472 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



fjANTTARY I, 1 884. 



crop were the chief causes of the presence of laborers. The 

 disease caused by the Helopeltis antonii decreased greatly 

 during the past quarter. These insects, so destructive 

 to the growth o£ cinchona, wore caught and killed in 

 thousands. At Lembong great damage was done to old 

 gardens by caterpillars. In a very short time very con- 

 siderable extents of this product were eaten entirely 

 bare. Here also the catching and destroying of the insects 

 appeared to be the only means to adopt. The trees are 

 ah-eadv beginning to recover from the devastations. In 

 accordance with G. O. No. 23 of 28th June 1883, by which 

 directions were given for the sale of cinchona seed from 

 the Government gardens, on 4th August the first sale was 

 held, of ledgeriana, succirubra and officinalis seed. Very 

 high prices were paid for seed of original Ledger trees. 

 Some persons even paid /20 and more per gram. For 

 seed of typical Ledger descendants also high prices were 

 for the most part paid. The produce of the harvest of 1882 

 was sold at public auction on 13th July last in Amsterdam. 

 Ou the whole, good prices were obtained, for ledgeriana and 

 officinalis barks as well as for quills of inferior varieties. 

 The highest prices were paid for renewed shavings of old 

 ledo-erianas raised from American seed. This renewed 

 three year old bark fetched /5-.').3 per half kilogram, while 

 for shavings of original bark of the some trees /5-35 was 

 given. In the nm-series at Tjmju-oean, besides a great 

 number of seedUugs, there are about 30,000 grafts and 

 cuttings of the original ledgerianas, more and more sought 

 after, with which the plantations at Tirtasari will be greatly 

 extended during the coming west monsoon. 



Van Eojtoniie, 

 Director Govt. Cinchona Enterprize. 

 Bandoeng, 9th Oct. 1883. 



INDIAN TEA ASSOCIATION. 



WEIGHINCi OF INDIAN TEAS IN EOJTD. 



We have been asked to publish the following letter, 

 addressed to the members of the Tea Association, and 

 its accompaniment;- which will be of interest to many of 

 our readers ; — 



Calcutta, 31st October 1S33. 



Dear Sirs, — In .July last, the General Committee issued 

 B circular cont.iining" the new rules for the weighing of 

 In liau Tea in Loudon, but it has since been found desir- 

 able to obtain the sanction of H. M.'s Commissioners of 

 Customs to slightly amended rules, which have the sup- 

 port ot the trade in Lomlon, on condition that they do 

 not come into operation till the 1st January next, and 

 provided that the chests shall be re-weighed at merchants' 

 expense on delivery. 



The present orders of the Commissioners of Customs 

 (sanctioning the amended rules are as follows : — 



The weight of Indian tea for duty may, if desired by 

 the importers, be ascertained under the following regul- 

 ations : — ... . , , X 



1. The packages on arnval to be weighed to ascertain 

 the gross weight of each packages. 



2. AVith each entry, the importer to give an endorse- 

 ment or statement of the nett contents of each package. 



3. To test the accuracy of the endorsement or state- 

 ment of the nett contents, ten per cent of each break to 

 be turned out and weighed nett, but in no ease should less 

 than three chests be turned out. 



4. If the variation in weight of the test packages be 

 found to exceed one pound, the whole parcel to be 

 weighed nett. 



When the avarage of the packages weighed nett amounts 

 to so many pounds and a half or more, the half or more 

 will be charged as a full pound. When the fraction is 

 less than a half, it is to be rejected and ili-regardcd. 



The new system to come into operation ou the 1st 

 Januai'y next. 



In connection with this new system of weighment, the 

 Indian Tea Districts Association of London has issued the 

 following Memo., the remarks in which are, in the opinion 

 of the General Committee, worthy of very careful con- 

 sideration. It will be noticed that the two questions of 

 weighing and bulking are ossentially distinct, and that 

 it is with the former alone that the Customs will concern 

 itself. If the Teas are not bulked in India, or are found 

 on inspection to be imperfectly bulked, that operation 



will bo performed in London is heretofore, and the chief 

 advantage of the change in the system of weighment will 

 be lost. — Yours faithfully, G. M. Baeton, Secretaiy. 



MEMO. EXPLANATORY OP THE NEW SYSTEM OF 



WE1GHIN& INDIAN TEAS NETT. 

 That the present system of weighing and builking Ind- 

 ian Teas in the Loudon warehouses is highly detriment- 

 al to the tea is beyond doubt or question. It is not 

 merely he immediate injury — grave in itself— resulting from 

 the contents of every package being turned out, exposed 

 to the atmosphere, and crushed back into the cases, but 

 the fact that teas so treated coupled with the damage 

 done to the lead linings of the cases, rapidly deteriorate 

 in condition — a point of some importance to retail dealers 

 as well as to growers and importers. The latter are also 

 taxed with the heavy charge of taring every individual 

 package, irrespective of the charge for bulking in London 

 — by no means a light one. 



It is with the view of lightening these serious burdens 

 on an industry sorely pressed to maintain its ground, 

 that her Majesty's Treasui-y and Commissioners of Cus- 

 toms have sanctioned a change in the system of weigh- 

 ing Indian Teas, by the substitution of nett for tare weight. 

 The first economical effect of this change will be a reduction 

 of some 80 per cent in the old charge for taring upon all 

 teas bulked in London, provided they .are found by 

 ten per cent ot test chests to give within a narrow margin 

 of variation an even aver-age nett weight. Wlien found 

 to exceed the allowed variation, the whole will be weighed 

 nett, and this advantage lost to the importer. Another 

 effect, however, of far greater importance will be the vastly 

 increased facility afforded for bulking in India, by which 

 the cost of that process in London maybe avoided as well 

 as the resulting damage to the teas. By dispensing with 

 tare weight, the chief impediment to this reform will be re- 

 moved. If the difficidty of finding wood suitable for secur- 

 ing an approximately even tare weight in the boxes has been 

 found by the great majority of planters to be almost in- 

 superable, and always costly and uncertain, there can be no 

 real difficulty, or valid excu.se for failing in putting into a 

 strong, well-Hned, and, so to say, hermetically sealed chest, 

 a given quantity of dry tea (giving say half-a-pound over- 

 weight 1, so that it shall turn out essentially the same weight 

 'n the London warehouse— any chests, injured in transit, 

 beinc put aside and dealt with separately. Occasional vari- 

 ations will no doubt occur under the new system, as 

 under the old ; but the growers and importers claim as 

 one of the merits of the new, that such variation will 

 bo reduced to a miuimum. and that if buyers m.ay, upon 

 an average ot all teas bought, receive a barely appreci- 

 able fraction Iss overweight than under the old 

 system thev will still receive all fractions of pounds in ad- 

 dition to the pound draft. They will also secure a more 

 uniform and certain distribution of weight tlian took place 

 under the old method of taring parcels bulked in India, 

 bv which one buver frequently received a good deal more 

 than his due quantity, and another a good deal less— 

 the inevitable outcome of the variation of several pounds al- 

 lowed in .striking an average tare weight. Under the sub- 

 stitution of nett weight for tare weight in the test packages, 

 not only will the nominal margin of variation be reduced, 

 but the actu.al one must in practice be still more so ; and 

 the buyer having the further protection of having the 

 whole "parcel weighed nett when tfce nominal margin is 

 exceeded he cannot be prejudiced by the adoption of the 

 new system, whether the teas are bulked in India or 

 London In fact, it should be cleariy kept in view by 

 both importers and buyers that the two questious of 

 weighing and bulking are essentially distinct, and that it 

 is with the former alone that the Customs will concern 

 itself If the test packages of each break give a correct 

 aver.age nett weight, the parcel will be passed by the 

 Customs If the' teas are not bulked in India, or lound, 

 on inspection, to be imperfectly bulked, that operation 

 will bo performed in London as heretofore, and the nett 

 weight of each packages, as determined by the Customs 

 weighed into it again. Although in such cases the cliief 

 advantage of the change will be lost, the saving in the 

 cost of weighing will remain, with the way paved for 

 the gradual attainment of the main objec— tthat of 



