238 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. 2, 1893. 
price of bis pioduot, and the risk o( ezohange 
going against bim, the Belf-impoHcd Cbioago tax 
of ten cents per lb. whiob is likely to last tbrough 
all 1894, may in itself, be considered no incon- 
siderable burden by the Oeylon planter. The Tea 
Fund has no great belanoo at command, and ex- 
otpt by calling on those proprietors who have 
hitherto most unfairly escaped contributions to it, 
there is no means that we can see of supplementing 
its income. The thought of laying any further bur- 
den on the tea planter, beyond the Chicago tax and 
Tea Fund contribution, before 1895, may at once 
bo cismissed as impraotioable, and therefore 
however deserving M. Rogivue may be of further aid, 
—however encouraging the Kussian and Australian 
markets may be for the distribution of further 
samples, — all that can be done must be according 
to the very moderate balaace available to the 
Tea Fund Committee. 
All this has, of course, a bearing on the further 
proposal in the Chicago Commissioner's letter 
about following up his splendid advertising 
wcrk at the Exposition. We see no hope in 
looking to the community as a whole : the poorer 
members are really doing more already than 
they can perhaps well afiord. It must only 
therefore be through the voluntary co-operation 
of our wealthier tea proprietors that any- 
thing can be doae of the nature suggested by 
Mr. Grinlinton ; and the same may be true of 
M. Bogivue's work. If he wants sbareholdera in 
his business, it is possible that some big Ceylon tea- 
groweis who would wish to have a special market 
for their produce in Russia, might, on euoh terms, 
advance capital. On the other band, it would ba 
well, perhaps, to get the opinion of London 
l<irma now engaged in exporting Ceylon tea to 
both Russia and the United States, as to whether 
the business might not be allowed to develop after 
a normal fashion, on the close of the expenditure of 
the taxation already guaranteed to the end of 
next year for America, and of such aid as the 
Tea Fund can now afford to M. Rogivue. 
To sum up, bur advice to the Committee of the Tea 
Fund is to devote what they can spare to Russia 
and the Australian baok-oountry iu about equal 
proportions, and to point out in respect of America 
that the tax already pledged is the utmost the 
planting community as a whole can do in that 
direction. If onoe the Cbioago debt were paid off, 
a good deal more might be accompli shed. 
NOTES ON PEODUCE AND FIN.\N^CE. 
Indian Tea. in Peesia.— Mr. B. 0. R. Thompsom 
the Kuglish Cousul at Mtsbed, iu a report to the 
Foreign Office, eajs: — " I'be etatistics show that duriog 
the pa&t year Bri'isb trade improved all rcund and 
Kussian trude declined. For this we have to thank 
the cholera, and the rigid quarantine entorced, in 
couBequunoe, by the Baseians, tor many months. The 
total value of the Britiah tea imports via the Persian 
tiuU amounted tu 958,556 tnmans (£245,782), sa 
e gainst 753,110 tumana (i;i98,187) ftr 1891-9-J. The 
amount ot green teit iupo'rted was considerably greater 
thttu in the previous year, the figures being 060,230 
tnmans (£169,290), against 478,750 tumans (£125,987) 
foe 1891-92, Most of this greeu tea comes from China 
tu Bombay, and is desp&tohed thence to Persia. The 
amount oi black tea imported was also greater than 
(luting the previous yean, the figures being 95,325 
tumaus (£24,442), against 80,715 tumans (£21,241) for 
1891-92. Nearly the whole ol this black tea is Indian." 
Tea Cultivation in the United States. — The 
Chicaqo Evening Journal, which contaiLS a long ac- 
touiit of the work perlormed by Mr. Blechjndeu on 
behalf of Indian tea at the World's Fair, also gives 
particulars of the experimental tea culture by the 
United States Department cf A^ricullare, and hM 
a great deal to say about adulterated tea. It saye : — 
" The department of Agiiculture ia posbiDg «speri- 
me:ite with tea cultare iu S'^ulb Carolina, aud the 
fortbcomiiig annu&l re])art will giv« a glowing aci^ouut 
of the prcspecte oi this induetry lu ihe Uiutid lst«lm>. 
Last aumuier," saye the Jouriud quoting from the 
Washington Star, " the first picKioks wero takoo from 
plautH that eprouted lu 1609. Xhc prudaot, nabmilted 
to expert t';:a tasters aud meichbnii), hat> been pro- 
nounced ezcelleut and readily aiatkelable at a high 
pr.ce. It is declared to have a character dietinct Irom 
the teas of any other country. There is rcMOU to 
believe that it tan be grown with profit ou a oum- 
mercial scale. Not requiriiig special curing for co:port, 
like Chinese and Japanese teai*, the leaves can be dried 
for dumeatic trade, and sold in bricks like other 
herbs. Ten years ago the Department of Agri- 
cu.ture attempted to grow teas iu South Carolina. 
The effort waa abandoned without a fair trial, as i* 
now believed, aud it ia being resumed. At the re- 
quest of UloIc Jerry Ruek the Departuient olHitXu 
iHbued requests to contula at ibe tea porta for aeeus 
of the best te>a. Kxperimeulal gardens Lave beeu 
eatabliabed near tiummervill*-, wuere plants ol 
■Japanese, Chinese, Formos4 aud Abbaiu b>brid va- 
rietiee are under cultivation. I'he hin aeaavn'a crop 
was 38 lb. of the cured article |/er acre. It lakes 4 
ib. of freeb leaves to make 1 lb. of cured tea. It le 
expected fiom that 4O0 lb. to 500 I o per acre offiecli 
tea cm be raised yearly. Iu China the cost of pick- 
ing is Ic. per lb. ot cured tea. Itie cost m booth 
Carolina la 6c. a lb." 
CosT OF Amebican Tea.— Oa account of this differ- 
once iu the price of laboar, American teas can only 
compete with h>gb-ptioed impurteu graues. " It ii 
esiiiuated " (says the Lvtiting Journal) " that the cost 
of raising a pound of tea in bouih Caioiina i« 20 
centB, in addition to the rental of the hud. if 
Buccessfnl this new field for agriculture enterpriau 
will furnish au eaay outdoor ocoapatiuu fur many 
who are unequal to rougher employment in the 
flelda, Taking au average, every man, woinan and 
child in the United States consumes tweuty- 
oi.e canoes of tea par anmm. Just hall ot it comes 
from China, 42 per cent, from Japan, aud tLe 
balance from India and other British paaseBsibus. 
The firat plant of this species trowu inKioatn Carolina 
waa set out by Miohanx, the Freuth botanist, iu 1804, 
fifteen miles trom Charleston. During tUe lattcr naif 
of this century people in that section have cuiiivatea 
little patchea aud larger gardens of tea, which Have pro- 
duced crops of a fine flavour, though usually not strong 
enough to satisfy many drinkers. It is Lelieveo, however, 
that the failure of pungency baa been due to defec 
tive curing. Many families lu that part of the country 
today grow what tea thuy require for tiouaehold use. 
A Fayetteville (N.C.) mau wiites that half a dozen 
bushes furnish bis family of six persons with more 
tea than they can couoame. His wife prepares ii by 
heating the leaves lu hu oven until they are wilted 
equeeziug them oy hand until the juice is expressed 
from them, aud finally drying them again m tae oven. 
The tea is theu fragrant and ready for use." 
Aditlterated Teas. — Immense quantities ot trashy 
and adulterated teas are— says tne Evening Journal 
— £old in the markets of the United Stales. One 
method of sophistication is to introduce leaves of 
other plants. This species of cheat is readily de- 
tected by meaoa of the microscope. The tea leaf 
possesses sj marked a character of its own, in 
respect to its veins and serrated edges, tnat it can- 
not be mistaken. What is called '' lie lea " in Cbina 
is an imitation usunlly containing iragments or 
dust of the genuine leaves, foreign leaves, and 
mineral matters, bold together by a starch eolation 
and coloured by a " facing" prcpar»tion. Tea is some- 
times falsified by the aidilion of spent or partly ex- 
hausted leaves— in oLher words, old leaves dried f^r use 
seooud-band. Ttiis is a fraud difiicult to prove, tbough 
weakness of the beverage may cause ic to be sus- 
pected. Sometimes teas are treated witb catechu to 
increase (heir apparent strength. This can only be 
