664 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1889. 
His Lordship : How do you describe this smell on the 
tea ? 
Witness said it was exactly the smell proceeding from 
a wine or spirit vault. He admitted writiug to his prin- 
cipals ou the 23rd August saying the samples had a 
smell resembling apples aud cheese. It was not exactly 
a fruity smell. 
Air. Beid : Are you a judge of smells in particular ?. 
Witness: I hope not. (Laughter.) The marks on the 
tea '' II'" meant that it was in fairly good condi- 
tion, while " I." signified that it was going off, but 
" A." meant that it was quite gone off. This tea 
came from Hankow. Before being sent to England 
tea had to be cured, and if carelessly cured or packed 
it had a tendency to go off. When cured or packed 
in damp weather it was more likely to go off. The 
season of 1888 was very damp in England. He was 
not in Ohina, so could not say what the weather was 
there. He had not heard on the market that 
it was a damp season in China. His firm bought 
none of this tea. 
Mr. Howse, a member of the firm of Messrs. Ripley, 
Howse & Co., of 24, Bastcheap, E. C, tea brokers, 
said he saw samples which were drawn when the tea 
arrived ou June 25th. It was then perfectly sound, and 
of very' fine quality. The tea remained with the 
defendants until August, and six or eight samples 
were drawn between June 25th and August 22nd. The 
samples were 1 lb. samples. A sample drawn on July 
6th was all right, but the samples of August 22nd had 
a peculiar smell, which was something quite different 
to smells due to bad curing or damp. 
Mr. Reid said it might shorten the case if he 
stated the defendant's case at once. His first pro- 
position was that whatever was wrong with this tea 
was the result of improper treatmeot or negligence 
abroad, and that would be supported by skilled 
evidence. His second point was that the counter- 
part parcel of tea whs exactly the same, and that if 
one parcel was damaged, so was the other. If the 
plaintiffs said the ventilators admitted foreign smells 
into the warehouse, his third proposition was that the 
ventilators had not been opened during the time the 
tea was in the warehouse. 
Mr. Howse, in further evidence, said the quality 
of the tea was impaired between June 25th and 
August 22nd, from a well-known process going on in 
the tea itself. The difference between this tea and tea 
which had " gone off " through bad curing, bad pack- 
ing, or a damp season was that this tea was per- 
fectly crisp to handle, while tea which had been badiy 
cured in Ohina would be quite spongy and soft, with a 
peculiar sort of rotten smell. 
Mr. Finlay : Did this t?a present that spongy ap- 
pearance which characterises tea badly cured? 
Mr. Howse : Certainly not. I have been in the 
tea trade for 26 years, and I am perfectly familiar 
with tbe appearance of tea that has gone off through 
bad curing. This tea had not that appearance. 
Mr. Arthur Capel, tea broker, of Mincing-lane, 
B. C, said his experience in the trade extendea over 
something like 50 years. In September he saw 12 
or 14 samplesof this tea. He tested them by tasting 
aud smelling aud found them different to the original 
samples. Tbe samples were more or less out of con- 
dition. In his report he stated that he was unable 
from the examination to state what caused the dete- 
rioration in tbe tea. He saw some further samples the 
day before yesterday. They were also out of condi- 
1 i ' j 1 1 and worse than the samplos he saw previously. 
They had a " wiuey " smell. — Was the condition of 
the tea due to bad curing or had packing ? Decidedly 
not. 
His IjOJid.sjii i' : To what was the condition of the 
tea due, iu your opinion? To heat in the warehouse. 
Cross-examined by Mr. Jti;iu : The term " wiuey 
^mcll " was common in the trade. He had experience 
of tia coining from China with this peculiar smell. 
I lr remembered home tea ex " Wild Doer " having this 
wimy smell, but he did not know the cause of the 
smell. 
'■ir. Hektz, tea broker, Mincing-lane, gave evidence 
that he had had 22 years' experience in tbe 
tea trade, and last September he examined sam - 
pies of this tea. He drew samples from our packages 
and made a report as to the condition. He 
was acquainted witli the condition of tea which 
had gone off in consequence of bad curing, 
or careless packing, or packed in bad weather. The 
term "O. S.," mentioned in his report, meant that the 
tea was not in a sound condition. In his opinion the 
condition of this tea was not due to careless or bad 
curing.— Cross-examined by Mr. Reid: He had heard 
the evidence of Mr. Oapel, and agreed that the term 
" winey " smell was common in the trade. The term 
meant that the tea had a smell similar to that of wine. 
Mr. Odell (Fergusson & Odell, tea brokers) said he 
had been a broker for 15 years. On Dec. 8th he in- 
spected the defendants' warehouse, where the tea was 
stored. He saw the ventilator open. He had since 
examined samples of the tea in dispute, and found they 
bad an odd smell about them. — Was that smell due to 
bad curing or bad packing in Ohina? It was due to the 
particular smell in the room where the tea was stored. 
The smell was particularly noticeable at the ventilator. 
The smell was a " winey " smell- The cause of the 
smell was the fumes from the wines or spirits that came 
into the room through the ventilators. 
Mr. Finlay said he would be satisfied if Mr. Reid 
admitted that if the ventilators were open the fumes 
from the wines and spirits could enter the warehouse. 
Mr. Reid said he was desirous of shortening the en- 
quiry, and therefore would make the admission asked for. 
At this point the hearing was adjourned until Mon- 
day, when Mr. Hazlehurst, a surveyor, gave evidence. 
— This closed the case for the plaintiffs. 
Mr. Reid, for the defence, said his case was that the 
tea in question was not damaged by these fumes or by 
any fumes, that there was nothing the matter with the 
tea, except that it had more or less gone off. The 
jury might be interested to know that the ventilator 
was not opened during the whole of the time that this 
tea was in the defendant's warehouse, and he would 
call the man who opened the ventilator after the tea 
left to prove that. 
Mr. Thomas William Lewis, manager of the inspect- 
ing and sampling departments of Messrs. W. & H. 
Thompson, tea brokers, said that he had acted nearly 
26 years in that capacity. On the 3rd September last 
he went to the defendants' warehouse and inspected 
this tea. He inspected about three-fourths of the 
whole 261 packages which composed this parcel. He 
took tea out of different parts of several packages and 
took it to his office to test. He put the whole of the 
tea to a very severe test in this way. He had the 
first 25 out of each break of 100 chests brought to him, 
and he had them drawn from tbe corners and- middle. 
At the conclusion of the examination his opinion was 
that the teas were in a gradual state of decay, or 
"going off."— What do you attribute that to? My 
impression was that the tea had been hastily pre- 
pared, and that the time of firing had not been 
sufficient to destroy the vegetable moisture — In 
your opinion was there any defect in this tea due to 
the impregnation of fumes of wines or spirits ? Not the 
slightest. — Do you think it was due to heat in the 
warehouse ? Not at all. — On the 9th of January this 
year did you draw samples from both parcels : the 
parcel iu question we will call A, and the second parcel 
D? Yes. — Mr. Reid explained that these were the 
four samples handed to Mr. Howse — Witness, continu- 
ing, said there were two samples of D taken from chests 
which he had opened at the bottom. The first one 
opened, chest No. 353, was decidedly out of condition. 
The other, No. 359, was out of condition, but not so 
bad as the other. He then had two packages of A 
opened in th6 same way, aud they were also found to 
be out of condition. — When you say samples of D were 
out of condition, was it from the same or a different 
case as parcel A ? Precisely the same. 
Mr. Finlay : In lot A was the tea crisp ? Witness: 
Moderately so. — When tea goes off from bad curing' is 
it crisp ? It depends upon the nature of the tea; tea of a 
high quality like this would largely retain its crispness. 
Mr. Wm. Thompron (Messrs. W. J. & H. Thompson, 
tea brokers, Minoing.lane) gave evidence that the last 
