^5EPT.  2,  1895. J 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
209 
guidance  of  the  veteran  J.,  I have  been  making  a 
tour  round  tlie  coconut  districts  and  Mr.  \V  right 
kindly  put  ns  up  and  showed  ns  a model  estate 
indeed  ! Over  the  ivhole  dUU  acres  there 
is  not  a single  vacancy,  and  the  marvellous  care 
with  which  every  detail  has  been  thought  out, 
and  wi’ought  out,  convince  one  that  our  host 
is  a personality  far  above  the  average.  The 
bungalow  nestles  in  a grove  of  fruit  trees  and 
the  garden  is  full  of  lieautiful  Howers,  while 
many  rare  orchids  and  other  plants  have  the 
constant  care  of  the  proi>rietor,  and  the  hospitality 
dispensed  is  unbounded. 
W.J.  is  building  u[i  a big  thing  in  Coconut 
property  for  the  Ceylon  Tea  Plantations  Company 
and  in  a few  years',  even  if  their  handsome  tea 
ilivideiuls  sliouhl  disappear,  their  income  from 
coconuts  will  bo  larger.  Ham  y are  the  share- 
holders whose  directors  provide  so  ain))ly  for  the 
present  as  well  as  lay  up  for  the  future  as^  is 
being  done  in  this  Company.  K. 
CEYLON  TEA  IN  NEW  ZEALAND. 
Mr.  John  D.  Darley,  formerly  of  our  planting 
cominunity  and  well-known  in  Ceylon,  writes  to 
us  from  New  Zealand  under  date  18th  July  : — ■ 
1 enclose  you  a cutting  from  a local  (Auckland) 
paper  with  reference  to  your  teas.  I must  say  I 
do  not  agree  wiih  it,  and  find  there  is  nothing  to 
e<tual  good  Ceylon  tea.  But  a quantity  of  the  tea 
sold  as  “Ceylpn”  is  mixed  with  an  inferior  quality 
thereby  giving  it  a bad  name  ; — 
"In  the  tea  market  there  is  a plethora  o undesir- 
able C ;yl  )iis.  The  growers  in  the  is'and  where 
every  prospect  pleases  and  only  man  is  vile,’  are 
apparoiii  y plu  ging  into  quantity,  and  are  forgetful 
of  quality.  If  this  policy  is  continued  cood-bye  to 
the  fav  uiitism  of  Ceylon  teas,  which  up  to  now 
have  stea  lily  advanced  in  i opular  favour.  Reckless 
con-iignmen  s of  noor  Ceylons  have  been  advised 
from  all  quarters,  while  the  difficulty  of  finding  high- 
olasj  qual  ly  is  more  pronounced  than  ever.’’ 
♦ 
N.VTIVE  CULTIVATION  IN  UVA. 
The  villagers  and  cultivators  are  reaping  their 
harvests  of  paddy  which  seem  pretty  fair,  but  this 
evening's  thunderstorm  will  I am  afraid  spoil  some 
of  the  stacks  that  are  not  threshed  out  and  prove  to 
some  of  the  lazy  ones,  that  there  is  "many  a slip 
between  cup  and  lip,’’  and  perhaps  set  them  levying 
black  mail  on  their  neighbours. — Crime  is  about  much 
the  same  as  usual  and  by  no  means  decreasing ; the 
village  headmen  and  town  Arachchies  are  a farce 
as  guardians  of  the  public,  all  they  .are  good  for  is 
to  levy  blackmail  and  share  the  “ spoils-of-the  chase ’’ 
with  the  rogues  and  vagabonds. — Cor. 
— 
COFFEK  Leaf  Di.ska.se.— It  never  rains,  but 
it  pours.  Jn.st  after  the  “Secretary  to  the 
.Agricultural  Department,  Ceylon”  received  a 
letter  from  England  claiming  the  reward  (inythi- 
c.1,1)  for  the  discovery  of  a cure  for  coffee  leaf 
disease,  there  comes  a telegram  to  the  same  effect 
from  a gentleman  in  Conoor,  tvho  is  really 
neat  enough  to  know  wo  have  little  coflee  left 
in  Ceylon,  and  who  also  ought  to  know  tli.at  .as 
the  disease  prevailed  on  yo\tug  estates  witli  virgin 
soil,  as  vvell  as  on  old,  it  could  nut  be  iluc  to 
a c.ause  he  names.  Still,  our  Coonoor  friend  has 
colibe  near  by  him  in  Coorg  to  experiment  on. 
DEAFN’88. 
An  essay  describing  a really 
genuine  Cure  for  Deafness, 
Ringing  in  Ears,  &c.,  no  m.atter  how  severe  or  long- 
standing, will  be  sent  post  free. — Artificial  E.ar- 
drums  and  similar  api)liances  entirely  superseded. 
Address  'I'HOMAS  KEMPE,  Victokia  Cha.m- 
iiF.Ks,  19,  Southampton  Buieoinos,  Hoeuoun, 
TEA  CROW  INC  IN  WENCHOW. 
Consul  M.  P.  A.  Fraser  wi'ite.s  in  his  Report  on 
the  trade  of  Wenchow  for  the  year  IS'.H,  dated  April 
29th,  as  follows  ; — 
Tire  principal  fe.ature  in  the  export  trade  was  a 
large  incro.xsa  in  the  export  of  Tea,  and  this  pro- 
mises a large  expansion  hereafter,  which  is  most 
gratifying  to  those  interested  in  the  progress  of 
this  struggling  and  ill-used  port.  Foochow  will  have 
to  look  to  its  rather  faded  laurels. 
Green  tea  dos.s  n t appear  in  the  customs  returns 
of  cargo  exported  in  steamers  befo  e the  year  18'.);!. 
In  that  year  149,4'o7  lb  of  it  were  so  exported, 
and  in  18J4  there  were  2.)3,73J  lb  of  green,  being 
hyson,  gunpowder,  and  imperial.  The  beginnings 
recorded  were  very  small,  in  1877  there  having  been 
only  37,007  lb  exported  in  steamer,  and  in  the  next 
year,  1878,  only  90,067  lb  all  sorts  included. 
A visitor  to  Wenchow  may  see  tea  growing  without 
the  necessity  of  going  so  far  afield  as  a visitor  to 
Foochow,  -'it  Wenchow  an  hour’s  walk  in  almost 
any  direction  takes  one  into  hills  where  tea  is  culti- 
vated, .as  also  tobacco,  coir-palms,  the  tea-oil  plant, 
the  bamboo  and  the  ubiquitous  sweet  potato.  Even 
on  the  tiny  river  island  on  which  the  consulate 
stands,  tea  is  grown  by  the  Buddhist  Priests.  A cup 
of  tea  prepared  “ala  Chinoise ’’  from  lea  ve.s  picked 
just  outside  the  portals,  and  pure  mountain  water 
hard  by,  tastes  delicious  to  the  holiday  pedestrian 
who  has  climbed  up  the  steepest  of  stone-flagged 
parts  over  1,090  feet  to  one  of  the  numerous  temples 
occupied  by  good  Budduist  and  Taoist  priests  in  the 
surrounding  hills. 
Nearly  all  the  tea  exported,  however,  comes 
from  the  Ping-T’ang  region.  The  town  of  Ping- 
Yang  is  about  forty  miles  south  of  Wenchow, 
and  is  reached  by  canals  over  which  there 
is  an  enormous  traffic,  mainly  in  fast  boats 
of  small  size  propelled  by  hand.  In  the  trade 
report  for  1883,  .hr.  Parker  mentions  that  an  enor- 
mous export  of  alum  to  Ningpo,  quite  12,000  tons  a 
year,  takes  place  from  Ku-ao-t’ow,  the  port  of  Ping- 
yang,  ten  miles  further  to  the  south.  It  is  fi'om  Ku- 
ao-fow,  I am  informed,  that  great  quantities  of  tea, 
bought  by  four  Ningpo  Chinese  merchants,  is  shipped 
on  junks  and  taken  to  Hit-p'u  for  the  province  of 
Kiangsu,  the  province  just  north  of  this  one,  con- 
taining Shanghai,  Soochow,  and  Nankin.  The  tea  so 
shipped  is  of  coarse  complexion,  and  indeed  it  is  easy 
to  understand  that  the  finer  kinds  of  this  delicate 
article  better  sustain  a quick  voyage  in  good  steamers 
than  a long  one  in  “wind-jammers’’  like  the  native 
junk,  in  which  conveyance  of  over  .500,000  ib.  of  tea  take 
their  way  to  the  neighbouring  northern  province. 
As  for  finer  teas  no  pekoe  black  tea  appears  in  the 
customs  returns  of  steamer  export  before  1894,  and 
then  only  to  the  extent  of  50  piculs,  i.e.,  0,007  lb., 
but  this  first-crop  tea,  called  pekoe,  “whitedown,”  from 
the  whitish  down  with  which  the  leaves  are  covered, 
is  grown  to  a much  larger  extent  annually,  and  a 
great  deal  is  taken  overland  to  Hangchow,  the  capital 
of  the  Ningpo-Wenchow  Province  of  Chehkiang, 
wheircesome  finds  its  way  to  the  largo  city  of  Soochow. 
'Tea-firini/. — At  present  half  of  the  Ping-yang  pro- 
duct goes  south  to  Foechow,  but  we  in.iy  expect 
that  this  proportion  will  diminish  if  not  (iisappear. 
In  1893  a beginning  was  made  by  e.stablishing  a tea- 
firing concern  in  Wenchow.  It  n.is  liiO  firing-pans, 
to  attend  to  whic.i  eight, y men  are  employeU  in  the 
season,  earning  each  1 iO  ca.sh  a day,  tnal  is  10  s ,,y 
about  ijl  (2j)  a week.  About  100  women  are  also 
employed  by  it  in  y.icking  out  stalks,  old  le  ivos,  A'c. 
from  the  teas  at  wages  of  tea  cash  a catty  (1>^  lb  ) Ta 
workpeople  engaged  in  the  work  of  sifting  and 
packing  are  from  the  enterprising  population  of  llui- 
chow,  the  mountainous  j)refectural  rlisirict  iii  the  pro 
vince  of  Anhui,  bordering  oui-  pro\ince  on  the  west.. 
“No  business  can  be  done  without  Hui-chow  men” 
says  a proverb  well-known  in  China.  These  skilled 
Hui-chow  men  aie  paid  by  the  season,  and  a 
double  the  rates  of  the  local  men.  The  n.itive 
tea  iusijectora  or  “ chaszees”  are  also  Hui-chow 
men.  In  1894  another  firm  set  up  140  firing  pans. 
These  two  together  exported  about  5,000  chests  of 
tea  last  year.  Three  more  are  in  train,  so  that  in 
