248 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[October i, 1883. 



perience goes, tlie views expressed by the writer are 

 nit correct. My urigiaal auccirubra from trees 4 years 

 old gave 



Original Bark : — percent. 



Orystallizeil Sulphate Quiuino ... 137 



Total Alkaloids 6-J.4 



KeuewKrt from trees same age, &c. : — 



Orystalizi:il Sulpliato Quiuire 2'78 



Total Alkaloids 4-01 



(Copy:) 3ril March 1SS3. Alex. Dixon. 



Whether llie writer in the Ma'i moans that the first 

 shaving (viz. original) was better than tlie second shaving 

 I caun 't understand, or does h« wisii ns to understand 

 that the Hrst renewed was richer than tlie second 

 renewed ? He may be ri^ht ; but, by this time, surely 

 several in tlie island could let us know, and if .-poke- 

 ah iviug is a niistiike the sooner wo drop i. the better. 

 "My trees arc now ready to shave, but I shall let 

 them stand on 'till March, but before I shave I will 

 have an analysis taken. 1 really should like this 

 matter cleared up. P. S. — ^The bark was richer in 

 but shorter quiniu in other alkaloids." 



The letter, we have already copied into tho Tro- 

 pical Aiji-Kiillurlst (see page 206). 



The paper by Mr. David Howard which we pub- 

 lished recently, throws light on the whole question, 

 and is worthy of careful attention. But we are not 

 equally impressed with the jeremiad of the Lo 

 Mair-lliverc- Hicks firm. \Vc should receive the 

 statement with a good many grains of salt. The 

 truth s»eins to be that shaving, carefnily conducted, is 

 the best mode of harvesting cinchona bark. 



THE MANUFACTUKE AND SALK OF INDIAN TEA. 



The following extracts from the London Time.i, are of 

 interest, as showing in detail how the central factory system 

 would work in rej^ard to tea :^- 



" Undoubtedly the bulking of Indian tea inflicts a serious 

 burden on the trade, not only through the expense, hut 

 the destruction of tho chests and their contents. The time, 

 moreover, required to prepare the tea for sampling keeps it 

 for a week or ten days out of the market after arrival. 

 The remedy for this state of things appears to bo to take 

 another leaf out of that great Chinese book from which 

 Indian planters have already taken so many, Chinese 

 tea conies to market so perfectly packed, that in a 

 break of 000 chests you will find an absolute uniformity of 

 weight, both of i)ackage, and contents, and of quality, 

 so that no repacking is needed, and the whole can be 

 sampled and sold the moment the ste.amer breaks bulk. 

 The reason is that the Chinese carry on their tea busi- 

 ness on true commercial jjrincip'es, while the Indian plan- 

 ters are still in the wasteful stages of a half -developed 

 industry, and have not yet learned the full advantage of 

 the division of labour. The planter is, or tries to be, 

 merchant, carpenter, and engineer as well, and one meets 

 with persons liolding shares in tea estates who harbour 

 the ilelusiou that they can not only send their tea to 

 Calcutta for sale, but ship it to London, and, passing 

 over the machinery of Mincing-lane, follow their lb. of 

 lea into the consumer's pot. With such crude ideas of 

 commerce, it is perhaps hardly to he wondered at that 

 the India!! tea trade fi!ids itself under some dusadvautage. 

 The number of i;ai'dens in India is, according to the 

 planters 2,700 or '2 SOO, scattered over a wide area, and 

 in very varied situations, and it would be absurd to look 

 for uniformity or even reasonable similarity either in the 

 jaodnct or the packages. The gardens are iodividually 

 very small : yet every garden possesses a moie or less 

 elaborate plant, consisting of tiring-hou.ses, rolling machines, 

 &a., and each has to keep up a stalf of handicraftsmen 

 to manage the machinery and to make the tea chests. 

 'J'he enterprise is thus .severely I, andicapped .at the outset, 

 miudi a.; a small farmer would bo v.'ho kept his own 

 Stuam plough a!id reaping machine The men and machines 

 are necessarily ha'f f heir time idle. TIu; only true remedy 

 for this is to organise a market on the Chinese method for 

 tlie green leave* in the districts. Darjeeliug is .admir.ably 

 situated for such ft market, and there are several stations iij 



Assam which would make most convenient depots for the 

 purchase of tea. W'hat is wanted is sutSciently strong com- 

 panies or private capitalists to establish themselves at these 

 centres, and set up all the necessary machinery for manu- 

 faeluring ami paclcing the leaf. The planters would then, 

 like the Chinese, sell their basketfuls of leaves as they 

 picked them from the bushes. They would be planters, and 

 nothing more, and the better planters for being nothing 

 more. The tea buyer, fUliug the functions of the hong in 

 China, wouM collect the leaves in large storehouses, sort 

 them out according to quality and kind, and manufacture 

 tho tea on a large scale, with the maximum of skill 

 and tho minimum of cost. The hong would pack 

 the tea in large breaks of uniform quality, in 

 chests of uniform size and weight, and such teas 

 would never require to be bulked again, either in Lou- 

 don docks or anywhere else. The advantages to the planter 

 of such an organisation as this would be manifold. In the 

 first place he would be; relieved of the great load of finan- 

 cial anxieiT, which he bears at present. He starts the sea- 

 son uuder amass of^dcbt to the Calcutta agents, which 

 has gradually to be 'worked off durine; tho producing sea- 

 son. These advances cost very dear, and the repayment 

 cannot be made uutil the tea has been gathered, manu- 

 factured, packed, and sent down by a slow transport to the 

 Calcutta market. "Whereas, on tho houg system, tho planter 

 would rei|nire very little advance at all, seeing he would 

 need no machinery nor any expensive staff to work it, and 

 he would receive his money as fast as he gathered his tea, 

 instead of waiting two or three months for it, as at 

 present. The chief diiiiculty in the way of this innov- 

 ation would be the strenuous opposition of the Calcutta 

 agents, who make good revenue out of the tea planters, 

 not only in the way of interest on advances, but commis- 

 sion on sales of tea and on supply of stores and machin- 

 ery. For once a tea concern is under the protection of a 

 Calcutta house, it is au understood thing that it is nearly 

 impossible to escape therefrom. The emancipation of the 

 tea planters from this thraldom would fill them with new 

 energy, and prob.abiy enlarge their intelligence." 



To the Editoi' of *' 'The I'imes " 



Su', — The interesting article on the manufacture and 

 sale of Indian tea in your columns contains the very 

 practical suggestion for the development of that im- 

 portant industry, that the Chinese system of tea-hongs 

 should be established in the jiriucipal centres of cultiva- 

 tion. Having had exceptional opportunities of studying the 

 whole Chinese economy of tea-i^i owing, picking, sorting, 

 firing, and packing, it is possible that my experience may 

 be of some use to those who may which to interest them- 

 selves in this subject. In the year lSCI,when the Yangtse- 

 ki.ang had just been opened under Lord Elgin's Treaty, and 

 the extensive tea-growing regions of llupoh and Hunan, 

 were made accessible by that great water-route, I was 

 sent by my employers at the opening of the season to 

 superintend the purchase and manufacture of the first 

 pickings of the tea, under the impression, not always 

 justifteil by experience, that the nearer one could appi'oach 

 the source of supply the cheaper one could buy. Euro- 

 peans had begun to settle in Hankow, so soon to become 

 a great inland-seaport, and there my modest expedition 

 was equipped. After thi-ee days aid nights of slow but 

 comfortable travel in au empty tea junk, I lauded at a 

 jjoint on the river 100 miles above Hankow, called Sz'ting, 

 my most lively recollection of which is the unspeakable 

 swarm of mosquitoes, which, however, entirely succumbed 

 to the fumes of chemically-prepared touchwood. Tho 

 journey theuce to Yung Lautung was over a most 

 interesting mountain track, the path consisting of steps 

 cut ont oF precipitous wall of rock, round which the coolies, 

 who earned the chairs in which we rode steppeil like 

 cats, gripping the rock with their toes, in places so nar- 

 row that their bodies could only pass wheu turned side- 

 ways. I doubt if I should have dared to walk on my own 

 legs along such a track, and it was not without consi- 

 derable trepidation that I allowed myself (o be cai riial on 

 the shouklcrs of other men who, far from sympalliisiuo- 

 with my nenousnes.s, kept up a loud discussion with each 

 other at the most critical turns as to )iow much money 

 .they would receive, and how they would .spend it. 



