Aug.  I,  i8g6.] 
THE  I'ROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
^33 
[According;  to  the  Ceylon  Blue  Book  for  1894  (the 
latest  published)  the  area  \inder  cinnamon  is  39,81(5 
acres  ; but  this  is  only  approximate. — Ed.  T.A."\ 
PUKE  CEYLON  TEA. 
Billiter  House,  London,  .July  1. 
Dear  Sir, — “ How  to  secure  pure  Ceylon  Tea  being 
sold  in  England  ” is  the  text  of  “ a gentleman  in- 
terested in  the  Home  tea  trade”  whose  lucubrations  are 
given,  if  not  in  full,  at  all  events  in  sufficient  length, 
in  the  Overland  Oiserver,  under  date  May  21  of  thisyear. 
The  first  thing  that  strikes  one  is,  that  though 
“England”  is  the  country  to  be  converted  from  a 
belief  in  “ delicious  Mazawattee  ” and  Lipton’s  “best 
tea  in  the  world  for  1/7  ” and  such  like  blends  of 
“ Far  Cathay  ” with  Lanka’s  sole,  Scotland  is  the 
division  to  be  first  operated  upon,  and  Glasgow  the 
first  city  in  which  the  proposed  experiment  is  to  be 
tested  by  some  lusty  youths,  presumably  in  hilts  as 
they  will  have  to  mount  many  stairs,  and  will  need 
all  the  freedom  of  limb  possible  to  overcome  the 
much  climbing  to  be  encountered  in  the  four  months’ 
siege  of  the  denizens  of  St.  Mungo. 
The  next  thing  that  occurs  is,  if  “ pure  Ceylon  ” 
in  the  City  of  Lipton,  the  great  producer  of  the 
article,  has  to  be  sought  for  with  such  care  and 
forebodings  that  salvation  for  England  cannot  be 
expected  from  these,  why  not  try  the  great  cosmo- 
politan Metropolis,and  perhaps  a virtuous  few  might  be 
found  amongst  the  adulterating  many  of  the  modeim 
Sodom,  who,  if  separated  from  the  wicked,  by  the 
imprimatur  of  the  Ceylon  Association  of  London, 
might  eventually  so  commend  the  pure  article  as  to 
leaven  the  whole  lump,  more  or  less — but  rather  less 
it  is  to  be  feared. 
It  is  only  to  be  expected  that  Ceylon  Tea,  like 
all  other  articles  in  great  demand,  and  capable  of 
adulteration,  will  be  adulterated,  and  nothing  that 
can  be  suggested  outside  a stringent  penal  act  of 
Parliament,  will  prevent  Ceylon  Tea  being  used  to 
fortify  and  work  off  cheap  Chinas,  and  other  tea 
rubbish  of  many  lands. 
Old  planters  and  others  interested  in  the  genuine 
article  being  sold  in  its  purity  may  speculate 
as  much  as  they  like  on  measures  to 
prevent  adulteration,  and  palming  off  spurious 
and  inferior  mixtures  in  place  of  pure  Ceylon  teas, 
but  the  best  prevention  is  for  the  dealers  in  only  the 
real  leaf  of  the  Spicy  Isle  to  combine  and  advertise 
themselves  as  under  the  guarantee  of  the  Ceylon 
Association  of  London  to  sell  only  the  teas  imported 
direct  from  Ceylon. 
Whatever  might  be  done  in  Glasgow  under  the 
directioli  of  the  ‘‘gentleman  interested  in  the  homo 
tea  trade  ” by  the  use  of  a map  and  the  services  of 
a dozen  kilted  lads,  spurred  on  to  storm  the  many 
winding  stairs  by  the  quickening  strains  of  Scotia's 
martial  pipes,  it  is  certain  that  other  and  milder 
means  must  be  found  for  the  conversion  of  the 
brutal  Saxon  to  take  his  tea,  as  it  is  hoped  he  takes 
his  beer  pure  and  unadulterated. 
If  the  correspondent  of  the  Observer  believes 
earnestly  in  his  plan  of  campaign  I feel  sure  the 
Plasters’  Association  would  be  only  too  glad  to  see 
him  put  it  in  operation — of  course  at  his  own  expense 
and  surely  one  largely  interested  in  the  home  trade 
and  perhaps  in  Glasgow  as  well — can  hardly  expect 
the  Planters’  Association  to  do  more  than  give  him 
their  best  wishes  and  a blessing  into  the  bargain. 
Much  of  the  Indian  tea  may  be  all  that  the 
“ gentleman  interested  in  the  home  trade  ” says  it 
is,  but  we  have  only  his  word  for  it  that  the  sale  of 
“Ceylon”  is  being  injured  by  the  blending  that  may 
be  going  on  with  “Indian.”  So  long  as  it  is  blended 
with  Indian  only,  there  is  probably  no  damage  done, 
nCACKICCQ  es.say  describing  a really 
ULninCuOt  genuine  Cure  for  Deafness, 
Hinging  in  Ears,  Ac. , no  matter  bow  severe  or  long- 
standing, will  be  sent  post  free. — Artificial  Ear- 
drums and  .similar  a])idiances  entirely  superseded. 
Address  THOMAS  KEMPE,  Victoria  Cham- 
bers, 19,  Southampton  Buildings,  Holborn  ; 
London. 
but  the  contrary,  for  if  much  of  the  Indian  tea  can 
be  put  on  the  retail  market  only  after  being  fortified 
by  Ceylon  tea,  it  is  a testimonial  to  the  latter  and  a 
guarantee  that  its  virtue  will  be  rewarde  1 by  a 
constant  demand  from  its  great  neighbour  for  the 
further  support  of  the  increasing  millions  that  will 
be  sent  from  it  to  the  world’s  great  market  in  London. 
When  we  consider  the  annual  increase  in  the 
consumption  of  tea,  that  Ceylon  will  probably  never 
go  much  beyond  the  hundred  millions,  and  that 
China  is  going  down  as  India  is  going  up, 
why  should  we,  as  suggested,  initiate  a crusade 
against  the  Indian  with  which  we  are  now,  to  our 
mutual  advantage,  in  America,  running  in  double 
harness,  and  should  be  doing  the  same  in  Russia 
and  other  countries  yet  to  be  conquered  ? ’ 
Tlie  last  thing  I should  hope  the  Planters’  Asso- 
ciation of  Ceylon,  or  Chamber  of  Commerce  of 
Colombo,  will  do,  will  be  to  countenance  anything 
to  disparage  Indian  teas  : they  may  not  be  as  good  as 
Ceylon,  but  that  does  not  affect  the  latter,  so  long 
as  it  finds  a market.  It  the  Indian  is  not  so  gooa 
so  much  the  better  for  Ceylon,  and  why  therefore 
go  out  of  our  way  to  proclaim  what — if  it  is  a truth 
— will  show  itself  soon  enough  for  Ceylon,  and  much 
too  soon  for  India. 
It  may  be  true  that  Ceylon  had  a great  share  in  ous- 
ting China,  but  she  could  not  have  done  it,  how'ever 
good  the  quality,  without  India,  neither  can  the  balance 
left  of  the  production  of  the  celestials  be  wiped  out 
without  !■  dia.  Together  have  they  conquered,  and 
only  together  can  they  advance  to  greater  victories. 
China  is  not  dead  yet,  nor  Li-Hung  Chang  either, 
and  we  cannot  tell  what  effort  may  be  made  in  the 
immediate  future  to  resuscitate  the  production  and 
trade  in  tea  from  the  Flowery  Land.  Before  going 
to  war  with  India  let  us  first  drive  out  what  re- 
mains of  China,  and,  when  that  is  done,  we  shall 
in  all  probability  find  there  will  be  less  cry  of  adul- 
teration, and  less  need  of  measures  to  prevent  what 
can  only  be  a blending  of  varying  qualities  of  the 
same  leaf,  similarly  prepared  in  the  two  countries. 
—Yours  faithfully,  JOHN  TYNDALL 
Mr  John  Ferguson,  of  the  Cci/lon  Observer  and 
Tropical  Agrictdfurisf,  has  an  interesting  article  in 
the  Times  of  June  1st  on  the  subject  of  “ The 
Production  of  Tea  and  Coffee  in  British  Dependencies.” 
Few  men  know  as  much  on  this  subject  as  Mr. 
Ferguson,  aad  we  regret  that  want  of  space  forbids 
us  from  quoting  at  length  from  his  letter.  He  points 
out,  among  other  things,  that  the  export  of  tea  from 
India  has  steadily  risen,  year  by  year,  from  2i  million 
pounds  in  1861-02,  until  the  estimate  for  1S96-97  is 
144  million  pounds.  In  Ceylon  the  export  of  tea  23 
years  ago  was  23  lb.  only,  while  for  1896  the  official 
estimate  of  the  total  export  is  102  million  pounds. 
Verilv  tea  has  done  much  for  Ceylon’s  lovely  ule.— 
Colonies  and  India,  June  6. 
Coffee  in  B.  C.  Africa.— Says  the  Central 
African.  Planter  for  June  : — 
We  have  at  last  been  favoured  with  the  statis- 
tics of  last  season’s  export  of  coffee  and  it  is  grati- 
fying to  find  that  the  figures  completely  bear  out 
the  estimate  published  in  these  pages  some  nine 
months  ago,  viz.  150  tons.  The  actual  quantity  ex- 
ported was  146  tons  exactly  double  the  export  of 
the  previous  year.  In  addition  to  the  actual  quan- 
tity exported  we  have  to  consider  the  amount  ob- 
tained in  this  country  for  home  consumption  and  the 
amount  used  as  seed.  As  1 cwt.  is  by  no  means  a 
large  amount  for  seed  purposes  and  as  the  number 
of  separate  plantations  exceeds  100  the  amount  used 
for  seed  alone  would  be  considerably  in  excess  of  5 
tons  that  it  is  certain  that  the  actual  crop  exceeded 
150  tons.  Taking  the  usual  calculation  of  .£100  per 
ton  the  report  shows  a gross  value  of  £41,600,  the 
most  of  which  goes  to  the  benefit  of  this  country. 
It  however  represents  only  a small  fraction  of  the 
amount  annually  expended  by  planters  in  this  country 
as  of  course  most  of  the  recent  clearings  do  not  come 
into  bearing  till  1897.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  fore 
cast  for  this  year’s  out-put,  viz.,  300  tons  will  be 
abundantly  verified  aud  thus  continue  the  geometrical 
progression  of  the  last  five  years. 
