THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
May 2, 1898.J 
English servants. In going about the Continent 
wo adopted the general custom of drinking the 
red wine at meals, but vva like to have a 
cup of tea during the afternoon, and generally 
got it ; but then wetook care to have a small canister 
handy, and my wife brewed it herself. I remember 
that at two places we ran short, at Toulon and at 
the university city of Montpelier, and at those places 
— I am speaking of seven or eight years ago — we 
managed to get very small quantities at chemists’ 
shops, sold as a drug, and exposed in the window in 
glass jars with loose lids. Tnereare at Paris a few 
shops selling tea and coffee as specialities, and tea 
can be obtained at a limited number of establish- 
rnents (tea rooms) at from 25 centimes to 40 cen- 
times a cup; these are principally patronised by 
ladies out shopping, but, e.xcept in aristocratic or 
wealthy families, it is raretolind a tea-caddy in use. 
If you speak upon the subject, the lady will probably 
tell you that your tea is certainly delicious, but, 
with a shrug, add : “ You know we cannot get our 
servants to make it like this.” So that the mere 
exhibition of tea, or the giving or selling 
of cups of the beverage, is quite insufficient if 
the object be to bring it into general prac- 
tical use. Then, again, even to English people, wine 
is so much handier, not requiring any manipulation 
beyond the water bottle, and very decent wine can 
be had at the equivalent of about Re 1 per gallon. 
As to prices, good tea is obtainable in P.-auce at 
from 12 francs to 20 franca per kilo, and it must be 
borne in mind that the French customs duty is 208 
franca per hundred kilos when imported direct from 
the producing country, and 268 francs per hundred 
kilos when received from European entrepots; but even 
then first-class teas should be saleable at 8 franca per 
kilo, of, roughly, 2 lb. It will take a long time to 
create a large demand for tea, unless the servant is 
educated, and that can only be done by practical de- 
monstration ; and it is not many shop-keepers (or 
tea-dealers) who will take this trouble. It ought to 
be a special business in the hands of interested pro- 
moters to be even moderately successful. I remember 
at Montpelier our landlady had a sick headache, and 
would take some tea as a tissue. Being curious 
as to her methods of making tea, I watched the pro- 
cess, and to my astonishment I saw her take a pinch 
between two fingers from a small box, holding, perhaps, 
half an ounce, deliberately put this into cold water in 
a very small saucepan without a lid to it, and she did 
not even trust this operation to her domestic. Tliis 
may possibly be an exaggerated case, but it is typical 
of tea-making in Franca. You make a point of sending 
free samples to hotels. Most hotels keep tea. I know 
one that takes 200 to 300 lb. at a time, but they do not 
know how to brew it into anything like a satisfactory 
beverage, and it is a delicate matter to tell them so. I 
should not mind having a hand in this educational pro- 
cess, but it will require lots of tact to get the mistress 
to send the domestic — even when the latter is willing — 
to take a practical lesson in brewing tea. Opening 
shops in thickly populated centres for the sale of tea 
should be a self-supporting and paying venture, and the 
first outlay in establishment charges, stocks, and judi- 
cious advertisement, ought not to be a ruinous matter, 
for much larger profits are possible in France than is 
the case in England. I doubt the necessity of send- 
ing out Indian servants even to the proposed Exhi- 
bition : a couple, for effect, m'ght perhaps bo useful, 
but I consider the expense unnecessarj', as there are 
plenty of English girls, a grade or two above tlie 
servant class, quite able and willing to make tea 
properly, or to learn how to do so. I trust this letter 
may be of service in a practical sense. W. S. 
— Indian Agncidturist, April 1. 
« 
Thk Oldest Para Rubber Trees in the 
Kalut.ara district are on the Culloden estate, 
planted vve believe by Mr. R. Moiison so far 
backas 1883. Three trees dating from that year 
are described as giants, and the seed from Lhein 
pught to be specially valuable. 
761 
TEA IN THE KANGllA VALLEY. 
EEDUCTIOn IN RAILWAY RATES ASKED FOR. 
The Kangra Tea Association is young ; and, being 
young it has evinced its vigour by approaching the 
Financial Commissioner of the Punjab with a deputa- 
tion which submitted a statement of the requirements 
of the tea industry in that salubrious valley. ” The 
tea industry of the K iugra Valley has fallen into such 
a critical state,” said the memorandnin, ‘‘that un- 
less some amelioration takes place in its circumstances, 
ruin must speedily follow.” This was certainly not 
a cheerful view of the situation ; but the Association 
was apparently justified in lamenting over the departed 
glory of the valley. Tims, it was stated that ‘‘green 
tea is me-nnfactured almost exclusively by natives, and 
black tea by Etropeans. The present market value 
of green tea, which used to sell at a rupee per pound 
twenty years ago, is two annas perpound at Pal mpur. 
Black tea, which twenty years ago was fetching a rupee 
per pound in Calcutta, mow obtains with difliculty an 
average of about five annas per pound and deducting 
the cost of freight, sale cliarges, and packing in lead, 
this represents about 3J annas per pound at Palana- 
pur. The lowest cost of production is 3 annas per 
pound for green tea, and 4 annas per pound for black.” 
The memorandum then quoted figures in support of 
this, taken from the working of one of the tea es- 
tates, to show that it here, at any rate, realised a 
profit of only 3 per cent in two years. So much for tea 
gardens under European management. 
On the other hand, gardens under native manage- 
ment, which manufacture only green tea, suffered equal 
loss ; and the most curious feature of the memorandum 
presented by the Asisooiatiou is, that attention was 
drawn to an injustice perpetrated against the native 
growers. It was pointed out that while European plan- 
ters paid only twelve annas per acre as Government 
revenue for their holdings, native planters were as- 
sessed at one rupee per ghumao, which was only one- 
fonith of an acre, and that the loss sustainedon work- 
ing by these native planters varied from RlO to 15 
ghumao. “ This,” said the Association, “presents 
a positive injustice in the incidence of land taxation 
and to it this deputation desires to draw your atten- 
tiou.” It seems to us tiiat the European planters can 
scarcely complain if their tea holdings are assessed 
at rates more favourable than those of the native plan- 
ters. But apparently the European and native plan- 
ters have joined issues — hence this united action. lu- 
deed, the deputation seems to have held a brief for 
the native tea irlanters. What the deputation was 
really leading up to, comes out at the end of the 
memorandum, for what they wished to press Was “ the 
desirability (in the interests of the industry started by 
Government) of suspendii g all, or a portion of, the 
land revenue on tea lands during its presentlife-'and- 
death stuggle for existence ;” that should an improve- 
ment take place, taxation could be reverted to. A re- 
duction in the rates charged for the carriage of tea on 
State Railways in the Punjab was also asked for. Sum- 
med up, the prayer of the -deputation was not for any 
particular concession to the European tea planter, but 
to the native ; and the reason for this is found in the 
statement that an attempt was being made to find 
new markets for green te.a in Central Assia. No doubt 
the tea industry in the Kangra Valley suffers from an 
absence of proper roads and facilities for placing.it on 
the market, and this will doubtless receive the'atten- 
tion of ilie authorities. It may interest sonieofojir 
readers to peruse the letter wlffch we reproduce else- 
where from a eoi reipondeut of the All.ahabad paper on 
this subject.— Aufta/i Planters' Gazette, April 2. 
Rubber. — As information has been received from the 
C dlectors of various di.striots in the Pi'otectorate 
that Rubber is procurable, and as it is, of course, 
very desirable to encourage and develop such a valu- 
able industry, H. M. Acting Oommissioiier desires 
that Colleclors will do all they can to foster this 
industry, by informing natives that they may pay 
their Hut iaxes in India Rubber, reckoning it at a 
value of 9d per lb. tho price- quoted by theZoinba 
Agent of the African L.akes Corporation, .Limited. 
