Aug. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
95 
that prices will improve. How is it — we ask — tlial 
the odIv scheme which met with any pronounced, 
favour — the reduction scheme— lias beeu so naiver- 
sally condemned ? We have absolutely come to the 
the end of our tether as regards quality. We car , 
and do, change the quality ot our teas to meet 
the requirements of the markets, but we invariably 
make a thorough mess of it. The market howled 
for coarse tea and paid up to 6d. for it ; with 
great joy, we responded. The extra duty was 
imposed, but tons of coarse tea were on the sea 
and in our tea liouses — if had to go on. 
Then came such foul abuse regarding quality 
that every decent manager began to blush, and 
It ended up by Mr. Skrine setting up a cry of 
"stinking fi.'sh." He got a special man to find 
microbes on drj/ tea. The tea they got hold of 
was dry, yet rotten. May the Lord help us and 
give us peace because, as the sentence goes, 
" there is none other to fight for us." I am speaking 
out on behalf of tea managers, myself included. 
I have done all that can be done. I have re- 
duced my expenditure, and forfeited the greater part 
of my commission. If this state ot affairs lasts 
much longer, the quality of my tea must suffer. 
I shall have to reduce rolling, and fuel, and labour 
in the teahouse. My garden receives the mini- 
mum of cultivation, and will have to do with 
less. I shall soon have to leduce my own pay, or 
look for fresh work. 
None of this is my fault, (I speak for hundreds 
of managers);;the fault lies with you, {the owners). 
I tell you out straight that, unless you get a Cess, 
and a heavy Cess, your properties will be closed. 
Some of you, like Mr Rutherford, own properties 
that may weather a/ity storm. Will you refuse help 
to us who have been less fortunate. Some of ycu 
have helped in the past, and are willing to lielpin 
the future, but naturally you do not move heaven 
and earth for redress; When it comes to the vote 
will you help us? 
There is room for all, and for double our present 
area of tea. If Ceylon and India will combine 
and have a Cess worthy of the Industry we shall 
be able to conquer the Tea world. 
// Ceylon will let good [ndian tea in free of 
duty, she ivoiild he able to blend her poor teas and 
make, them vahiahle. 
COLOMBO SHOULD BE OUR DISTRIBUTING CENTRE 
FOR AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA AND RUSSIA IN 
EUROPE. 
If it comes to a fight, India is much stronger 
than Ceylon. We shall be able, by means of 
cheaper labour, and bigger ventures, to crowd yon 
out. You supply 37 per cent to our 53 per cent to 
British consumption. We shall be alble to run 
you down — down — down as we did China, by being 
more capable of expansion than you are. It will 
be a dreadful fight, but we are bound to wiu. 
"We don't wane to figlit but by jingo if we do !" 
&c. &c. Again I appeal as a manager — to the 
owners; why c.o.nnot you agree? and pull together, 
and make our work certain ? 
Up to now, you — the owners directors, agents, 
of tea properties — have pocketed the proceeds. Tfe 
is time now to think, and to think seriously ; to 
formulate some plan|'and' sf icA- to it. In t!ie past 
your managers have pulled you through each 
crisis as it came up. I have recently learnt the 
reason why " e cannot help you any more, it ix, 
because there is only seven million pounds of 
China tea to be displaced jin British markets. 
We can no more prevent our expansion than 
can the sehool-boy. We skick out at each end 
and our chests are cramped by our clothes. You 
have to get us a new suit, and if you irnagine 
that a nevv suit costing seven lakhs of rupees 
will cover our partial nudity you are mistaken. 
But it will relieve the pressure on the chest and 
let us breathe. I beg to be excused if I am too 
outspoken, or frivolous, or for any other fault. 1 
understand that there is a crisis, a bitter fight 
for existence. I cannot understand this lethargy, 
this utter apathy, this heathenish way of sitting 
down to meet our fate. 
We, the managers, have trusted the owners to 
find a solution of the difficulty. , If they will not or 
cannot find it, we shall be better employed in 
serving men who can manage their business. If 
another war was to the fore, I believe that we 
could organize a managers' strike, and take the 
best brains out of the country. At present men 
are tmiting ; &ome of them will lose their reason 
from the strain, many their lives, and more their 
employment ; a large proportion of owners and 
shareholders will lose their properties. A few will 
gain in t!ie end, and tea will become an industry 
of bloated properties and trusts. Am 1 placing more 
than the truth before you ? If so, the papers lie. I 
glean my forebodings from them. Have I ex- 
ceeded my station by an inch ? If so, it is for the 
benefit of my fellow-managers. We, the managers, 
cannot " strike," but let us speak out, and blow 
the consequences ; nothing worse can happen than 
what we have to face in 1901, if our owners are 
asleep. A. C. 
COFFEE IN COSTA RICA. 
{From an ex-Ceylon resident.) 
Costa Rica, April, 1901. 
Coffee planting and curing are carried on in 
this country in ways and under conditions peculiar 
to it. The only one which resembles it in some 
respects is the sister republic, San Salvador, as 
regards the size of the farms, and their being 
owned piincipally by native farmers who with few 
esceptions do all the manual labor necessary on 
their own lands, besides going out to look for 
work on larger estates when not too far off. The 
farmer sells his crop to different curing sta- 
tions, and between these a lively competition 
has at all times existed, thus securing to the 
producer a lion's share of the profits, which 
would be much greater if he were to 
undertake to increase the productiveness of his 
land by an effective .system of manuring, which 
alas IS almost unheard-of, and cannot be hoped 
for. The present generation shut their eyes and 
ears to the most convincing of practical proofs. By 
this it can be inferred that coffee culture in 
general is not in a prosperous condition an regards 
crops produced, or prices of the same ; the world's 
maikeis naturally being the cause of the drop in 
the.se of late years. With some exceptions, in the 
neighbourhood of the citie.s, the land under cul- 
tivation is owned by the small farmer who plants 
hi: c'lft'ee in lots which range from one acre up- 
wards, and cultivates it in a manner which can 
well be termed orthodox, his principal implement 
being the broad shovel, in the handling of which Fl'e 
is an ;m1 pt, so much so that no imported labour 
is (rinployed to any extent, as all trials in this 
■-lii-f jti'.ii! have resulted in failures. The cost of 
keeping np a manzana (IJ acre) is between 30 and 
40 colones per annum and means four cleanings a 
