338 
THE TROPIOAL AQRItSULTUmST. [November a, 1891 . 
.of which appeared in this Journal of March that 
year. Thoee who would wish to trace it more 
closely, and also to aecertain in detail the great 
.wealth and variety of the natural products of 
Persia, may find a mass of information brought 
together in " The Kiver Karun : an opening to 
Britsh Commerce," of which Mr. W- Francis 
Ainsworth is the author (and Messrs. W. H. 
Allen & Co. publishers), and who speaks from 
personal acquaintance of the district surrounding 
the Karun. One fact h evident from the writings 
and remarks of all authorities on the subject of 
■the prospects of British trade in Persia, and that 
is— that whilst competition with Eussiain the more 
northern parts may be difficult owing to her ex- 
ceptionally favourable geographical situation seconded 
by the "iron road" developments which she is 
ever pushing eastwards and southwards, yet, in 
the southern, and far into the central portions 
of Persia, British commerce may penetrate with 
success under fair conditions, and defy the com- 
petition of northern traders. * * » 
An idea of the progress which has been made 
latterly is afforded by the statistics given in the 
report by Mr. Consul-Gcneral Eosa above quoted, 
which relates to the trade of Southern Persia 
and the Persian Gulf for the year 1889. Taking 
the bare totals alone we obtain the appended 
comparison for the various places of import and 
export, with the value of the trade in 1888 :• 
Shiraz . . 
Busbire,. 
Lingah , . 
Bunder Abbas. 
Bahrain.. .. 
All Imports. 
188y. 1888 
£ 
327,657 
791,823 
620.496 
. 344,386 
276,823 
All Exjjorts. 
Arab Coast ports 157,464 
£ 
258,522 
527,235 
732,445 
277,128 
251,083 
138,046 
1889. 
£ 
340,515 
515,907 
542.960 
323,799 
317,913 
289,692 
1888. 
£ 
449,780 
378,148 
536,056 
271,719 
307,162 
348,552 
TotBl 2,518,649 2,184,459 2,330.786 2,291,417 
-Chamber oj Commerce Journal. 
A TALK ABOUT TEA. 
The weather recently in Assam does not seem to 
have been as favourable for tea-making aa it might 
have been. Upper Assam, in particular, has apparently 
been suffering from something very like a drought, 
if such a word can be applied to the rainy eeason. 
From Xezpur 1 hear "we have had a very, very dry 
time since the commencement of August; only eix 
inches of rain during the whole of August, and 1'33 
inches up to the 10th of September." This is an ab- 
normally small quantity of rain for what is generally 
the wettest month in Assam. There wore very heavy 
falls of rain during July, but this will not carry on 
indefinitely. A hot August, with little or no rain to 
speak of, soon dries up the soil, and a heavy conse- 
quent drop in the outturn is to be feared. Planters 
seem to think an early cold weather is impending. 
Notwithstanding the unusual heat in the day, due to 
want of rain, the mornings are already assuming a 
"cold weather" feel and appearance ; and the ''snows" 
— as the distant snowy mountains' peaks are locally 
called — stand out in the early morning as close and 
clear as they generally begin to do about the end of 
October Or beginniug of November. Every-one is 
complaining of the heat in the day ; and the now 
poplar Blackman's fans for withering leaf are at a 
discount: the leaf withers in the lofts only too quickly 
without their aid, owing to the abnormal heat. Yet up 
to date most of the gardens are keepmg up to, if not 
ahead of, last year. One big gBrden iu the now well- 
known Daputa Valley is over 1,000 maunds ahead of 
last year, on a crop of 7,000 mauuds for last season ; 
and its manager hopes to turn out nearly 9,000 ma'iuds, 
notwithBtandin^ the scanty rainfsll. But to this in- 
crease a good deal of young tea coming into botrmg 
is contributing. Other gardens without new extensions 
coming in to their aid will probably feel the unusual 
weather severely; and a considerable drop on the 
estimated outturn of tea will probaUy have to be faced 
by many concerns in Upper Assam. 
Dihrufzarh tells the same story. Spasmodic showers, 
oecaeionally heavy, luit very much localized, are the 
order of the day. Heavy clouds, thunder and light- 
ning all round, but very liitle of that good, steady, 
soaking rain, that fills the heart of the planter with, 
joy, aiid covers his boats with mud, is reported. 
Everything seems to foretell an early cessation of tbe 
tains, and all but very low-lying gardens are sure to 
suffer in outturn iu constquence. But " every sorrow 
has its twin joy. " It the comparative failare of 
the rains is general, the mceral, outturn of 
the district will fall considerably below eetimates ; 
and when this fact is publicly appreciated, a rise in 
prices may he looked for in the homo market. There 
is considerable room for h rise in prices at present. 
Just now they are tending to ench an average thatth* 
planter may be forgiven for parodyiijg the much- 
vexed questi- n "Is lile woith living?" by querying 
" Is tea worth making ? " And yet it goes on being 
made, and new extensions and new gardtne ate being 
opened out as freely as in the palmy days of old, 
when a twelve-anna averiige was as common as n six- 
anna one is now-a-days, which brings forward the 
great question " Does tea pay ? " There is an enor- 
mous amount of capital sunk in tea, and a great num- 
ber of anxious sbarehoidets would like a satisfactory 
answer to the question " Does tea pay r " There is 
no doubt that, for some of the old gardens, put out 
on bad or unsuitable soil, with poor jat — wretched 
China plant incapable under the best management of 
making over four mauuds per acre — it will not pay. 
And the numerous extensions one hears of are recogni- 
tion of that fact, for gardens that, owing to bad soil 
or inferior class of plant, canuot be kicked or coaxed 
into more than three to four maunds per acre, the 
only hope is to extend on better soil with higher class 
seed, with a view to eventually abandoning tbe old 
unproductive area that does not pay the cost of keep- 
ing up. But for the latter class of gardens opened 
out on good lien toil with high class plant, capable 
of yielding fujthing from eight to twelve, or in some 
cases even fifteen mounds per acre, tea will pay hand- 
somely, and go on paying even iu the face of a 
lower market than has yet been reached. Some of 
the , statistics of private gardens opened out 
within the last tight or ten years would, if 
published, be deemed incredible by the gene- 
ral tea shareholding public, or " if believed 
iu they would create a frantic rush to " get into 
tea ;" for these gardens which pay such handsome 
profits, and of which one hears little ot nothing, have 
been opened up by practical, experienced planters who 
have chosen their land with ample local knowledge, 
and in some cates boaght their experience pretty 
dearly. And to make a concern that pays as some of 
these private concerns do, or to get into them when 
made, ia only given to the iuitiated few. Wo hear or 
read in the published share quotations of dividends of 
fifteen and twenty per cent. But of the plums and 
prizes of tea-planting the outside public hears nothing at 
all: and, it toid of tta gardens that pay twenty-five and 
thirty per cent,— or of a garden that, in its tenth year, 
gave a clear profit of over one hundred per cent on the 
original capital invested,— would turn a deaf and iu- 
credulous ear. And yet such a profit has been made, 
although, it is not quite so good as it appears on the 
surface. It was a matter of foregoing any intermediate 
profits for nine years. After the third year, at an out- 
lay of some E70,000 roughly, the garden began to pay. 
The partners agreed to put all profits back into the 
concern instead of drawing them out, thereby extending 
area, increasing plant block and labour force consider- 
ably. The first division of profits took place, say, in 
the tenth year, wheu a lakh aud-a-half of rupees cleat 
profit on the season's working was divisible. Thus an 
original out of pocket outluy of R70,000, with its 
earned incremeais for nine years, brought back the 
orjgiual capital and something ^ver a hundred per 
cent to the pockots of the fortunate partners. This 
seems to be a very Fatisfaotory answer to the question, 
Will ten pay i"' and it ia n fact. Everything cornea 
