June i, 1888. THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
LOCAL AND LONDON SALENS OF TEA. 
Colombo, 17th May 1888. 
Dear Sin,— Any good that can result from the 
public discussion of any subject can only be realized 
when this is approached fairly on either side, and 
the sneering tone adopted by " Planter" in his 
Hhakcsperean paraphrase, in comparing the honor 
of Colombo brokers and buyers to that of Cassius, 
is hardly conducive to friendly discussion. 1 also 
object to the term " patronizing" as applied to 
the act of a planter using the Colombo sales as 
a means of converting his produce into rupees. 
With regard to " Planter's " requirements in his 
ideal market, viz., one in " which competition is 
always keen enough to offer the full value of the 
tea in the sale-room," I would remind him that 
the valuo of produce as of everything else is 
what it will fetch, and that no buyer will continuo 
to bid either when he can see (and how plainly 
it can bo seen after a few years' experience in 
public sale-rooms) that the tea will not be sold, 
or that it is being " bolstered up " in the endeavour 
to reach the merchants' or planters' limit. And 
as regards after bargains, how frequently do we 
find tea withdrawn from sale here, figuring in 
London catalogues on account of the estate, and 
how curiously interesting is it to compare the price 
realized with that refused on this market. If your 
correspondent takes this trouble, he would certainly 
bo interested, and if his own tea were in question, he 
might frequently do so with at any rate mixed feelings. 
I would also draw his attention to the amount of 
tea withdrawn from the sale in London, and ask 
him to compare the relative proportions. 
As to what" Planter " calls his second objection 
of there being too few buyers, he must not take the 
number of individual bidders in the room as repre- 
senting the number of buyers, most of the bidders 
probably representing several firms of London mer- 
chants and holding their credits, and the difficulty 
of satisfying each of these (who import, largely from 
India and China) with the occasional shipment of a 
small invoice of Ceylon tea which frequently does 
not pay tho commissions, and often does worse by 
holding out hopes of an ultimate extension of the 
market is very great. 
As regards small lots, they arc of course a nuisance, 
and cannot be expected to command the extreme va- 
lue of proper sizod breaks, say of 25 chests to 50 chests, 
but they re on a distinctly better footing here than 
in London where breaks of less than 12 chests or I84 
chests are not even seen by the bulk of the trade, and 
are sold at the end of the sale, when all the larger 
buyers have left the room, leaving only the smaller 
men and a few outsiders who have troubled to 
sample and tasto the " small breaks " with the 
object of picking up bargains. 
These is no friendship in business, and the idea of 
all the Colombo buyers entering into a conspiracy 
backed up by the brokers to transform the Colombo 
auctions into a " knock-out" is too absurd to discuss. 
I can only say that had Diogenes found his honest 
man, he could not have done belter with him than 
to send him here where ho could not fail to have 
realized a fortune, as ho would bo sure to receive 
tin undivided support of " Planter" and his friends. 
Your correspondent should reflect n little before 
stalking through tho Port of Colombo as a ghost of 
tho ancient philosopher.— GORDON PBAZEB. 
IT. A MANUFACTURE : QBBIG'S MACHINES. 
Hamhraki lly Tea F.state, Lindula, 17th May Ihsh, 
Mh. Li'iTon, — 1 hiivo tho pleasure to inform you, 
and in tho interest of the Ceylon tea industry, 
th. a Groig'a Patent Combined Fresh Loaf Wither- 
tag. Drying and Final Firing Machine (tho XL- 
ALL) hub proved a groat uuceos^ ; it ,w»a oregted 
under Mr. Greig's superintendence in this factory, 
and has been from the first start working steadily 
daily without a hitch for about three weeks, and has 
proved the correctness of its now principle and of 
his certificates in praise of his machines in Assam, 
Travancore, Ac. 
The leaf is withered in the early morning in 
batches of 70 and 80 lb. every 3, 5, and ten 
minutes according to the state of the leaf, more 
than keeping pace with three rolling machines, and 
gives a bright copper-colored infused leaf in the 
cup, and the tea produced has been judged by 
experts to be quite as good and even better for 
strength and flavour than the naturally withered on 
tho tats ; the samples tested were taken from the 
bins and not specially prepared. 
When withering, the expenditure of firewood is 
merely nominal, as one charge to furnace will 
last 3 or 1 hours by its perfect damper arrange- 
ment. The withering temperature 200 deg. at 
tho thermometer, as it i3 with the other temper- 
atures used, is less on the leaf by the sudden expan- 
sion of the air, and acts on tho leaf on every side 
as it constantly turns over, as a warm zephyr and 
is pure atmospheric oxygen air, and from the simple 
and ingenious construction of the stove (in which 
there is no iron to burn away) none of the products 
of combustion (carbonic acid gas) can mix with it. 
For final firing the temperature is raised in a 
second or two, by shutting a door, up to 400 deg.; 
even the finest dust tea is done at a great rate, 
and gives a fine cured flavor to the tea. For firing 
the roll, the temperature is raised by opening the 
stove draught door and at as high a temperature 
as can be got, say 500 to 000 deg., and it is hardly 
possible to burn the tea, as it is constantly chang- 
ing and exposing fresh damp particles to the ac- 
tion of the hot blast, and by its aetion gives an 
extra twist and curl to the tea. 
As an example of the general utility of this 
machine, after withering 20 fills in the morning 
and forenoon, then it finally fired 10 chests of 
pekoe, then finished oil all the half-dried tea from 
one desiccator to the extent of 903 lb. made tea 
in one day. The machine is attended by one cooly 
who also stokes the fire, and is mere child's play ; 
it is self-acting. The machine and stove stand 
on a floor space of about 8 feet squire ; it is re- 
markable for economy of fuel of any kind. The 
workmanship is the very best, and the machine 
costs for this the smaller size £97 sterling 
including all the stove fittings. During wet weather 
particularly this machine, as a perfeot withercr 
alone, is invaluable, aud should revolutionize tea 
manufacture. 
I quite agree with this description of the machine 
as working in my factory. E. RICE WIGGIX 
18th May 1888. 
America isstill the cou itry for practical inventions 
of all sort;i, but especially for lubour-s.iving apparatus. 
One huge harvesting machine, lately invented, is not 
unly a reaper aud biuder, but tbrohes out the corn 
from the straw, finally placing the grain iu sacks ; so 
that tho whole harvesting procoss is completed whilo 
tho niachino is being drawn tbrough tho field by the 
eighteeu or twenty-four horses hiruessed to it.— Madnu 
Mail. 
Nutmegs.— This is o slight decreaso on our stock 
at the beginning of the year. Tho island of lis in la 
(one of tho Molucca group, north-east of Jav&) 
was visited by storms of grout violence on January 
1 and 10. Tho island is tbr c >ntro of the nutin. "g 
production, mid largo numbers of trees hive been 
uprooted, while from others tho uuripe fruits have 
fallen. For the next six months nut even a moder- 
ate crop can therefore be looked for.— (.'ticmiat and. 
