fHF TRDPyCAL AGRICULTURIST. TMarch i, 1892. 
advertisements with intent unjustly to damage the 
Ceylon tea in the public estimation. It asserts "that it is 
only natural that China tea dealers Btiould desire to pre- 
serve the trade from which they have so long profited, and 
had they contented themselves with exalting the merits 
of their black leaf China teas, their advertisements 
would have been allowed to pass unnoticed ; but the 
virulent libels they contain on the superior teas of 
India and Ceylon, are, it believes, knowingly false. One 
Glasgow firm at least, who describe themselves as tea 
tasters of 25 years' experience, must know that medium 
Ceylon and Indian teas now Belling at moderate prices 
are equal to the very finest high-prioed teas which 
China produced in her best days also the statement 
"that India and Ceylon teas yield four to five times 
as much tannin as China teas " is absolutely untrue. 
" There is, in the Indian and Ceylon teas, just a 
fuffioiently larger percentage of tannin to constitute 
their superiority to those of China. If Chita tea is 
treated so that all the tannin is exhausted from it, 
the brew will be neithpr a pleasant nor a wholes ^me 
beverage, and no person who kcows how to infuse it 
properly will leave boiling water more than five or 
six minutes over the leaves. The proportion of tannin 
in such an infusion of the strongest Ceylon or Indian 
teas is not injurious but beneficial, notwithstanding 
the opinion of Sir Andrew Clark to the contrary. The 
public know their own interests and the beneficial 
effect of tea, properly made, too well to be affected by 
the utteraccea of medical men or the advertisements 
of dealers of the class above alluded to ; and in spite 
of medical and niercaniile partisans, India, and 
especially Ceylon, teas will increase in favour and in 
consumption, to the benefit even more of consumers 
than producers, although, we trust, with ever a fair 
profit to the latter." There is an amount of truth in 
the above article, as will be seen from my following 
remarks. 
China tea naturally possesses less tannin than either 
Indian or Ceylon tea, and if the Chinese bad been able 
to maintain the juicy, fine pekoe flavoured teas they 
made 20 years ago, instead of year by year allowing 
the quality (with the exception of a few finest crops) 
to decline, the public would still support them; but the 
bulk of the crops the last 10 years has consisted very 
largely of thin liquoring and tarry teas, of the common 
to good common grades, and the few really fine parcels 
have of late commanded prices that few retail dealers 
oouid afford to pay. Meantime, India and Ceylon have 
steadily produced year by year larger quantities of an 
article containing much more flavour and point, and 
one which can be sold here at prices giving in propor- 
tion much better value. However, Indian teas cannot 
be placed {as the writer of the article referred to 
would have) in the same comparison with the good 
old China Ningchows, as Ceylon teas can. At the 
present time Ceylon pekoes selling at from lljd to Is 
2d per pound in the market, are generally equal to the 
finest old China teas which, 15 or 20 years ago, realised 
2s 6d to 3s per pound, and by far superior to the best 
of the same class that arrive now, and command at 
the opening of season on the average about Is 6d to 
Is 8d, and ft few chops of exceptionally fine, Is lOd to 
28 per pound. 
The rapid increase in the deliveries of Ceylon teas 
month by month, and the corresponding decrease in the 
demand for China teas, sufficiently prove this. That In- 
dian teas have now more virtue in them than China tea 
is true, but the Indian are mostly more stringent and 
pungent than Ceylon teas, and not so suitable for 
drinking alone, those from a few districts excepted 
(namely, the Darjeeling, Dooars, and Kangras), which 
makes them more suitable for blending purposes. The 
liquors of China tea, if brewed unduly long, become 
bitter and unpleasant, and with other growths the 
Hamc rebult. Consumers, when buying strong Indian or 
Ceylon teks, should lesrn that those are much more 
iuioy than China teas, therefore loss quantity need 
be used, and infuei^d for at most fivo minutes, when 
it will bo found thi-y throw a stronger liquor than 
the same amount of China tea wonid in double or 
treble the time. The reference made in the article 
to the e^pcewioDB of various doctors on diilereat tcBiB, 
and to the one doctor especially, who warns the public 
sgainst Indian teas, is a just rebuke ; they can no 
iTjore stop the consumption of any favourite drink, 
such Bs tea, than they can prevent the use of tobacco, 
either of which if taken improperly, or in too great 
quaotitifS, are injurious, and to some syetenss more 
than to others. 
Sir Andrew Clark, speakingatthe London Hospital, on 
October l;3th laBt,st»ted "that tea to be useful should be 
first of all Chica tea, thp Indian tea having become so 
powerful in its effects upon the nervous system, that those 
who take it actually get into a state of tea intoxica- 
tion, &c. " If," he had, " you want to have tea which 
will not injure, and which will refresh, get black 
China tea putting in the right measure," &c. With 
due regard to such an authority as Sir Andrew Clark, 
who has every right to prefer China to India tea, he 
should not go so far without good reason to damage 
an important article of British tra le in the public 
estimation. He hits the very nail on the head when 
he says, referring to China tea, " if the right quantity 
be put in the pot." H<'re is the pith of the matter, 
if people buy strong Indian tea and put the same 
quantity into the pot »s they do of China tea the 
natural consequence is that the liquor draws too strong; 
but if the consumers understand how to brew Indian 
tea — viz,, less quantity aad lees time to draw, it is 
just as wholesorue a beveraue as China or Ceylon t a 
If doctors iustead of condemning an article like ta 
would lei'.rn the different properties of the various 
growths, and then advise their patients how to make 
and not abuse it by too constant use they would be 
doing them much kindness. It is a common thing to 
go into a drawing-room of an afternoon and be asked 
to have a cup of tea, which probably has been stand- 
ing for, perhaps, half an hour or more ! That this 
should result in causing indigestion, or as Sir Andrew 
Clark classes it, tea intoxication," is not to be 
wondered at.— Yours, &o., Mincing-Lanb. 
Dec. 23. 
— — 
INDIAN lEEIGATION. 
BY ALFRED DEAKIN, M P. (viCIOBIA.) 
[In the Sydney Morning Herald has appeared the 
final paper of a most painstaking and able series, 
in which the late Chief Secretary of Victoria, a 
very promising Australian-born statesman describes, 
from personal observation and extensive reading, 
the irrigation works of India and Ceylon in their 
bearing on irrigation in his own great thirsty land. 
A few extracts from this summing up will be 
interesting to our readers. — Ed. T, .4,] 
Much might be said on other aspects of Indian affairs, 
but here the series of papers relating to irrigation 
attain their conclusion. A large volume might be 
written upon the practical, scientific and commercial 
phases of the question for those suflBciently interested 
to follow them into all their details. What has been 
attempted in these articles has been to offer a sketch, 
hasty and rude, which might be of some service in 
any consideration of the Australian future of water 
supply. To illustrate the size and character of the 
Indian works, and their dependent interests, blue 
books have been freely drawn upon, and personal 
investigatious have been employed to inter- 
pret them, with the result that the information 
collected and collated is probably new to many in 
India, and to all outside it, except, per- 
haps, a few retired oflicers of its departments. 
The whole makes no pretension to be comprehen- 
sive, but only to be faithful so far as it goes. Even 
in regard to irrigation its scope is limited by the 
writer's want of technical knowledge, and by the fact, 
which has affected both style and substance, that hia 
criticisms have made their appearance in the colutans 
of the daily and weekly press of the capitals of three 
colonies. On the general history, finance, position and 
prospects of the great Government schemea they 
claim to be accurate and fairly complete. No publi- 
catioa is known to the writer having the eame end ia 
