January i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AG RTCTJ ITU W ST. 
493 
is likely to increase the undesirable Capel- r ourt 
methods which are so injurious to the community when) 
applied to food products, although, of course, the 
successful gamblers reap a rich harvest. 
We would next ask, is it compatible with the interests 
of coffee dealers that coffee values should be largely at 
the mercy of sets of gamblers by whose tricks and 
dodges business is. severely harassed ? And would dealers 
be well advised to discriminate against those brokers 
(it is unnecessary to name them here) who for the 
Bake of extra commissions, aid and abet a system which 
is most prejudicial to legitimate business. — Grocers' 
Gazette 
COFFEE AND CONSCIENCE. 
(From the Financial News.) 
" Strict integrity in business is always respected and 
admired by the world, and tbe most censorious critic 
could hardly refuse his praise to a man who retires 
from trade because he can no loDger conduct it pro- 
fitably without doing violence to his conscience. 
Such a man, apparently, is Mr. Joseph J. O'Donohue, 
the great coffee dealer of New York, who has given up 
business and resigned from the Coffee Exchange because 
he is disgusted with the element of gambling that has 
been introduced into it. In an outburst of virtuous in- 
dignation, he went so far as to say that the men dealing 
upon the Exchange were ' little better than confidence 
operators and bunco steerers.' He said, further, that 
he * could no longer associate himself with a business 
which had for its ultimate end the robbery of the poor 
man ' ; and, altogether, the merchant took the highest 
moral grounds against gambling in food products, and 
particularly in coffee. He makes the important state- 
ment that the American people are paying £6,000,000 
more for l beir coffee than they eight to pay — a kind of 
allegation that might lead one to suppose that Mr. 
O'Donohue is in sympathy with the bears, were it not for 
tbe fact that he proclaims himself against the manipula- 
tors of coffee, either bulls or bears. Mr. O'Donohue is par- 
ticularly hard upon the New York Coffee Exchange, 
which he holds responsible for the evils that have driven 
him from business. The Brazil growers, he says, work the 
market for their own benefit, and the poor man is, in the 
end, the tuff erer. ' 80,' concludes the honest dealer, ' I 
go out of business on purely conscientious scruples.' 
Curtain ! All this leads us to reflect upon the efficacy 
of business reverses to induce exceptional business 
morality. It may be remembered that in July last the 
Financial News, in the course of an article entitled 
1 A Gamble in Coffee,' mentioned the fact that a New 
York job 1 - er had come to London openly boasting that 
he was ' going to bust up the Minoing-Lane coffee 
market.' This jobber was Mr. Joseph J. O'Donohue, 
the moral merchant of New York. He certainly did 
his best to ' bust up' the market, and his bear opera- 
tions were of such magnitude as to attract consider- 
able attention, and to cause no little consternation. 
But Minring-lane still exists, and Mr. O'Donohue has 
retired. He found it difficult to keep down the price of 
coffee wl en the present crop is calculated to be a 
couple of million of bags below the average and he 
has, therefore, shown his sense in abandoning the field 
of speculation. The president of the New York Coffee 
Exchange is unkiad enough to say that the reason 
Mr, O'Donohue is disgusted with the Exchange is 
because the members did not elect him president; but, 
however that may be, Mincing-lane may be relieved to 
learn that the New York jobber who came over to 
« bust up' their market has retired into private life." 
THE TEA TEADE : ALL ABOUT BLENDING. 
The euterprising grocer of today has a way of including 
among his wares many drugs, medicines, &c, which in 
more old-fashioned times were only to be bought at a 
hemist's shop, and no doubt many readers of the 
Chemist and Druggist have smarted under such com. 
netition. Now a chemist as a rule cau hardly retali- 
te by importing a grocery department bodily into his 
hop, but that he cau and often does add Bensibly to 
Lis profits by retailing tea may be proved, if proof were 
eeded, by a letter which appeared in the Ohemist and 
Druggist of September 21st, 1889, from a " Country 
Oho mist,'* who in ft few years blended End retailed 
1,0001 worth of tea. 
It is of course impossible in an article to teach all the 
ins and outs of the tea trade, with its multitudinous 
kinds and qualities of tea ; but it is quite possible by a 
few hints and suggestions to enable a chemist who re- 
ally iutends to do a tea trade to compete, and compete 
successfully, with the average grocer or tea dealer, even 
though he may profess to make tea his constant study, 
and to retail " scientific blends" at " Mincing Lane 
prices." Too often tea purchased at a chemist's shop 
reminds one only too forcibly of other draughts to be 
obtained in the same quarter; but there is no reason 
at all why this should be tbe case if only proper oare 
and attention are bestowed, and the principle acted on 
that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 
A chemist may buy his tea in any of three ways. 
First, ready blended and packed in J-lb., g-lb., and 1-lb. 
packets (lead or paper), to retail at 2s, 'Zs lid or 2s 8d, 
and 3s per lb., and sometimes to retail at Is 8d per lb. 
Second, ready blended, but to be put up in packets by 
the retailer, who will of oourse use his own discretion as 
to profits. No instructions are necessary in these cases 
save a few suggestions as to material for packets below. 
If, however, in the third place, the chemist elects to 
buy original packages from the wholesale dealer, and to 
blend and pack tor himself, he will require to know the 
kinds of tea to buy, the proportions to mix, and the 
prices to pay. 
There is a uniform duty of 6d per lb. on all kinds and 
qualities of tea, and no licence is required for selling. 
Four prices should be fixed upon for retailing— Is 4d, Is 
8 J, 2s, and 2s b'd or 2s 8d per lb., though it will be found 
that the demand for tea over 2s per lb. is not large, and 
that for tea over Is 8d per lb. is in many districts de- 
creasing. The Is 4d tea will be a blend of Ohina and 
Assam (Indian), for, though occasionally Ceylons can 
be bought at sufficiently low prices to use in this blend, 
it is quite the exception. The other three blends should 
consist of Ceylon and Assam, or Ceylon pure and sim- 
ple (care being taken to describe blends of Ceylon and 
Assam as " Ceylon blends selected from choice Ceylon 
and Indian growth," &c), though three other more old- 
fashioned blends of China and Assam are given incase 
it may be desired to have both on sale. The proportions 
given below for mixing are purposely simple, and ar- 
ranged so that it may be necessary to buy as tew pack- 
ages of tea as possible, but they will, with reasonable 
care in buying, give thoroughly good blends anJ require 
a good deal of btating. The prices given are, as far as 
possible, average prices for useful teas, lowest grades 
being, of course, most liable to fluctuation, leaf Assam, 
for example, having recently been obtainable as low as 
Gd per lb. in bond. 
(a) China and Assam blend, to sell at Is 4d per lb. 
Costing about 
Equal parts {J&Jgg £ "SI 
Blended oosts 7 d per lb., and 6d duty leaves 3d profit 
gross. 
(b) Ceylon blend, to sell at Is 8d per lb. 
Costing about 
s. d. 
(Leaf Assam 0 8 
Equal parts ■! Leaf Ceylon 0 10 
(Assam Pekoe 1 0 
Blended oosts lOd per lb., and 6d duty leaves 4d profit 
gross. 
(c) Ceylon blend, to sell at 2s per lb. 
Costing about 
s. d. 
•pi„„=i l,.+c J Assam Pekoe 1 0 
Equal parts j 0eylon Pekoe 1 0 
Blended costs Is per lb., and 6d duty leaves 6d profit 
gross. 
[A " self-drinking" Ceylon can often be bought at 
about Is that will not require blending with Assam, 
but as Ceylon fluctuates rather violently it would not 
always be easy to keep the tea the same, and it will be 
better in practise to blend with Assam,] 
