576 
THE TROPIOAL At3«1tJI3fLTUmST* 
[February 2, 1891. 
30.000 200 „ ■„ 6 , 000,000 lb. 
25.000 „ 100 „ 2,500,000 „ 
Total Bay... 54,550,000 lb. 
Deducting for local consumption... 550,000 ,, 
Probable total exports say... 54.000,000 lb. 
Yours faithfully, ARTHUR E. SCOVELL. 
PATENT LEAD-PAPER. 
Gartmore Estate, Maskeliya, Jan. 2nd. 
Dear Sir,—A11ow me as representing the owners 
of “ Clark’s Patent ” lead paper to reply to your 
editorial on the subjeot of Lead Lining for Tea 
Chests, appearing in your issue of 30th ulto.* 
The reports that you say have reached you regard- 
ing the satisfactory results of shipments of tea made 
in “ Clark’s Patent ” lead paper are correct, and 1 
would ask you still further to suspend your judg- 
ment until I am enabled to find out who has been 
using worthless imitations. This paper lead has 
been protected by the Ceylon Patent No. 323 of 
1889, and the application of it as a lining for tea 
chests Ac. by the United Kingdom Patent No. 9,099 
of 1889. I have a list of the shipments of tea 
made in chests lined with this material, and in 
no single instance has any fault been found 
with it, but, on the contrary as the enclosed list 
of testimonials will show you (from utter strangers 
to the patentee and from leading brokers in London). 
All the “ Clark’s Patent” lead paper hitherto 
used has been prepared in the island, and from 
Messrs. TV, and H. Johnston's Tea Lead ordinarily 
used for pachiny tea — none of it having been under 
4 oz. weight. If your London correspondent’s state, 
ment as to the perforations he noticed in one sample 
shown him, is correct, I shall feel obliged if he will 
furnish me with further particulars regarding the 
parcel of tea m which it was used. In hia previous 
letter, however, I think, he made no mention of the 
lead having been lined with pap-r, or I should have 
taken notice of the matter at the time. 
It must not be accepted as a fact, what your 
London correspondent only gives as an opinion of a 
London tea taster. His statement is ambiguous ; 
but if he infer that the sample of tea referred to 
was packed in Clark’s Patent Paper Lead, I chal- 
lenge the correctness of his opinion. I should be 
glad to know more about it, the name of the estate, 
and the vessel it was shipped by. 
Your London Correspondent after condemning 
all paper lead linings for tea chests proceeds to 
describe a “ new disoovery ” as follows ; — “ The 
working of it is of quite a distinct character from 
that of all the so called lead paper, hitherto tried. 
There are manifestly, from their feel, of paper 
coated only with lead, while this is equally 
manifestly of lead, only lined with paper. There 
is therefore a very sufficient and capable distino- 
tion to be drawn between their respective oharac- 
teristioB.” The above is a v'ery fair description of 
“ Clark’s Patent” Lead Lining 1 In the speoificaiion 
of the Patent the description runs : — “ a lining of 
paper, cloth, calico, or similar material, or 
one or other of the combined &o., &c., to the 
lead used in packing tea.” From the above you 
will see that your correspondent has had worthless 
imitations brought to his notice. Clark’s Patent 
paper lead is manifestly dearer than the ordinary 
lead, being made from it, but it can be prepared 
at very little extra expense, and the advantages of 
it are beyond doubt. The lining is oonsiderably 
etrengtbened, and not so liable to be damaged when 
packing the tea, or afterwards in bulking or sampling 
in the bonded warehouse at home. It further 
preserves the tea, and also prevents the actual 
contact of the tea with the lead which is considered 
by many medioal men injurious to health. So 
convinced am I that the lining is a success, and 
a real gain over the trifling cost, that not a 
single package has left my factory not lined with 
it. Two sample boxes packed and kept in store 
for a year were, a short time ago, sent to Messrs. 
Gow, Wilson & Stanton for their report &a. 
They reported that it arrived “ in excellent 
condition” and sold for Is od. and Is 4d. per Ib. 
respectively. The parcel of Gartmore tea which sold 
for 10s 6d. per lb. in London, the other day, was 
similarly packed. 
A shipment of the lead paper has been received 
from England, by the agents of Clark’s Patent, the 
Colombo Commercial Company, Limited; but it has 
been so badly prepared, and packed, that it has been 
withdrawn from sale. Suitable paper, of the cor- 
rect width and any length, can be procured from 
the Colombo Commeroial Company, Limited, and 
authority to use it or lead of suffioient thickness 
and good quality, — Yours faithfully, 
T. 0. ANDERSON. 
SULPHATE OP COPPER FOR COFFEE AS 
RECOMMENDED BY MISS ORMEROD, 
SiE, — Can you or any of your readers inform 
me through your columns, where this can be pur- 
chased in Ceylon and what its cost about is ? 
Also how it ought to be applied to coffee suffering 
from green bug and v.hat season is the best— in 
sunny, cloudy or rainy weather ; also if it should 
be applied just before the attack is renewed or 
only after it has made its re-appearanoe — i.e. is it 
simply a deterrent or a potent extinyuishtr ‘i — 
Yours faithfully, O. 
P.S. — There are fine fields of oofiee in Haputale, 
and i-.very effort should be made to preserve them— 
who shall say if they will not eventually prove 
the nucleus for a renewal of the coffee enterprise 
in the hill districts of Ceylon. I could instance 
at the present moment one case of a field of 
over 100 acres bearing at the rate of ewts. 8 (eight) 
per acre. How will this compare with profits from 
tea at its best, say with Mariawatte 100 acres ? 
[This Uva correspondent will find some of the 
information he wants in Mr. Sixtus’s letter on 
page 573. Certainly, every effort should be 
made to fight the enemies of the good coffee 
remaining in the country. Let our correepondent 
work out the profit-reckoning between oofiee and 
tea in bumper crops and send us the result. — 
Ed. T. a.] 
TEA LEAD VS. PAPER LINING: 
January 10 th. 
Dear Sir, — Mr, Maitland Kirwan in his letter 
advocating the use of, or a trial given to, his 
“ patent ’’ paper, starts on the supposition that the 
ordinary lead used, costs on tbe estate R2 per 
chest or 3s stg. as against his paper costing la 
4|d in London, or a saving of Is 7Jd per oheat. 
My last purchase of lead was one box at R13‘50 
per cwt. in Colombo. 5 oz. lead which is now 
generally used in preference to 4 oz, lead, gives 
28 sheets to the cwt., or at above price costs 48 
cents per sheet. It requires a little under IJ sheet 
to line a full chest 24 by 19 by 19 (outside mea- 
surement), BO that the lining with 5 oz. lead costs 
in Colombo 72 cents. In England I have no doubt, 
6 oz, lead can be had under 15s per cwt- f.o.b. 
’’ 8ee page 511,— Ed, T, A, 
