THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April t, 1898. 
686 
A CEYLON PLANTER ON THE HUNT 
FOR TEA SEED. 
Mr. R. C. Wright, formerly of Deaculla es- 
tate, Hu'put le, who left Ceylon la.st Sepiemher, 
has ’beer, on a most extraordinary jonrney, which 
tried even liis well known powers if endniance— 
says a coi\temporary — through ihe Slian States in 
search of the wonclmful wild tea of Thehwa. His 
ohiect was to get the seed, and this took him 
seven hundred miles on foot through a wild 
uncivilised country. For three weeks he was 
tramping over native tracks and through jungle, 
sometimes up to his waist in an icy cold stream 
and sometimes grinding up lull under a b azing hot 
sun He was quite alone during the whole 
iourney as far as European company is concerned, 
but through good luck in getting a passjiort 
from the Hupaw Sawbwa, he was generally treated 
with courtesy by the natives. He started along 
a road with a bullock waggon of provisions, &c., 
and attendants ; then he went along accom- 
nanied only by an interpreter and a man who 
Ilid the cooking ; and when these ran away,— 
as thev 'IhF probably because they found the 
life too rough,— Mr. Wright was left to simply 
depend upon himself and his gun, shooting and 
cooking his own food and sleeping in the vil- 
lages as best he could. He admts that the 
wLle object of the journey was a failure, as 
thouf^h I'G saw a lot of splendid tea of the 
famous Manipuri jat, he could ^et no seed. It 
was however, a great success from a sporting 
and exploring point of view. Me understand he 
had some pretty large comnussioi s n. regard to 
the tea <=eed, and the sole reason why he could 
not »et it was because he was there at the wrong 
time^of the year, when the plants— some of them 
“>0 feet high — were flowering. 
" After leaving Ceylon Mr. Wright went to the 
Straits and Java to have a look round. He 
nroceeded to Batavia, and from there by steamer 
to Samarang and on to Soerabaya. 1 hence he 
went through the cottee district to see the ci^ee. 
He savs he thought it very line coffee. It snffeis, 
hp ‘»avs* from all tlie diseases we have in Ceylon, 
hut it is such a splendid soil that they do not 
Lem to have the same effect, and the planters 
are able to struggle against them pieii Mr. 
Wright worked his way bade overland by rail 
and whatever conveyances be could get, to Bataiia, 
or, 1 from there he returned to Singapore, and 
went fL a tour through the Malay States to 
epp the country. . rr , -A 
Then Mr. ^Vright went up to Burmah, with 
the object of going up into the Shan States and 
Lcmingthe wild tea .seed he was after, lyhicli 
4 ow 8 principally on the banks of the I pp r 
Chindw n river and in he more Northtin of the 
States He sa\\ the tea at Pangmn. 
It was good Manipuri .jat, dark :caf, the trees 
about 12 feet high. They kept them down 
to about that height by chopi-ing the tops 
There were some trees about 20 feet high. He 
was told, however, that he could get no seed 
because it was the wrong time of the year. He 
Ind been niisinfoi nied and liad arrived in the 
So werfng season. It was round Nansam that the 
Wa was grown. It was .5,000 feet above 
Le'sea and vew large quantities of tea were 
,r,-nwn there. Whole hill sides were cultivated. 
Some of the hushes were good, hut as a rule 
thev were cut. and h.acked about and spoiled for 
tea^bearing pnrpn-es. It was all one jat, Mani- 
Liri. whicli is the wild tea of Burmali. From 
what he could see. if it were properly cultivated, 
it would be very good tea, and of very fine quality. 
TRADE IN COFFEE 
Although by the publication of the stocks last 
Saturday the world’s visible supply of coffee was 
shown to have decreased during December by 4,870 
tons, owing mainly to a falling off in the Brazilian 
receipts, there does not appear to have been any 
corresponding decrease in the quantity put on the 
London market, heavy receipts and a corresponding 
decline in value being the chief features of the trade 
since the turn of the year. Moreover the assortment 
of qualities is of the most varied description, and 
probably the difference between extremes is at the 
present moment wider than ever. Unfortunately the 
demand is in no way commensurate with the supply, 
and this is a condition of things which shows no 
improvement as time progresses. It is many years, 
however, since such keen depression has been ex- 
perienced as during the past twelve mouths. Ordinary 
qualities receded from 6:^s. to 40s., owing to the 
enormous receipts at Brazil ports, which presage a 
crop of over 9,5(10,000 bags. In the early part of last 
year low middling to middling realised 82s. to 95s., 
but these declined to 61s. and 76s., and East India 
showed a proportionate reduction. Brazilian sorts 
have been naturally most affected, and suffered a 
depreciation of nearly 50 per cent., good average 
Santos at the end of Xovember falling i»s low as 26s., 
while good to tine coloury descriptions, wbikh have 
been comparatively scarce, were least affected, and 
the margin between the values of fine and common is 
now exceedingly wide, ranging from 30s. to 105s. 
Since the practical extinction of the coffee crop and 
its extensive cultivation in Ceylon about a quarter of 
a century ago, the world’s supplies to London have 
never regained their normal chni-acter in consisting 
largely of good, useful home-trade qualities of planta- 
tion growths at moderate prices ; and pending the 
ope ing up of fresh sources of supply in Central 
America and other tropical parts — which by the 
utmost limit of production have at no time been able 
to make up for the virtual loss of the Ceylon dee- 
cripiion — the wholesale dealers in coffee have been 
put to all manner of .shifts and inconveniences to 
prepare for consumers in the United Kingdom a 
sofficieiit quantity of this excellent beverage, without, 
however, succeed!' g in gaining for it increasing 
popularity. In vain have other coffee-growing coun- 
tries tried to fill the place of Ceylon, for while Costa 
Rica, Guatemala, and other tracts of the Argentine 
territory have produced beautiful specimens of coloury 
sorts— familiarly known as “ fancy ” kinds among 
both dealers and exporters — the total weight of their 
respective crops at the outside has been only light ; 
and although Brazil produces far more than the rest 
of the universe put together, the style, quality, and 
taste of her coffee is certainly not that suited to the 
requirements of the users in this country. The 
extension of cultivation in British East Africa, 
however, promises to provide a better supply of 
coloury coffee, shipments showing considerable ex- 
pansion, whilo a moderate parcel has been placed on 
the London market from Fiji showing ordinary mixed 
q I bty. Buyers have in consequence acted very 
cautiously. The Costa Rica and Guatemala crops 
have been both fine in quality and abundant, but, the 
forthcoming crops will be probably 20 per cent, to 25 
per cent, less on account of drought. Columbian has 
been in better supply, and shows a grtat improvement 
in quality. One effect of the lower prices is to 
Btimulate consumption, the European and American 
deliveries last year exceeding those of 1896 by some 
75,000 tons, or fully 10 per cent. In spite of this, 
however, -European stocks have increased over 90 per 
cent., and the world’s visible supply on December 1 
amounted to 374,870 tons, against 233,020 tons a year 
previous. — Grocers' Journal, Jan. 22. 
VANILLA IN ZANZIBAR. 
FItUITINU VINES IN THE .VIWEIiA V.4LEEY. 
Although there are many small patches of 
Vanilla growing on the island we never know till 
quite recently that Vanilla had ever flowered and 
fruited here. Vanilla is very popular hare as 
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