May i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
73s 
in tea. We believe— although the opinion finds 
no expression in the report sent to us by our 
London Correspondent — that the action now taken 
has been indeed with the object of checking an 
evil tending to produce those sudden and violent 
fluctuations in the price which have told so unfavour- 
ably on the interests of tea-growers, not alone in the 
case of those of Ceylon, but of those of India 
as well. This evil consisted in the practice of 
many brokers of having printed in their catalogues 
an enormous number of entries for sale which 
were almost of a fictitious character. At all events 
the supplies to which they referred were in so 
indeterminate a position as regards readiness for 
delivery, that it frequently happened that a 
large bulk of the tea advertised as for sale 
in those catalogues had to be withdrawn on 
the morning of the day fixed for the auotions. 
The result was that buyers attending the sales, 
in oonsequence of directions received, but the 
day before or so from their constituents, entered 
the sale-room with the vaguest possible ideas 
as to how far dependence could be plaoed 
upon the list of supplies advertised for their 
competition. 
It is easy to see that the limit of seven days 
allowed for delivery greatly fostered this injurious 
praotice. It was sufficiently long to afford to the 
Belling brokers a chance of having their lots ready 
for delivery in cases where no such readiness ex- 
isted upon the day of sale, and this ohance dis- 
posed them to rashly enter in advance large stocks 
for competition which, when sold, it often became 
impossible to deliver within the limit of time allowed. 
The proposed restrictions of this limit to three days 
instead of to seven as at present, must certainly 
make brokers more oautious in offering at auction 
lots as to the delivery of whioh they can feel no 
assurance ; and it must, we should say, result 
that if the restriction be adopted the advertized 
lists will hereafter be confined to such offerings as 
to which there may be a certainty, or comparative 
certainty, of ready delivery. We can all see that so 
long as doubt in this important particular 
exists, it must often have the effect of cramping 
the bidding at the sales. The other points dealt 
with by the Association Tea Committee are matters 
of but minor detail necessarily arising out of the 
proposed change and intended merely to safeguard 
its operation. Into these, therefore, we need not 
now go ; as it is with the principle only which 
embodies them that we are now concerned. 
It certainly speaks highly for the efficiency 
and influence of the Ceylon Association in London 
that it should have been chosen by the brokers, 
dealers, wharfingers, and warehousemen, concerned 
in the Home Tea trade as their intermediary in 
this important matter. This fact reflects credit upon 
Mr. Shand's discrimination when he urged his pro- 
posal at the last general meeting of the Association 
that a Committee should be appointed to deal ex- 
clusively with the single article of tea. What that 
Committee has already done in our local interests 
affords sufficient evidence of the wisdom of the 
appointment of such a Committee. Consisting as 
that body does exclusively of experts in the tea 
trade engaged in daily business in the City of 
London, it can be readily called together to consider 
questions suoh as that with which we have been 
dealing and oognate subjects. The gentlemen who 
compose it are in daily association with all those 
who are in some form or another engaged fn tea 
vending operations, and they must therefore 
necessarily become well acquainted with all the 
details of these, and with suoh shortcomings in 
them as it is desirable should be amended. Al- 
hough varioub interests concerned have expressed 
the view that the proposed limitation is incapable 
of adoption, we have no doubt that the concurrence 
of opinion expressed at the meeting will in the end 
override such objections, and that what seems to 
us to be an important improvement will eventually 
receive general approval. 
Since writing the above has come the good news 
of a reduction of 2d in the imperial tea duty, whioh 
cannot fail to give an impetus to the tea trade of 
the United Kingdom. 
THE KUBY MINES. 
A KUBY MARKET TO BE ESTABLISHED. 
We have now an authoritative statement of Sir Lepel 
Griffin's views on the Ruby mines. " The visit of Sir 
Lepel to the mines was satisfactory," declares a public 
statement, " and Sir L. Griffin considers that it has 
resulted in plaoing the affairs of the Company on a 
more assured basis. The great difficulty of the Oom. 
pany was smuggling. No good rubies reached the 
Company's agents under the existing rules, which com- 
pelled the miners to dispose of stones to the Company, 
or sell them by public auotion, paying the Company 30 
per cent, on the valuation. With the approval of the 
Government the existing rules will be abolished, and a 
free market for the sale of rubies established by a 
limited number of miners, who will pay fees estimated 
to produce £15,000 yearly. No fresh native mines will 
be allowed to be opened. As a result of these changes 
all the detectives, and three-fourths of the Goorkha 
military police, will no longer be needed. Sir L. Griffin 
considers that the expensive and elaborate hydraulic 
methods of Calif ornian mining, which it was originally 
proposed to adopt, are unsuited to the Ruby mineB. 
He declares that the enterprise, if carried on with 
energy, will be a brilliant success, but much remains to 
be done before the Company will be in working order. — 
Echo. 
* 
THE RUBBER TRADE. 
In a recent number of the Guayaquil Globe is an 
excellent article on "The Cultivation 01 Indian-Rubber." 
It reads as follows : — • 
A cablegram that we published recently proves that 
the me; chants and bankers of New Yoik consider it 
probable the manufactories of rubber goods will olose, 
owing to the lack of shipments of India-rubber from Bra- 
zil. On a small scale Ecuador is alao a rubber producer, 
and as it is certain the prioe of the article will con- 
tinue to rise in the manufacturing centres, we wish 
to call the attention of our agriculturists and enter- 
prising citizens to the fact that rubber crops offer 
good returns, and that farms should be for the 
growth of trees which are easily cultivable, require little 
manual labour and yield good returns. 
The system we have followed up to the present haa 
stripped our forests of the rubber trees, and thus we 
have killed the trees which formed the hen which was 
giving us truly the golden egg— although it is a 
thoroughly understood and well-known fact that by peri- 
odical capping the rubber trees a certain crop is insured, 
while the trees do not die. Up to now our cutters have 
chopped down all the trees near markets where the rub- 
ber could be sold, and thus, in order to obtain the arti- 
cle, they have to wander far into the innermost recesses 
of our vast forests in order to obtain, with their axes 
and machetes, sap from which to make the rubber. For 
this reason, the nation which owns the forest should 
adopt measures to prevent the destruction of the re- 
maining trees, and should protect and assist by all 
possible means those who undertake the establishment 
of rubber farms. 
Kouador is essentially an agricultural republic, and 
for this reason we must seek, in our soil, the means 
ot augmenting our national wealth. We sincerely hope 
these indications will receive attention at the hands of 
of our citizens, the Government and the Legislature, 
which will soon asaemble.— Ekctrid Trades Jo'.'.rna.'. 
