July 2, 1888.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
21 
troyed, as worn out when eight years old,* fresh 
shrubs were planted in their place, and only 
three crops or pickings were taken in one year. 
Now the plantations are neglected, there is neither 
trenching, manuring, nor pruning, four or five crops 
are taken in one season, and the old trees are not 
destroyed and replaced. In former times cured tea 
would keep for at least a year without perceptible 
deterioration, in fact many kinds were rather mellowed 
and improved by a year's storage, whereas, at present, 
owing to the inferiority of the leaf and the imper- 
fections of the curing (processes tea commences to 
deteriorate in from three or four months from the 
date of packing it for export. 
The Foochow teamen, once a very creditable class 
traders, have also deteriorated, and false packing, 
fictitious samples, and various dishonest and fraudu- 
lent practices have become common, so that, as is 
now the case in Tientsin, the native dealers are doing 
all they can to destroy what might even yet, under 
honest auspices, be a nourishing trade. The Foochow 
Chamber of Commerce has made its report very com- 
plete by appending tables of the deliveries in London 
of Indian and China tea from 1879 to 1887, with 
statistics of values, details of the average percentage 
of dust admixed, &c, and in a letter addressed to 
the resident Consuls on 1st September, 1876, it is 
shown that although the demand for Oolong tea ex- 
ists, the trade — for reasons of inferiority, dust, 
bad packing, &c, — has now left Foochow. In 1871 
the supply of Oolongs sent to Foochow for ex- 
port was 213, GOO halt-chests; in 1876 the demand 
had fallen off 60 much that the supply would not ex- 
ceed 40,D00 half-chests. 
We are afraid that as far as Foochow and Hankow 
are concerned the tea trade must; be 'regarded as in 
rapid decay and almost past recovery. The Chinese 
Government is too short-sighted to grant any reduc- 
tion of duty, much less the total abolition of the export 
dues that now help to crush a very important native 
industry, and the provincial authorities will not con- 
sent to abate the levy of likin. No lessons of the re- 
sults of fiscal follies have so far had any effect upon the 
Chinese authorities, as is shown in the way by which 
the most valuable and growing trade in fruit between 
Foochow and Shanghai, and the Yangtze and North- 
ern ports, has been completely destroyed by the gra- 
dual increase of taxes, which at last became so great 
that the larmer got nothing for his produce. 
As an appendix, the Foochow Chamber reprints a 
very lively, interesting, and valuable lecture delivered 
by Mr. J. Berry White before the Indian section of the 
Society of Arts in London, upon the Jubilee of Indian 
tea. The Indian tea industry, which now rivals in 
importance and promises to surpass or even extinguish 
that of China, dates from 1834, and the history of 
the investigation revealed the fact that the tea plant 
was indigenous in Assam, in the Thea AssamicmU 
a tree twenty-five to thirty-five feet high, witli leaves 
six times lurger than tho China variety, and giving a 
yield per acre double that of the Chinese plants. 
The lecture also records the first serious mistake 
made in Assam, by importing seed and cuttings from 
the inferior Chinese plants instead of utilising the 
fine, hardy, f and productive indigenous trees. 
The introduction of Chinese seed and cuttings led 
to the growth of a hybrid variety, which appears to 
have been almost as mischievous to Absam as the 
introduction of rabbits into Australia. Tho native 
trees became hybridized and lost their fine distinctive 
qualities, uud now the most strenuous exertions are 
being made to root out all Chinese and hybrid plants, 
bo that in a few years all the fields will be planted 
with pure native trees. 
* Worn out at eight years old ! On tho higher 
8»uU:b in Ceylon the plants only come into full bear- 
ing at this age, and it seems certain they will not be 
worn out in live times eight years. — Ed. 
t It soems beyond doubt that the indigenous plant 
is nut hardy, au.i that u good hybrid has tins quality 
added to the Other oUpuliol ebarnctei luties of indi- 
genous. — Ko. 
Every year improvement is being made both in India 
and Ceylon. The plantations are carefully manured, 
as suitable manure not only almost doubles the yield 
of the plants, but also improves the strength and 
flavour of the leaf. Besides, the most ingenious 
mechanical methods are employed for drying, 
curing, rolling and packing the leaf, which 
is now, except in picking from the plants, not 
touched by hand. These mechanical processes make 
the tea uniform in appearance. The curiDg is thorough 
and the methods used are also very much cheaper 
than coolie labour would cost. In consequence, the 
yield of Indian tea, which this year will not be much 
under 95,000,000 lb., and of Ceylon tea, which will 
reach and may exceed 12,000,000 lb., will displace 
China tea, which is now of marked inferiority of 
quality. As the Chinese Government and provincial 
authorities will not abolish, and probably will refuse 
to reduce taxation, and ffhe Chinese farmer has no 
means of providing proper manure for his fields, or 
of purchasing machinery for the preparation of the 
leaf, we are disposed to agree with Mr. White that 
China must, in her tea growing industry, give way 
in the near future at a more rapid pace than hitherto, 
and the world will ere long be supplied almost wholly 
from Java, Ceylon and British India, although the 
United States may continue to draw its supplies of 
special kinds from Japan and Formosa, and Russian con- 
sumers adhere to their liking for the finest China 
Congous. — Chinese Times, May 5tb. 
» 
China Tea. — The Shunpao says that in Kiukiang, on 
the 9th instant, Messrs. R. Anderson & Co. purohased 
three chops of Keemen teas, consisting o£ upward of 
100 half chests, at Tls 40, Tls 41, and Tls 40.50. 
On the 10th instant, Messrs. R. Anderson & Co. 
and Buttertield & Swire and Mr. A. Campbell pur- 
chased two chops of Keemen, consisting of 200 
half chests, at Tls. 39 and Tls 37. On the 11th 
there were over 200 chests of Keemen, for which 
the foreign hongs offered Tls. 34, but the teamen 
would not sell at that price, and shipped it to 
Hankow by the S. S. " Shanghai." There being 
very few teamen this year, only small quantities 
of tea are placed on the market at Kiukiang, and 
only from 100 to 200 chests of tea arrive there 
daily. — Uhina Mail. 
Tea and Teeth. — A correspondent of the 
British Medical Journal (Surgeon W. T. Black) 
makes the fcllowing interesting remarks on the 
injurious effect of tea on the teeth: — Some years 
since, when on duty at recruiting stations in the 
North of England, I took observation on the great 
amount of disease and loss of the teeth existing 
amongst the class of men offering themselves. It 
became a cause of rejection of itself in great 
numbers. As far as my inquiries went I was led 
to trace it to the excessive tea-drinking indulged 
in by the working olasses in the manufacturing 
towns, and this went on all through the day, 
whether with food or not. In fact, instead of 
five o'clock tea being the invention of the upper 
classes, it was found to exist to an injurious ex- 
tent in the working olasses long before that time. 
Tea seems to have a peculiar tendency to cause 
hyperaimia in tho tooth sacs, leading to inflam- 
mation and, eventually, abscess of the fang, with, 
of course, dentralgia at every stage. Whether this 
special tendenoy was due to theine or tannin 
having an elective affinity for dentine it is not 
possible for me to say. It would he curious to 
know if medical men, practising in such manufactur- 
ing districts, had observed tf <'> tcrioration of teeth 
to be ooinoident with tea uhuking. [We can 
scarcely accept this view : how about the greatest 
ot European tea-drinkers, the Russians? — we never 
heard of their having bad teeth, nor tho Chinese 
and Japanese, - at least unless directly traceable to 
other well-known causes. — En. J 
