'248 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
[Oct. 1, ]901. 
PRODUCE, PLANTING AND COMMER- 
CIAL NOTES. 
A paragraph has appeared in some of the papers 
here to the effect that Mr. Wilson, United states 
Secretary of Agriculture, haa stated that the United 
States '' will soon bo able to produce all the tea 
she needs. Last year the departnrient sent tea plants 
to every Gulf State for experimental purposes. At 
Summerville, South Carolina, the two tons grown 
there last year so satisfied the New York investors 
that they immediately formed a syndicate and bought 
6,000 acres to devote to tea cultivation." Those tea 
experts who know the flavour of this home-grown tea 
are less sanguine than Mr. Wilson about the success 
of American tea — at any rate, this aide of eight or 
ten vears. No doubt if the duty on tea is maintained 
the American tea industry, thus protected, will some 
day assume proportion, but this is all the more 
reason why Indian and Ceylon planters should capture 
as much of the American market as they can, and 
endeavour to stick to and develop it as promptly as 
possible. It is well worth a strong e&ori.— Home and 
Colonial Mail, Aug. 9. 
THE TEAPOT IN INDIA. 
By Sir Edwin Arnold. 
(Daily Teleqraioli, Aug. Sid.J 
In a recent speech upon the Assam labour 
question Lord Curzon made a suggestion which 
may prove to be the beginning of a new social 
era in India. Full of ideas as is the accomplished 
Viceroy, I am inclined to thinlc that the most 
brilliant and fruitful of them all was set on foot 
when his Excellency asked why India could not 
be induced to drink her own tea, Why not, in- 
deed ? we may well inquire. It is known that 
she grows the best tea in the world, and Assam, 
indeed, is the original mother-country of the little 
hush vvhich has become so famous and necessary. 
Yet, as a matter of fact, hardly an ounce of tea, 
black or green, is consumed i)y Indian natives ; 
it is still "as strange and foreign to them as it 
was to Mr Pepys when, on Sept. 28, 1660, he 
wrote in his diary : " I did send for a cup of 
tea, a China drink, of which I had never drank 
before." That was the beginning of the " cup 
that cheers" in England, and it was about the 
same time when the chairman of the East India 
Company, writing to Calcutta, added the famous 
postscript to his letter, " Tell our agent to buy 
and send hither si.x pounds of the best tay he can- 
gette." And now what a business it is ! India 
and Ceylon between them do an enormous trade, 
which has quite outpaced the tea-gardens of China, 
and could and will be greatly extended. Japan 
and tlie Celestial Empire are her principal rivals ; 
but Japan drinks a great deal of her own and 
sends all the surplus to the United States, the 
world in general, which in this case really means 
Kussia, America and England, being supplied, 
the lirst-named entirely from China and the others 
from the general market. Now it would be an 
excellent thing if India would take to the diitik- 
ing of tea. That it may become 
A UNIVERSAL AND POPULAR BEVERAGE 
is proved by Japan, where, taken without milk 
or sugar, its use is constant and pervading. 
Many" other nations have special drinks. Tl e 
South American takes his "mate"; the African 
his " pomhe " ; the Polynesian " kava," and so on. 
|jut the Hindoo has always been contente4 with 
simpler water. I hardly know of any other potable 
among them except tlie liquid in which rice has 
been boiled, which they call " conjee," and some- 
times, perhaps, milk and water, with a little spice 
in it. The Hindoo housewife does not make stews 
nor soups — forbidden these things by her creed — 
and very rarely does she provide anything like a 
vegetable broth. Most ol the household food, 
such as chupattis, grain, &c., is cooked on 
sheets of iron, the saucepan coniing very little 
into the domestic cuisine. The Hindoo housewife 
knows nothing of cocoa or chocolate, and has never 
even tasted that cifiee of which her Mohammedan 
sister partakes. But what an excellent thing it 
would be if Lord Curzon's idea should make her a 
tea-drinker! Taken as the Japanese take it, 
pure and simple, without cumbrous paraphernalia, 
tea-drinking would well suit the population. First 
of all it would, as in Japan and China, lead to 
the general habit of boiling all the drinking- 
water. That one custom would save lives by 
hundreds of thousands, for the peasants, once habi- 
tuated, would take cold tea with them to the 
fields, and avoid for themselves and their children 
the terrible- evils of the village tank. Next, tea, 
though only slightly nourishing, prevents waste 
of tissue, and helps food to assimilate ; so that 
the trifle spent in a cheap but good leaf would be 
well repaid. Thirdly, it is a social cup, conducing 
to conversation and family peace, and would be a 
great boon to the patient, gentle womanfolk who 
have such few pleasures. 
Of course, there must be no question of five 
o'clock fashions and elaborate tea equipages. A 
kettle, a teapot, and some cups should comprise all 
the machinery necessary. Milk and sugar are in- 
novations introduced by the West ; and spoons, 
plates, and cream-jugs are not in popular know- 
ledge. Every morning the Hindoo household sends 
forth a mother, an aunt, or a sister to the village- 
well, where the chatty of copper, brass, or baked 
clay is filled to the brim, corked with a tuft of 
convolvulus or lemon-giass, and carried back to the 
hut for the day's consumption. The cooking stove 
is a hole in the ground with a few stones, the fuel 
charcoal or cow-dung cakes. Everything is primi- 
tive, and will remain so. "V et, if once Lord Curzon's 
good idea should strike root into the soil, I hardly 
know what boon could prove greater than tea- 
drinking established as 
A HABIT AMONG THE HINDOOS. 
Beside the countless lives saved by boiling the 
water, the homes made pleasant by the little social 
graces which cluster round the tea-pot, and the 
pride and comfort of a little luxury embellishing 
daily life, it would be a stupendous lift for the tea 
industry of the land. Accordingly the Viceroy's 
suggestion has been intelligently taken up. An 
official crusade for the propagation of the tea- 
kettle has actually been started. We learn from a 
high Indian authority : ' A tea distributing agency 
has been formed, and Messrs. Andrew Yule & Co., 
have undertaken the work of distribution for three 
years without remuneration except out-of-pocket 
expenses. The Tea Association hasgiven, a grant of 
40,000 rupees. The large agency houses , headed by 
Messrs. Finlay, Messrs. Muir, Messrs. Yule, Messrs. 
MacNeill, Messrs. Octavius Steel and others, have 
agreed to contribute three-quarters of a million 
pounds of tea annually. With the present low 
prices, the native consumption is expected to reach 
15,000,000 or 20,000,000 pounds. If this is achieved, 
nothing more is liksly to be heard of oyer- 
