UARCti I, 1892.] THE TRDWbAt AQPilbULTUmSt. 
629 
MALODOROUS SUBSTANCES AND TEA: 
TOBACCO TABOOED. 
As it is the last straw which breaks the oamel'B 
back, so the refusal of the shipping agents to 
arrange freight for the tobaooo they had grown 
and prepared seems to have been the final mis- 
fortune which led to the collapse and liquidation 
of the Ceylon Tobacco Company. The shareholders; 
most of whom are tea producers and exporters, 
must have cordially approved the good judgment 
of the shipping agents. It is nevertheless a ludi- 
crous position for the tobacco to occupy that it 
can neither be exported nor sold locally. The leaf 
must be of a superior quality to that grown at 
Jaffna, and there is the objectionable distinotion made 
by the native government in favour of Ooimbatore 
tobacco, or we should feel inclined to say "Try 
Travancore." We suppose the objection to carry the 
tobacco in steamers which load tea is, that the former 
substance is in bulk. To small quantities of cigars 
well secured in boxes we fancy no more objection 
would be offered now than in the past. But stalks of 
leaf tobaooo, in large quantity even if enveloped in 
gunny cloth would give out an odour pervading every 
portion of the ship in which they were carried,— an 
odour which, if absorbed by so sensitive a Rubstanoe 
as tea, would be ruinous in its effects on the absorbent 
substance. It may be taken for granted that 
neither now nor in the future will the same vessels 
carry tea and tobacco ; and as the production of 
the narcotic leaf has not reached such pro- 
portions in Ceylon as to render any quantity 
that can be offered for cargo an inducement to a 
vessel to carry tobacco to the exclusion of tea, 
this freight question '.alone seems to constitute such 
a " heavy blow and great discouragement " to the 
tobacco enterprise in our island — we are of course 
referring to the finer leaf grown by Europeans, — 
that we may look on its knell as having been 
sounded ? We are of course sorry for those who 
invested money in what promised to be a 
profitable enterprise, and which has belied all 
the expectations formed regarding it by men 
whose sagacity is not generally at fault. The lands 
seem to have been far too widely separated to 
render good management easy and as a matter 
of fact the management, whether from want of 
attention or paucity of money and labour, seems 
to have deserved denunciation as disgraceful. 
The difficulty of obtaining freight for tobacco, 
even if it had been grown in quantity and 
of the right quality seems not to have been 
foreseen. We suppose we may now take 
it for granted that tobacco of the finer 
descriptions and as the object of enterprise 
by Europeans is not likely to rank amongst the 
leading exports from eylon. For that consum- 
mation we cannot personnally express regret. Soil 
suitable for tobacco, which must be rich in ail 
the elements of fertility, especially potash, can be 
much more legitimately devoted to the growth of 
our really staple products, valuable for human 
food and ooonomical purposes: — tea, cacao, coconuts, 
cardamoms, &o. Happily those of our leading 
exports winch possess a markpd odour are 
pleasantly odorous, and we do not suppose that 
any objections ever have been or ever will be of- 
fered to the carriage of cinnamon and cardamoms in 
the same ships with tea, such as have "tabooed" 
tobacco. Popper does not enter into our exports, 
while coconut oil and the essential grass oils 
are so well secured as not to give forth their 
special odours. Coconut oil and tea are, however, 
not stowed in the some holds, wo bulieve. The odour 
of cinchona bark and coffee would scarcely affect tea 
injuriously oven if thoy reached it in any save a very 
diffused form. The only pleasant feature in 
the report of the unfortunate Ceylon Tobaooo 
Company, Limited, is that which indicates th« 
jealous care of shipping agents to prevent the pre- 
lenoe in vessels which carry our now great and 
leading staple product— sensitive in proportion to 
its delicacy — of any substance, the odour of whioh 
might injure that flavour, on the purity of whioh 
the value of tea so essentially depends. For the 
emphatic assurance of this fact we are indebted to 
a report whioh is otherwise not pleasant reading. 
FROM THE METROPOLIS. 
THE OEyLON TEA PLANTITIONS CO., LD. 
Jan. 8th. 
You will doubtless hear from your regular oorres- 
pondent about the meeting of the Oeylon Tea 
Plantations Company as reported in the Times and 
other journals. The purchase of Glenlyon and 
Stair estates as well as Begelly and Waverley is 
interesting to Ceylon readers, as also the continued 
prosperity of the Company, whioh is, I suppose, 
the most important and most truly representative 
of Ceylon and its great enterprise amongst all 
the Tea or Planting Associations connected with 
the island. For this very reason, apart from other 
reasons, I for one am pleased, rather than dis- 
appointed, that Sir William Gregory has been able 
to prevent this Company extending its operations 
to coffee even in the Malayan Peninsula. I cannot 
see any cause to doubt the good accounts given 
of the prospects before coffee plantations in 
Perak; and Sir Graeme Eiphinstone, Mr. Keid, 
and others will, I trust, profit largely by 
their operations and investments there. But if 
there is work suitable for a Company there, let it 
be a new and distinct one — The Coffee-growing 
Company of Perak or Malayan Peninsula — rather 
than an extension of the institution so generally 
identified with Ceylon and tea. There is the ex- 
ample of the Ceylon Company, Limited, before us 
and the many years that the good name of 
" Ceylon " suffered through the incubus of 
Mauritius sugar-planting business on this old 
' 0. B. C." Company. It may, and 1 trust will, 
be quits different on the case of coffee and the 
Straits; but far better that Ceylon should have all 
the honour, or the blame, attending the suooesB 
or failure of its premier Tea Company, than that 
there should be a mixing up of investments 
belonging to two different colonies under the name 
of our island, Mr. Beid and his co-directors have 
therefore acted wisely, I think, in listening to Sir 
Wm, Gregory's objection and in giving up the 
idea of extending the Company's business to coffee 
in Perak. There need be no fear that a separate 
Company to deal with the latter will be liberally 
supported if promoted by Messrs. Reid, Butherford, 
and the many who have the fullest confidence in 
their shrewdness, experience and sound judgment 
as men of business well acquainted with tropical 
plantations, I append the report of the Com- 
pany's meeting which has appeared in the Daily 
Chronicle, feeling sure that the one from the 
Times (rather different in some parts) will reach 
you from your regular correspondent : — 
PUBLIC COMPANIES. 
CEYLON TEA PLANTATIONS. 
An extraordinary general meeting of the Ceylon Tea 
Plantations Company, Limited, was held yesterday, 
at Winchester House, Old Broad-street, Blr. D. Keid 
presiding. — The Cliairuiau said that the sliarcholders 
bad Licon eallod together in order that their approval 
of ccrtiviu a.uts of (hu directors might bo Askod. I« 
