THE TROPICAL ASRlGULT URlST. 651 
March i, 1890. 1 
an eeriform matter sometimes severely affecting 
those who climb it, causing in some cases erup- 
tions and swellings, while in others it does no 
harm. The inner bark of the young trees, which is 
utilised to make into wearing apparel, if not 
properly prepared clings to the skin and excite3 dis- 
tressing itching. In Western India the Upas is 
well known as the saokin tree, the tough, inner- 
felted bark being removed entire, forms natural 
saoks whioh are much used for storing rioe. Beady- 
made suits are also provided in the same easy 
way, small branches forming the arms of coats and 
the legs of trousers, while the larger ones come 
in handy for the bodies of these garments. All 
that is required is to stitch the pieces together, 
and if really fine raiment of the kind is wanted 
the material is first rolled, dyed and tanned. Samples 
of these novel costumes were exhibited at the 
Calcutta Exhibition and attraoted considerable 
notice. In Ceylon ropes are made of the bark, 
and there is a likelihood that it may also bs found 
adaptable for papermaking. The seeds have been 
found to be free from antiarin, and contain an 
element which has been used as a febrifuge and 
in dysentery. This is hosv soience treats most 
of our cherished fables. — Pioneer. 
♦ 
THE TEA TRADE. 
Tea-growing distriots have bo multiplied of late 
that the entry of a fresh competitor into the over- 
crowded market will not be good news for the sellers 
however satisfactory the rivalry may be for the 
buyers, of what can no longer be termed with accu- 
racy the " Chinese herb." The latest tea-producer 
is Perak, one of the small protected Native Sates of 
the Straits Settlements. Hitherto this territory has been 
best known as the scene of a great deal of mining specu- 
lation, which as soirie investors in this country have 
learned to their cost, is not quite the same thing as 
mining success. But the warm soil also yields tapioca, 
rice, sugar; ooffee, aud tea, though until reoently the 
latter could scarcely be regarded as more than a pro- 
mising experiment. It has now advanced beyond this 
probationary state, the first consignment to the Eng- 
lish market having just arrived, and being, it is said, 
all that could be desired. The leaf must have been 
grown and minipulated with skill, since even the ex- 
perts of Minoing-lane are inclined to speak favourably 
of it. Still belter, the prices which the seventy-eight 
chests brought at public auction stamp it as quite 
up to the average mark, for it realised from one shil- 
ling and three-farthings for broken Fekoe, and nine, 
pence farthing for Souchong, down to dust at sixpence 
three-farthings per pound. It is certaiu that further 
consignments will follow, and that the already cjh- 
geBted trade will find more and more difficulty in 
obtaining a profit ont of ''catting " prices. A. 
bare profit is, indeed, about all that Mincing 
Lane looks for nowadays. The fortunes which were 
once upou a time the rule are extremely rare, and 
though a few large houses may still earn handsome 
inoomesoutof their immeuse turnover, the average is 
quite the other way. There was a time, not too dis- 
tant for middle-aged men to remember, when to get 
a clever lad into one of the great tea houses was to 
insure bia future. In a few years he had mastered his 
trade, so far as any mortal oan ever be said to master 
the intricacies of a business so changeable that the 
experience of one year is no guide to the opera- 
tions of the next seasou's cimpaigu. If the youngster 
was blessed with a delicate palate, he might then look 
forward with confidence to the day when rival houses 
would contend for his servioes as a " taster," his task 
being to sample endless parcels of leaf, aud decide, 
by the aid of his tongue, their relative qualities and 
values. Such a gift whs worth to the possessor of it con- 
siderably more than the- sa'ary of an Uuder-Secretary 
of State. Or the young teamen had often the choice of 
going out to "the country " for a period, "the country" be- 
ing in those days, of course, Obiua. Here in the opulent 
times of the trade, he lived in the Hong like the re- 
titiner of a Prince, and, if he did not save money and 
establish a new " house" for himself, he prepared at 
least for the time when he might come home as a 
"Chazee," or Junior Partner. Such halcyon days are 
not altogether unknown ; bnt they are rare enough to 
justify the advice which one hears so often in Min. 
cing-lane, " Whatever you do, don't put your boy into 
the tea trade." 
The origin of the present state of matters is too 
complicated to be readily explained, and is so sore a 
topic with those chiefly concerned tliat a discreet out- 
sider prefers to leave the problem alone. But it is 
universally conceded that the prime factor in the de- 
pression of the Tea trade is the extreme competition 
which the business have developed, and the altered 
conditions which steam and submarine telegraphs have, 
pari passu, brought about. . Contrary to the popular 
impression, we did not receive our first supplies of 
what was then known as "chaw," and drunk out of 
" silver porringers," from China, but from Java, which, 
until the Dutch obtained possession of the island, 
was an English settlement. The commerce in the herb 
could not, however, have been great, for at first, the 
price ranged from six pounds to ten pounds per 
pound. Even during the reign of Charles II and bis 
brother, it was disposed of at from fifteen shillings 
to fifty shillings, according to quality, the duty payable 
on every gallon of the beverage sold in the coffee- 
houses being eightpence. In the reigu of William and 
Mary it was further burdened with an import duty of 
four shillings per pound, and 5 per cent, of the value, 
and during the next enntury, when the average price 
was sixteen shillings, the imports mounted up to fully 
200 per cent, on tti e value of the commoner quilities, 
The Tea traje was, however, in that era a compara- 
tively small branch of commerce, being mainly a mono- 
poly in the hands of the Bast India Company. It 
was when the consumption increased eoormousy, 
while the business of supplying the demmd was not 
too much sub-divided, that it became aud continues 
so remarkably lucrative. The prices were not high 
enough to be prohibitory, and yet were sufficiently 
good to permit of a handsome profit to grower, buyer, 
brokers, and sellers. This is no longer the case. 
The people who expect to live by the traffic have 
multiplied out of all proportion to their customers 
with the inevitable result that prices have been 
whittled down to a figure which admits of little margin. 
Iu China— so it is affirmed by those in a position to 
know — a suicidal attempt has been made by tbe native 
growers to recoup themselves for falling prices by more 
slovenly manufacture, and even by flagrant adulteration. 
This, at least, is the verdict of a body so well qualified 
to prouounce on the evidence before them as the Shang- 
hai Chamber of Commerce. A faot even more conclusive 
is that, while the exports of Chiua tea have fallen off 
enormously, those of the newer tea-producing districts 
have increafed in an inverse ratio. It is known that 
between 1881 and 1886 the export decreased by twenty- 
four million pouuds, while that of Indian and Ceylon 
teas increased by nearly thirty-five millions, and since 
then the disparity has been even greater. Thus, it is 
obviously useless for Chiua any longer to regard herself 
as able to control the tea trade of the world, or to con- 
duct herself as if she were the prime producer. She 
may b-) fortunate, indeed, if India, Ceylon, and Java 
leave her the sesond place in the struggle for supre- 
macy. 
The planters of Assam were the first to work their 
gardens on the principles of scientific high farming, 
and now they are reaping their reward. But of all the 
competitors who have disputed the China monopoly, 
Ceylon is likely to prove the most formidable, though 
she entered the field so reoently that tea was only 
regarded as a likely crop when the destruction of their 
coffee plantations compelled the owners of estates to try 
other products. Now, thanks to the experience 
of India with which the plautors began, and to the ad- 
vantages of olimatj and soil, the export of Ceylon tea is 
increasing year by year, while the quality, taking one 
season with another, is of a deoidedly high standard. 
Tnese countries are, however, only two, if the two most 
vigorous, of China's rivals, Jap in has long- dealt largely 
in green tea, and seems determined to grow a great deal 
