458 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1890. 
hibition Supplements cost per column &c. for the use 
of certain estate owners I represent, but the Tea 
Planters' Association have nothing to advertise beyond 
the fact that its members have added another to the 
great industries of the empire.— Y^urs faithfully, 
(Signed) R. E. Taylor. 
Copy Timaru, Oct. 16th. 
Dear Sir, — I have been using your Oeylon Tea for 
some time, and am pleased to inform you it has given 
my household unqualified satisfaction. It is very pleasant 
to the taste, particularly the last box which is a deli- 
cious flavour. My wife states, she only uses half the 
Quantity compared with the best Ohina obtainable 
with better results — consequently it is a saving ; it is 
also I consider thoroughly wholesome. If yon continue 
to supply the same quality I will use no other. — Yours 
faithfully, (Signed) Edw. Took. (Chief Postmaster.) 
R. R. Taylor, Agent, Tea Planters' Association 
of Ceylon. 
THE LATE ' BOOM ' IN LOW GRADE TEAS. 
The cessation in the strong demand lately 
experienced for our lower grades of teas in the 
home market furnishes a useful indication to our 
planters of the variableness of the methods of 
distribution of their products throughout the Uni- 
ted Kingdom, and one by which they will do well 
to profit in the future. It may well be doubted 
if there is any article, the sale of which is 
possessed of so many ramifications as is that of 
tea. The ohannels through which it passes ere 
it reaches the consumer are so numerous, and so 
sensitive are those channels to the slightest causes 
off disturbance, that we cannot be too particular 
n consulting the conditions which produce those 
causes. A remark very pregnant with useful advice 
is reported by our London Correspondent as having 
been made to him by a gentleman intimately 
acquainted with the subject of tea distribution. 
Referring to the late decline in the prices obtain- 
able for Ceylon Souchongs, the observation was 
made that it was impossible for those who live 
by the mixing and sale of the cheaper varieties 
of tea to maintain their trade where purchases of 
Ceylon Souchongs had to be made at elevenpence 
the pound. This impossibility, we have seen, acted 
almost immediately and in a very marked degree 
upon the demand made upon the London dealers, 
which had, after the cessation of the strikes, 
forced up the prices in Mincing Lane to an almost 
— if not quite— unprecedented fisure. 
A very large proportion of the teas sold in the 
country dealers' shops are priced as low as Is 4d 
per pound, though we have never yet heard of 
any price below Is 6d per pound being asked for 
teas professed to be of Ceylon growth. Now it 
is evident that, if the latter teas have to be 
purchased at the public sales in England at lid 
the pound, there must be an extremely — quite an 
insufficiently — small margin, after adding the duty 
of sixpence the pound, to leave an adequate profit 
to the retailer who honestly vends Ceylon teas 
at Is 6d the pound. That margin, indeed, is but 
a single penny, and it is manifest it oannot be 
made to cover more than the mere cost of con- 
veyance and handling, let alone any profit to the 
vendor. But if this be the case when teas ar? 
sold by the pound, the circumstances must nc l , 
even more deterrently in the instance of sale in 
packets. We learn that by far the large propor- 
tion of the retail trade in our teas consists 
of the sale of packets. The public regards 
with more assurance of genuineness those 
teas which are thus sold and which bear the 
label of some estate or of some well-known 
firm of traders. Very frequently, no doubt, 
such assurance is misplaced, but the fact 
emaina that comparatively few people purohase 
their Ceylon teas from the mass exhibited in 
the grocers' windows. They demand, and are 
supplied with, the packets bearing marks to which 
they have become accustomed, and which furnish 
a guarantee that the taste for particular brands 
they have acquired will be supplied. It is for this 
reason that the large bulk of the distribution of 
our teas at home is in the hands of what is known 
as the " packet trade." 
Now the cost of weighing and packeting in small 
quantities is by no means an inconsiderable item. 
We shall not be far out, we imagine, if we state 
this cost to amount to fully ljd per pound, reck- 
oning the larger with the smaller packets all round. 
The small margin available to those who sell from 
the bulk completely disappears therefore in the 
case of those who sell by the packet ; and not only 
disappears, but insures the direct loss of one half- 
penny the pound even without taking into calcula- 
tion the cost of transport and handling, which 
amounts probably to fully another penny. We can all 
see, therefore, how true was the remark made to our 
London Correspondent that when our Souchongs 
cannot be purchased below 11 pence, the trade of 
the retailer either by the weighed pound from the 
mass or in packet must be brought to a standstill. 
Such has been the result to the late stimulus 
afforded to the sales of our lower grade teas by the 
famine in the market produced by recent strikes. To 
that cause had to be added another which was no 
doubt strongly operative towards forcing up prices. 
This was the late arrival in the home market of the 
lower grades of the season's teas from India. 
We are not aware whether there was any special 
and exceptional reason for this late arrival. 
Possibly, we Bhould say, it may have been due 
to telegrams warning the Indian planters not to 
ship to any amount while the duration of the 
strikes remained unoertain. At all events, to 
whatever cause the circumstance was due, it 
materially contributed to the high prices at which 
our Souchongs were but recently being sold. 
Reviewing the whole case, it appears to be mani- 
fest that, when the prices of our lower grades of 
tea rise above ninepence the pound in Mincing 
lane, it must act injuriously towards checking the 
demand for them, and any rise above that figure 
must consequently be but temporary only. 
Equally evident is it, however, that the greater 
proportion of the popular demand in England 
must always be for teas of about that price. They 
are the millions who can afford but Is 6d for tea, 
—as opposed to the thousands who are willing to 
pay 2s and 2s 6d — who must ever constitute the 
bulk of our customers, and this conclusion fully 
justifies Mr. Roberts' timely-given advice to our 
planters that it would be a suicidal policy to confine 
their output to the higher grades only. It is from 
this point of view too that the prospect of a 
reduction of the imperial tea duty by 2d — from 
6d to 4d per lb. (more cannot be spared) — be- 
comes of real importance to Ceylon planters. It 
is likely just to afford the safe margin which the 
" packet-dealers " and their customers require to 
enable them to deal extensively in pure Ceylon 
teas at Is Gd per lb., and we may be sure that 
when once the taste for such tea is established, 
there will not be much chance of a recurrence to 
'.' Chinas." 
. + 
" SUNSHINE AND A CUP OF TE \ ."* 
A copy of this little pamphlet, which we ref'rred to 
the other day, comes to us from Messrs. Gto. Steuart 
& Co., who write : — 
" Wo beg to send herewith a copy of a litt'e brochure 
^y Mr. Georgo Russell, entitled ' Sunshine, '&c, which 
jj6 requests us to pass on to you with bis <■ >mpliments. 
* Publishers. 
