698 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1898. 
purchasing the estate direct from the owner, 
there are no intermediate profits, and the whole of 
the purcliase money will be paid to him, plus a 
small commission to Messrs. Wm. Young & Com- 
pany, who effected the introduction. In due time, 
as opportunities offer, it is the intention of the 
Directors to acquire other first-class properties, 
which will involve the formation of a larger Com- 
any, by which the shareholders of the present 
yndicateare to greatly benefit. — Local “ Times.” 
NILGIRI TEA. 
Mr. George Christison, the well-known Dar- 
eeling planter, who recently made a short stay 
in Coonoor, gives the following opinion on Nil- 
giri tea : “ I like your District in many ways. 
Your soil generally is very good, and your tea 
looks healthy and well. Of course without be- 
ing with you all the year round, 1 cannot 
form any very reliable opinion. ... As you 
must know, your tea has not been in good 
favour in the London market. This may, I 
think, be remedied in some measure.” — M. Mail, 
March 15. 
CEYLON NORTHERN PLANTING 
DISTRICTS. 
( Communicated. ) 
CHANGED TIMES— THE OUTLOOK FOR TEA— LA- 
BOURERS NO LONGER RULE— NATIVE TEA 
GARDENS LIKELY TO CLOSE— BRIGHT-EYED 
HOPE ! 
Just at present the climate of the districts of 
which the Knuckles may be taken to be represen- 
tative is matchless, bright, cool, and still. The out- 
line of the hills is very sharp against the sky, and 
the shadows are wonderfully distinct. It is not 
always like that in this quarter ; more than 
usually favoured with rain for the last two years, 
a dry, season like the present is all the more 
enjoyeS, and the flush which is vigorous and 
plentiful indicates how willing the trees are to 
respond. Tea however is somewhat under an 
eclipse, and when it is mentioned it is not with 
that fond respect that was wont to be. The 
uestion is “ Where are we bound for ” ? and any- 
hing from a hard, worrying struggle to out-and- 
out bankruptcy and abandonment, is the ansAver 
given according to the disposition and temperment 
of the answerer. When every planter’s eye has 
))een opened, and got concentrated on the tea 
problem, it is not much in the way of a fit fact 
that is overlooked, and when you have had a 
series of doses of doleful ditties, all on the one 
subject, it becomes a little monotonous, not to 
speak of depressing and if you can’t see any clearer 
way out of it, just take refuge in the comforting 
thought that “it is the unexpected that always 
happens.” All the same the outlook is serious enough, 
and you hear of the stirring of Company Directors 
issuing orders for impossible quantities at or over 
market average -that delightful combination of 
quantity and quality combined, which would 
.suit Managing Directors and find the dividends, 
the shareholders demand. “You must do it or 
die” is the stern mandate “ and I give you a year 
to accomplish it. ” Accomplish the impossible ! 
'What a task ! Clearly the times are out of joint, 
abd w« will all have to hustle, to keep step 
them. 
Even the Coolie who has had his innings is now 
finding out that he has reached the end of his 
tether, and the changed tea horizon is reducing 
Ramasami from the glorified individual he was 
when labour was much needed, hack into his 
normal state. The gangs that are heavily indebted 
are handed “tundus” and invited to seek 
pastures new, a clear manifestation that there 
is a fear abroad that “ to hold the baby ” 
now, is rather precarious. These silver- 
gilt Malabars, don’t find that theie is anything 
like the former willingness to pay up anything 
that may be asked, and after much wandering 
and eye-openiim they come back — unsuccessful. 
Here the trouble does not end, for with a debt 
which they can never work off, and the caddie 
keepers hungering for blood, and threatening law- 
proceedings, the place gets rather hot for the 
silver-gilt, and they incline to fold their tents 
like the Arabs, and silently steal away. 
There is likely to be a good deal of bolting 
of small gangs, and a loss of coin therefrom. 
Those Companies who some time ago w-eie pre- 
pared to give any advances, and had no 
hesitation to lavish out, now that dividends are 
difficult to earn and the Directors’ fees are 
sacrilegeously handled and questioned, ivill, „ 
perhaps, postjione w-riting off lost advances, but 
it will have to be faced. It will be a happy day 
w’hen the kangaui, who would come up to 
the bungalow— or meet you on the road with a 
cough to attract attention, and ask for a thousand 
rupees, and when y*u demurred, insinuated a 
“tundu” — when a high-flier of this kind,— finds 
that that style is wholly gone out, it will be a 
good thing. The “ sweet uses of adversity ” will 
appear in time when the planters’ attention, 
which is at present wholly concentrated on pro- 
bable losses, has relaxed ,a little and -the horizon 
widened ; for, it is a blessed law that there is 
compen.sation for most things. 
Tlie new clearings — native mostly — are still on 
the increase ; but if prices are to keep down, 
it is evident that many of the native gardens 
will shut up, and that ere very long. The 
Sinhalese or Tamil proprietor likes well enough 
to follow the European where coin can he made ; 
hut when the game is partly a losing one, and 
the expected return is postponed, the native soon 
wearies when his banquet is only the pleasures 
of hope. And yet, has it not often been the most 
enjoyable of times, and what a lot of it there 
is even in these present dark days in Ceylon? 
Without bright-eyed hope it would be a poor 
world ! 
“ BAD TEA.” 
Tea importers over in Vietoiia are complain- 
ing that the local Customs Department is too 
particular about the quality ol tea shipped into 
the colony, and that the officers of the department 
have exceeded reasonable limits in their rejection 
of shipments of the leaf. According to a Mel- 
bourne paper, the importers allege that the Victo- 
rian Customs Department has often condemned as 
“ bad ” shipments of tea which have obtained 
subsequently a ready passage through the Custom- 
house of Great Britain, and which have been 
there at more satisfactory rates than could have 
been obtained at Melbourne. To demonstrate that 
they Avere right they sent recently a condemned 
shipment of tea to London, and had not the 
slightest difficulty in placing it upon the market 
there. The importers contend that the Custom- 
