Ave. 1, 1901.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AaPJOULTlTRIST, 
99 
PRODUCE, PLANTING AND 
COMMERCIAL NOTES. 
An endeavour is being made in the United 
States by lirtns prominently identified whh the 
Japanese tea trade to form a bis combination 
in order to control the market. We learn from 
one American jonrnal that the object is to "do 
away with the ruinous competition wliieh the 
trade has recently been undergoing, which has 
placed Japan tea at a distinct disadvantage with 
the China and other teas which are hred and 
packed by natives." We like the term "other 
teas"; perhaps the firms who wish to establish 
a Japanese tea trust are sensitive on the subject 
of Indian and Ceylon tea in general and the gveea 
tea movement in particular. 
The following letter from Mr P C Larkin, of 
Toronto, written toBIr Mackenzie, on reading in our 
columns the report of the Ceylon Commissioner on 
the American tea market, is of interest. He says :— 
' ' I have read with a great deal of interest your letter 
in the Home J; Coloninl MdU of May 17th. Mr 
Drummond, of the Angl«-Amevican Direct Tea 
Trading Company, Limited, was good enough to 
bring it over to me. With regard to the figures 
which you gave as being the q^uantity of greens we 
take per month from Whittall and Co., you 
could have increased these one-Hfth, as ihey ship 
us every month at least 24,000 lb. of Ceylon green 
tea. In addition to their shipments, we have 
bought many hundreds of chests from Odell, 
Crosfieid and Lampard, and others. \ ou know 
what I have been predicting for the last eighteen 
months ; that is, that these Ceylon greens will en- 
tirely displace Japans in America. This is surely 
coming to pass. It may take twenty-five years or 
live years, just as the planters wish. It the Indian 
planter would do just as T, and dozens of other 
advertisers, do, viz., advertise, advertise, advertise, 
it would bring about the desired state of affairs in 
a very short time. If they don't advertise it will 
take them a mighty long time, however superior 
their goods may be in quality. I have shown you 
an instance up in North Bay. There is a firm up 
there who, under great persuasion, took a few 
pounds of Ceylon green tea with their black tea 
order. We got a list of names of ,Jnpan tea drink- 
ing customers, and sent out sample lead packets to 
them. This brought about sales, and made them 
fairly enthusiastic about our Ceylon greens, as 
they had been about our "Salada" blacks for some 
years. They said they could sell very large r|uaiiti- 
ties of the greens, and displace Japans with them, 
if we would do something towards advertising. 
Well, I've shown you what we did. We subsidised 
them to advertise in their local paper, and you have 
seen the full pages and half-pages they have 
taken at diU'erent times to advertise our Ceylon 
greens. What lias bceii the co-flsequence '? They 
have had three 500 lb. orders, the originals of 
which have all been sent on to you. Now 
that is only bne very, very small point in our 
whole territory ; and we cannot afford to suli- 
sidise all over, as you know ; bub it should be 
done by the Ceylon and Endian planters from one 
end of America to the othei'. There is a whole 
district around about North Bay now where the 
pi'ople are interested in Ceylon green tea, and 
who are drinking it ; and Japan teas there have 
been displaced. It was experimental on our part, 
the Bubsidisinjs; of thi& firm, and ^ve have shown 
you the results. It may be said that the planters 
cannot afford to advertise. Neither can I afford 
to do so, but I can still afford less to drivel. I 
nite some remarks in your letter about 40,000'0I3 
dols or oO.OOO'OO dols per year. It is not 
forty or fifty thousand dollars per year you 
want to exploit the United States and Canada 
properly, but six times forty or fifty thousand 
dollars, so that every newspaper will be fall of 
Ceylon and Indian Tea, samples will abound, 
and so that tlie matter will be forced upon the 
attention of the whole people of the country 
in a very short period. This would bring about 
such a relief to the London market that teas 
would be a penny per pound higher than they 
otherwise would be. I am awfully glad that you 
look favourably on my .suggestion of Ceylon teas 
of Oolong flavour. If this can be done it will be 
making our path still easier, and when they have 
succeeded in making su;h admirable greens I 
fancy they can produce anything in the tea line. 
If we had had greens in Canada here nine years 
ago, when I took up blacks, what an easy path 
we would have had, compared' with what 
we have experienced. The same niay be 
said of the last four or five years in 
the United States. Our sales there would have 
been at least double what they are now. A 
drinker of Oolong is just as much wedded to his 
peculiar kind tea as a drinker of Japan is to 
his kind, or as a drinker of black is to hi :, and 
they can only be weaned away from their kinds 
by the greatest efforts, and it requires but one- 
fiftieth of the ellbrts to produce results when you 
are offering them a tea of a similar flavour and 
kind." ^ 
Last week we quoted some comments from the 
Globe, referring to Indian and Ceylon tea com- 
panies. These comments have called forth the foN 
lowing reply from Mr. George Seton, who, writ- 
ing to the Globe, says : " A paragraph in your 
issue of the 28;h instant with reference to Indian 
and Ceylon tea companies seems likely to lead to 
misapprehension. Owing to excessive extensions 
of the plantations during ihe good times, and to con- 
sequent over-production, tea prices have dropped 
very low, and results to tea companies last 
year are poorer than previously. Escat-e^^ pro- 
ducing high-class tea, and those with a low cost 
of production, have done pretty well ; but those 
with a weak financial position, or whose expenses 
of administration were high, have done poorly. 
The home market is at present over-supplied with 
tea, but foreign and colonial markets are every 
year taking off increasing quantities, and this 
was especicilly the case last year. British inves- 
tors who purcliased share? at top prices are no 
doubt disappointed, but np to 1898 they received 
good dividends, and they will doubtless do so 
again. Dividends, recently announced for 1900, 
have ranged from 1.3 per cent, down to nil. Share 
capital of 45 representative companies, whose 
market value rose in 1897 to 12^ millions sterling, 
has now dropped to little over seven millions ! 
An 'endeavour has been made to collectively re- 
strict production, but it has been found im- 
possible to form a combination, as lias been 
done in the nitrate-proilucing trade. Ke- 
strictioa of output, however, is being largely 
adopted by the leading companies, and all 
extensions, it is believed, have been stopped. Under 
these circumstances, then, the traders likely, even- 
tually, to recover its prosperous condit;ion," 
