342 
PRICES or TEA. 
The one engrosBing topic just cow is the market, and 
how long exteoBiona will be carried on at the preeeut 
unremunerative prices ! Wliat ! We hear 6omo 
people say, unremunerative ! but, we shall say, un- 
remunerative ! for, if some gardens with a big yield 
per acre can stand the present range of prices 
and give good results, there are far more that cannot 
possibly live at them ! In the Annual Administration 
Keport on tea the outturn for the vfhole district is pnt 
down at 362 lb., or say, fonr mauuds, and, in the Habee- 
giinge Sub-Division, the outturn is estimated at 591 lb. 
per mature acre, ao that, when the average only works 
out four maunds per acre, there must be a number of 
gardens only yielding between two and three maunda 
per aore, and, at present prices, what does this sx-ean ? 
Let ua examine and we will soon find out. What is a 
moderate estimate for Ivcal expenditure? is naturally 
one of the first questions to be answered, and although 
there are slight variations from local causes, yet we 
hardly think any one will consider R90 per acre a high 
estimate, in fact, our idea is that it is seldom, or ever, 
done at this figure. However, 1ft us take this figure 
as fairly approxirhate, and, we find, that at six annaa 
per lb., it takes a yield ot three maunds per acre to 
cover local expenditure, not to speak of Agents, Bro- 
kers, and other charges in Caloults, or L aidon. At 
present rates of exhange six annas represents 8d to 
8jd., and if one turns up the Homo s.sle lists there are 
not many Sylhet and Oachnr gardens gettiug any- 
thing over this, and we have the other charges 
alluded to above to add on ; so that a very larga 
number of gardens must, just now, be turning out 
their teas at a dead loss ! "Were Osylon differently 
situated as regards labour, the fight for supremacy, 
which is now only bsgiuning, would have been a much 
tougher one than it is likely to bo. 
Hitherto Ceylon bes to tome extent peered by having 
factories &o.j made to hand &c,, but now that such 
strides have been made further into the interior new 
factories must be built, snd labour imported, to meet 
the increasing area beini'; brought into cultivation and 
the shoe will pinch now, where it did not bftfore. 
True, Ceylon may score a lifc;.le by cheaper freights, but 
it cannot get its labour cheaper, hoe cheaper, roll, or 
fire cheaper, or, as cheaply as Assam, Oachar, or Sylhet. 
And outturn, so far as one can judge, is about the same 
average scale as in India. The chances then are, view- 
ing the matter from an unprejudiced light, that, in the 
long run India will beat Oeylon in growing tea as a 
paying industry, but, there will be a tough fight before 
thia is established.* The Ceylon men have a great 
knack of advertising, and pulling together, which ad- 
versity will teach their Assam brethren, and the day is 
not far off, now ; but it is to bo hoped, that the Assam 
planter will not be so sanguine as the Oeylon one ; and 
rush any new industry to tiuoh an extent, as to reduce 
it in a lew jears, from a s^fe investment, to a 
dangerous speculation. Unfortunately, if any one 
follows the history of the spicy isle a record is found 
of either great success or great disaster ; and the 
characteristic of the Ceylon planter is not originality, 
but a stubborn persistence on a road which experience 
has proved practical. In spite of all the go, Ac, dis- . 
played by the Ceylon planter, there is no record to 
relate of any original industryt in the island being a 
success. Coffee was known and cultivated in many 
other countries before it was introduced into Ceylon. 
Cinchona, had a rush for a time, but it has, more or 
less, been abandoned of late years, although it still 
continues to be successfully cultivated in India. Coca, 
has never done much. India-rubber is now almost un- 
heard of, and lately nothing but tea has been talked of 
and ia likely to be for years to come, as many hundred 
acres planted out lately, unless the tea market improves 
or other outlets are found for the produce, will never 
be plucked, and Ceylon, will again be to the fore as it 
was a few years ago.'J; 
* No doutjt of it, and we suspect Ceylon planters are 
not prepared to concede tho victory to India. — Ed. T. A. 
t What is an original industry, and how is India 
superior to (ycylon in thia respect? — Ed. 7'. A. 
} The wish bi;ing father to the thought. The 
iQarlin;? at Ceylon is despicable uLd unwort'iy. — Ed, T.A. 
^ It is absurd to think that banks will go on finan- 
cing tea concerns against a certain dead loss, and thia 
is what it will come to with many concerns by the 
end of tho sea.'on. Concentration and amalgamations 
may, in some instances, stave off the tvil day to a 
tew concerns, but this will not be general, and 1892 
will see many concerns in the market, without a 
buyer even at nominal rates. How many gardens 
can turn their teas out at four annas per lb. local 
and Calcutta, expenditure included? Very few we 
say— and yet this mutt be done, it a fair profit is to 
be reaped. Improved machinery has done a great 
deal to cheapen the cost of tea per lb. but there is 
a limit in even this, and although economy has been 
effected in this way we are much afraid that as long 
as tea exiats, cultivation will cost the same; for the 
coolies wage does not get cheaper ! In Caohar and 
Sylhet, doubtless, were the railway a /«U acr.ompU there 
would be a slight reduction in cost of importing a 
coolie, but it would be fractional per acre ; and the 
only hope in view is a limit to extensions, which ia 
now we think looming in the near distance.— ///d/a» 
Planters'' Gazette. 
NOTES BY " WANDERER." 
Ootober 15th. 
Our Amerioan oousina seem to be keeping to 
the front as manufacturers of Bogus Tbopical 
Phoducts. Nutmegs formerly had their attention, 
but coffee now seems to be favourite. It is calcu- 
lated that 90,000,000 lb. of bogus cofiee are sold 
in the United States. The Germans followed suit, 
but a cruel Imperial Government has nipped this 
industry in the bud, for an Imperial decree has 
been issued in Germany forbidding the manufacture 
and sale of machines for proJnoing artificial coffee 
bef.ns, which certain German newspapers have of 
late been exensively advertising. Would that the 
British Government took equally strong measures 
to protect the pure Ceylon tea industry against 
the unscrupulous villains, who so cunningly hood- 
win1{ their customers, generally of the poorer class. 
EiCB. — I note tho following in the Indian Agri- 
culturist's summary of trade in Calcutta: 
"The quantity of rice exported rose from 6,366,807 
owt. lo 7,066,443 cwt., the increase being chiefly 
due to larger supplies drawn by Oeylon." When 
are theae wonderful irrigation works in Ceylon, 
on which so much money has been spent to the 
prejudice of reproductive works, such as railways, 
roads, education, to be of use in enabling Ceylori 
to keep the money she sent to India for her food 
supplies ? Echo indeed answers where ? 
Eo-^Aii Botanical Gardens in Oeylon.— Is Dr. 
Trimen now in a position to give an equally favor-' 
able account of his gardens as is given of the 
Indian g^irdens in the following extracts. Dr. King 
is a practical as well as a Scientific Director. 
"In spite of the heavy rainfall, the number of cin- 
obona plants, destroyed by landslips in the Bengal 
Governments plantations was less last year than in 
previous years of smaller rainfsll, and no danrige 
was done by hail. The outturn of the factor3', which 
18 generally regulated by the demand, was four 
thousand pound-j of cinchona febrifuge and the s-ime 
number of pounds of sulphate of quinine, as against 
six thousand five huudred, an<! one thousand eight 
hundred pouud.i rei-pectively in the previous years. The 
revenue derived was a little under one lakh and 
twenty thousand rupees, and tho net profit showed 
seventeen thoutand rupees, ' a result which may be 
considered as satisfactory and quite sufficient.' Profiit 
ia no object with Goverument. It desires to secure 
a cheap remedy for fever for use of the people. The 
Lieutenant-Governor has discovered by perscnsl 
enquiry that many dispen.sarit s inatead of buying the 
drug direct from Dr. King at one rupee per 
ounce, purchase from private stores at 111-2 and Bl-4 
per ounce which, as the resolution rightly says, ' \» 
an obvious absurdity. 
