648' THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1892. 
and the China plant), and the pure China plant ' 
and ID Ceylon, both the Hybrid and China variety. 
Both in India and Ceylon the Hybrid is the favourite, 
as giving both a large crop and a tea best suited 
to the present requirements of the English mar- 
ket — that is, a strong, thick, astringent liquor. 
Both the Indigenous and Hybrid varieties require 
a hot, humid climate; but the China plant pre- 
fers a colder and less tropical atmosphere, and is, 
therefore, cultivated in the Himalaynn inner ranges, 
and the Indigenous and Hybrid at the foot of tbeee 
mountains, in the low, hot humid valleys. Taken 
roughly, the yields ner acre of the three varieties are 
as follovirs :— Indigenous, 1,2001b; Hybrid, 800 lb; 
Caina, 2501b. From this it will be seeu why the 
Hybrid is the favourite with tea planters ; tbe yield 
is so much larger than from the China shrub, and 
the tea not so coarse and astringent as that from the 
Indigenous althoDgh not nearly so delicate as that from 
the China plant. For many years past the managers of 
tea estates have been urged by tbeir agents and 
brokers to turn out thick, dark-liquoring teas, as 
Buch alone command the market. This command 
has been obeyed at all gardens not growing the 
China variety, which will never produce these 
thick dark-liquoring teas, as it is deficient in 
tannin, but abounds in theine, owing to its nature, 
Boil, and climate, which gives it its fine, delicate 
flavour, and light, limpid liquor. The demand for thick, 
dark liquoring teas is not far to seek ; the thicker 
more astringent, and darker liquoring the tea is, the 
less quantity of it will be required for blending with 
cheap, low grade China teas, to give them point and 
flavour, and thus ensure a larger profit to the tea 
merchant. The fine, delioats-flavoured, but light- 
liquoring tea produced from the Chiaa plant is useless 
for blending purposes, as it is pronounced ' thin and 
poor ' by the trade. At what cost has the public been 
educated by the tea trade to use nothing but thick, 
dark-liquoring teas ? The pubhc is assured that such 
teas are better value, as they go much further, taking 
two or three waters and still yielding a good liquor, 
whereas light liquoring tea will not stand more 
than one water. This is quite true. But what is 
this decoction that is so economioal ? A decoction 
of tannin, from which the refreshing and in- 
vigorating properties of theine had been elimi- 
nated, in the process of fermentation, in ordsr to 
bring out the tannin, to give the much desired dark, 
thick liquor, at the expense of losing the volatile 
oils and theine by evaporation. Medical men are 
now alive to the injury done to health by these thick 
dark-liquoring teas, and are condemning their use. 
What Mr. Hicks claims for Ceylon teas, grown at 
high elevations, is still more rotable in Indian leas 
grown in the Himalayas, where the climate is neither 
so hot nor humid as in Ceylon, and, therefore, 
growth lees rank. In Ceylon the tea season is 
nearly all the year round, whereas in the Hima- 
layas it is barely six months — from the middle of 
April to the middle of September, when frost and 
snow set in. These delicious teas have been vir- 
tually driven out of the market, being pronounced 
by brokers as poor and thin, although delicate 
and flavoury, owing to the low price they fetch, 
combined with email yield. Whereas the large 
yield and bettor price for the thick dark liquor- 
ing teas from the Hybrid plant, grown in the hot, 
humid low-lying valleys, command the English 
market, and assure their prosperity. Should the public 
take back into favour the delicate fine teas growQ 
from llio China stock at high elevations, and thus 
by its demand, improve its present unreuiunerative 
price there is a great opening for its development 
in the thousands of aorcs of magnificent lands in the 
Himalayas to be had on easy terms, with abuudHUce 
of cheap local labour. Mr. Fortune, after visiting 
China on behalf of the Indian Govonimeuk, when 
introducing tc* culture into India, seloclod Kumaon, 
N.W.I'., as being identical iu soil and climate to the 
Eohea MountaiuH, the finest tea district in China. 
Now all this may be true, but it is a matter for 
^pertB rftther thau the public— Jr C. Maii. 
NOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE. 
An Old Stoey Re-Told.— " Nor, in the matter 
of tea have the public at the beginning of the year 
1892 much cause for complaint. Tea is wonderfully 
cheap, and, on the whole, remarkably good. It is no 
longer the practice to sell as tea abominable com- 
pounds of sloe-leaves and birch-broom, while the 
astonishing development of the tea industry in India 
and Ceylon has filled our markets with stimulating 
and fragrant products, the excellence of which, while 
doirg no injury to the superior kind of Chinese teas, 
haf relieved the community from the disagreeable 
risk of swallowing decoctions made from the sweep- 
ings of Chinese warehouses, containing a minimum of 
tea and a maximum of downright dirt." The above 
is an extract from an article on adulteration in the 
Daily Telegraph. As far back as 1879 we were alone 
amongst newspapers in pointing out that Indian tea 
was never adulterated, and that was one of many 
strong reasons why consumers should purchase it. 
(Ceylon had not then produced much tea.) It is 
gratifying to find that the Press and the people are 
now recognising the purity of Indian tea. 
A Brilli.\nt Suggestion, — A correspondent of the 
Grocer, who has read the report of the Ceylon Tea 
Plantations Company, writes as follows, and modestly 
suggests the extinction of the dealer and the planter; — 
" I was particularly impressed with the dividends 
paid, which have been at the rate of 15 per cent 
per annum, even with the expenses usually attend- 
ing a public company. Surely this is sufiicient profit 
to tempt business men to form a company to sell 
direct to the retail trade, and thus save the wholesale 
dealer's profit, which, with travellers' and other ex- 
penees, must add a further charge of 10 to 20 per 
cent, or better still, let leading retailers combine, 
and be their own planters." One large tea dealer is 
his own planter. It would help the correspondent from 
whose letter we quote to a solution of the problem 
which vexes his soul, if he could induce this large 
dealer to tell him whether he finds that portion of his 
business lucrative. 
In Pbaise of Daejeeling Tea. — A correspondent, 
who signs himself " Darjeeling," says : — " In the Daily 
Telegraph of Jan. 6th 'A City Man' aflBrms, 'China 
tea of the first quality is of a very delicate flavour and 
very fine drinking.' This remark, I submit, applies 
with equal force to tiie delicate teas produced in 
Darjeeling and Kangra, in the hill districts of India. 
These teas are some of the finest in the world, and if 
Kussia takes the best of the China teas, England should 
take the delicate teas produced in the Himsilayas at 
Darjeeling and Kangra, where Englishmen and 
English capital are producing what is A 1." 
Planting in the Wynaad. — The outlook for tea 
in this district is considered remarkably good. Tea 
has been planted in small areas in anticipation of 
the establishment of Central factories, and a recent 
report npon tea gathered from two-year-old busties on 
the Richmond estate, the property of Mr. Punnett, 
is mcetfnvourable. The Madras Times, apropos of this, 
says : — "The news published from Wynaad is excellent, 
and it seems as if the Wynaad tea planter will be able 
before ere long to snap his fingers at his brethren from 
Oaliforniato Ceylon. With Mr. Roscoe Allen's grand 
trunk road close on completion, all fears should be 
removed about the preparation of the leaf when once 
plucked, if after a twenty miles' jaunt such an excellent 
report can be obtained. Mr. Punnett is to be most 
cordially congratulated on the success of his experi- 
ment. We can see uothing now to prevent companies 
devoting their large acreages of unproductive land to 
the cultivation of the tea bush, and under planters of 
practical experience, profits and good ones, should 
figure in their balance-sheets." 
The China Tea Teade, — Colonel Vincent, in the 
Daily Graiilde, has stated that " Because the import 
of China tea into England has fallen off so much during 
the last ten or fifteen years, the tea industry in China 
is threatened with extinction." " A Tea-Broker" there- 
upon writes as follows: — " I would point out that 
the e.vport by sea and land from all China reaches the 
large total of over 200,000,000— about aa much aa 
