Feb. 1, 1904.] THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
52$ 
INDIA'S RUBBER EXrERIMENT. 
The latest correspondence (p G ) between the 
alert Secretaiy of tlie Ceylon Association 
and the India Office, where tlie finger ot 
Mr, Bvodrick is first seen as far as Ceylon 
letters are concerned, appears elsewhere 
tenight— dealing with the reported extension 
of the Indian Experimental Rubber Plantation 
beyond 10,000 acres. The official statement 
that its production (100 tons of rubber) does 
not exceed l/500th of the world's output 
was answered by Mr. Leake with a reply, 
which seemed to show that the India 0<fice 
was out by about 99 per cent ! But Mr. 
Brodrick, for once, scored— if his information 
be correct— by pointing out that the rubber 
in Burmah (Tenasserim) experiment is grown 
sparsely, in forest, and cannot give the 200— 
300 lb. yield of the Seychelles or of Ceylon. 
What is now wanted, after the publication of 
this correspondence, is that a deputation 
of representative planters from the Straits, 
Ceylon, India and perhaps the Seychelles 
should visit this Burmah plantation and 
issue an independent report. If the experi- 
ment is honestly and entirely for the benefit 
of these planters, such a report should be 
made available and could not fail to be of the 
highest value— if it described the growth, tap- 
ping, conditions of the climate, soil, &c., 
and general results, 
» 
A DUTCH REPORT ON CEYLON TEA 
PLANTATIONS. 
Mr Blaze, the Principal of Kingswood College, 
has translated a referecce to Mr W D Gibbon in 
the Report on the Tea Plantations in British India 
and Ceylon by Messrs. Netcher and HoUe which 
we noticed a month or two back. It is a very 
well got up book. The panoramic picture of 
Maskeliya from the Media Hill to Caskieben 
ridge is excellent. The extract alluded to is as 
follows : — 
(Page 53).— We enjoyed in Ceylon the great privi- 
' lege of travelling through a portion of the tea aiatricta 
with an old planter, Mr W D Gibbon, still Visiting 
Agent of several tea estates, who can speak of a forty- 
years' experience as a planter. In almost all districts 
was his honour well-known, and, of course, he spoke 
with a full knowledge of the early history of their 
plantations. He had known Maskeliya and Dimbula 
when all was still coffee, after that Peruvian Cin- 
chona Bark ; and had had a very active share in 
bringing the tea plantations to their present position. 
Talking with him on the nature of the land he said 
also that very much of the original soil was washed 
away in the course of years, but gave it as his opinion 
that very fertile soil was still left 
CEYLON A^^D JAPAN TEA AT ST. LOUIS 
EXHIBITION. 
JAPANESE METHODS ; A GRAVE 
PROBLEM. 
That the Japanese are to display their tea at 
the St. Louis K.-cposition mfikes pleasant hearing 
so far as that fnct goes, for whatever is done for tea 
at that great fair in a normal and unselfish way 
cannot but redound to the welfare ot tea as a 
whole and be of special benefit to the tea s-hown as 
a definite kind. It is to be hoped that the tea 
66 
of such other countries as have not yet been an- 
nnniiced will be on view, ;uid if enterprise of liiat 
kind Ikls not as yet had its bef^inniiitj, may the 
Nalioiifil Ti a Association be able to bring it about. 
Anyway lea will be effectively seen in the displays 
of Ceylon, Inilia and Japan, and instructive to 
^^alch will bs the livalry between these tea.s 
demonst) aled in their pretty and novel eeltings. 
The Ceylon people will have move money at their 
(ll.'iponal so far as the exhibit goes, but the Japan 
men will go ahead of them in the business enter- 
prise v.hich will support the exhibit. The Ceylon 
men vill merely show and demonstrate the tea, 
leaving liie purchases which may grow out of the 
exhibit to be effected in such tea shops in 
St. Louis and elsewhere as may have the lea 
on sale. An exception is the plan of a manu- 
facturer hi a well-known brand, exhibiting in the 
same (^eylon house, who will push jhe sale of bia 
tea outside the fair grouiuls, but otherwise the 
Ceylon men look for profit in the stimulation the 
lea trade in {general will receive by the advertise- 
ment of their own tea. The Japs are much deeper 
and more subtle iu their method, and they are 
being freely and unfavorably criticised on that 
very account. Their exhibit is really in the hands 
of what is commonly known as the "Japanese 
Tea Trust," To all accounts this is about as 
nionopr)li<lie, ruthless and unswerving to be the 
whole thing in the Japan tea line as the most up- 
to date trust can well be. Still, while we here com- 
plain, we cannot altogether find fault too sweep- 
ingly, for we taught them the way to form a trust. 
Some time ago the advantages of a close and 
exclufi> e combination managing the sale of Japan 
tea was brought to the attention of the Japan tea 
men, but the proposition fell through, and then the 
Japs organised one of their own, and this aided Ly 
governjueiit he'p has so far gained control of the 
Japan tea trade as to be able to swing ib whichever 
way it wills, and it is today making large profi s 
by the extraordinary ri.'-e in the price of Japan tea 
i"} has been able to secure, realising an advance of 
five cents a pound on the tea despite that its pro- 
duction has been as large as heretofore and in the 
lace of a lemavkably declining demand in Canad?, 
But, not satisfied with this foothold and inclusion 
of a large business, the ambition of the company 
seems to be to acquire for itself the entire bnsinesa 
in Japan tea here. And to that end there has 
been much undercutting of price, cuts winch 
the Caucasian tea men have not been 
able to meet, not having the assis- 
tance of financial patronage from the Japan gov- 
ernment. There has been much complaint in 
the trade in consequence, and not a little hostility 
and ill-will against the so-called trust engendered. 
In this manner it has come about that the trust 
.will exhibit tea at St. Louis, but at the same time 
establish agencies in the places of probable sale, 
the agencies taking the place of the ordinary 
channels of tea heretofore existing. This should 
tend further to help along the monopolistic ambi- 
tion of the great trust. We presume this is strictly 
legitimate and is the trust's own affair. Yet we 
cannot but voice the complaint of tea men here 
that the exhibition should be made a means not 
so much of improving trade conditions for them- 
selves as of injuring what they have. The 
potential benefit does not lie towards them. The 
exhibiting plans of the Ceylon men would benefit 
the entire trade. Altogether it is a pretty but 
a grave problem.— (New York) Tea tO Coffee Trade 
Journal, Dec, 1st. 
