THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
469 
Jan.  I,  1897.] 
is  chiefly  tea  in  bricks  of  different  dimensions.  These 
teas  are  consumed  by  ttie  nomads  and  ttie  northern 
peasants,  by  reason  of  their  cheapness  and  the  facilities 
of  transport.  The  customs  duties  on  this  kind  of  tea 
are  much  lower  than  those  on  leaf  tea.  In  the  various 
retail  shops  leaf  tea  is  sold  in  packets  weighing  i,  4, 
or  1 Russian  pound  at  prices,  varying  according  to 
quality,  from  80  copecks  to  .5  paper  roubles  the  pound, 
but,  as  a rule  sufficiently  good  tea  may  be  purchased 
for  1 rouble 50  copecks  to  2 roubles  50  copecks  per  pound. 
Russia  exports  annually  a certain  quantity  of  tea  in 
packets,  prepared  by  the  large  importing  houses  of 
Moscow,  which  are  well-known  throughout  the  whole 
of  Europe.  Ry  way  of  Odessa,  30,000  kilogrammes 
were  shipped  iu  1894  to  the  destination  of  Roumauia, 
Bulgaria,  Turkey,  and  Austria-Hungary.  Abo"t  two 
years  ago  tea  from  Ceylon  began  to  be  imported,  but 
the  quantity  so  far  has  been  inconsiderable. — Journal 
of  ike  tiocietij  of  Arti,  Nov.  27. 
ANOTHEPt  CEYLON  TEA  COMPANY. 
AN  IMPORTANT  AND  EXTENSIVE 
VENTURE. 
We  learn  that  it  has  been  decided  and  the 
preliminary  steps  have  been  taken  to  float  another 
large  Company  to  work  several  very  line  pro- 
perties in  the  Upper  Dikoya,  Upper  Diinbula, 
Raml)oda  and  Nuwara  Eliya  districts.  Tlie  estates 
which  the  projected  Comi)any  liave  acquired  .are 
Kandapola,  and  Monkswood  worked  in  connec- 
tion with  it,  Erotoft  and  Tymawr,  with  Kush- 
brook  estate  and  Poojagodde  est.ate  worked  with 
these  ; Erroll  estate,  and  Middleton  and  Tallan- 
k.ande  estates.  The  following  is  the  acre.age  of 
estates  : — 
Total  acreage.  Cultivated 
Kandapolla  (Nuwara  Eliya 
280 
in  tea. 
249 
Monkswood  (Nuwara  Eliya) 
197 
197 
Protoft  and  Tymawr  (Rambodde) 
316 
306 
Rushbrook  (Rambodde) 
306 
1.50 
Poojagodde  (Rambodde) 
450 
50 
Erroll  (Dikoya) 
239 
215 
Middleton  (Dimbulla) 
250 
. . 225 
Tallankande  (Dimbulla) 
265* 
121 
- 
2,333 
1,513 
• Tallankanda  118a.  cinchona,  10a.  coffee. 
The  Ceylon  agents  for  the  above  estates  are 
Messrs.  Rosanquet  ilc  Co.,  but  tiie  (Jompany  is 
being  jironioted  in  London.  We  underst.and  th.at 
the  estates  will  be  worked  for  and  on  behalf  of 
the  Conqiany  as  from  the  end  of  tlie  current  year. 
CARDAMOMS. 
It  is  a good  many  years  ago  since  cardamoms  have 
been  so  dear  as  they  are  today.  In  fact,  there  has 
been  no  such  scarcity  of  the  drug  since  Ceylon  com 
meuced  to  supplant  Southern  India  as  the  principal 
source  of  supply.  That  was  about  twelve  years  ago. 
So  recently  as  1884  the  bulk  of  the  card.unoms  seen  iu 
the  London  market  were  the  produce  of  the  native 
States  of  Travancore  and  Cochin,  while  smaller  but 
regular  consignments  were  also  I'eceived  from  other 
portions  of  the  M.ilabar  coast.  The  Maharajah  of 
Travancore  used  to  di  aw  a handsome  revenue  from  his 
cardamom  monopoly,  which  was  mainly  based  on  the 
simple  plan  that  the  growers  must  consign  the  whole 
of  their  crop  to  a specified  port — Aleppey — and  thei  e 
sell  it  to  the  officials  of  his  Highness.  Cardamom 
culture  by  Europeans  was  discouraged  at  Travancore 
in  those  days.  We  believe  that  it  is  now  permitted, 
and  that  a tax  has  been  substituted  for  the  old 
monopoly  system.  But  the  low  market-rates  of  the 
past  few  years  have  taken  the  gilt  off  the  industry  in 
Travancore,  just  as  the  former  high  prices  stimulated 
by  the  monopoly  system  encouraged  the  spread  of 
cardamom-culture  in  Ceylon. 
Before  1884,  r'eylon  did  not  export  any  cardamoms 
worth  mentioning,  and  those  that  she  did  send  abroad 
consisted  mainly  of  the  long,  greenish-brown,  three- 
sided  arched  fruit  which  wo  know  as  wild  cardamoms. 
This  variety  is  but  rarely  seen  now,  and  when  a few 
cases  appear  on  the  market  they  are  always  well 
competed  for  by  German  exporters,  for  the  seeds  have 
a very  distinct  aroma,  and  are  prized  in  Southern 
Germany  for  confectionery  and,  we  believe,  as  ingre- 
dients in  liqueurs. 
In  the  early  eighties,  European  planters  in  Ceylon 
commenced  to  turn  their  attention  to  cardamom 
growing.  The  cultivation  of  that  product  is  rather 
easy,  and  was,  at  that  time,  very  profitable.  More- 
over, the  soil  of  Ceylon  proved  to  be  excellently 
adapted  to  the  raising  of  the  drug,  especially  at 
altitudes  of  between  3,000  and  4,000  feet.  The 
process  adopted  in  Ceylon  for  drying  and  bleaching 
the  fruit  was  also  much  better  than  that  generally 
used  in  India,  and  as  a result  of  all  these  favour- 
able circumstances  Ceylon  cardamoms  quickly  be- 
came xropular  in  the  London  market.  During  the  first 
years  of  prosperity  of  cardamom-growing  iu  Ceylon, 
it  w’as  calculated  that  certain  small  plantations  in 
good  positions  yielded  a year’s  profit  of  from  2007. 
to  300/.  per  acre.  Naturally,  the  thing  was  over- 
done. In  1880. 81  there  were  about  1,200  acres  under 
cardamoms  in  the  island.  The  entire  exports 
amounted  to  about  16,000  lb.  The  highest  price 
paid  for  Ceylon  cardamoms  in  Lonion  in  that 
season  was  9s.  Id.  per  lb.  In  1831  the  cardamom 
area  had  risen  to  4,000  acres,  and  the  exports  to 
236,056  lb.;  but  the  average  price  had  fallen  to  less 
than  one-half  that  of  1881.  The  output  of  Ceylon 
cardamoms  was  then  estimated  at  about  20  per 
cent  of  the  world’s  production.  Since  then  Ceylon 
has  shipped  from  300,000  to  400,00  lb.  a year,  and 
the  present  season  appears  to  have  been  the  first 
in  which  the  demand  has  outrun  the  supply. 
The  presenr  scarcity  seems  to  be  due  rather  to  a 
failure  of  the  Indian  crops  than  to  a serious  falling-off 
in  the  Ceylon  output.  India  is  a very  large  consumer 
of  cai'damons,  and  imports,  even  in  ordinary  times,  a 
considerable  proportion  of  the  Ceylon  crop.  This 
season,  owing  to  the  failure  of  her  own  harvest,  she 
has  taken  more  than  ever,  and  as  London  at  first 
declined  to  believe  in  the  possibility  of  a cardamom 
famine,”  and  would  not  pay  the  prices  that  could  be 
obtained  in  India,  it  now  finds  iiself  with  a depleted 
stock,  a strong  demand  from  America  and  the  Contin- 
ent— the  consuming  season  being  at  its  height — and 
uncertain  prospects  of  sufficient  shipments  for  two  or 
three  months  to  come.  No  wonder,  then,  that  values 
have  already  more  than  doubled,  and  that  there  is 
thought  to  be  no  prospects  of  a serious  decline.  The 
new  Ceylon  crop,  which  generally  begins  to  arrive 
in  January,  will  no  doubt,  be  hurried  forward  with 
unusual  speed  this  year,  and  it  seems  likely,  therefore, 
that  the  Ceylon  cardamons  of  1897  will  fall  below  the 
average  in  quality.  In  is  somewhat  strange,  by  the 
way,  that  the  present  scarcity  of  the  ordinary  com- 
mercial varieties  of  cardamoms  has  not  led  to  an 
attempt  to  introduce  upon  our  markets  the  Siamese 
cardamom,  of  which  huge  quantities  (much  larger 
than  the  produce  of  Ceylon)  are  shipped  every  year 
to  Singapore  and  China.  Though  the  fruit  differs 
greatly  in  appearance,  the  seeds  of  this  variety,  the 
true  A /noma  ccn-damomum,  greatly  resemble  those  of 
the  M dabar  kind. — Chemist  and  Druyyist,  Nov.  28. 
- — 
TEA  IN  MELBOURNE. 
At  the  auction  on  24th  November  598  packa*res 
of  Ceylon  were  offered,  of  wliich  558  packages 
sold  up  to  the  following  prices  : For  pekoe, 
9Rl ; orange  pekoe,  lO.jd  ; pekoe  souchong,  8d.’ 
broken  pekoe,  I04d  ; broken  orange  pekoe,  Is  2d 
^Leader, 
