October i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
*75 
funds were sufficient the percentage of Theine. 
Resolved: — “ That consideration of the subject be de- 
ferred to next meeting of the Standing Committee.” 
Samw.bs ok Soils fbom Cbvlon Tea Estates Kon 
thr Pdkpose ok Analybks ANn O'ljiPAnia. N with 
Tka Soils in India.— Read letter from the Secretary, 
Cey'on Chamber of Commerce, Colombo, trauemitting 
copy of a letter received from the Bviigal Chamber 
ot Comtnetoo on tbo above sn' jeot. Reroivod; — “That 
the 1 Iter ho aoknowledg. d and that it be stated 
that the mutter will ' a e con idera ion.” 
Ceylon Tea in tuk Thansvaal, S..t7Tii Apbica. — 
R.ad it tie' from Mr. Alex. tVarilrop regardiitg operdng 
up a muiket for Cey ou Tea in .lohaui.eabiirg. 
Htsolvod: — ‘ That the letter bereforred totbeOctlon 
T.'s Oompsiiy, I.imited, under the patronage of the 
Planters’ A-S' o a ton of C ylon ” 
Cryl n Tea in Perak (Malaya) : Grant to Mb. 
C. R. Hanson.— Road letter from Mtssrs. Whittall 
& Co. i timaliiig the delivery of ItJOJ pkts. to Mr. 
Uauson’e order for free distribntioi. in Perak as per 
resobition of tha Oommiitoe on l-lth August. 
Ceylon Tea in Tasmania.— R ead letter from Mr. 
W. Jones, Colombo, on the subject of a Tea Agency 
in Tasmania. 
Head letter from Mr. Geo. Finlayson, Roslyn Forth, 
Tasmania, Rt-solved: — ^That tho letter be aoUnowledged, 
and Ibitt it be sugge.sted that applioati. n might bo 
made to the Ceylon Tea Company, Limited, under 
tie patronage of the Planters’ Assooiation ot Ceylon.” 
The Standing Committee of tho Tea P'.iiid then 
adjourned. A. PHILIP, 
S( cretary to the Planters’ Assooiation of Ceylon. 
CHINA VS. CEYLON TEA— “THE HANOER.S 
OF TEA “ GOLDEN TIPS ” FROM 
NAHAKETTIA ESTATE— BRITISH 
BORNEO TRADING AND 
PLANTING CO, 
London, Septombor. 4th. 
There is very little intclligonoe for me to convoy 
to you by this mail having special relation to 
Ceylon. Even if it wore not tho fact that such 
matters are just now oxporienoing a lull, tho further 
faot that most of our Ceylon community aro as yet 
out of town would piovcnt my obtaining informa- 
tion with respect to them. 
In my last letter mention was mado of some 
letters appearing in the Qlobe depreciatory of the 
qualities of Ceylon tea in comparison with those 
of ChioB. By those letters an effort, it was 
evident, was bting made in tho intercit of the China 
tea trade to persuade home drinkers of teas that 
Indian ana Ceylon growths were simply poisonous 
as compared with those of Ohma. My opinion was 
expressed when mentioniog these attacks on your tea 
to you, that we should soon see tho other side 
of the question taken np in defence ; and in the 
issue of the Olobe for the 29th August there ap- 
peared the following letter, which, as coming from 
a medical man, will be posaessed of material value 
in educating the opinion of the public at large, 
This letter reads ; — 
“ Thb Danoers ok Tea." 
Sir,-»I oannot in justice to the Ceylon ton industry 
allow the fallacious statoments of your correspondout 
’’A Oonnoisscuc” to go unoontradioted. It is quite evident 
that he knows nothing of tho subject he writes about. 
He says that Indian and Ceylon lea contains ten 
times more tannin than Chineso tea. As the latter 
contains, as a rale, about ton per oont, it follows, if 
jour correspondent is corre.ot, that Indian and Ceylon 
teas are more than all tannin. Ceylon too is really 
iho most delicate of all. Tho reason tea is in. 
jnriouB when it is so, is thot people will buy cheap 
tea, and thou not take the trouble to make it pro- 
perly. The price of tea and its flavour depend upon 
when tho loaf is plucked and how it is harvested. 
The lineat tea is plucked in the bud, oud if your readers 
eau imagine plucking the bads of a gooseberry tree, 
and plucking the leaf when it is fully developed, the; 
will see what 1 mean. The fuller matured tea leaf 
is coarser and more full of tannin than the bud tea 
or bulf-doveloped leaf. Tea to be healthy should 
only be infused eight minutes ; if infused longer, the 
latter exiractivo and tannin are brought out, and these 
spoil its flavonr. . As a dietitian I always recommend 
my patients to drink Ceylon tea only. I get mine 
direct from a Ceylon plantation, and I think if your 
readers did tbesime they would soon give Chinese tea 
a wide berth. Ceylon tea is maohine made and is 
not handled and pressed like Chinese tea by the 
hands and toet of the Mongolian, and this is a groat 
desideratum. Cejlon tea has a great future before it, 
but, nnlortunately, cheap, coarse Chinese tea is often 
palmed ulf as tlio produoo of the '* Gem of the Eastern 
Si a.” — Yours faithfully, N. E. Yoiikb-Davibs, L. B. 
Coll. Phye. Load, &o. August 28th. 
We think hero that the above letter exposes 
pretty fully tho failaoies so speoionsly put forward 
by the attacking parties in the Olobt, and that it 
will be all that is necessary to set your production 
right with the British public. 
Did I mention in my last letter the sale of some 
■■ golden tips " in Mincing Lane last week at the 
rate of £35 the pound t It is my belief that I 
did, but at all eventa if this was not done you 
are sure to have board ot it from other sourcoa. 
This sample was grown on the Nahakettia estate 
in Ceylon, and Mr, Delmege tells me it was brought 
into the sale rooms under a glass cover, and that 
great curiosity and noisy excitement was shown 
about it. Mr. Delmege also tells me the funniest 
part of the business is that some t’ golden 
tips ” of squally good quality bad been sold in 
the Miuoing tLane sale-rooms tho week before 
only at from 7 b 6J to 10.s the pound I But it seems 
to have been understood beforehand that an 
attempt would be made to purchase this tea for 
exhibition abroad, and for some reason or other this 
indnood exceptional competition, the high price 
eventually scenred being the result of this. We 
see from this fact that it is not any inherent quality 
in tho description of prepared tea which dominates 
its price on the market, but simply any ohanoa 
demand arising tor it for tho purposes of advertising. 
You in Ceylon have so many friends and relatives 
working m some position or other in Borneo, that 
wo expeot hero that many of your less well-informed 
residents look upon that island as a sort of El 
Dorado. Wo fear those will be sadly disabused 
when they read tho report following ot what took 
place at the meeting this week ot the British 
Borneo Trading and Planting Company. We wish 
we could got private letters from those residing in 
the island telling us of what their experienoe is. 
According to what passed at the meeting we are kept 
as yet in entire ignorance of what the real faota 
connect'd with European life in Borneo aro. [See 
page 270.] 
There have been this week shown to me some 
new-lashioned tea boxes, the body of whioh is made 
in tin in one pieoe, the bead and bottom being 
oloeod by straw-board whioh is made to fit into a 
groove pressed in the tin and then closed by a 
folding angle iron whioh grips tho board within the 
groove and is fastened by a single sorew only. 
There la muoh that is ingenious in this arrange- 
ment, but I am quite oertain that a tin tea box 
will never stand tho rough handling of q journey 
home. The price quoted for a 50 lb. ohest is 
2a 6d f. o. b., of course packed flat and open ; 
but experts tell mo that price would be quite 
prohibitory,— London Cor, 
