Excerpt from Pen and Pencil in Asia Minor, or Notes From the Levant
On my return to London in 1867, I happened to be thrown In the way of some coffee-planters from Brazil and other places, and for the first time it struck me that Ceylon might be worth a trial. I accordingly called upon the chief busi ness representatives of that beautiful island, urging upon them the desirability of adding tea to its other products, explaining how the industry was managed in China and India, and offering my services to start a model tea-garden in any suitable locality. To everything I said respectful attention was paid, but not one of the gentlemen addressed would consent to make a beginning, and all of them had numerous objections to offer. I was told, for example, that the Ceylon coffee-planters knew nothing, and cared, if possible, less, about tea-farming; that their estates were already fully occupied with coffee; that labour was too expensive to admit of the fragrant leaf being grown and manipulated to advantage; that, in short, the game was hardly worth the candle. My arguments thus fell Upon sceptical or unwilling ears, and no steps of any importance were taken for a further period, until the pinch of the various coffee-plagues came. Nevertheless, eight years had not elapsed ere tea-farming had taken root as a Ceylon industry.
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