboratory, 79, Mark Lane, 
London, E.G. July 10- 
SlB,— The careful examination of the 
tabulated results of the sales of tea in 
Colombo from 505 , estates for the year 1902, 
as published on page 829 of the Tropical 
Agriculturist for June 1903, should be of 
great practical interest to all those who are 
Proprietors or Shareholders in Tea Companies 
in Ceylon. To my mind encouragement in 
the cultivation and manufacture of Tea is 
of the greatest importance and constitutes 
one of the most practical subjects that the 
Planters' Association should support. It is 
very well to give Prizes for the best Essays, 
but Prizes should I think be granted to the 
Managers of Estates that produce the highest 
average price in the tea sold. This would 
be a ' practical way of encouraging the 
manufacture of a superior quality of tea. 
I confess I have never felt much sympathy 
with the Tea Cess which seems to be a 
means of helping the producers of the 
poorest tea. Really good tea will always 
COTTON CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 
July 19. 
Dear Sir,— From what I know of Cotton- 
growiug in East Africa, I feel sure there are 
some thousands of acres in the low country 
of Ceylon which could not be put to a better 
purpose than cotton-growing. The variety, 
if I mistake not, was the Sea Island Cotton, 
and, judging from the way the bushes were 
bearing, the cultivation could not have worked 
more promising ; though shortly after my 
visit, to the only plantation theu growing 
this pi'oduct, I regret to say locusts did a 
very great deal of damage to the crop. Here, 
though we have no such voracious enemies 
to contend against, my own experience has 
shown me that one must guard against insect 
pests ; but cotton-growing, I should say, is 
one of the few products eminently adapted 
to the low-country Sinhalese. They have 
their buffaloes; they are good hands at plough- 
ing ; and it would not take them long to get 
the land into a fit state for planting ; but it 
is a product that requires cheap and easy 
transport for large bales have to be dealt 
with, and the usual price is about 5id per 
lb., though, 1 believe, at pi'esent, it stands at 
something like 7d. All round the maritime 
districts of Ceylon, for 15 to 29 miles inland, 
there must be land thoroughly well suited to 
the product; and any efforts to grow it 
should be confined, in the first instance, to 
low lying lands along the low-country railway 
lines, and rivers, within e;isy reach of such 
ports as Colombo, Galle and Jaffna, sav, and 
both the South Sea Island and Egyptian 
varieties of cotton should be tried. The out- 
turn of clean cotton is something like a third, 
the rest being almost all seed ; but any 
Syndicate going in for the cultivation 
thoroughly, ought to be prepared to manu- 
facture the seed into cake for cattle-feeding, 
and to extract the oil out of the seed as 
well, and I'm under the impression that tlie 
stalk itself can be put to some useful purpose. 
— I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
W. H. COWLEY. 
OUR TEA ESIATES AND VANISHING 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
Colombo, July 20. 
Sir,— I have read Mr John Eraser's letter, in your 
issue of Saturday last, ' criticising ' an article giving 
Dr. Willey's views on ' Our Tea Estates anil Vanishing 
Insectivorous Birds ' which appeared in your paper of 
the 13lb instant. I wish to be allowed to offer a few 
