November i, 1884.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



4i5 



failed, and it may be doubted if the present trial will be 

 more successful iu meeting foreign competition. As although 

 home-grown beet will have a considerable advantage over 

 that from abroad in the saving of freight, &c, the humidity 

 of our climate is almost as great a natural disadvantage. 

 In Germany the wet bulb thermometer shows 2 to 3 

 degrees more cold than here, indicating the air to be less 

 damp, which is conducive to more richness of sugar in 

 the root. But the depreciation in value from over-pro- 

 duction is a greater discouragement to beet sugar, for if 

 it was unable! < IS supposed, to bear the burden of a tax 

 of £2, how can it endure the fall, as reported, of £4 in 

 the market. This decline must be a very serious thing 

 for the growers, and yet sugar can scarcely be said to be 

 too low in price, compared with other articles of food, if 

 the equivalents of their value for food are considered. 

 The natural effect of low prices is to stimulate consump- 

 tion, and seeing how extensively sugar is employed in 

 the diet of the people, it is for the public benefit that 

 it should be cheap. If the beet-sugar manufacturers have 

 no margin left for working on with profit, and cannot eke 

 out the failing price with a fuller quantity of sugar from 

 the root ; the cane-sugar makers are not in the same evil 

 plight. Their situation compares favourably with that of 

 their rivals, and they may look forward with hope and 

 conviction that cane-sugar planting can be made to pay 

 well, although the day of such high dividends as 30 per 

 cent on the capital employed be past and gone. 



ANALYSIS. — COMMERCIAL SUGAR. 



Moisture. 



1. 



Dutch crushed 



Clyde crystals 



German granulated 



French centrifugal 



London crystals 

 Paris Loaf 

 German crystals 



THE SUGAR CROP. 



Cane sugar taken from the figures of export and production 

 in the Blue-books, Ac. 

 1872. 



Per 



■068 

 •130 

 ■062 

 ■118 

 071 

 •050 

 ■077 



Ash. 

 cent. 

 ... -003 

 ... -010 

 ... -118 

 ... -061 

 ... -003 

 ... lost. 

 ... -063 



Bahamas 

 Jamaica 



St. Christopher (1) 



Nevis (1) 



Antigua (1) 



Montserrat (1) 



Dominica (1) ... 



St. Lucia (2) 



St. Vincent (I) 



Barbados (1) ... 

 Grenada... 



Tobago 



Trinidad... 

 Demerara 

 Honduras, Belize 

 Penang and Singapore 

 Mauritius 



Natal (3) 



Queensland (3)... 



Fiji 



Louisiana (3) ... 



Cuba 



Porto Rico 



Philippine Islands 



Martinique (4)... 



( luadeloupe (4) 



Cayenne... 



Reunion 



Johanna, Comoro Isles (5) ... 



Java 



Surinam 



St. Thomas, for St. Cruz (6) 



Madeira (3) 



CapeVerdes (7) 



Brazil 



Argentine Republic (3) 



Peru (8) 



Mexico 



Guatemala (9)... 



Salvadoi 



Nicaragua 



219 

 30,220 

 5,525 

 1,682 

 5,645 

 1,349 

 3,070 

 6,031 

 8,530 



33,412 

 4,217 

 3,834 



46,023 



76,146 

 2,203 



12,100 



110,005 



7,098 



3,762 



nil. 



r,r,.!>.-„s 



660.000 

 94,262 

 91,109 



37,344 



:i9.27H 



227 



36,164 



? 



206,193 



10,584 



4,514 



830 



150 



139,459 



? 



6,696 

 nil. 

 607 



'I 



1882. 

 nil. 



34,553 



11,828 



4,010 



12,810 



2,071 



3,540 



6,581 



7,717 



46,674 



1,477 



2,517 



55,326 



124,101 



2,572 



15,750 



113,738 



11,950 



19,051 



684 



134,486 



574,364 



83.506 



143,227 



?n i.n ;:, 



46,387 



nil. 



33,959 



1,671 



291,031 



9,253 



? 



1,161 



25 



110,878 



17,000 



v 



1,289 



y 



605 

 292 



Total ... 1,782.607 2,060,565 

 (1). Packages nominally the same. Taken hogshead 17 

 cwt., tierce 12 cwt., cask 9 cwt., barrel 2 cwt. Jamaica 

 and Demerara hogshead IS cwt. Louisiana hogshead 1,250 lb. 

 <2h Year 1880. (3). Production. (4). Year 1881. (5). Im- 

 ported into Mauritius. (6). Caret. (7). Turned attention 

 to distilling rum. (8). At rare intervals a ship is despatched 

 with cargo sugar. (9). Exports do not include sugar. 

 Beet sugar taken from the figures of production in 

 Lichts' Circular. 



France 



Germany ... 



Austro-Hungary ... 



Russia 



Belgium 



Holland 



Total 



Total, both sorts ... 2,655,607 

 -Journal of the Society of Arts. 



3,921,559 



UNRESERVED SALES OF TEA. 

 The rapidly increasing state of the Indian tea trade, and 

 the enormous number of samples to taste in each day's 

 snle, point to a much-needed reformation in the mode of 

 selling. As at present constituted, the sale-room offers are 

 accepted or refused too often according to the fancy 

 of the individual broker who occupies the rostrum, 

 and between " box customs" and the means employed 

 after auction to get prices up to sellers' valuations much 

 valuable time is lost, and the patience of the trade 

 sorely tried. There appears to be only one way out of the 

 difficulty, and that is to sell Indian teas " without re- 

 serve." Brokers' valuations may be very interesting to 

 themselves and their clients but buyers cannot be guided 

 by them. The valuations of the sellers are not certain, 

 and perhaps it may be said, are very unreliable. The true 

 «vorth of the teas on sale day we most unhesitatingly affirm 

 to be the auction offers when sold without reserve. Brokers 

 should know this full well, for it is the exception to get 

 advances on the sale-room offers and more frequently money 

 is lost by refusing them. Withdrawn lots are a decided 

 nuisance to dealers as well as a great trouble to brokers for 

 neither the one nor the other in busy times can devote 

 attention to them, and the result is they are neglected till 

 reprinted, and 99 times out of 100 "the second time of 

 asking" brings out less money. There are too many con- 

 flicting interests in the London auction room to allow a 

 tea to be thrown away under market value ; notwithstanding 

 the fact that some irresponsible valuer may consider the lot a 

 cheap one. It has lately become the expressed opinion of 

 the trade that the Indian tea sales should, like the kindred 

 trade of China teas, be without reserve ; and it must be- 

 come the common rule sooner or later. Any novice at- 

 tending the auctions can see the difference between a re 

 serve and an unreserved sale, the one dragging along and 

 the other full of life. As all the tea imported has to be 

 sold sooner or later, it is simply a question to be settled 

 by the importer and the broker when it will be best to 

 offer it, and once they have decided on a certain day, let 

 the teas be disposed of in the public sale-room. We should 

 then hear less about losses for one thing, and the daily 

 work would be quickly got through. Nervous importers 

 will not readily agree to sell without reserve, but those 

 who care to take good counsel will reap the greater ad- 

 vantage. The London wholesale dealers are quite alive 

 to the fact when they wish to clear on remnants of their 

 stock by auction, their invariable practice being to offer 

 such lots without reserve, as they know such a condition 

 of sale ensures the attention of buyers, while without, it 

 they would be neglected.— Mome and Colonial Mail. 



