October i, i8go.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
— ■ ■ ■ — — - 
To ihe Editor. 
HOW TO INTRODUCE CEYLON TEA INTO 
RUSSIA. 
Dear Sib, — Your newspaper containing letter from 
an Anglo-Indian Major respecting the ohanoes of 
introducing Ceylon tea into Russia through St. Peters- 
burg I hove read with great interest. 
I think the Major writes a good deal sense 
and agree with him that it is possible to introduce 
Indian tea not only into the capital of the great 
tea diinking people but also into the other towns 
of the Russian empire. The first step toward 
attaining this object is to remove the prejudice 
existing in the minds of the Russian grocers and tea 
dealers who are under the impression that Cev Ion tea 
is scented by artificial means and is unfit for Russian 
consumers. Secondly, the planters should only send 
those qualities which would suit the Russian market 
either in that pure state or mixed with the weaker 
brands of Chinese tea. The writer has found from 
experience that the Russian public will not drink 
Ceylon tea in its pure state on account of its being 
too aromatic and strong in flavour. A Russian 
grocer to whom I sold several chests in Moscow made 
a handsome profit by mixing the superior brands 
of Ceylon tea with the inferior qualities from China 
The best plan for the Ceylon planters is to be 
independent of the Russian grocers and the Russian 
tea merchants and open a imall shop on their own 
account in St. Petersburg on the Nevski Prospect. 
They can then sell the tea in its pure and natural 
state as mixed with the Chinese brands and let their 
article stand or fall on its own merits. The writer is 
convinced that the only obstacle that prevents the 
Russian public from drinking Ceylon tea are ignor- 
anoe and prejudice, and also because they have not 
yet accustomed their palates to the taste. Tea 
drinking, like many other things in this world, 
is a great deal a matter of imagination, especially 
among a people whose palates have not yet been 
educated by the questionable benefits of civilization. 
The Russian peasant who pays Roubles 2 a lb. for 
rubbishy tea has not much idea of aroma or quali- 
ties. So long as he is told it is “tehai” (tea) by the 
grocers, he believes them, and drinks the rubbish 
which they supply him with in blissful ignorance 
of what it is composed. It may be tea or it may 
be kapree grass for little he knows. It would not 
be difficult for the Ceylon planters to give him the 
genuine article at the same price as he is now 
paying for adulterated and rubbishy mixtures. 
In case the writer, who has himself sacrificed 
money and time on this object, can be of any use to 
to the Ceylon planters by means of his influence 
with the Russian press, the merchants, or with 
the authorities, he is willing to offer them his 
services, provided that he is fairly remunerated 
lor his exertions on their behalf. 
If Indian tea is to be introduced into Russia 
there is no time to be lost, for the Russian mer- 
chants in China have already opened large shops in 
Moscow and St. Petersburg where the genuine tea is 
now being sold at a fair and just price. One of 
the principal shops was only opened this spring. 
It is fitted up in the Chinese style, and the assis- 
tants are Celestials. I hear they are doing a 
good business and I do not see why the Ceylon 
merchants and planters should not follow their 
example,— Yours respectfully, 
WM. BARNES STEVENI, 
St. Petersburg Correspondent for the Dmhj Chronicle. 
38 
297 
PLANTS AND PESTS. 
Franklands, Wattegama, Aug. 4th. 
Dear Sir, — I have sent you by this train some 
cotton seed with numbers of red poochies taken 
out of an open box standing in an open shed near 
the store of this estate, also a branch of a tree 
called by the Sinhalese godaldrilla growing on 
this estate. Wherever this tree grows you will find 
numbers of these red poochies swarming around 
and crawling all over the young branches living 
on the sap of the young shoots and flowers ; the 
tree is nearly always in flower more or less. I 
have found by experience that whenever these 
poochies scent any of my cotton plants having 
flower and young pods they leave the godakirilla 
tree and at once attack the cotton flower and young 
pods. To test it further I placed some cotton seed 
sent to me by Mr. Joseph of Matale in a box as 
above described, and within a week the seed and box 
were covered by these poochies and only a few 
remained on the godakirilla tree. The distance from 
tree to the box is J mile. The Revd. S. Lindsay 
calling here yesterday; I showed him the box with 
cotton seed ; the box and seed were covered with 
poochies. Though we have this enemy to destroy 
more or less our cotton crop, yet at times we 
will be able to secure a good crop, but we must 
not plant again the same land or land near it for 
a few years. It is only yesterday I met a planter 
who secured one good crop and obtained 40 cents 
per lb, from the Company, cleared some forty 
rupees per acre and in this year planting again in 
another district among cacao, and I have heard of 
others who could not clear their expenses. Cotton 
wants a good rich soil and good rains up to crop 
time. Insect pests will come and go ; the home 
of the black bug was originally the mililla and ruk- 
attana trees, it afterwards took to our coffee ; the 
croton bug and caterpillar bad its home on the 
keppetitree, afterwards destroyed the croton oil plant. 
Even the rats sometimes come by hundreds. I 
remember once, in a week about twenty acres fine 
coffee was destroyed by them on an estate I had 
charge of Wo must ever be on the watch, and when 
we find an insect pest coming we must at once 
do our utmost to eradicate it before it gets too 
large a hold on us. The godakirilla tree on this 
estate is about 15 ft. high with a great spread of 
branches leaf oblong shape. I understand from 
natives they grow much larger in the jungle. — 
Yours truly, J. HOLLOWAY. 
[The tree of which Mr. Holloway sends us a 
specimen is the Holoptelea integrifoUa of botanists, 
and the Tamil name is ail, aiyilli, 01 kanchd- There 
does not seem to bo any affinity between it and cotton. 
The little red bugs or beetles, which, on the box 
being opened, ran about after a very lively fashion, 
are amongst the most common and most annoying 
pests of the cotton plant. We remember seeing 
them in multitudes on cotton cultivated in the 
Jaffna Peninsula in 1842 by the Messrs. Whitehouse 
brothers (who came to Ceylon from Demerara, by 
the way) and Mr. Hardy, and which cultivation 
was apparently not a success, for it was not perse- 
vered in.— Ed. T, A.] 
KINO. 
Nuwara Eliya, Aug. 18th. 
Sib, — Will you kindly inform me, what is kino ? 
How is it prepared ? What is it used for &o. ? 
I have repeatedly been asked these questions. — 
Yours faithfully, T. P. 
[Kino is a general name used in the drug market for 
the astringent gums or inspissated juice of several 
trees, such as Eucalyptus resinifera, Butea frondosa, 
