492 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [January i, 1890, 
the extent of ten per cent, with extraneous sub e 
stanoes, (principally, however, tea stalks) and th^ 
excessive amount tof inland duty levied. The teamen 
report is as follows : — 
They think the complaint of adulteration is not 
justified by the faots. They have some personal ex- 
perience of the preparation of the teas whioh they 
sell to foreigners at Shanghai, Kiukiang, or Hankow. 
These are the red teas (i.e., blaok teas) of Hunan, 
Hupeh, and Kiangsi, the green tea of Anhui, and 
the Pingsuey of Ohekiang ; but on the Foocoow 
teas they have no information to give. Leaving, 
therefore, the Fooohow Teas to be reported on 
by the teamen of that port, they think they can 
safely say of the other kinds that, whatever may 
have been the case ten years ago, at present 
adulteration practically does not exist. At that 
time some Chekiang Fingsueyes were falsified 
with sittings, and with little pellets of rice paste ; 
but the strenuous efforts made by the Guild to check 
this abuse, combined with the present abundance and 
oheapness of the supply, have combined to suppress 
adulteration, and any defects in quality now-a-days can 
be only caused by original want of flavour of the pure 
article and bad methods of preparing it tor the market. 
The rigorous sorutiny, moreover, to whioh every chop 
is subjeoted by the foreign buyers at the Treaty ports 
would make any attempt at imposition so hopeless, 
that no teaman would think it worth his while, even 
if bis conscience would consent to it, to make such 
attempt. As for tea siftiDgs they have their own 
buyers, the brick-tea merchants ; and tea-stalks find a 
prefi table market in the interior. 
The real cause of the decline in the tea-trade is there- 
fore to be sought not in any imaginary adulteration of 
tea in China, but in the excessive inland and export 
duties levied there, and in defects in growing and pre- 
paring; and the following six suggestions are put for- 
ward by the Guild as the remedy for that decline. 
1. — Increased care in growing. In China, the tea 
generally grows on the slopes of hills. This ground is 
hard and cold, and the plant has to make a greater effort 
to grow on such a soil than in the warm and loose-soiled 
plains in which it is cultivated in other countries. But 
in those countries, although its leaf is softer, the juice 
contained in it is far thinner and less flavoury than what 
is distilled from the Chinese tea plaint. Let the up- 
oountry growers, who are, sad to relate, in many 
instances abandoning their tea-gardens on the hills, 
owing to the smallness of the prices which are offered 
to them for the product, take heart, and they will 
still produce an article that can hold its own against 
any in the world. Let them take advantage of the 
winter season to well loosen the soil, and fertilise it with 
ash-manure, and they will have a fine crop by next 
season, -which will riohly repay them for all their 
trouble. 
2. — There should be no delay in picking the various 
crops at their seasons. In China these are three, 
called respectively first, second, and third spring crops. 
So little attention has been paid of late years to this 
important point, that the market has been flooded 
with large coarse old leaves, while the tender fresh 
young ones, the best of the tea harvest, have been 
conspicuous by their absence. Mr. Huang, the late 
Prefect of I-ning Chow, in Kiang-si, was so well aware 
of the advantages to be got by timely picking that he 
ordered all the growers in his jurisdiction to pick the 
young new season's leaves at least ten days' before the 
spring rains, and enjoined the greatest oare in the 
preparation of the tea for the market. In fact, this 
Prefeot went so far as to invite the buyers of tea to 
inform him of any violation of these injunctions, so 
that he might inflect punishment on the offenders. 
Not one tea-grower dared disobey, and the oonse- 
quenoe was a splendid crop of Ningehows last year, 
which fetched excellent prices. 
3. — In firing the tea, charcoal should always form 
the fuel to prevent any possibility of a smoky taste 
being imparted. The foreign ckaasze is now grown 
very fastidious, and tea fired by wood fires meets with 
either rejection or a cut. The officials should impress 
on the up-oouutry growers, by every possible means, 
the folly of attempting to economise in such a manner 
as using wood instead of charcoal for this purpose. 
4. — Machinery should be used in preparing tea. 
At present in China human labour only is employed, 
which is a most expensive and cumbrous arrangement. 
6. — Likin and other inland charges should bo reduced. 
Besides taxes levied on the growers at the place of 
production, under a variety of names, varying in dif- 
ferent provinces, likin is collected at every barrier, and 
the tea, which now is only two-fifths of its former 
value, is taxed as heavily as in the prosperous old 
days ; which is very discouraging to those who deal 
in it in the interior. 
6. — Export duty should be diminished. Indian and 
Ceylon teas pay neither likin nor export duty, and in 
Japan the export duty is only $1 per 106 catties. In 
Ohina the old Canton tariff was Tls. 2± per 100 cat- 
ties. The trade was then a flourishing one ; 100 catties 
was worth Tls. 50 or more, and could well bear a tax 
of five per cent. The case is very different now when 
most teas only fetch 8 or 9 taels per 100 catties a price 
of Tls. 30 being rarely obtainable. The present export 
duty comes to about 25 percent all round, which ia 
certainly excessive. The unfortunate teaman has be- 
sides to pay on every 100 catties from 4 to 7 taels for 
boxes, firing-charcoal, coolie-hire, transport and other 
concomitant expenses. A graduated scale of export 
duties should be introduced, instead of the present 
system of indiscriminately taxing all teas two taels and 
a half per 100 catties. 
The Tea Guild are of opinion that in the adoption 
of the reforms they have proposed is to be found the 
remedy for the present depression ; and they confidently 
maintain that if these changes are introduced not only 
will the merchants themselves be benefited, but the 
Government will be rewarded for its efforts on their 
behalf, by the largely increased receipts accruing 
from the enlarged volume of the trade. 
♦ 
DEALERS V. GAMBLERS IN MINCING-LANE. 
.A Market, according to old-fashioned ideas, is a 
P'ace where commodities are bought and sold ; but of 
a te years produce markets have largely followed the 
bad lead of the Stock Exchange, and become to a 
great extent centres of mere gambling. The evil has 
been largely intensified since the establishment of the 
Produce Clearing House and the terminal market 
arrangements, &c. By these a spirit of gambling has 
been induced among small dealers, particularly on the 
Continent, who operate on the remote chance of an 
easy profit; but the frequent consequent collapses have 
proved most detrimental to the wholesale dealers here, 
who now find this trade too hazardous, and are really 
dubious of trusting anybody. Brokers, financial 
houses, and others who would be less of a pest to 
commerce, if they had kept in their proper sphere, 
the turf, have done very much to disturb legitimate 
arrangements, and we have by no means seen the end 
of the mischief that these harpies will effect. 
These observations are suggested by an article which 
we reproduce from the Financial News. We are not 
concerned to defend Mr. O'Donoghue ; for all we 
know to the contrary, he deserves the satire with 
whioh the Financial News has treated him. This, 
however, we do know, that the article in our con- 
temporary is of a very " bullish " tendency, and that 
there is, or was up to the end of last week, a strong 
bull account open in coffee on the Produce Clearing- 
house. We should like to enquire, was the article 
inspired by or in any way due to interest in this bull 
movement ? It is very generally stated that the great 
fortune Mr. Marks has made out of the Financial 
News has been largely augmented by euccess in kindred 
departments of business, and we imagine he looks 
with a kindly eye on the Produce Clearing-house, 
inasmuch as he was an original allottee of 100 shares 
in that company. 
We observe that of late much attention has been 
paid in the columns of the Financial News to tea, 
coffee and other commodities which are used as gam- 
ing counters in the Produce Clearing-house, and this 
