6 9 6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April i, 1889. 
certain quarters as to the wisdom guiding the dis- 
tribution of this fund, we trust there will be no 
owners of estates so shortsighted, or unpatriotic, 
as to withhold their support during the current year. 
The Board of Management is a widely representative 
one, and it should be easy for any proprietor 
to get a hearing at that Board for his criticism or 
advice. 
There is moreover every reason to desire that 
adequate support may be extended to such schemes as 
Mr. Whitham's Ceylon-American, and Mr. Sinclair's 
Ceylon-Australian, Tea Companies. We earnestly 
trust that both these projects may not only be suc- 
cessfully floated, but steadfastly prosecuted to the 
creation of a very considerable and independent 
demand for our Ceylon teas. We feel sure that 
there is room both in America and Australasia for 
a very important trade in teas from Ceylon. Some 
of the reasons for anticipating financial success for 
the shareholders have already been fully discussed 
in these columns. It remains now only to add 
that the success of such Companies must always 
depend mainly on "judicious management." Now 
in this all-important respect, very seldom have share- 
holders been so fortunate as in the present instances. 
Mr. Pineo knows the American people well and 
has had special experience of the American 
tea market, while he is recognised by his brother 
planters to be a careful and shrewd man of 
business. Of Mr. Sinclair and our Ceylon Aus- 
tralian tea trade, we can speak in equally con- 
fident terms. His special experience added to his 
well-known native caution and shrewdness should 
inspire a general feeling of trust in any commer- 
cial proposal made by him and one with which his 
own interests would be as largely identified as those 
of the other shareholders. We conclude therefore by 
pressing on all who have an interest in Ceylon 
tea to do everything in their power to give the 
necessary support to such new Tea Trading Com- 
panies. For the present, the American Company 
is the only one before the public claiming sup- 
port, and we trust to hear that all the shares 
are taken up, before Mr. Sinclair returns form 
London to conclude his arrangements on behalf of 
an extension of the tea trade between Ceylon and 
the Southern Colonies. 
+ . 
THE TEA TRADE. 
(From the H. and 0. Mail, Feb. 22nd.) 
There has been some slight modification of the new 
departure in the Indian tea sale room, Mincing Lane, 
In some cases the garden marks are now given, but 
not those «f the ship. The new method of selling 
meets with but little opposition, the idea amongst 
importers being that the tea is now sold on its merits 
rather than on any fancy reputation it may have 
acquired: On the other hand, where teas have hitherto 
commanded a high price by reason of some imaginary 
superiority attaching to the mark, the new plan tells 
against the owner of such tea. 
The attempt to establish an independent tea market 
in Glasgow has entered upon its first phase, viz., a 
public auction of tea. Prices were not wildly high, 
bui perhaps the teas were not of the sort to induce 
high prices. A noticeable improvement has taken 
pi . of late in regard to the supply of Indian and 
Ceylon tea in the London market. The supply is now 
regulated with some view to Ihe eternal fitness of 
things, and not let loose upon the market like a flood. 
Prices arc not high enough to permit a glut to tea. 
It is evident that importers have seen the error of 
their way* in this respect, and that there is a judicious 
holding back when occasion requires. 
The position of the various Indian tea companies 
in London merits some comment at the hands of city 
editors. We are glad to find that the Standard is 
avoorably impressed with the comparative statement 
showing the working of twenty-two of the leading 
companies in the season 1887, drawn up by Mr. 
Henry Earrshaw, and printed on page vii. It says: — 
" Out of the varied information given in this state- 
ment, the most striking feature seems to be the re- 
m^rkable manner in which the British tea planter 
in Indian has managed to reduce the expenses of 
working, so as to meet the very serious drop in prices 
which his produce has had to bear. All these com- 
panies made profits ranging from 2-38 to 18-67 per cent., 
or an average of 10J per cent., but only 8 per cent, 
was the average divided among the shareholders, the 
different payments being — one company, IC p»r cent.; 
two, 15 per cent. ; one, 12 per cent.; six, 10 per cent.; 
six, 7 to 84 per cent.; two 5 per cent; one, 1 per cent 
and three, nil. Among the nil companies, however, 
is tha Land Mortgage Bank of India, whose lo-ses and 
commitments in other directions in years gone by 
swallow up the profits of tea growing. The largest 
tea company of all, and one of the oldest — viz., the 
Assam, gave its shareholders 10 per cent., which was 
not a better yield than that of new companies like 
the Jokai." 
We have heard so much of the excellence of tea 
in Russia that it is quite a startling change to be 
told how the adulteration of that and other articles 
of produce thrives in that country. A large proportion 
of the cheaper kind of tea is " rubbish," notwith- 
standing the rom untie stories told of the peasant and 
his Samovar. The adulterants employed are tea which 
has already been used, but principally the willow 
herb, Epilobiwm anc/ustifodum, which grows in profusion 
in some parts ot Kussia. Coffee is also made the 
subject of fraudulent manipulation, being mixed with 
chicory, burnt beans, barley, and other substances. In 
a recent case at Odessa; a retail dealer promised a 
reward of £30 to anyone who would find a trace of 
chicory in the coffee he offered for sale. When ana- 
lysed, the coffee in question was certainly found not 
to contain a single particle of chicory, but at the same 
time it was equally innocent of coffee, the mass 
consisting entirely of ground burnt barley. 
" Spathodea Campanulata." — Have we this 
flowering tree in Ceylon ? Noticing one which had 
been destroyed in the November cyclone, Mr. 
Gleeson of the A.-H. Gardens, Madras, states : — 
" When in flower it was a really glorious sight, and 
far superior in richness of colour to the famed 
'gold mohur ' tree (Poincianaregia)." 
A Novel Contrivance. — A contemporary reports 
that : — " Mr. W. Bull has planned a coolie baffler, 
and it may be seen at work at Allahabad by any one 
with a turn for inspecting ingenious contrivances. 
The lazier a coolie is, the harder his work ; he has 
but to do justice to his employer, and his labour is 
child's play." Our contemporary apparently also pos- 
sesses a turn for planning " bafflers," of which the 
foregoing specimen will no doubt be as much appre- 
ciated by its readers as Mr. Bull's contrivance is by 
the coolies. — Indian Engineer, March 6th. 
The Chemists' Tea Trade. —It will be seen 
from an announcement made in this issue by Blessrs. J. 
Watsen & Co., of 14 Jewry Street, E.G., that the trade 
is now to have opportunity of obtaining tea in un- 
labeled packets. The advantages of this are apparent. 
A chemist's shop is not a good place to stack tea in 
chests, because the many odours present in the atmo- 
sphere would soon find their way to the tea, and the 
resulting "cup" would not be so cheering as desired. 
Hence the packet tea trade only is possible for chemists. 
Yet there are many who prefer to label the teas with 
their own names, so that they may secure any reputa- 
tion which the quality might engeuder. It is for such 
that Messrs. Watson & Co. will cater, and we commend 
their scheme to those interested. It will be uoticed 
that they supply labels at a small additional charge. — 
Chemist and Druggist, Jan. 2Gth. 
["The more ihe merrier," and we only hope the 
publicans may take to selling tea, provided it is 
the best, — that is Ceylon produce. — E».] 
