June 2, 1890.3 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
819 
THE DECLINE OF THE TEA TRADE. 
NATIVE OPINION. 
The depression in the tea trade reached the low- 
est depth yet known in 1889, when the losses to 
Cihinese tea merchants amounted to over Tls. 5,000,000. 
Such a depression inclines many to doubt if a revival 
is still possible. The native banks have not suffered 
yet to any great extent by the losses of the teamen, 
as the latter had not borrowed to any great extent 
from them, and therefore underwent these heavy 
Iosbbs without involving the banks. The banks, how- 
over, while congratulating themselves on having oome 
out of it so well last year, are this year very chary 
of making advances for the tea season. By 15th March 
1889, they had lent here about Tls. 1,0U0,000, and on 
15th March 1890, so far as we oan learu, they have 
is yet advanced next to nothing. The tea-season is 
likely to commence later than usual, partly owing to 
this cause and partly to the fact that many Chinese 
firms, warned by the number of failures last year, 
have ceased to do business in suoh an uncertain artiole 
as tea has lately proved itself. 
At Hankow the principal Chinese tea firm is the 
old established Ts'ien Shea An, next to whioh in the 
magnitude of the business done came the Oh'un Hwa 
Siang and the I T'ai Oh'ang. The second-mentioned 
has, we hear, borrowed little or nothing as yet from 
the Hankow native banks, the first-named is said to 
have obtained from them advances of a considerable 
amount after China New Year, and the last-named, 
the I T'ai Ch'ang, is said to have been accommodated 
to the extent of over Tls. 100,000, intending to carry 
on the campaign this season with still greater energy 
than the preceding one. A new firm, the How Sheng 
Siang has started. The remaining old native houses 
seem to be in a manner paralysed by the bad results 
of last year's operations. 
Forty-two new Canton firms and two new Shansi 
ones have started, with perhaps others, and in the 
tea growing districts of Yang-low tung and Ch'ang 
show -kai in the hills, the agents who purchase tea 
from the growers had already made their arrange- 
ments for renting premises before China New Year, 
and so we may expect that although the tea season 
may begin later, the business with those two distriots 
will be as brisk as ever, though the tea growing districts 
of Ch'ang-yang, T'ung-shang and Han-ning will miss 
some agents who went there last year. 
To come to foreign hongs, we hear that Yuan Fang 
will do nothing in tea this year. It is also rumoured 
that four others, Li Ki, Ts'ien T'ai, Hwa Ki, and 
King Ki will do nothing. 
The Russian black tea exporters were last year 
hampered in their operations by a dread of Indian 
tea being used to adulterate the Chinese leaf. Several 
Shansi firms of hundreds of years' standing, who enjoy 
the entire confidence of the Russians, nevertheless 
did a good business with them. 
This dislike of the Russians for Indian tea is en- 
couraging in the face of the constant tirades to which 
we are treated by the European press on the sup. 
planting of Chinese tea by Indian, which they assert 
to be advanoing with such alarming rapidity. It con- 
firms us in a suspioion that the prinoipal recommen- 
dation of Indian tea is not its excellence, but its 
oheapness, which it owes to its freedom from ex- 
port duty. 
We have tasted Japanese tea, another rival of 
Chinese, though very different in quality from Indian, 
which is black, while Japanese is green. The oup we 
sampled was some brought to China from Japan, not 
intended for export to Europe or America. It was 
delicate and fragrant, but better to smell and look 
at than to drink ; a smoky flavour was perceptible 
with the first mouthful, and the second pot made 
from tbe leaves was like water. The Japanese soil 
is thin and wanting in solid constituents, and its pro- 
duct dehoate and ephemeral, and very different from 
Chinese Hyson. 
At Shaohing a friend sent us some miitg-ts'ien 
Pingsuey tea. Miiig-tn'icn is so called because gathered 
before the Ch'iag Ming anniversary, and thus still 
earlier than Hyson, whicb means 'before the rains.' 
It was excellent both in colour and flavour, but only 
stood two infusions. 
The bonze Ka Tao, in charge of the Wan Nien Sze 
Monastery on Tientaishan, once gave me some tea 
called Yunwu, ' Mistcloud,' because it grew on the top 
of the Tien Tai mountain, where there are almost al- 
ways clouds resting. It gave an excellent pot of tea at 
the tenth infusion of the same leaves. Jt is very doubt- 
ful if any tea can be grown outside of China which 
can do as much ; but perhaps this is no recommenda- 
tion with foreigners, who generally only require one 
infusion and hence can make even the weak Japanese 
leaf serve their purpose. Some even eat the leaves with 
the liquor. 
In our own opinion, we repeat, the decline in the 
Chinese tea trade is due to no deterioration in the 
quality of Chinese whioh the Russians are right in 
considering as good as ever. It is simply due to the 
advantage which its rival the Indian tea enjoys in 
cheapness oaused by the absence of export duty. 
Against such an advantage we fear that the reme- 
dies proposed, to employ machinery and to supply 
a purer article, will avail very little. The only effectual 
remedy will be the reduction of export duty and likiu 
dues, if practicable.— Shn Pao, in C. Mail. 
THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE IN 20 
YEARS. 
Nature on the 20th Anniversary of its first issue, 
publishes the following oonoinot summary of the 
progress of Scienoe in that period : — 
In the physical sciences, the enormous development 
of the atomic theory, and the establishment of a con- 
nection between the theories of electricity and light, 
are perhaps the two main achievements of the years 
we are considering. Methods of accomplishing the at 
first sight impossible task of measuring atomio magni- 
tudes have been devised. Our own volumes contain 
some of the most interesting papers of Sir William 
Thomson on this subject, and the close agreement in 
tbe results attained by very different methods is suffi- 
cient proof that, if only approximations, they are ap- 
proximations we may trust. The brilliant vortex atom 
theory of Sir William Thomson has not as yet aohieved 
the position of a proved hypothesis, but has stimulated 
mathematical inquiry. A number of very powerful 
researches have added to our knowledge of a most diffi. 
cult branch of mathematics, which may yet furnish 
the basis of a theory whioh shall deduce the nature of 
matter and the phenomena of radiation from a single 
group of assumptions. 
The theory of gases has been extended in both direc- 
tions. The able attempt of Van der Waals to bring 
both vapour and liquid within the grasp of a single 
theory is complimentary to the extension by Crookea, 
Hittorf, and Osborne Reynolds of our knowledge 
of phenomena whioh are best studied in gases of great 
tenuity. 
The gradual expansion of thermodynamics, and in 
general of the domain of dynamios from molar to 
molecular phenomena, has been oarried on by Willard, 
Gibbs, J. J. Thomson and others, until, in many cases, 
theory seems to have outrun not only our present ex- 
perimental powers, but almost any conceivable exten- 
sion whioh they may hereafter undergo. 
The pregnant suggestion of Maxwell that light is an 
eleotro-magnetio phenomenon has borne good frnit. 
Gradually the theory is taking form and shape, and 
the epooh-making experiments of Hertz, together with 
the recent work of Lodge, J. J. Thomson and Glaze- 
brook, furnish a complete proof of its fundamental 
hypotheses. The great development of the technioal 
applications of electricity has stimulated the public 
interest in this scienoe, and has necessitated a more 
detailed study of magnetism and of the laws of periodic 
ourrents. The telephone and the miorophone have 
eclipsed the wonders of the telegraph, and furnish new 
means of wresting fresh secrets from Nature. 
Science has beoome more than ever cosmopolitan, 
owing chiefly to the imperative necessity for an early 
agreement as to the values of various units for a corn. 
