174 TESTING, BLENDING AND PREPARING. 



terms, the prices rapidly decline to a more reasonable 

 level, it then becomes comparatively steady. When this 

 is the case the decline occurs about the middle of 

 September, and dealers will do well to take advantage of 

 the choice selections of teas that arrive during the 

 months of October and November. For the better buy- 

 ing of teas at this time it will also be found necessary to 

 note the supply very closely, as during heavy shipments 

 the market is nearly always easier, while, when the 

 arrivals are light, the tea-market is higher. These 

 points are deserving the special attention of the success- 

 ful tea-dealer. 



For some years past a new development of the tea 

 trade has, to the surprise of the older wholesale and retail 

 dealers, assumed a good deal of prominence, for if the 

 advertisement columns of newspapers, startling placards 

 at railroad stations and on fences form any criterion, the 

 public are taking a liking to teas put up in pound and 

 half-pound packages under fancy names the latter hav- 

 ing no relation whatever to any country, district or locality 

 where the teas are grown. That the public should, to a 

 certain extent, buy anything persistently forced upon its 

 attention is perhaps possible, but tea put up in tin, lead 

 or paper packets would seem a somewhat hopeless 

 direction in which to attempt to draw the public taste. 

 Tea in bulk, in the original lead-lined chests, undoubt- 

 edly keeps better, as it preserves the strength, flavor 

 and aroma of the tea longer than when exposed to the 

 oxydizing influence of the atmosphere, particularly 

 in this climate, so that during transference into the tin, 

 paper or unseasoned lead packet, ornamented with a 

 "showy" label which the more gorgeous the more apt 

 it is to communicate a taste of the ink, paint, glue or 

 material in which it is packed to the tea they are intended 



