October i, 1891.] THE TROPICAL AQR!OULTURIST 
funds were suflBoient the percentage of Theine. 
Resolved: — " That consideration of the subject be de- 
ferred to next meeting of the Standing Committee." 
Samples oe Soils i'kom Ceylon Tea Estates fob 
THE Pdbpose op Analyses and Compaeison with 
Tea Soils in India.— Esad letter from the Seoretery, 
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Colombo, traosmitting 
copy of a letter received from the Bengal Chamber 
of Commerce on the above subject. Resolved: — "That 
the letter be acbnowledged and that it be stated 
that the matter will have consideration." 
Ceylon Tea in the Transvaal, South Apeica. — 
Eead letter from Mr. Alex. Wsrdrop regarding opening 
up a market for Ceylon Tea in Johannesburg. 
Resolved: — "That the letter be referred to the Oeylon 
Tea Company, Limited, under the patronage of the 
Planters' AssociaHon of Ceylon." 
Ckylcn Tea in Peeak (Malaya) : Ghant to Mb. 
C. R. Hanson.— Read letter from Messrs. Whittall 
& Co. intimating the delivery of leoj pkts. to Blr. 
Hanson's order for f rep distribution in Perak as per 
resolution of thi Committee on 14th August. 
Ceylon Tea in Tasmania.— Read letter from Mr. 
W. Jones, Colombo, on the subject of a Tea Ageooy 
in Tasmania. 
Read letter from Mr. Geo. Fiolayson, Roalyn Forth, 
Tasmania. Resolved: — "That the letter be acknowledged, 
and that it be suggested that application might be 
made to the Ceylon Tea Company, Limited, under 
the patronage of the Planters' Association of Ceylon." 
The Standing Committee of the Tea Fund then 
adjourned. A. PHILIP, 
Secretary to the Planters' AsBOoiation of Ceylon. 
CHINA VS. CEYLON TEA— "THE DANGEES 
OF TEA "— " GOLDEN TIPS " FROM 
NAHAKETTIA ESTATE— BEITISH 
BORNEO TRADING AND 
PLANTING CO. 
London, September. 4th. 
There is very little intelligence for me to convey 
to you by this mail having special relation to 
Ceylon. Even if it were not the fact that such 
matters are just now exporienoing a lull, the further 
fact that most of our Ceylon community are as yet 
out of town would prevent my obtaining informa- 
tion with respect to them. 
In my last letter mention was made of some 
letters appearing in the Qlohe depreciatory of the 
qualities of Ceylon tea in comparison with those 
of China. By those letters an effort, it was 
evident, was being made in the interest of the China 
tea trade to persuade home drinkers of teas that 
Indian and Ceylon growths were simply poisonous 
as compared with those of China. My opinion was 
expressed when mentioning these attacks on your tea 
to you, that we should soon see the other side 
of the question taken up in defence ; and in the 
issue of the Olobe for the 29th August there ap- 
peared the following letter, which, as coming from 
a medical man, will be possessed of material value 
in educating the opinion of the public at large, 
This letter reads : — 
" The DanctEbs op Tea," 
Sir,— "I cannot ia justice to the Ceylon tea industry 
allow the fttllaoious statements of your correspondeat 
"A OonDoisseut" to go uncontradicted. It is quite evident 
that he knows nothing of the subjtct he writes about. 
Ho Baj'S that Indian and Coyloa tia contains ten 
times more tannin than Ohinene tea. As the latter 
contains, as a rule, uboufc ten per cent, it follows, if 
your correBpoiulent is correct, that Indian and Coy'lon 
teas are moro than all tannin. Cevlon tea is really 
Iho most delicate of all. The reason tea is in- 
jurious wheu it is so, is that people will buy cheap 
ton, and then not take tho trouble to uialie it pro- 
perly. The price of tea and its flavour depend upon 
when the leaf is plucked and how it is harvested. 
The finest tea is plucked in the bud, and if your readers 
can imagine plucking the buds of a gooseberry tree, 
and plucking the leaf when it is fully developed, they 
will see what I mean. The fuller matured tea leaf 
is coarser and more full of tannin than the bud tea 
or half-developed leaf. Tea to be healthy should 
only be infused eight minutes : if infused longer, the 
bitter extractive and tannin are brought out, and those 
spoil its flavour. As a dietitian I always recommend 
my patients to drink Ceylon tea only. I get mine 
direct from a Oeylon plantation, and I think if your 
renders did thesnme they would soon give Chinese tea 
a wide berth. Ceylon tea is mschine made and ia 
not handled and pressed like Chinese tea by the 
hands and teet of the Mongolian, and this is a great 
desideratum. Oeylon tea has a great future before it, 
but, unfortunately, cheap, coarse Chinese tea is of ten 
palmed oif as the produce of the " Gem of the Eastern 
Sea," — Yours faithfully, N- E. Yorke-Davies, L. E. 
Coll. Phys. Lond, &c." August 28th. 
We think here that the above letter exposes 
pretty fully the fallacies so speciously put forward 
by the attacking parties in the Glohe, and that it 
will be all that is necessary to set your production 
right with the British public. 
Did I mention in my last letter the sale of some 
" golden tips " in Mincing Lane last week at the 
rate of £35 the pound? It is my belief that I 
did, but at all events if this was not done you 
aro sure to have heard of it from other sources. 
This sample was grown on the Nahakettia estate 
in Ceylon, and Mr. Delmege tells me it was brought 
into the sale rooms under a glass cover, and that 
great ouriosity and noisy excitement was shown 
about it. Mr. Delmege also tells me the funniest 
part of the business is that some golden 
tips" of equally good quality had been sold in 
the Mineing SLane sale-rooms the week before 
only at from Ts 6dl to lOs the pound 1 But it seems 
to have been underetood beforehand that an 
attempt would be mule to purchase this tea for 
exhibition abroad, and for some reason or other this 
induced exceptional competition, the high price 
eventually secured being the result of this. We 
see from this fact that it is not any inherent quality 
in the description of prepared tea which dominates 
its price on the market, but simply any chance 
demand arising for it for the purposes of advertising. 
You in Ceylon have so many friends and relatives 
working m some position or other in Borneo, that 
wo expect here that many of your leas well-informed 
residents look upon that island as a sort of El 
Dorado. We fear these will be sadly disabused 
when they read the report following of what took 
place at the meeting this week of the British 
Borneo Trading and Planting Company. We wish 
we could get private letters from those residing in 
the island telling us of what their experience is. 
According to what passed at the meeting we are kept 
as yet in entire ignorance of what the real facts 
conneotpd with European life in Borneo are. [Sea 
page 270.] 
There have been this week shown to me some 
new-fashioned tea boxes, the body of which is made 
in tin in one piece, the head and bottom being 
closed by straw-board which is made to fit into a 
groove pressed in the tin and then closed by a 
folding angle iron which grips the board within the 
groove and is fastened by a single screw only. 
There is much that ia ingenious in this arrange- 
ment, but I am quite certain that a tin tea box 
will never stand tho rough handling of a journey 
home. The price quoted for a 50 lb. chest ia 
23 Cd f. 0. b., of course packed flat and open ; 
but experts tell me that price would be quite 
prohibitory, — London Cor, 
