698 
TfiE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. . [ArRiL 1, 1904. 
MR. JAS. SINCLAIR ON CEYLON PLANTING 
PROSPECTS. 
GOOD FUTCEE FOR TEA. 
The first of foiu- important figures in the 
Ceylon planting world— the others being 
Messrs T. JNorth Christie, G A Talbot and C E 
Stiachan— to leave Ceylon last month, was 
Mr, James Sinclair who has recently sailed by 
the Bibby ss. " Warwickshire", while the 
rest proceeded home together by the 
"Australia." Mr. James Sinclair s views on 
the local tea industry have always a special 
weight, and we were glad to learn from him 
in a conversation that he considers Tea 
to have still many a kick in hei- : and 
to be in fact in better heart everywhere, 
but especially in the lowcountry, than at 
the time he saw it three years ago when 
he held very much more gloomy views 
upon the whole industry. As Mr. Siflclair has 
achieved most extensive travelling through- 
out the planting districts since his arrrival 
- by the "Moldavia" on Jan. 3rd, the value 
of his opinion will be the more clearly seen 
he had not, in fact, (as it was put to us), 
had two clear hours to himself till his last 
week owing to the quantity of visiting and 
other business he tiad undertaken to do 
while in Ceylon. Liberal cultivation had, of 
course, had a great deal to do with the 
prosperous look of tea in a good many parts ; 
but what he noticed especially was that on 
properties that had reduced their manuring, 
cutting down expenses for a year or two 
past, the tea bush did not seem to have 
suffered in the least— but, if anything, to 
have improved. This observation was after 
all due allowance had been made for the 
continued effect of previous seasons of costly 
attention to the soil. He recalled especially 
former prophecies that tea would before 
long be snuffed out of the Kelani Valley; bub 
places that he would have expected to show 
a decline in healthiness looked better than 
ever, perhaps partly because they had not 
been made to yiela so heavily in the past 
year, but also because of the not yet en- 
tirely realised hardiness of the tea bush 
and its adaptability to local conditions, 
CEYLON'S FUTURE IS IN RUBBER. 
On the other hand, while he foresaw many 
years of prosperity for tea— the late Mr 
Williamson's (Williamson, Magor & Co., 
Calcutta) tea-bushes planted in Assam (better 
climate though it be, with its winter rests) 
60 years ago, by the way, are still thriving ! — 
Mr Sinclair holds that the product of Ceylon in 
the future is Rubber. He would not be sur- 
prised if in thirty years' time the whole of 
Dimbula were covered with rubber. He was 
no believer in the theory that rubber of all 
three kinds could not grow at almost any local 
elevation. The latest information from the 
Amazon in Brazil was to the effect that, 
although very fine trees had been found — 
and these usual'.y tapped— on the low-lying 
banks, magnificent rubber-bearing trees had 
also been found higher up the mountains and, 
for all we knew, similar trees might be 
grown in the higher districts of Ceylon. 
The capacity tor bearing latex, too, had 
to be tested in each tree ; and it was by no 
mean* always the case that the healthiest- 
looking tree always bore the most rubber. 
Hence- as an important extract we publish 
elsewhere from a Madras paper shows— it is of 
the utmost importance to plant seed that is 
selected from trees that are known to be rich 
in latex. So far for the European planter. And 
as usual, Mr Sinclair thought, it would not 
be till his success became obvious and a matter 
of common notoriety, that the natives would 
take up the product. As regards Govern- 
ment's want of enterprise in not making 
sufficiently large blocks of land available for 
rubber investors, Mr Sinclair was less 
emphatic. Perhaps the Goverment realised 
—as he for his part did— that rubber was 
just the product to suit the native of Ceylon. 
He would plant it on every bit of chena 
that he could lay his hands on. It would 
grow while he slept and grow quicker, too, 
than coconuts. When the time came for 
tapping, he would awake and pierce the tree 
(with a cup to catch the latex) and sleep 
again ; and when the cup was full he would 
awake once more and remove his takings 
and get his price for them. But, for the 
European who handled the product, there was 
a great deal yet to be learnt about rubber ; 
and the sooner the latest American infor- 
mation were made known in Ceylon the 
better for the rubber-growing portion ot the 
planting community.— We hope to be able to 
meet this want before very long. 
Green Tea Prospects.— The represen- 
tatives of American tea firms who have 
been in Calcutta taking samples of green 
tea have been criticising the samples ob- 
tained and giying some valuable information 
as to their requirements. According to 
" Indian Planting and Gardening " they have 
expressed themselves in unqualified terms 
as to the necessity of producing pale liquor, 
which is held in the highest esteem in 
America. "Given this characteristic, green 
teas of all sorts will be found useful to the 
American dealers. Good neat leaf is also a 
desideratum ; but pale cup stands easily first, 
Pale cup, as we have continually assured our 
readers, is easy to ensure, provided a few 
simple precautions are taken, and it is the 
whole battle in green tea. New York advices 
state that green teas in the American 
market have already advanced two cents 
with prospect of touching still higher figures. 
This is a rise of a full anna in our coinage 
and opens up a fair prospect for prices in the 
coming season which, combined with the 9 
pie bonus, should put green tea on a good 
footing." The American tea men were 
also strong upon the advisability of 
offering thoroughly clean leaf teas and on 
striving after good packing. " It is a delicate 
article and will not stand faulty packages," 
they say. The American trade has, according 
to these gentlemen a predilection for a 
particular kind of chest, containing some 
70 to 80 lb. From our Indian contemporary 
we note that the keeping quality of their 
teas have been called in question— we presume 
by these Americans— and they mention the 
Central Finishing Factory in Calcutta as 
prepared to turn out teas in a method that 
will compare favourably with Japan. 
