8io 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [June 2, 1890. 
conference of importers, dealers, brokers, and ware- 
house proprietors was held yesterday, at which the 
principle of having tea ready for delivery before being 
sold was unanimously admitted, and the following 
clause in lieu of Condition 4 was recommended for 
for adoption : — ' 4. All teas to be ready for delivery 
on the day of sale. The weight notes to be 
delivered within three working days from the 
day of sale, or the buyer to have the option of re- 
fusing to accept such lot or lots for which he cannot 
obtain the weight notes. Missing paokages, if equal 
to bulk, and not more than five per cent., are 
exempted from this condition, and are to be taken 
by the buyer at the original prioe and prompt if 
tendered within fourteen days from date of contract. 
In case China teas should be required by the buyer 
to be inspected, a further allowance of two days, 
making five in all, to be allowed for the completion 
of the delivery of the weight notes.' The only diffe- 
rence between this condition and the one passed 
at the dealers' meeting is the oompletion of the 
delivery of weight notes on the third instead of the 
Becond day, but as the tea will be weighed before 
being submitted for sale, it is thoroughly under- 
stood that delivery of a part of the tea when de- 
manded will be given as soon after the sale as 
possible. Although some catalogues have been printed 
on the old terms for next weak, it is also understood 
that this condition will apply to theBe catalogues 
also, and that after next week the printed conditions 
will be altered, and no teas will be sold or purchased 
exoept on the new conditions." 
Discussing tbe Revenue and Mr. Goschen's surplus, 
the Standard says :— " There have been more brilliant 
surpluses in the history of the country, but it is quite 
possible for a man of first-olass financial ability and 
courage to do much with three millions. How will 
Mr. Goschen dispose of it ? Will he abolish the tea 
duty? If he does, he might almost as well put an 
end |to the Customs service entirely, and make 
tobacoo a monopoly, spirits and wine matters of Excise, 
and throw all ports open unwatched by a single 
exciseman." 
There have been a great many crimes of adultera- 
tion perpetrated in the name of coffee, and this is 
the latest: A substance purporting to be coffee has 
came under analysis in Germany, whioh, instead of 
being the genuine article, is a mixture of ohemioala 
and other ingredients harmful to the human eco- 
nomy. The ohemioal analysis revealed the following 
constitution in percentages : — Crude proteins 17'90, fat 
2 03, ash 2-27, woody fibre 10-33, oaffeine 0-04, sugar 
1-99, non-nitrogenous extracts 64'04, matter soluble 
in water 24"85. When this conooction waa examined 
by means of the miorosoope, the presenoe of lupin 
seeds, the cells of the outer skin of some kind of 
grain whioh could not be definitely .determined, to- 
gether with tiny hairs which might 'have been de- 
rived from wheat, were observed. The caffeine, it 
will be noticed, occurs in about the same proportion 
as it exists in genuine coffee. The objectionable in- 
gredient in this mixture is the lupin seeds : ther b 
contain a certain bitter prinoiple, whioh is well- 
known to have a harmful effect upon the human 
system. — E. and C. Mail, April 3rd. 
OEYLON TEA IN MELBOURNE. 
(From a Melbourne Correspondent.) 
As one should always hear cons as well as pros, I 
can soarcely help repeating, for what it is worth 
what the manager of the tea department in Jas. 
Service & Co.'s house here said to me yesterday : — 
" V\ e are getting sick of Ceylon teas ; they go 
1 off ' so soon ; supplies coming down, getting weaker 
in flavor every seaBon, whioh is not the case with 
Indians." 
I have heard nothing of the kind from any other 
tea men, and will find out whether this man's 
opinion it considered of value. I trust Dot. 
THE CHINA TEA TRADE. 
' 0. M. P.' writes as follows to the North-China 
Daily Neivs, under the date 28th March: — 
Dear Sir, — Mr. Clement Allen, in his last year's 
Report to the Foreign Office on the Tea Trade at Han- 
kow, quotes largely from a letter which had appeared 
in your oolumns, from one whom he styles ' A Pessimis 
Merchant of Shanghai.' The season's prospeots at 
there foreshadowed were gloomy and unfavourables 
but the bad results both to native middlemen and to 
foreign exporters have far exceeded the gloomiest 
anticipations. The losses in many instances are almost 
past belief, and as many sales reported from London 
lately show a droop of from 33 to 47 per cent, on prices 
realised for eonterparst early in the season, the wind- 
ing up of this season promises to beat the record of 
bad times. Many native middlemen who commenoed 
last season with fair capital have beoome bankrupt. 
The reasons are not far to seek. Encouraged by the 
profit of the previous year the teamen brought down a 
large crop of first crop tea, most of which had been pre- 
pared hastily in bad weather, and was consequently one 
of the vilest crops as regards quality that has ever been 
brought to market for foreign use. After the Russian 
buyers had first taken their piok in Hankow, and 
the continental exporters had taken their piok in London, 
the stuff left for the discriminating British public 
was almost nauseating. I have no hesitation in saying 
that more than three-fourths of the first crop was 
tainted with some unpleasant flavour or other that 
made it positively unpalatable, and some was actually 
half rotted from rain-damage before it had been fired 
for use. Nothing else could have been expected wh ere 
there are no proper buildings for receiving the raw 
leaf, and where the cottager growers adopt a plan 
of drying the freshly picked leaf over smoking straw 
or over a green wood fire. It is one of the crying 
evils of China that wealth of the country is wasted 
by the negleot of the most ordinary care in preparing 
her splendid raw materials; and her produce is brought 
into disrepute through this neglect. The damage in- 
curred by the want of buildings for housing the newly 
picked leaf last year caused a difference in values 
which would have oovered the cost of such buildings 
many times over. 
As usual after a heavy 'first' crop the 'second' crop 
was poor, hungry, and flavourless, and in a month or 
two it lost all the little briskness which made it at all 
serviceable. The 'third' crop was unimportant, and 
of much the same character as the second. 
We are promised a better crop this year ; that is to 
gay, proclamations have been issued by the native au- 
thorities in many of the producing districts prohibiting 
the use of anything except charcoal m the firing pro- 
cesses. If these proclamations are effective a grand step 
in the right direction will have been taken, as so much 
depends upon the material used for the firing, and most 
of the objectionable flavours will be eliminated. The 
high prices obtained for really fine teas last year are 
likely to induce early picking ia more districts, but of 
course in the end the quality depends entirely on the 
state of the weather during the picking time, a/S no im- 
provement is spoken of in the facilities for housing the 
incured leaf. 
There is one point, however, on whioh too much stress 
cannot be laid. The stock of China Congou in the 
London warehouses is very large, considering the reduced 
consumption, and almost all of it is worth considerably 
less than it costs to produce the very commonest 
descriptions in China. Until this quantity is reduoed 
considerably by the cessation of shipments of similar 
qualities from China there is no possible hope of prices 
raising to a paying point for the producer, at any rate 
so long as the enormous export duties and inland taxa- 
tions exibt. The real tug has at last oome on us, and 
it has become evident to all connected with the trade 
that the imposts on tea in China must be considerably 
reduced, if not altogether abolished, or the trade will be 
reduced to a minimum. The taate for tea is inoreasing 
yearly, but China cannot hold her own in the competition 
(to supply the demand unless these crushing taxes are 
removed. 
