THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[AtrousT 1, 18^1. 
leS 
CEYLON TEA FOB BUSSIA. 
A 0«ylen eoloniat now fn EnetitnA, wfiteg 1 —" I 
land you s euttincr from the Morning Pott of the 
26th Mey about Ceylon tea which mav be of in- 
tereit to pUntere, The hint to onltlvate it for 
adaptation to Rueeian water may be of uee If the 
idea ie praetloable. Ceylon tea ia ueed almost 
everywhere in the old oountry eaneolelly after the 
reoent hi«h prioe whioh it fetched : — 
One of the moat Interrstine of the series of eonsnlar 
reports presented to Parliament this Session Is larjfelv 
devoted to an examination of the canees wbieh have led 
to the supplanting of China tea in the British market 
by the competing growths of India and Ceylon. The 
subioot has been alloded to hy the present Chancellor 
of the Excheqner In several of his Budget speeches, hut 
it is donbtfnl whether the general public yet realise the 
magnitude of the change that has taken place or the 
canses which hsve brought itabout. Upon these points 
the report of Mr. Gardner, our Consul at Hankow, 
which has just been issned. supplies much information. 
In his opinion the enmoetitloo of India and Ceylon not 
only is fast ousting China tea from the British market, 
but Is destined at no distant date to make serious in- 
roads upon the business of the Chinese tea producers 
with Russia. During the last flvn years there has been 
a steady process of deeline in the tea exports from 
Hankow to London, and wliereas in 1886 tliey amounted 
to •Sd.M.'i.OflO II)., last year they bad iallen to 11,314,000 
lb. Startling as these figures are. they do not repre- 
sent the full effects of the ooranetition of onr Esstern 
possessions, for it is stated that very little even of the 
small quantity of tea exported to London in 1800 went 
into British consumption, most of it being sold here for 
the Bussiaolmarket In the same period the exports to 
Odessa rnsa from 9,899,000 lb. to 22,742.(M1U lb., the in- 
crease being attributed to increased shipping facilities, 
improved land transit in Russia, and the greater pros- 
perity of the mass of the Russian nation, which led to 
an unpree.edente.d demand for tea, espeeiaily of the 
finer sorts. Tiie causes that have made England bay 
her tea in India and Ceylon will, it is predicted, spee- 
dily cause Bussia to be'also a customer of those eoun- 
tries. Thongh fora long time to oome she may still 
prefer Chinese tea, the strength of the Indian tea and 
its ohespneas and the flavour of the Ceylon leaf will 
more and more commend them to the Hussiau ri tailer 
as profitably to be m'xed with the Chinese teas. Cheap- 
ness and quality being the two great factors which 
havsenabled India and Ceylon to dispossess China of her 
supremacy in the Western Eoropean market, it needs 
no gift of prophecy to foretell that their successful 
competition will rapidly make itself felt eleewhere. 
The tea trade of China with Australasia is already 
being affected, and in America and Canada, where 
principally green tea is drunk, there is a promising 
field for future extension. One of the advantages 
which Indian and Ceylon tea growers have over those 
in China is their greater eomtnand of capital. The tea 
estates being generally owned hy companies, expensive 
land, machinery, and plant, can be purchased, and large 
sums can he expended on experiment, on agents, and 
on investigating the tastes and reipiirements of pur- 
chasers. Then loans can bo obtain' d at from 4 to 5 
per cent interest, whereas the Chiot se grower lias to 
pay from 20 to JIO per cent. The latter, moreover, h .a 
to bear not only a heavier land tax, but also likin and 
export duty often amounting to 30 ncr cent of the 
selling price of thetcaabroad and to 1(K) per cent of 
the prime cost of itsprodnction. The Indian and Cey- 
lon sgricultnriathaa flic further advantages cf a better 
labnnrmarkct easier modes of trsnspert, n'aror access 
ht the markets, better public works, preventing or miti- 
gating the ilisastroiia effects of flonds and droughts, 
improved niaohiiiery, and enormously larger tea estates 
on which the various processes of preparation, packing, 
and carriage can bo carried on without intermission or 
risk of deterioration tlirough exposure or delay. Ho 
has also greater knowledge of the methods and re- 
quirements of tho retail dealeie, and oan command the 
serviossof ohemioal and agricultural scienoe. How 
important this laBt-mentioned point it, Mr. Gardner 
remarks, none but an expert can explain. He gives, 
however, one illustration to show how selenoe may be 
applied In order to enable the tea planter to adapt his 
crop to tho requirements of a particular market. One 
of the ohemioal ingredients of tea is toiiuin, which 
gives the tea its bitter and astringent flavour. In some 
parts of England the water is of such a nature t.hat it 
does not easily assimilate with the tannin, and for 
these regions a tea containing much tannin is desira- 
ble. The water on tho plains of Bussia, on ths other 
hand, readily assimilatos with tannin, and henoe the 
tea required must contain only a little of that ingredi- 
ent, or else it would be too bitter and astringent to be 
salealle. The tea planters of Ceylon and India have 
the necessary knowledge of agricultural chemistry at 
their command to produce in the tea, by cultivation 
and manufacture, the requisite amount of tannin* for 
the market whioh has to be snpplled. As between the 
f iroducers in our own dominions and those in China it 
s the old ease of sciontiflo knowledge iteraus “ rule of 
thumb." The Chinese tea grower, working for his own 
hand Instead of for wages, brings often greater care 
and more industry to the task— and this is the one 
advantage be possesses against those which have been 
enumerated as belonging to his Indian and Ceylon oom- 
petitors. Experience, with him, takes the plaoe of 
science, and if he is still able to produce a finer flavoured 
tea than has yet been produced in India, his auperi- 
oritv in this respect is not likely to remain long un- 
challenged. The extent to which his former monopoly 
of what is now almost a necessity of life has been de- 
sfroyotl is, perhaps, tho most remarkable illustration 
that could no adduced of the boundles.s resources com- 
prised within the limits of the British Empire. 
♦ 
PLANTING NOTES FROM THE NILGIRIS. 
CoONOoK, May 31. — The coffee season of 1890-91 is 
well nigh over, only a few of the estatfm at high 
elevations having any berties left on them. None of 
the estates during the past year gave bumper crops, 
and only a few yielded average ones. High prices 
have, however, compensate)! to a great extent for 
short yields, and plantorsare on the whole fairly well 
satisfied wiih past results. Prospects for the season 
•1891-92 are very good indeed ; the weather has so far 
been most favourable, and there has been a good show 
of blossom on most estates. Some of the sanguine 
planters expect (always expected but, of late years, 
never realised) bumper crops j but leaving the over 
sanguine ones aside. If the weather continues favour- 
able, very fair average crops will prohalily he the 
yield of most of the estates during the coming seftsons 
and in my opinion avi'iago crops are to lie prof 'rn d 
to bumpirs. Allowing coffee trees to over-bear is a 
very great mistake. They get so weskeued after a 
too lieavy crop lliat they fall easy victims to 
every disease that ootfee trees are heir to, and 
many a good estate lias been perm rnently damaged by 
over bearing. In fact, neither leaf disease uor bug has 
played greater hsvnc amonest coffee trees than too 
houvy crops. With judioious pruning and han lliiig 
crops Can to a great o.xt'iit be regulated iioeording to 
tils strength of tho trees. Plunteri on liie Nil.riris, 
exiep li.i, 0 at Kotngiiorry, are never troubled with 
tl’o labour ipiestiou, and are in that n spout better off 
than their brethren of Coorg and Tiavaneore. We 
neither require nor employ Labour Agents ; the ohief 
part of our labour is drawn from villages in the District 
ot lioimb-uore. (y,, nearly every estate a few Oanareae 
ti-nin Mysore are ehio employed, and on sonif IMsI igsrs 
from lievnnd Unllary. Hu' it is to ths Konga coolies 
ot Ihr,' Coimi.Htore Di-trict that the Nilgiri planter has 
to put hiH trusi for the execiilioii of his work ; and 
providrnl he can speak the linguaee spoken hy the 
Ivongas (a very poor apology for Tamil) not merely 
etymologieally, but with the pecniisr twang cf the 
Konyas, (which is the most Important part of tlicir 
ia^8nagc), ho can procure any nutnbtir of coclies on 
_ * This is just wiiat Mr. IToopi'r, the Madras rpiinolo- 
giflt, held coultl not lie done, finch was his o inclrision 
derived liom a number of tea analyses.— En. T. A. 
