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Show Ceylon Tea. Tea plantations in Ceylon have been In existence only 30 years, yet the annual an-nual exports of black tea amount to nearly $20,000,000 in value. Formerly coffee constituted Ceylon's main industry, in-dustry, but after a disease of the plant in 1880 its cultivation was discontinued. discontin-ued. Many planters, however, recouped re-couped themselves by tea and rubber. Thanks chiefly to the former article, the island's old prosperity revived. Today To-day Ceylon boasts 1,500 plantations. Plant necessary to tea cultivation is costly but very labor-saving. The work itself is not hard; only the climate cli-mate makes it Irksome. What is wanted mainly of employes is to watch mancinery and feed it from the stock of tea leaves awaiting treatment. treat-ment. The workers are not Singhalese, Sing-halese, but natives of southern India. A laborer's wages vary from eight to sixteen cents a day, while a foreman's salary averages $200 a month. Harper's Har-per's Weekly. |