June i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AQRICULtURIit. 
903 
found that cinchona can be suooessfuliy grown, the 
industry should meet with the strongest fostering 
encouragement. A"} the cultivation requires little 
labor, and as there are districts where both soil and 
teperature point as verj possibly suitable to the pro- 
duct, there appears no renpon why Victoria aliould 
not yet possesB suceaeful cinohGna plantations. — Mel- 
bourne Leader. 
THE TEA FUND: CEYLON TEA IN 
RUSSIA. 
Mr. Philip Secretary to the P. A , sends us the 
following copy of a letter received from Mr. M. 
Bogivue on the subiect of pusliiiig the bale of and 
making known Oeyloa tea in Russia: — 
Tea Fund. 
(Copy.) 
Moscow, March 1/13 1892, 
Maroseika, House Lebedieff. 
A. Philip, Esq., Secretary to the Planters' Aeaocia- 
tion of Ceylon, Kandy. 
Dear Sir,— I beg to acknowledge receipt of your 
favour of the 29th January, annexing copy of resalutioa 
passed by the Standing Committee of the Oeyloa 
Tea Fund on the subject of further assistancH to be 
given to me for the pushing of Oejlon tea in Runsia. 
It would have given me great siitisf action if your 
Committee, in aoknowledgiug my last report, bad 
expressed an opinion, good or bad, hs regards the 
work and prngresa I have done during the 10 
months in 1891 I reviewed, because, aa it came to 
my knowledge, some indirect remarks have been 
made as to ttie relatively amall quautity of tea sold 
by me in the course of that time. The spreaders 
of these remarks seem entirely to forget titat before 
I came toKussia, no such a thing as Ceylon tea was 
drank nor a pouud of it was aold io the country, 
whereas now, if I am well informed from high quarters 
in London, 400 to 500 chests are shipped weekly 
from London to Russia. Custom House statistics 
may be consulted in London ; and as I have already 
mentioned the fact, it is clearly noticeable that large 
quantities of Oeyloa tea are now used iu Russia for 
the blending of cheap and inferior Chinese. As far as 
I am concerned, I will repeat what I very often siiid 
the ways and means of selling this tea are no diffi- 
culty for me to find, but the means of yetling it duty 
paid in sufdcient quantity is the chief obstacle I meet 
with to increase its sale " 
More reclame must be done and more tea ought to 
be placed at my disposal, as my capital is not suffi- 
cient to extend now my business. I hive been trying 
lately, with the help of some friends in London to 
form a Syndicate with the necessary capital required 
for the extension of the businesa (herewith for your 
perusal copy of my prospeotusi), but the present un- 
favourable financial circumstances all over Europe 
seem to be against the realization of my projeot. 
Should it perhaps be possible to manage such a 
scheme in Ceylon or to induce some Oeylon planters 
(proprietors of tea estates; to consign to me, for sale 
ou their accounts, some of their invoices according to 
the inatructiona 1 could give them as regards the 
qualities suitable for the Rusaian taste, or to standard 
eamplus deiposited as reference in the haii<ls of the 
Colombo tea brokers, ehipmenta could be made direct 
to Odessa, or via London to St. Petersburg, Revel or 
Liban, and no doubt the shippers of such breaks would 
find their advantage iu selling them there through 
me by retail and for wholesale combined. 
Since my last report, I have sold monthly the 
following quantities : — 
November 1891 Russ. lb. 3,395 ■) 
December „ „ „ 2,967 I 13,933 lb. 
January 1892 „ „ 3,689 j" almost all 
February ,, ,. 3,88:iJ iu packets, 
whiob figures, although December was a small mouth 
on account of the holidays during which time busim sn 
was closed, and notwithetandiug my already mentioned 
difficult financial circumstances, still show a small 
iooreaae over tlie preoodiog moutUa, nu4 mako the 
total quantity sold from my magazine only, almost 
all in packetB, over 40,000 lb. for 12 months out of 
50,000 lb. I have imported ; and it is important to 
remark that these 40,000 lb. were all of ■pare Oeylon 
tea which have gone in the Russian consumption. 
My Nithny magazine is doing very well indeed 
eelling presently an average of 1,000 lb. per month and 
had I had larger quantities daty paid, to put at that 
market, I would I am sure, have tripled the quantity. 
I am now making arrangements for th« 
fair to be held next July and have already 
secured a magazine at the " Fair Town " where I 
ought to sell if the provisions of my own people are 
not exaggerated, something like over fifty thousand 
pounds tea, as many merchants from several parts of 
the country have promised to buy it. 
Bat to ba able to do this, it is absolutely neoeasary 
that sufficient stocks are kept at hands, in the Moscow 
Customs, that safficient funds are at my disposal for 
the clearing of the tea whenever requited, and that 
some more money should be spent for reclame. At 
the last Nishny Fair, I missed many good and im- 
portant sa.\6B iox the vinni oi available duty paid stocks, 
and it is indisputable that if we gain the pnblio and 
the merchants to purchase our tea at the Fair, we will 
have gained the whole of Russia. 
Some facts worth mentioning as a proof that Ceylon 
tei has already a good name and is making its way 
into the country are the following : — 
During a recent visit I made in Nishny one of my 
regular clients there, proprietor of a traotir, told me 
that when he was Formerly using Chinese tea he cleared 
a profit of K4 per lb. whereas now since he has replaced 
it by " Oeylon " his profit is R8 on every pound 1 
I heard lately from Saratow, where my tea is Bold 
in packets on a pretty large scale, that same retailer 
to whom I refused credit ia now selling a bad imita- 
tion of Oeylon tea in packets. And it will perhaps 
interest you to hear that my Ceylon tea ia going aa 
far as Siberia. 
In conclusion I will again try to impress upon your 
Committee, and every Ceylon planter, the interests of 
whom I have greatly at heart, that, although I am 
certain and very sanguine that the sale will greatly 
and rapidly increase as soon as I can overcome the 
financial difficulty for the pushing and extension of 
my operations, a great deal of work is still to be 
done in order to attain the desired results ; and trust- 
ing that the Tea Fund will not only reimburse me 
my over-expenditure as per last accounts rendered, 
but also continue to give me further assistance for 
srny work of reclame, and the welfare of my mis*- 
dion, I remain, &e., (Signed) M. RooivuE, 
"THE INDIAN IMMIGRATION ORDl- J 
NANCE A BURDEN." 
{To the Editor of the " Finang Oazette.") 
Under the above heading you reprint, in your issue 
of 23rd instant, a letter written to the Straits Times 
by Mr. E. V. Carey, the sum and aubstanoe of whiob 
is that " either the agricultural development of the 
Malay Peninsula must be retarded or free immigration 
must Eot only be sanctioned but, he supported by 
Government." 
How far immi.<r»tion is supported by Government ia 
doubtful ; but ihat free immigration is sanctioned, 
Mr. Carey himself admits when tie complains of iti 
being "the duty of the Immigration Agent to board 
steamers and explain to immigrants (bat they are 
quite free." Mr, Carey's interpretation of " free " is, I 
presume, when coolies are given an advance in 
India by a " reliable agent " and brought over under 
a verbel contract to work it off. These coolies mast 
not be told by the Immigration Agent that they are 
free, but the " reliable ag;ent " must be allowed to 
take them oS to work for years ou some out of 
the way plantation, where he supplies them with 
tbe necessaries of life so long as they are able to 
work, and oven gives them a few cents on rare oooa> 
sions with which to buy petty luxuries from htmaell 
at five tim es their value. The balance of their 25 
centti per day wages they aie told go«a to pay oS 
