490 
THE TROPICAL AGRIOULTUmST. 
[January i, 1892. 
at the very outside, the result would be no difierenoe 
in the constituents of the liquor, while the superior 
flavour of the Oeylon would still remain manifest." 
Now this, we think, would have been a fair way 
for Sir Andrew Clark to have dealt with the subjeot. 
It is manifestly quite the reverse for him to have 
condemned as inferior certain growths of tea, which, 
if dealt with according to oircumslanoes, would 
yield exactly the same results that he asserted 
to be so beneficial in the use of China tea. No 
doubt B good many of his younger professional 
brethren may follow the lead that has been set by 
Sir Andrew, and a deal of harm may follow. In 
a letter from Sir William Gregory shown to me 
this week, he recommends that the Ceylon Asso- 
oiation should take the matter up. He wrote that he 
thought the statement made was likely to have a very 
bad effect if not strongly combated in the papers, 
and further told his correspondent that a Dr. Little, 
a leading Dublin physician, was also recommending 
his patients to drink nothing but China tea. We 
hear that the Tea Committee of the Association 
bad Sir William Gregory's proposiiion under 
consideration, but that it deemed that, as 
Sir Andrew Clark had not specifically men- 
tioned Ceylon tea — though doubtless he had intended 
to include it under the category of Indian — it was 
Boaioely worth while for the Association to take the 
matter up. 
It has been mentioned above that the references to 
this topic by the Home Press are too numerous for 
notice here, but I should like to quote the following 
from Trade and Finance because it agrees so well 
with my own former experience and those, it is quite 
certain, of many other tea drinkers : — 
Sir Andrew Clark, in a recent lecture to the 
students of the Londou Hospital, iDformed them 
t hat the proper quantity of tea was one spoouful 
to each person and one for the pot. Who does not 
know this? As for his very stroog condemnation 
of Indian tea, and the statement that a cup taken 
early in the morning " disorders the nervous system 
and induces a state of tea intoxicatioD and nerve 
disturbance most painful to witness," like most such 
Bweepiog assertioDs, it is not founded on fact. 
The writer was for six years in India, and every 
morning during this time — 2,190 mornings— took one, 
and olten two cups of Indian tea for bis chota 
hazri, besides what he may have drunk at break- 
fast and in the afternoon, and his nerves are still 
unshaken. Of all the hundreds of people he knows 
who do the same, he has never seen one intoxicated 
from Indian tea. 
Too much tea, either Indian or Ohiuese, is probably 
bad for anyone predisposed to nerve disorders. A man 
in the position of Sir Andrew Clark should be espe- 
cially careful not to be carried away in the heat of 
oratory. His remarks are calculated to unnecessarily 
prejudice many against the tea of India. 
The resolution arrived at by the Tea Committee 
Dl the Oeylon Association in London to address 
the Tea Brokers' Association on the subjeot of 
insufficient accommodation for Ceylon tea sales has 
led to the receipt by it of a letter from the latter 
body dated 23rd November, informing it that a 
special general meeting had been called, and that 
the following resolution had been adopted at it :— 
" That this meeting is of opinion that a further 
Ceylon tea sale should be held on two days, at 
least, during the week, and that the Brokers' Asso- 
ciation approach the Directors of the London com 
meroial sale-room without delay to request them 
to set aside a special room for that purpose." 
If the request of the brokers above indicated 
be complied with, it is probable we shall- 
hear of no further difficulties of the kind 
which have lately been bo fully discussed. This 
will not, however, altogether relieve your 
planters kom the necessity of giving their 
brokers more time between the arrival ol their teas 
and these beiug put up for sale. It is quite 
impossible under present conditions insisted 
upon that the breaks of tea can be properly 
judged of by intending buyers. One day cannot 
suffice for all of these to taste the teas, 
even although, by the yielding of a separate room 
and a second day, the pressure will be very materially 
reduced. 
With this you will receive copy of the report of the 
Lanka Plantations Company, which is to be presented 
to the shareholders at their general meeting to be held 
on December 2nd. You will find it to be a docu- 
ment, when consideration is given to all the cir- 
cumstances, of a very satisfactory character. The 
Company seems at length, and after many years 
of arduous working, to have turned the course of 
the difficulties which have so long beset it, and 
now by far the larger area of its proportion is 
under tea cultivation and yielding well. You will 
note, however, that 755 acres are still under coffee, 
and that efforts are being made to retain so 
much of this as promises to repay high cultiva- 
tion. During the year to which the report refers 
this coffee area seems to have done well, though 
some of it certainly has given but a poor return. 
Taking it all round, barely 3 cwt. per acre was 
secured ; but some estates, no doubt, such as 
are referred to in the report, gave a very 
much higher average. Fotunately the price ob- 
tained throughout the year was good, and alto- 
gether a sum of £9,608 was obtained from this 
source; Of cinchona 61,905 lb. 'was shipped, but 
for this only £731 was obtained, and no effort was 
made either to maintain or extend this particular 
cultivation. Cacao is reported most favourably of, 
and some of the estates owned by the Company 
seem to be particularly well adapted to the growth 
of the plant. So much is this the case that the 
directors are anxious to widen the area now devoted 
to it, but they state that their capital is insufficient 
to do this efiectively, and ask the shareholders to 
subscribe additional debenture capital for the 
undertaking. £5,071 was obtained from this item. 
Of tea, the estates yielded from 1,666 acres 248,574 
lb. This sold for £9,627, an average of about 9Jd 
per lb. net. The total acreage of the Company's nine 
estates is 4,G97f acres. The proposals of the direc- 
tors as regards dividend justify what has been said 
above as to past difficulties being now surmounted, 
and the profit and loss account has warranted 
them in recommending a dividend of 6 per cent 
on the preference shares and of 53 per share 
on the ordinary shares. This second dividend 
might have been made at a rate of nearly 4 per 
cent, but that the directors wisely thought it 
desirable to write off a sum of £410 tor depreciation 
on machinery account and to reduce the suspense 
account by £1,427. The dividends recommended 
will be paid free of income tax. 
A friend interested in the China tea trade having 
recently described to me the methods he has seen 
adopted in the preparation of green tea and the 
prices realised here for the finer qualities, I was 
induced to ask a gentleman well up in all matters 
respecting Ceylon tea if any effort had been made 
to send home similar teas from your island. Ha 
told me that some 18 months back a very fine lot was 
received, and that it fetched a high price at the 
sales. Perhaps that price was too high, for the 
purchaser was unable to dispose of it to the retail 
trade save at a heavy loss. The result to the first 
venture having proved so good to the shipper, 
orders were wired out to send home more of 
the same sort, but the buyers had taken 
alarm, and when the fresh lot was put forward 
there was scarcely any bidding at all. la the 
