PRODUCTS : TEA, CACAO, PLUMBAGO, 57

bonus is paid on every pound of green tea up to certain
standards. Ten rupee-cents per lb. was the rate offered for
some time, but it was reduced as the quantity increased, and it
is at present 3 cents per lb., and is to cease altogether about
the middle of 1904. The new industry served to reduce the
black tea export in 1903 by 11,200,000 1b., and relieved the
London market to nearly that extent from the depression of
over-production, which until then had remained at an acute
stage since the end of 1900. An illustration of the development
 in direct tea shipments in the past six years is afforded
by a comparison of the largest quantities shipped in 1897-8
and in 1903 respectively. In November, 1897, the «St.
Ninian” took 152,698 1b. of black tea, of which 89,851 Ib.
were for the Tnited States and the rest for Canada; and
in July, 1903, the “Schonfels” took 422,611 1b. black and
521,772 1b. green tea for North America. The tea section of
Ceylon’s trade with America merits this detailed reference,
for it is part of a remarkable chapter in tropical agriculture
and enterprise ; and while the St. Louis Exposition marks
the culminating point in this organized propaganda, it also
possesses a new feature of great promise. Never before at
any International lixposition has Ceylon green tea been
served in the cup side by side with black.
Cocoa (cacao), which was started in Ceylon a quarter of a
century ago, now stands third in the list of agricultural
exports, preceded by tea and the products of the cocoanut
palm. It is thus an important additional string to the
planter’s bow. The total export for 1902 was 60,455 cwt.,
valued at Rs. 2,500,000, There is practically no direct shipment
 to the United States ; but cocoa is to be sold in cup at
the Ceylon Court, in addition to green and black tea—also
for the first time at any International Exposition—and direct
trade in the article, which takes high rank in the United
Kingdom, should result.
To foster trade in other products a Commercial Samples
Room has been provided within the Ceylon Court, and should
be visited by business men. Here are specimens of all our
chief low-country exports which find mention from the
economic point of view in other sections of this book.
Plumbago (graphite) is entitled to special mention, and
will take a prominent place, both in the Samples Room and
in the Mines and Metallurgy Building, because the United
States has been for many years the largest purchaser of
Ceylon’s one commercial mineral. The different grades are
L L (large lump), O L (ordinary lump), chips, dust, and
flying dust. With the small exception of I'ravancore in
Southern India, Ceylon is the only source of supply of