862 
The TROf-^CAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[MaV 2, 1892. 
{Extract allttded to.) 
It ia desired you should acoompuuy this expedition, 
or undertake independent expeditions, and report 
generally on the products of the country traversed, 
and of the lands in the vicinity of any 
property selected for the purposes above mentioned, 
or which yon may think it desirable for the 
Corporation to select, with a view to future de- 
velopment. This investigation should be directed 
to the actual economic products of the country, 
and the capability of lands for cultivation, 
specifying what class of cultivation would best tend to 
its development. Yon should also deal witli tlio 
climatic conditions of the different localities, the labour 
available, means of transport, and similar subjects. 
Such for example as the industiy of rice growing, 
cacao planting, cane growing, vanilla growing, rubber 
planting, eto. Information of a general nature as to 
the mode of life iu the interior, the existing settle- 
ments and trading stations, and the flora of the 
different districts would bo of neat use in enabling 
the Corporation to determine the location of lands 
and the uses to which such land can properly 
be put. 
Your oflicial reports and communications had 
better be addressed to me hero or to the Secretary. 
(Signed) tJBEAi.D A. Allaud, Manager. 
66, Old Broad Street, London. 27th April 1891. 
[The above oertainly justifles Mr. Clark's inde 
pendent action ; but we can scarcely believe that 
a copy of this resolution was supplied to the 
OommissioDcrs. — En. T. J."] 
MB. J. L. SHAND ON OVERPLUOKED TEA 
BUSHES. 
Gampola, March 28tb. 
Dear Sib, — I have been astonished that the local 
papers, which look after the planting interest, have 
allowed Mr. J. L. Sband’s strictures on Ceylon tea 
planters, regarding the management of their tta 
bushes, to pass uncballeoged. 
Mr. Sband, is in my opinion, a very clever man, 
but is be an adopt in tea planting matters 7 It 
is now some 5 or 6 years since Mr. Sband was last in 
Ceylon; and the management of the tea bush has very 
much altered in the interval : when Mr. Shand lelt 
Ceylon tea bushes were pruned every twelve months ; 
now few people prune before the bushes have run 15 
months ; a good many planters allow them to run 
18 months, and instances are known of the bushes 
having been allowed to run for 2 years. Because 
the bushes look ragged at the end of 13 months 
for pruning, ia that a proper reason tor saying 
that they are dying out ? 
When in Ireland amongst the farmers I have 
heard them speak of some of their cows as 
“ strippers " ; now a “ stripper " is a cow 
which ia milked atraigbt on end tor 2 years, 
or so, and when in her condition of " stripper, 
hood" only gives about §rda of the quantity of 
milk given by her sister-cow ; yet a farmer would 
not say that the “ stripper” had deteriorated. She 
is kept on milking tor a certain purpose, and it 1 
am not mistaken, the quality of the milk ia above 
the average, just as the quality of tea plucked from 
long-run tea bushes is above the average. It is 
good and right to decry the inflated estimates of 
tea quantities given out by some people, amongst 
others jour good selves,* and I think, and from Uie 
beginning have said, that inflated estimates of 
quantity are against the interests of Ceylon tea 
planters; but if it is allowed uooonlradictrd, to be 
stated by ” An Authority” that the tea planting 
industry of Ceylon is ephemeral it will be a grievous 
wrong to Ceylon tea planters. My own opinion is 
* Our estimate was, and is, 85 millions, against 80 
millions by Messrs, n. Bois and W. W. Mitchell. We 
deny inflation.— Es. T, A, 
that tea is going to be fairly permanent in Oeylon, as 
the country is essentially a leaf-producing land. 
Look at our eternal patanas I The raison d\£lre 
tor this letter ia that Ceylon planting interests exist 
to a great extent on borrowed British capital.— 
Yours faithfully, J. F. R. 
[It is for Ceylon planters to deal with Mr. Sband's 
statements. We have endorsed neither his state- 
ments nor his low estimate. — Ed, T , .-I.] 
PUSHING TEA IN AMERICA ; 
MB. LIPTON TO HIE RESCUE. 
Nuwara Eliya, April 6lh. 
Dear Sib, — The still further curtailment of tea 
prices likely to take place in the near future, 
together with the fact of Mr. Lipton's presence in 
Ceylon, appear to me, to make it advisable at 
least to attempt to come to some understanding 
with him in regard to pushing Ceylon teas in 
America, rather than go on in the present one- 
horse fashion, which will not, I believe, appreciably 
affect the Ceylon tea crop within the next 20 years. 
There ia no use of going back to the question of 
the present American company, with its wonderful 
ways of paying for advertizing, Ac. further than 
to remark that many— very many — of our producers 
are keenly disappointed with the results of its 
sales. 
It might be well, however, to ask Mr. Lipton 
to give the public, through your columns, bis 
opinion of its ways of doing business and the 
probable results. As a dealer of American repute 
Mr. Lipton's opinion would be valuable and 
instructive ; and it might bo well to ask those 
gentlemen who (when Mr. Elwood May made bis 
dihat as the guiding band of its destinies) sang 
its praises so loudly here, and in London, whether 
one of them has invested a single dollar in the 
company beyond bis original shares, which he 
could not get rid of. 
1 believe tbst the Chiesgo Exhibition expendi- 
ture will be wasted money so far as the Ceylon 
tea enterprise is concerned, unless we have some 
means behind it, of placing the article in every 
city, througfaont the length and breadth cf America, 
and at rates that will compete with and oust 
Japanese and other teas now being sold there, 
I believe Mr. Lipton is the one man to do 
this, as bis weslth is enormous and bis influence 
in America generally, and in Cbioago partioularly is 
immense. And Mr. Grinlinton evidently recognised 
this, when he left a letter a.^king Mr. Lipton's 
assistance in Chicago (vide Observer). The 
Observer says that Mr. Lipton intends to sell 
only ncblended pure Ceylon t:a in the United 
States ; but I conclude this most be a reporter's 
mistake, as no sane man would adopt this coarse 
unless he were prepared to face heavy losses. 
I have seen Ceylon tea in America Belting for 
91 25 per lb. that conld bo bought in London 
at la to Is 2d per lb wholesale, whioh means 
that white the Ceylon planter for all bis hard 
work and estate expenditure, interest on oapital, 
and shipping and selling charges was getting Is, 
or say la 2d per lb , tbo retailer was getting for 
handling the tea about 4a per lb. I So there 
is a big margin for profit, and oompetitioo, and 
for pushing Ceylon teas. 
I think it ia less than 5 years since Mr. Liptou 
started as a tea dealer in England, and at pre- 
sent, aooording to the Observer he is selling 
7J million lb. of Ceylon tea per annum (half of 
3,000 chests sold weekly); and if this is the ease, ho 
is the best friend the colony has in tho buying 
market. And when he starts there he will, I doubt. 
