144 
THE TROPICAL AQR!CULTUR!ST, 
[August i, i8gr. 
PACKET TEAS. 
For some years past a new development of tha tea 
trade has, to the surprise of the older wholesale and 
retail dealers, Hssumed a good deal of pronjinence. 
If the aaver jise rnent columns of the newspapers, and 
startling placards at railway stations and on hoardinge, 
form a criterion, the public has taken a liking to tea 
psoked iu leaden packages, and under fancy nameR— 
the latter ':rt,vring generally little connection with any 
locality where the leaves are grown. That the public 
should buy, to a cfrtain extent, anything persistently 
forced upon its attention, ia perbaps possible, but 
tea packed in small leaden packets would have seemed 
a somewhat hopeless direction, in which to attempt 
to drive John Bull's tastes. Tea in bulk, in a proper 
lead-lined chest, undoubtedly keeps better, and has a 
better aroma and flavour, than it can have it exposed 
in this climate, and packed into unseasoned lead, 
orcamented with a label which, the_ more gorgeous 
it is the more it ia apt to communicate a taste of 
paint or glue, to the tea it ie meant to adorn. Then 
these lead packets add as nearly as possible 2d per lb. 
to the cost ot the tea, and the expense of flaunting 
them before the eyes of the publio mast also be 
enormous. , . ., , 
A new form of advertising has been recently hit on, 
and a few pounds nvr-irdupois of Tea— whether by 
concerted action or not does not appear doubtful to 
the initiated — have been run up at public auction to 
prices exceeding £10 to £30 sterling per pound 
weight. Then this fact is simnltanoonsly, and ap- 
pirently gratuitously, blazoned throughout the Press, 
of course as a sign of the cxtraordinsry quality 
of the Tea that the so-and-so oompsnies deal in. 
As the said companies sell their Tea by retail 
at 2a to 2s 6d per pound, it ought to be pretty obvious, 
even io the most casual observer, that they cannot 
use tea in their paoketa, costing £5, £10, £20, or aa 
in the case of the last aeusationbl ssie, £30, per 
pound To purchase five or sis pounds at such prices, 
and worth intrinsically perhaps 33 or ii per pound, 
is in reality a cheap form of advertisement bo long 
as people can be found who cannot see through £o 
very transparent an operation. Of course the miiiuto 
quantity eo'd at these absurd prices is as far as 
possible kept quiet. 
The public, naturally, are ill-mforraod in such matters, 
and the tea trade might look with amused surprise on 
the apparent demand for packet tea, if it were not 
that a o.-insiderabla number of grocers appear to be 
bitten with the new system Enguged as most of 
them are in trying to stop the plague of all sorts of 
proprietary goods, which >-ield them so little profit 
and render tbera the servants of thb manuf^eturerg, 
it is singular that other grocars should be fouuJ, who 
are actually adopting the system witii tea. A gro-cr 
cannot manufacture mustard, nor csin ho grow wna or 
distil whisky or brandy, or brew beer. Buc he Ci,u, 
generations of grocers have done before l im, sell good 
tea out o' an honest tea chest, and make a living ont 
of it for himself, and not for others, while serving the 
public well. Surely the attitude of th . groce'-s on 
this question of Packet tea should not be doubtful. 
They should make it clsar to the public that they can 
sell better and fresh'^r tea of their own, and with a far 
better guarantee that the source of supply named is ad- 
hered to than if a label, however handsome, is trusted to. 
Of course, there can le no reason why every Grocer, 
if he see fit, should n-.t ofler lead packet tea with bis own 
name upon it, if the public desire a costly package, 
with no advantage attaching to it. But it seems mar- 
Tellous that any number of retailers, thoroughly 
undorBtanding their business, sh-uid turn their old 
legitimate remunerative tea buaioesB, lutj a means of 
sinking their own individualiiy, and ultimately, of 
losing their profit for the benefit of others. 
One excuse for the new development, is that Osylon 
tea will not keep; but if that be fO, it will surely keep 
BS well, and probably a gojd deal better, if rutained 
in the "riginal lead-lined cheat, than if it is turned 
out in a I^oudon wart-house, perhnpa in a smnk" f og, 
passed thrcugh mixing machines, and then p. eked 
into small p»ok8go8. ft would also bo interesting to 
know how large a proportion of so-called Ceylon 
Packet Tea ever saw its nominal place of origin. The 
trade vre well aware that a very great de^l of it never 
w!is shipped at Galle or Colombo. — Produce Marhets 
Revieiu. 
SALiWE Golden Tips. — We hear tbet the small 
parcel of tips from this estate has been sola 
privately at R20 per lb. 
The Tea Market.— A broker writes : — " Did 
you ever see such an irregular market ? The poor- 
ness of the teas ia keeping prices down — and unless 
you and the rest of the press advise planters to 
go in more tor qualily we shall see ftill lower rates ! " 
A Serious Chahge against Ceylon Tea and 
Tea Planters is thus preferred by the London 
correspondent of the Indian Planters' Gazette: — 
Ceylona. — The quality so far from improving is stiil 
on the dowu grade, and invoices containing any Teas 
with the old chs»!a'jteristic Oeylon quality are now 
getting extremely rare, and when they are offered, 
ooramaod very yood priots. On Thursday the bulk 
being poor, prices fell id to -Jd per lb. It looks as 
tboHiih quiil'.ty were being set aside for quantity in 
Ceylon, and a race begun for reo rd in yield per 
acre. The more tbe pivy. Is it tlii^, having msde 
the record for price, (as made so much of io adver- 
tisements now-a-daye) there is an iatection to show 
wonderful yields per acre, thut allusions to. the prices 
obtained by Ceylon Teas plus a heavy ^ itld pti- acre, 
may make prospectuses of iutore Ceylon Tea Com- 
panies, Limited, all the better bait to catch the British 
investor? Are there such Compaides in cubibue ? If 
not, why this abandoning of quality and desire to ezcel 
in quantity ? 
Coffee Planting in Dumb aba. — The follow- 
ing information which we have collated for cur 
Direotory is of interest at this time, to oar planting 
readers generally • — 
At Kondesalle in Dumbsra in 1887 Mr. Kamiic, tlo 
General Sup -rinteudout Oriental Bank Estatee Co., 
commenced opening some old coffte land which had 
bL-en abandoned for about 20 year-^. 104 seres were 
planted with cofiee plants raised from " Naikr.i-'asd" 
Ooorg feed — th" coffee was planted 5^ ft. >' 5^- ft. 
and Cacao Forastero 11 « 11. Tho clearing vas 
planted also 11 x 11 with Ficus glomerata for shade, 
all tho ridges were planted with gteviileas. The 
clearing now in its fourth year is most encouraginft; 
the coffee is v^rv vigorous and is b' aring a . rop 
which will more than pay the cost of the clearing — 
the cacao is unusually robu5t and the shade is most 
satisfactory, it having been carefully prnced f.nd 
thinned out. The above ooicpariV is extending more 
land on this sy-tem which appears a paying one, for 
even should thf* ecffeo not la-t maLy jears, it would 
bnvft served the purpos'i of briugin-.? the cscao into 
bearing, free of co^t tj the proprietor. 
Coconut Planting as an Investment. — Tha 
great drawback to coconut p?'in cultivation as an 
investment, in the estimation of Europeans, is the 
long dflay in obtaining a return on the capital 
iavested. " Who is to Wi.ic 15 or even 12 jears," 
says the colonist bent on an income within 5 or G 
years, but who, nevertheless is too often destinsd to 
remain hard at work, long after the time ai; which 
oooouuts would have ocas- into bearing. Stiil 15 
years is a long period to look forward to for 
adequate returns; end therefore the report on the 
Chitfi!? district — or rather that of Puttalam as just 
North of the Deduruoya, — with good big palms 
beginning to bear well by tho 7th year, opens up 
a new prospect, and offers speoial eDcouragemc-nt 
to invest in a culture so steadily, if not hand. 
Bomely remunerative as coconuts aie gi-neraliy 
reco.c!nized to be. '• G. D. M." is known as the 
European planting pioneer of the Bajakadiluiva 
district, and v/e believe he does not exuggerate in 
his d scription ot conditions and prospects, as 
quttlified by enquiries in our footnote. 
