6j6 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[March  i,  1897. 
It  must  already  be  well-known  to  most  Ceylon 
planters  that  the  Americans  are  not  a tea  drinking 
people.  In  Britain  the  consumption  of  tea  is  6J  lb. 
per  head,  of  cjffee,  a fraction.  In  the  States,  tea 
13  a little  over  1 lb.  per  head,  coffee  between  H and 
9 lb.  mis  may  seem  strange  to  those  who  still  re- 
gard the  Americans  as  “ flesh  of  our  flesh.”  That 
might  have  been  true  at  one  time,  say  even  to  fifty 
years  ago.  But  the  innnigratiun  of  (iermaus,  Aus- 
trians, Hungarians,  Italians,  Poles,  and  Swedes  has 
been  for  many  years  very  much  greater  than  that  of 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish.  Last  year’s  statistics  of 
immigration  show’  the  number  of  arrivals  of  Italians 
for  the  year,  as  57,000  and  of  Austrians  and  Hun- 
garians 57,000.  No  other  nation  at  all  approaches 
these  figures. 
Then  the  descecdants  of  the  old  English  sett'ers  in 
the  east  and  south  are  well-known  to  resemble  the 
French  in  having  very  small  families.  It  is  stated 
that  two  children  of  European  descent  are  born  for 
one  of  British  in  the  U.S. 
Another  reason  for  the  non-use  of  tea  is,  that  it 
is  generally  so  bad  in  the  States,  while  coffee  is 
universally  better  than  in  Britain.  A Tea  Merchant 
told  me  that  when  new  factories  were  built  in  Buffalo 
some  years  ago,  ho  did  a very  good  trade  for  a year, 
with  a lot  of  Irish  and  Scotch  labours  who  were 
specially  imported  to  work  the  factories.  During  the 
second  year  these  customers  of  his  dropped  tea,  and 
took  to  coffee  and  he  gave  me  as  the  reason  that 
they  did  not  care  for  American  tea  (green)  and  found 
American  coffee  a delightful  surprise.  I have  fre- 
quently heard  it  said  that  a mail  who  drank  tea  was 
in  America  called  a “Jenny,”  that  is,  was  effeminate. 
The  following  cases  may  be  regarded  as  typical  of 
at  least  four-fifths  of  the  people  of  the  States. 
A gentleman  who  was  born  in  America,  of  German 
extraction  is  agent  for  an  English  firm  who  are  pushing 
our  teas  vigorously  over  there.  He  told  me  he  drank 
0)ie  cup  of  tea  a loeeh  on  Sunday.  His  wife  told  me 
she  had  never  tasted  tea  until  her  husband  took  it  up 
6 mouths  ago.  Since  then  lie  had  several  times  made 
her  try  to  drink  a blend  of  Ceylon  and  Indian  tea, 
but  that  she  always  felt  sick  when  she  took  a mouth- 
ful, and  had  to  give  it  up. 
This  gentleman  introduced  me  tc  one  of  his  tra- 
vellei’s,  whose  duty  it  was  to  push  the  tea,  I asked 
him  how  he  liked  our  tea.  He  said  that  he  thought 
the  best  way  to  arrive  at  an  opinion  as  to  its  chances 
with  American  people  was,  to  try  to  get  his  father, 
mother,  sisters,  brothers  and  cousins  (tvvelve  in  all,) 
who  were  tea-drinkers  to  use  it.  He  took  home  a 
packet,  carefully  attended  to  directions  as  to  boiling 
water,  quantity  of  tea,  and  time  of  steeping  Ac.  and 
got  all  to  take  a cup.  He  told  them  they  would  not 
like  it  at  first  but  induced  them  to  persevere.  On 
the  third  day  the  father  said  “Tom.  if  it  will  do  you 
any  good,  I’ll  go  on  drinking  this  tea,  but  it  is  hor- 
rible.” The  mother  refused  to  drink  any  more  of 
it,  whether  Tom  benefited  or  not  : and  the  other  re- 
lations insisted  on  going  back  to  the  old  green  variety. 
Now,  those  people  had  an  object  in  trying  todrink  our 
tea,  but  they  could  not  overcome  their  dislike.  What 
chance  have  eve  then  with  those  who  have  no  such 
object  ? These  cases  are  not  singular,  I could  give 
many  similar  experiences  among  those  whom  I gave 
some  tea  w'ith  directions  for  making  Ac. 
Among  black  tea  drinkers — a fifth  of  the  population 
— our  progress  is  easy.  But  to  the  majoriiy — the  vast 
majority — green  tea  and  coffee  drinkeis,  a cup  of  our 
tea,  especially  as  they  make  it — putting  as  ninch  in 
the  pot  as  they  do  of  weak  Japans  and  allowing  it 
l<)  th  an  10  lo  lio  minutes,  is  as  nauseous  as  margosa 
oil  uouklbc  lo  a Blanter  ! No  ^vondcl'  an  Ameri- 
ca ii  Doctor  by  whose  family  1 got  our  tea  used  (or 
\1  inuutliB,  told  me  last  month  that  uuIcms  carel  i!!.' 
made  and  drunk  within  a few  minutes  it  was  poison- 
ous. We  would  all  think  it  abominable  if  we  made 
it,  as  Americans  make  their  tea. 
Any  unprejudiced  person  must  see  from  the  abo>e 
that  beyond  the  region  in  which  black  tea  is  drunk, 
our  progress  must  be  very  slow.  The  question  is, 
if  we  are  to  persevere,  what  is  the  best  method  to 
pursue.  A proverb  says  “ you  may  take  the  horse 
to  the  water,  but  how  are  you  to  make  him  drink?” 
I see  one  Ueylon  Paper  repeatedly  has  advised  that 
the  whole  Fund  should  be  spent  in  Press  advertis- 
ing, that  is  ill  lettimj  the  horse  know  the  water  c-cists 
somewhere. 
In  America,  editors  of  Journals,  A A B,  say  that 
the  rival  Ediiors  of  Journals,  C cfe  D,  believe  that 
when  they  (the  latter)  are  engaged  in  sneezing  Pro- 
vidence kindly  halts.  The  former  Editors  admit  the 
halting,  but  not  that  it  is  to  Editors  of  G A D that 
the  consideration  is  extended  1 The  Press  is  power- 
ful, but  even  if  it  made  a few  ask  for  an  article  ad- 
vertised, it  cannot  make  merchants  interested  in  a 
rival  article  hold  it.  Thao  is  of  course,  unless  the 
funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  Advertiser  are  practi- 
cally unlimited.  The  matter  was  settled  long  ago 
as  far  as  we  are  concerned.  The  Committee  may 
remember  that  I had  a difference  of  opinion  with 
advertising  Agents  last  year  as  to  the  best  means  of 
spending  our  Fund.  They  naturally  said  in  the  Press 
through  them.  My  enquiries  elsewhere  led  me  to  be- 
lieve differently.  The  Agents  proposed  to  leave  the 
matter  to  be  decided  by  a gentleman  known  to  them, 
who  was  acknowledged  to  be  the  smartest  advertiser 
of  Grocery  Articles  in  New  York.  This  gentleman 
kindly  agreed  to  judge  between  us.  I allowed  the 
Agents  to  state  the  case,  which  they  did  quite  fairly. 
The  expert’s  decision  was  in  my  favor.  He  said  if 
your  Fund  is  £100,000  go  to  the  consumer  through 
the  Press  and  otherwise,  but  with  £10,000  only, 
you  must  “ interest  ” the  Trade. 
Since  then  I see  the  advice  given  is  “ leave 
all  to  private  enterprise.  If  you  interest  part  of 
the  Trade,  you  create  jealousy  among  the  others.” 
Those  we  assist  are  Firms  who  do  Educational 
Missionary  work  in  many  large  towns  and  even  in 
villages,  by  having  tea  stalls  in  grocers’  stores,  at 
Church  Fairs,  Ladies’  Charity  Meetings,  bazaars  etc. 
by  supplying  house  to  house  canvassers,  distribut- 
ing samples,  circulars,  pamphlets,  instructions  for 
making  Ac.,  and  who,  when  making  those  efforts  in 
any  centre,  advertise  in  the  local  papers  at  the  same 
time.  It  is  by  such  means  that  every  new  article  of 
food  is  introduced  in  America.  Americans  are  great 
eelebrators.  Every  local  centre  has  many  events 
which  are  “ celebrated”  yearly,  and  such  gatherings 
afford  opportunities  for  exhibiting  our  tea,  a baking 
powder,  a new  cereal  product,  Ac.  It  would  be  quite 
impossible  for  the  two  associations  to  make  use  of  one- 
tenth  of  such  occasions  as  are  turned  to  account  by 
our  numerous  allies. 
Last  year,  1895,  and  in  the  early  months  of  96  we 
did  a deal  of  such  work,  because  at  that  time,  our 
friends  were  comparatively  few.  But  our  efforts,  be 
sides  being  necessarily  few',  were  of  much  less  avail 
than  those  of  firms  because  we  were  not  tea-dealers, 
and  could  only  refer  enquirers  to  their  grocers,  who 
nine  times  out  of  ten  either  had  none  of  our  tea  or 
sold  them  some  Chinese  mixture  instead.  Large 
wholesale  firms  “ demonstrating”  our  tea,  can  refer 
enquirers  to  hundreds  of  grocers  in  every  large  town, 
W’here  their  blends  and  packets  are  handled.  The 
girls  in  charge  of  these  demonstrations  teach  the 
people  how  to  make  the  tea,  and  show  them  that  it  is 
palatable,  as  made  by  them.  They  give  away  sam- 
ples Ac.  The  wholesale  firms  shift  these  demonstra- 
tions from  shop  to  shop.  Unless  something  of  this 
sort  is  done,  grocers  will  not  hold  the  tea  to  give  it 
a chance. 
Now  all  this  “ demonstration”  is  expensive,  and 
unless  we  assisted  those  who  undertake  it,  it  would  not 
be  done  for  our  tea.  The  strong  firms  now  working 
torus,  would  push  the  trade  in  America  just  the  same, 
but  it  would  naturo.lly  be  v trade  in  teas  which  art- 
generally  drunk,  which  would  require  little  or  no 
demonstration,  and  which  while  giving  much  less 
trouble,  would  yield  a higher  profit.  What  object 
would  they  have  in  pushing  British  grown  teas  at  a 
vast  amount  of  trouble  and  expense,  when  an  open 
field  is  there  for  them  to  supply  the  existing  demand 
for  green  and  unfermented  loaf. 
I leel  certain  that  if  wo, withdraw  aid  entirely 
now',  these  firms  would  naturally  slip  into  supplying 
such  teas  as  the  people  w'aiit.  What  is  there  in  our 
