Ami 1, 18S7.] I'M ^^OPitAt At^mcvL^tjmsf. 



w 



cient power are, no doubt, important con- 

 siderations and as to quick hard rolling versus 

 long- continued hard rolling, Mr. Hogarth told us 

 that, in his own practice he found it better to 

 put 'sOlb. at a time into Jackson'ri Excelsior Eoller 

 and get the leaf rolled rapidly, than to put in 

 300 lb. and take time in proportion. We men- 

 tioned to him the very different practice of Mr. 

 Gow, who subjected the leaf put through his hot 

 air withering machine to a full hour's rolling in 

 Jackson's Excelsior, plenty of power being sup- 

 plied from the resources of Messrs. John Walker 

 & Co.'s Iron Works, whore the experiment took 

 place. If we understood Mr. Hogarth aright, hard 

 roUing, long continued will obliterate " tips," while 

 they can resist hard rolling for a short period. 

 As to pruning, we told Mr. Hogarth that the pro- 

 cess has been tried in every season of the year 

 in Ceylon and there is scarcely yet a concensus 

 of opinion as to the best period. Planters seem 

 agreed, however, that, thorough pruning once in 

 eighteen months is sufficient, if the removal of 

 crows-feet, blossom, fruit and dead wood is care- 

 fully performed vvhen the necessity becomes obvious 

 in the interval. 



♦- 



TEA :— HUGE PROFITS AND QUICK RETURNS. 



Having noticed an enquiry in an Indian contem- 

 porary as to where the profits go between the price 

 the planter receives for bis tea and the retail 

 selling price, the idea occurred to us to send into 

 the East End of London, and to fin^ oat by actual 

 purchase, ■ first, what is the smallest amount of tea 

 the shops will sell to customers, and, secondly the 



firices charged. It is unquestionable that the 

 argest proportion of the tea purchased in London 

 is bought in the very smallest amounts procurable 

 at a time, and consequently the prices charged for 

 these small amounts will best illustrate the profits 

 realised on the bulk of the teas sold over the 

 counter. As the result of our enquiries, we found 

 that the majority of East End shops sold as little 

 as half an ounce, these half ounces being generally 

 kept ready packed in paper. We heard that some 

 shops sold Vd. packets, more particulary to factory 

 hands who purchased from day to day the require- 

 ments for each meal separately. We obtained five 

 samples, and sent these to one of the oldest estab- 

 lished firms of tea brokers in the Lane where, there 

 being both Indian and China " sides," there ypas 

 reasonable prospects of obtaining a fair valuation. 

 The following is the reply we have received : " You 

 set us a very difficult task, we are only in the 

 habit of tasting self-teas, we had to bring all the 

 talent we could to bear from both our Indian and 

 China rooms. We have numbered the samples and 

 make the following remarks, viz. : — 



Quality. Value. 



..Mostly Indian 

 mixed, little 

 coarse . . 9d to Dgd 

 ..Nearly all 

 China, little 

 isour . . .. 8d toBi'id 

 a .. 1 ..14 .. 2 ..China.. .. 6dto6id 



4 .i 5 .. 1 .. 2 8d ..Mixed Indian 



and China and 

 ( little Oolong, 



fair .. ..lOdtolQid 

 9 .. 1 .. 2 .. 2 8d ..Fair Indian 



and China. . about lid 

 To the above values yoQ must add; — 



Wholesale dealer . > < > 2d 



Duty .i ,1 ,, . . 6d 



Retail dealer, some get more .. 6d 



i. « • X-2 • • ^ 



to 2s 8d. It is far and away, better than any 01 your 

 samples." 



The firm thus reporting were not aware where we 

 had procured the samples, nor what was oar motive 

 in sending them for valuation. Hence the above is aa 

 unbiasse'l, and as scientific and honest a report as it 

 was possible to obtaih. 



Now if we add the wholesale dealer's 2d and duty 

 6d as mentioned above, to the above valuations, and 

 compared the results with the retail prices actually 

 charged, we have the following significant figures. 

 Sample Retail price Valuation Estimated 



No. charged. Cost to Retailer. Profit per lb. 

 p r lb. per lb. 



sdsd sdsd sil 



1 2 1 5 to 1 5i U 6J to 7 



2 2 1 4 to 1 4 u 7i to 8 



3 L' 1 2 to 1 2J 9i to 10 



4 2 8 1 6 to 1 6i I l| to 1 2 



5 2 s I 7 — 1 1 — 



Tbus on the samples procured by us the retail profit, 

 according to valuation, may be said to have varied 

 between 6^d, per lb. the lowest, and Is 2d per lb. the 

 highest, which, to use a well known aphorism, accounts 

 for the milk and the cocoanut. 



We send you a sample of a mixed tea which costs 

 the dealer here Is 3d, which he sells, duty paid, at 2s 

 3d, for the retail dealer to sell at 23 6d. 

 — //. d: Colonial ^lail. 



TuUl ., Is 2d 



? 



THE INDIAN TEA SALES SUGGESTED 

 REFORMS. 



We insert this week a letter from Messrs. Taylor- 

 Colman, and Sudlow, one of the leading firms of buy, 

 ing brokers in this market, touching upon the size of 

 the sampling breaks of Indian and Ceylon tea. We 

 made some comments en the subject a few weeks ago 

 when it was first mooted, and as our opinions are un- 

 changed we need not refer to them, except to say that 

 there appears to be a singular apathy displayed by the 

 Committee of Wholesale Tea Dealers, the Indian Tea 

 Districts' Association, and the Brokers' Association. 

 Another season will soon open ; and as far as we have 

 been able to gather not the shghtest action has yet 

 been taken by any of the authorities abovementioned, 

 either with a view to remedy existing defects, or even 

 to discuss them with a view to such results. 



The matter concerns these gentlemen much more 

 seriously than would appear by the amount of interest 

 they show in it; and weagiin urge them to take im- 

 meiiiate steps to arrive at a satisfactory reform of the 

 present regulations, as we are convinced they have, 

 worked their last season as they now stand, and must 

 as our correspondents point out, utterly brpak down un- 

 der the slight e*''. extra pressure. Indian n'an 6:8 may not 

 see any immediate cause for alarm ; but we must re- 

 mind them that the supply from Ceylon is rapidly 

 increasing — most of it, too, in rather small lots whifli 

 occupy as much time in the sales as large breaks do, 

 and the two together will, we feel sure, tax the powers 

 of the trade seriously as time goes on. 



But we must now leave this subject to refer to thp 

 other more absorbing topic which our correspondents 

 touch upon, and which might fitly be headed, the F.thicii 

 of the Pulpit, 



We confess we have quite expected that the present 

 system in the public saleroom would soon end in an ex» 

 plosion of indignation. ,Ve believe it was Mr. Glad- 

 stone who once expressed his opinion at some ec» 

 clesiastical gathering, that, as a rule, " the pulpit did 

 not get justice from the pew,"— the tea buyers evid- 

 ently seem to think exactly the rever.'se — in short, that 

 the pew does not get justice from the pulpit. We are 

 quite of their opinion that nothing will last but 

 absolute fair play. An auctioneer has, by common con- 

 sent and immemorialusage, a sort of prescriptive right 

 to present his wares' in the most attractive language 

 that his audience will give him a patient hearing 

 for, but there can be no doubt that what is 

 called " puflBng " on the part of the vendor is 

 strictly Hlo^^l sad ifflmoral, Hov far tb« pr&oticc 



