October i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
301 
a telegriim on the subject with positive instructions 
regarding “Funds” as I shall not leave St. Petersburg 
at any rate, before the 6th-18th instant. The Nijni 
Fair is the place where every year all the Eussian 
merchants from St. Petersburg, Mosoow, Odessa, in 
fact from every place iiiKussia.from Finland, Csuoasiis, 
Siberia &o., g<> to make their yearly purchases, Jix 
the prices of produce, goods, Tea, &o., and transact all 
kind of business, and it is only after the fair that a 
merchant would be persuaded to give an order for any 
kind of goods. Everyone tells me and it is also my 
firm belief, that there is to be made our ^i st Reclame. 
There our tea must be tasted and compared with 
Chinese tea ; a capital idea would have been to open 
there a Kiosk for the sale &c. or gratis distribution 
of tea in oup and in packets, it is still feasible in 
the shape of a small shop or a tent (easy to be got 
there) but we ought to start at once. The advertise- 
ment would be splendid. 
Going there I would take with me a first rate 
man, well recommended to me by the Swiss Consul. 
A man (Swiss) of 25 years’ busiuees esperienoed in 
Russia, spsaking Russian fluently, who has been already 
several times in Nijni during the fair. 
I estimate my expenses to go there with a stay of 
about 12 days, at about 30 Roubles a day, with the 
most strict economy, or say about 400 Roubles roughly 
spiakiug £60st for the trip, all chsrges of advertising, 
rent of a local [?] travelling and hotel expenses for two, 
included, and I think, for this amount, we ought not 
to lose our chance there. 
Kindly consider the question with the committee of 
your Association, send a wire to Ceylon if you think 
it necessary and let me have a wire reply without delay. 
My samplestea have been landed and cleared at the 
customs. I had to pay 668 Roubles or nearly £80st for 
duty and other charges, I have packed it in ^ and 
J lb. packets as per enclosed label in Russian lan- 
guage w hioh I have found more suitable than the one 
adopted previously ; and have already distributed 
them to a large number of merchants, hctels, 
restaurants, public b irs and private people. The tea 
has been tasted now by many and, I am glad to say, 
that the general report and opinion is in favor of its 
ffood quality, wanting however more strength and 
delicacy in flavor and somewhat too dear to compete 
with Chinese tea. Contrary to what I have been told 
in London, Russians do not object to a strong and 
rather reddish dark coloured tea. They make it in the 
usual way, fill half of the glass or glasses (very sel- 
dom they use cups) with made tea, and, with the 
Samovar (hot-water bottle) always at hand, they fill 
up the glasses with hot-water, thus making a rather 
real [?] beverage of very little taste and flavor. The tea 
pot is again re-filled 3 or 4 times wiih hot-water untij 
ibe infusion is quite exhausted and contains no more 
of aromatic particles. I really cannot say they drink 
good tea in Russia. What they look for here is 
more the appearance of the tea before the inpision 
and most of the people who have tasted my samples 
complained that they are too dark and have too little 
of that fine and sweet aroma, the smell before the 
infusion, which the Chinese Teas have even in the 
very inferior qualities. Strong, not too dark, high 
flavoured aromatic and coloured Teas, will I believe, 
always sell better here than others. 
They also complained of our Ceylon packing in J 
and full chests which they qualify as being rough, 
rustic, coarse and defective, packages without appear- 
ance and neatness, most of them broken and made 
up with old pieces of all kind of wood, as it was the 
case with my 10 chests samples. This is a most im- 
portant quesiion and I think a little more care and 
attention could be paid in Ceylon as regards packing, 
there is no doubt that the generality of our chests 
are made too roughly, with ell kind of bad wood, and 
are net strong enough to bear along voyage and s ime- 
tinies several transhipments. Would it not be possible 
and preferable — at least for Russia — to adopt a some- 
what similar packing as in China, mat, Ac., well made 
chests of about 25 to 50 pounds nett, not larger of tea 
with a sliding lid (the top plank cover iustead of a 
nailed one and the whole chest wrapped in some kind 
of coloured paper, with printiuga of some kind 
(common) representing Ceylon views and or native 
subjects characters and prints, and again a light 
gnnny wrapper to cover the whole chests. Ap- 
pearance and neatness for a produce of this kind is 
a great thing for Russia, and there is no doubt 
that a well made, neat and well presented package 
will improve its contents at the eyes of the buyers. 
It will be. I know, a little more [?] experience for the 
Ceylon planters, but wonld greatly facilitate the in- 
troduction and sale in Russia, at least for the begin- 
ning when all kind of sacrifice has to be made, 
later on, it will be easy to revert to the old system. 
In a long conversation I bad again the other day 
with Captain Vaohtinn, Director of the Russian 
Volunteer F'ent, he told me that another good plan 
for onr success would be to have in Odessa a stock 
of tea of some importanee ready to be cleared at the 
Customs in small quantities proportionally to our 
Bsles, there and or in the interior of Russia, and he 
offered and [?] if these teas were sent direct from 
Colombo to Odessa by their Volunteer Fleet steamers 
to place at the disposal of Tea Fund and [y] of their 
loaded warehouses and to store the tea there in 
hand free of rent, for any length of time, u' !il they 
are sold by me. This would be of great advantage 
considering the heavy dnty and exorbitant charges 
of any kind of a Rnssian Customhouse. This ques- 
tion has to bo seriously considered. 
Funds. — Me.ssrs, , my agents in London, have 
remitted and [?] a cheque for ronhles 166-95 eqn-valent 
of £st20 being the balance of £33 6s 8d for the last 
instalment of the £100 grant and I am much sui- 
nrised to see that they have deducted from that 
balance (33 6/8) the excess over .£30 grant of tea 
of their invoice for samples, althongb you bad posi- 
tively told me in London that you would take it upon 
your own responsibility to settle this difference on ac- 
count of the Tea Fund. 
It is useli as to think that I can sell my tea samples, 
thus my costs allowance is reduced to £90 or rather £86 
only, viz. 
£33 6s 8-1 received in Colombo 
£33 6s 8d received from you in London 
and £20 received from Messrs. M. K. & Co. 
who are even out of pocket for £2 10s 4d to mg debit. 
My expenses up to the present time amounts now to 
over £150 of which at least £140 are on account of the 
Tea Fund, as par enclcsed extract, leaving over £54 
out of my own pocket and it is easy to understand that 
I am spending more and more daily. 
I therefore leave you and your Committee judges 
of the situation which is to. become very crhiccd for 
me, as well as for my mission, if 1 am not placed 
immediately in fuud.s. If 1 bad known before 
all vvlial I krn.w now and what a country Russia 
is for expenditure, I would have never startod on such 
oondi leu as I did. 
I shall be very thankful to you if you would kindly 
weigh very carefully the foregoing questions and place 
them loithont delay before the committee cf the London 
Association tor an immediate decision in all the matters. 
I repeat it, there is no time to lose and I shall wait 
here your wire reply up to the 6-18th instant, on that 
date I hope leaving for Moscow where my address 
will be 
“ Hotel Bussan, Moscow..” 
You may communicate this letter to Ceylon, having 
no copying press I am unable to take more than one 
good copy of my letters. 
It may interest you to hear that two Volunteer 
Fleet steamers have arrived the other day at Odessa 
from Vladivostok, with 800,000 pouts equal to about 
29 000,000 English pounds, of Chinese tea, of which 
40,000 pouts remained in Odessa and the rest is to go 
into the interior of Russia. Hoping to hear soon from 
you, — 1 remain, dear sir, yours faithfully, 
(Signed) M. Rogivuh. 
Extract of Expenditure. 
£ s. 
From Lausanne to Loudon with luggage 6 00 
A fortnight stay in London, hotel, carriages hire 12 00 
Second class book ticket from London to St. 
