June i, 1898 .] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
813 
EXCHANGE AND THE TEA TRADE. 
A MERCHANT kindly sends us The Economist 
of April 9th with the following letter (“rather 
strong” in its terms he naturally thinks): — 
EXCHANGE AND THE TEA TRADE. 
To the Editor of the Economist. 
Sir, — I am often puzzled by the statements made 
by traders concerning the effect of exchange on their 
business, but I have seldom been so puzzled as by a 
comparison of the letter from your Ceylon correspon- 
dent, Harold Skrine, with your own note about the 
tea trade. He says with respect to the Is 4d rupee ; 
— “ Here we have our own Government putting a 
premium of 40 per cent, on the opening up of Japan 
and Formosa. Is Ceylon to go the way of Barbadoes ? 
All pecuniary enterprise is paralysed, and 
the lately prosperous Ceylon reduced to the condition 
of a fraudulent South American Republic.” 
In your note, p. 510, you say with respect to last 
year’s tea trade : — “ From Ceylon the teas were seldom 
of fine quality The total exports from Ceylon 
increased from 108 million lb to 116 million lb and the 
consumption of Ceylon tea kept pace with the re- 
ceipts. The quality of the Japan tea crop was fully 
maintained, and the supplies to this country increased 
from 25,000 to 26,000 packages.” 
Which of the two is right — Mr. Skrine, who says 
that Ceylon tea is ruined by the high exchange value 
of the rupee, or you, who tell us of the increased 
export of tea from Ceylon, in spite of superior quality 
in Japan tea ? 
I should not call attention to this point if it were 
not for the nonsense so constantly talked by 
merchants about the effect of exchange on trade, 
and for the absurd attacks they make on the Indian 
Government for not allowing the rupee to fall to its 
silver value. - Your obedient servant Faeeek. 
Abinger Hall, Dorking, April 3rd, 1898, 
Lord Farrer and The Economist are both in the dark 
as to the nature of, the Tea Industry of Ceylon. 
They evidently think that tea planters are like Bri- 
tish farmers, able to change their crop at pleasure, 
or to abandon fields at short notice, so soon as 
they find that the returns leave no profit. 
Lord Farrer must be told that the tea plant 
Is not an annual, but a perennial ; that plan- 
tations are formed, planted and kept clean at 
great expense and to stop cultivation or allow 
weeds get in, would be a very serious 
matter, entailing double expense later on 
to recover ground, should the adverse circum- 
stances be temporary. I hen again there was 
little or no indication in 1896 that Exchange 
was to be adverse during 1897 ; and 
indeed the expectation all through last 
year was that the rupee could not be kept at 
so high a value. !8o that the tea planters 
necessarily went on taking their crops, hoping 
against hope for better returns. But Lord 
Farrer may be concerned to learn that the 
process of abandoning fields of tea has already 
commenced to some extent in Ceylon and it is 
bound to go on in certain of our older districts, 
unless exchange becomes more favorable or 
prices improve. But has Lord Farrer thought of 
the case of the millions of Indian ryots grow- 
ing produce — wheat, jute, cotton— for export and 
hgw hardly the artificial rupee and high ex- 
change press upon them? Just as his Lordship 
is so firm in allowinsr no interference with the 
“ gold standard ” at home, so should we expect 
him to be equally strong in maintaining that an 
honest silver currency was best for India. What- 
is the Government and its revenue, compared to 
the prosperity of the country with its hundreds 
of millions of people as a whole ? For the 
sterling indebtedness and home charges of the 
Government, a levy on exports would be far pre- 
ferable to interference with the currency. 
MR. MACDONALD OF RAMIE FAME. 
Mr. Macdonald, of the firm of Messrs. Mac- 
donald, Boyd & Co., who was interviewed by the 
Observer, when in Ceylon last year and has since 
been in England forwarding the interests of the 
Company that has been floated, viz. the Muir 
Central Factory Company, of which he is one 
of the two managing directors. The capital of the 
Company is £25,000 and the whole of that capital 
has been readily subscribed. Mr. Macdonald is now 
on his way to Johore, to make preparations for 
the arrival of the machinery, over 200 tons of 
which will very shortly be on the way to the 
new works. This machinery includes four bat- 
teries of forty decorticators with the necessary 
engines, appliances and the subsidiary machinery, 
Mr. Macdonald is as sanguine as ever as regards 
ramie fibre and both its productiveness and its pro- 
fitable character. He hopes to return home before 
Christmas with a hundred tons of manufactured 
ramie. This depends upon the state of forwardness 
he finds when he reaches Johore. There may be 
delays but he hopes not. The machinery he is 
about to put down will turn out from 100 to 120 
tons per month. He has received Orders already 
for 400 tons from firms in Scotland and Saxony, 
and they are willing to take that quantity per 
month when it can be supplied. He calculates that 
it will be three years before he will be able to 
do that, but each month after he makcsastait 
will shew a progressive increase and so far as 
he can, he will push matters on with all his 
accustomed vigour. 
Mr. Macdonald went upcountry to see Mr. 
Manly Power, who has a decor ticator at work, 
with the view of seeing what can be done in 
Ceylon with ramie fibre. 
« 
TEA BLIGHT AND PESTS. 
Among other things Dr. Watt in his new 
book tells us that, paradoxical as it may seem, 
success in tea cultivation “ consist in the pro- 
duction and development of a diseased state. 
The fattened ox is in reality an animal in a 
condition of disease.” In other words, animals 
and plants are, strictly speaking, diseased when- 
ever their natural functions are disarranged, 
“ The tea is forced to produce an abnormal or 
disproportionate amount of leaf, having been 
refused the rest given after fruiting.” These 
and similar observations are very much to the 
point. Dr. Watt further tells us that the chief 
cause of the late flushing of the purer Assam 
jats of tea is an undescribed mite which he found 
all but universal throughout Assam. It would 
seem to be found only on this tea, as he ab- 
solutely failed to detect it in the jungles around 
the tea gardens. This circumstance, he says, 
“ will no doubt come as a revelation to many 
planters, since the opinion that the pale colour 
of Assam indigenous was an indication of the 
high quality of the jat, is all but universally 
held.” Another point which Dr. Watt has 
brought is that out of the hybrid teas are those 
upon which the mosquito blight first makes its 
appearance, while the China and hybrid varieties 
jat first attract the red spider, the Assam beiug[ 
