June i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
885 
Olf THINGS IN GENEUAL, AND TEA 
IN PAETICULAU. 
The thing that's most “ in general ” is the weatlier, 
and about that there's no mistake now, seeing that 
every afternoon a considerable water-spoilt hursts 
over every estate upcountry. Just wlien we have 
most flush and want moat coolies, the weather 
steps in and stops works over and over again. Hut 
more than enough about the weather. 
Now about “Lipton’ l I wish we all had estates 
like “Lipton’s" a.s depicted in the home papers 
recently to hand. We there see a beautiful lay of 
land, four Europeans looking after thirteen women 
plucking, two more weighing leaf, and of course 
plenty more inside all the factories. Tliis not being 
“Jjipton'a" estate, I have to do the work of all that 
lot single-handed, barring, perhaps half a-dozen or 
so — of whom wo see only one — whose work it is to 
attend to the shipping which is only just across the 
road from the factory. Hut it's of little use asking 
“ if there is such an estate in Ceylon. " Lipton’a 
advertisements appeal to millons while his critics only 
find a few scores of readers. 
Like the man himself, his picture is clever and 
far-roochine. Ho has crowded into one picture all 
that his tea pasaes through in Ceylon, lie han tea 
fields among the hills, he has a lot of factories on his 
several places, and he han a lot of suprintendents, 
all told; and his tea u' loaded into ships at Colombo, 
and there ore still some elephants in Ceylon, 
Clever man! 
Now, thanks to “Ij D.,” this oracle has spoken, and 
has written a letter wliichj defies adverse criticism. 
Our brother planter Upton is a clever man, with such 
a load of business that I wonder ho can find time 
to sleep. What his head “counting-house” will he 
like when he has opened retail shops all over Ammca 
“ from the Atlantic to the Pacific” cannot be very 
easily imagined. 1 think ho must bo a good friend 
to Ceylon, while Ceylon continues to produce (iO 
per cent of coarse rubbish called Pekoe Souchong, 
Congou, Red Leaf and Dust. Somebody mnst absorb 
this stuff so long as all Ceylon is mad enough to 
flood the market with it. Hut how much of our good tea 
does Mr. Lipton meddle with ? Lot his advertisements 
answer this question. Here are his selling piicos 
Everywhere: — India and China Hlend 1/ alb. 
Ceylon, India and China 1/-1 a „ 
Ceylon and India 1/7 a „ 
“No Huiheu PnioF..'' 
“ No higher price ” for what he declares is “ the 
finest tea the world can produce,” and be adds “ these 
are planters' prices '' I! 
Now what do wo learn from, and what do we 
suffer from, these world-wide advertisements '! Take 
his highest-priced tea, that at 1/7 per pound to 
the consumer. We know that upon this tea he pays 
duty 4d a lb. 
His outgoings for advertisements 
and all other expenses must, I 
should say, amount to quite Id 
more -Id „ and 
if ho is satisfied with a profit of ‘id „ 
this runs it up to lOd 
leaving only a balance of fid 
as the price paid by him for the “ finest 1/7 
tea Ceylon produces,” and for which tlio planter in 
Ceylon roooivea f^dll — his own price, according to 
Lipton. My figures for his outgoings and profit are 
haphazard, I know ; but seeing that other retail tea 
Jnen look for and take fid a lb. profit, they can’t 
bo far wrong. 
Is not Lipton, therefore, the greatest enemy the 
C^loii planter has '/ Groat in proportion as his 
•nfiuonco is world-wide ? Ho posing before the whole 
World as a Ceylon planter, assures all the coiisnmers 
Ju the world that the planter’s price for the best 
tea the world produces is 1, 7. free to their doors, 
through retail dealers. Now we planters in Oeylon 
who are not also advertising retail tea-dealers — know 
that if wo get only a fair profit of 2d a lb. on our 
tea no consumer could buy it anywhere under 
retailor did not stick on more. 
Owing to over production all retailers are now getting 
their profits out of the planter, instead of legitimately 
out of the consumer. Well, every man for himself 
ns so, small blame to Lipton as a retail tea man, 
but bad Inck to him as a planter for the bad torn 
he does ns in the world. 
Hut, after all, who gives him the opportunity which 
he is wise enough to seize ? Who but tbe Ceylon 
planters themselves ? fiveiT ounce of rubbishy tea 
we send into consumption displaces the same amount 
of what ought to be good tea I’oople drink their 
cup of tea as they want it. If good, they are satis- 
fied and pleased ; if bad, they evince disgust, but it 
has served its tnru. No tea ouglit to bo proonrable 
under ‘2a a lb. to the consumer. Hut, the tact is, our 
over-production of “ pekoe souchong ” is killing ns. 
And what is the secret of our flooding the world 
witli this grade of tea ? Perhaps I had better whis- 
per the answer to tliis questicn, or keep it to myself, 
seeing the hornets' nests I shall disturb. But 
bah! who cares? Whence comes our pekoe souchong 
but from the indigenous and high-olass hybrid idt ? 
Isn’t that tree a beauty? Doesn't it flnsn? Well, 
it does, witli a vengeance 1 If you don't look out 
and get sharp round— coolies or no coolies, weather, 
or no weather — its “tips” will he half opened and 
the other half bangy; its pekoe leaves a couple of 
inches long and its pekoe souchong leaves as big as 
your hand ! Compare it with the amollor hardy 
hybrid and semi- China tree in another field, or not 
imfrequently growing next to it, producing the very 
tea we most want, but neglected by the pTuckers, be- 
cause the high-class pekoe souchong leaves of the 
sploiidid indigenous is so much easier to pluck and 
weighs so much more ! I will return to this subject. 
Hboeen Pbkoe. 
THE PERUVIAN CORPORATION, 
LIMITED. 
REPORT ON LAND IN PERU SUITABLE FOR 
AGRICULTURE. 
BV ALEXANBEK BOSS AND ABTIIUB SINCLAIR. 
To the Directors of the Peruvian Corporation, Limited. 
Gentlemen,— In the month of May, 18!)l we under- 
took, at your request, a mission to Peru for the 
purpose of selecting and reporting upon land suitable 
for agriculture, but with more especial reference to 
its fitness for tropical products. 
In fulfilment of this mission we loft England in 
the same month of May, arriving in Pom at the 
latter end of June ; and, after a sojourn extending 
to December, 1H91, we retarnod to England in 
January, 1892. 
We now have the pleasure to submit to you, in 
the following report, the result of our special ex- 
plorations, our observations with reference to the 
adaptability of the country as a field for the invest- 
ment of capital, and the opinions we have formed 
in regard to the extremely interesting and boantiful 
country we have visited. 
W^e propose, in making onr report, to deal with 
the subject under the following hoods, viz : — 
1. Climate. 
2. Boil. 
3. Vegetation. 
4. Routes taken, with short description of the 
country passed through. 
а. Locality and extent of land selected. 
б. Planting, past and present. 
7. Transport and outlet. 
8. Labour. 
9. Pom as a field for Colonization. 
CLIMATE. 
The climate of Peru may bo safely said to be 
unique, and whether we regard its infiuonce on vege- 
tation or on hunmn healtli, it is alike remarkable ; 
tropical, yet temperate; variable, yet equable. The 
influence of the Pacific (Polar) currents on the one 
hand, and the cool air from the Cordilleras on 
the other hand, are sufficient to account for this • 
while the comparative dryness of the atmosphere 
tends to abundant fruitfulness in the vegetable king- 
dom, and Buffioieutly accounts for the inailced absence 
of molarial foyer amongst the native inhabitants. 
