936 
THE TROPICAL AQRtOULTUmST. 
tJUNE I, 1892. 
TEA GROWING IN ENGLAND. 
" J. B." writes from London to a local ood' 
temporary : — 
I have lately been Belling tea plants raieed in tbis 
country from imported eeed. Wheu I first saw those 
tea plants, I was much struck with their fiue and 
healthy appearance. They have been so carefully 
reared by Mr. Seoton and gradually hardened at hie 
nnrseries at Roehampton that I can quite believe what 
one man told me — that he had been trying experi- 
ments with the single specimen which ho ha?, and 
had often put in outside his window in town on some 
of the coldest days Jast winter and it would not kill. 
It certsinty looked very far from being killed, or of 
having aoything the matter with it when ho shewed 
it to me. The tops of three of the plants were cut 
oS' last August, and pnt into a pot and forced, and 
the result, which was shewn to me in February, was 
a splendid show of leaf, and a really beautiful lot of 
blossom. I heard of a tea bush some years old at 
K6w:8o went down there. I was disappointed to find it 
had been allowed to grow almost wild, the result being a 
weeping-willow-sort of tree some six or seven feet high, 
giving an entirely erroneous impression of a tea bush in 
bearing, there being not a sign of flush on it. The 
British public naturally conclude, as indeed the man at 
Kew thought who showed it to me, that tea is 
made from the ordinary leaf with whioh the tree 
is covered. I wrote the directors of the Eoyal Gar- 
dens offering to go down and to prune this tree, and 
said that, if they won d put it into a hotter house, 
I was certain I could make some tea from it very 
soon. I had a ooarteous reply from your old friend, 
Mr. Morris, the assistant director, but be said they 
were afraid to risk any experiments with their tea 
tree, as it was the only one they bad. 
Having once got the idea of making some tea in 
this country from English-grown leaf, I went out 
to Mr. Secton's nurseries at Roehampton again, and 
made a selection of some of the plants for special 
treatment. I have not had much of a flush yet, but 
from young " bangy " leaf and some tips have pro 
duoed an article which has been reported on not 
unfavourably by tea experts. It is not easy to mani- 
pulate such a very small quantity, and such leaf as 
I have yet been able to pinok will scarcely roll 
properly or ferment. My samples passed muster, 
however, amongst a lot of six or eight, and I hope 
very soon to produce a sample which I shall not 
be afraid to pnt along with anything you are send- 
ing home just now, and I am very sure your " tup- 
penny " will not be in it I I am curious to know if 
anyone else has ever tried tea-making in this country 
from tea grown here ; perhaps some of yonr readers 
can give me information as to this. It would not, 
of course, pay to grow tea in this country, and it 
oan never be produced here at 2d a pound. My first 
pound will have cost quite a fabulous sum, and I 
doubt it it wonld pay to sell it at even the fancy 
price put on the pound or two of tips which made 
euch a noise last year; still, the firxt pound of ten 
made in this country from leaf grown in England, 
say in London, would not be without its own valuoj 
■nd would certainly be of interest to many. 
As I pointed out in a letter to the St, James's 
Gazette lately, referring to an article on Indian and 
Ceylon vs. China teas which had Appeared in that 
journal, it is a curious fact that, in 1880, when I 
opened a 100 acre clearing for tea in the Eelani 
Valley, and advertifod for plants, 1 could not get 
any at any price, and had to pnt out seed at stake, 
while this year I am advertisiug tea pluuta for sale 
in London, and many grocers and tea-dealers have 
those plants now growing in their shop-windows all 
over the country. They make a popular and attrac- 
tive advertisement in the window or on the counter, 
and there is evidently an increasing demand for them, 
I have had applications for dozens, for hundreds, 
and even for a lbou'«and of them at a time, and 
for seedlings and seed by the thounand. If this sort 
q1 tilings goca on, I enppoee, wo Bhall soon be able 
to buy Oeylon tea at a penny a pound as good as 
we pay a penny an ounce for now. Who would not 
with such prospects, be a tea planter 1 All the same 
I would say: make hay while the sun shines, and 
keep your name np for quality. Do not try to com- 
pete in cheapness or in low prices, and give up send- 
ing home "tuppenny teas." 
STANDARD TEA COMPANY OF OEYLON 
LIMITED. 
The first anaua! meeting of this company was held 
at the offices, 25, Fenohurch Street, on April 12. The 
•lirectors present were :— Mr. Alex. BroDke in the chair, 
Mr. Peter Moir, and Mr. Robert Kay Shuttleworth. 
The shareholders present included the following names: 
well known in Oeylon :— Messrs. Thomas S. Grigson, 
Korman W, Grieve George Johnston, and J, L.' 
Anstrnther. 
After the usual formalities, the Chairman said that 
the report was pretty well confined and had re- 
ference almost entirely to the working of the one 
estate— St. Leonard's, the company's first pnr- 
chase ; that the shareholders were aware that, in 
addition they now owned the Bskdale and Liddesdale 
estates of some 1,065 acres in the same district Uda- 
pusilavra, and within such a distance as to be workable 
together; but that these were only taken over as from 
January Ist, 1892; and the report and accounts dealt 
with the company's existence to December Slst 1891. 
The results to that date compared favourably with the 
promises in the prospectus. The quantities of coffee, 
cinchoni and tea accounted for to ttie company, in each 
case well exceeded the estimates of the prospectus. 
The geuenl result of the crop 1891 hid been a net 
profit of £l,<j70 7s 9d. The company bought the St. 
Leooard's estate as from March 1st, 1891. It was one 
of the conditions of purchase that they had the benefit 
of the crop from that date ; but, as they were not 
in a condition to pay for the place immediately, they 
had to pay interest, which, at 5 per cent., amounted 
to £345 178 8d. Out of the balance the directors 
proposed that a dividend should be paid for the four 
and a-hatf months of 1891 at the rate of 10 per cent, 
per annum on the first issue of shares, absorbing £658 
ISh lid., and that the balance, after paying some small 
sum to them, the directors, towards expenses and trouble 
in forming the company, should be carried forward — 
say something over £60U; for it was early days for the 
company yet and the bulkof theinoome forl891 wasfrom 
coffee, now a fomewhat speculative source of income, 
even m the most favoured districts. The company'3 
tea is still young, and in these high districts it takes 
longer to come into maturity than in the low 
oountries. The two new estates, Eskdale and Lid- 
desdale, give great promise for tea, both in quantity 
and quality. At present the leaf is cured on neigh- 
bouring estates; but a good factory is being built on 
St. Leonard's, designed when completed to manufac- 
ture as much leaf aa is likely to be required. 
Exchange is favourable for planters at present, and 
seems likely so to continne, for awhile, at all 
events, if there be no Government tinkering with 
silver. The Americans, by legislating to raise the 
price, so succeeded for a season as to stimulate pro- 
duction to an excess. The inevitable reaction and 
fall in i>rioe followed, nntil we now see silver lower 
than we have ever befure seen it, viz. : bar silver, 
London standard, below 39Jd per oz. Had they left 
the article to find its own level, its price ere now 
probably would have been almost satisfactory to 
those whose meddling bronght about what they 
now so much deplore; but the rise in price wonld 
have been gradual, and much loss saved to many, 
including a large, hardworking, deserving body — the 
planters of Ceylon and India. Let us hope that 
silver will now be left to natural causes, for the 
planters have natural tronbles enough of their own. 
For the moment, at all events, exchange or silver 
(for here they are almost synonymous) is in favour 
of the company, cheapening outlay on the estates, 
and leduoing the ooet of factory and coolie linee. 
