April 2, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
THE TEA DEALERS ASSOCIATION ON 
• SMALL BEEAKS OF TEA. 
It would soem as it the several bodips intarested 
at home in the Tea Trade were hopelessly divided 
on the important matter of th^i best m.'aQs of 
disposing of small breaks of tea. The Brokers 
submitted the method most favoured by them to 
the Ceylon Association, whioh declared against 
it ; the Tea Oommiltee of that body formulated 
its own propositions and sent them on to the 
Wholesale Tea Dealers' Assooiation ; and now 
we learn from our London Liilec just reoeiveJ, 
that the Oommittee of the last-mentioned body 
wholly rejects the proposals both of the Ceylon 
Association and of tlie brokers ! Nor has it 
when doing so, suggested even the shadow of an 
alternative course. Its letter says in effect, 
though not in actual words, that such things 
as small breaks of tea should bo entirely un- 
known. It may be admitted that these stumbling- 
blocks in the way of facile disposal of our teas 
are very undesirable. We have, indeed, done 
all in our power to induce our planteis to 
avoid them. We have pointed out to them how 
much agamst their interest it must be to send 
home small breaks, and yet even this powerful argu- 
ment has failed to produce the required result 
Such breaks oontiaue week after week to make 
their appearance in the auction lists, and it must 
therefore ba concluded, we fear, that our producers 
find them to be a neeassary evil, one that the 
ordinary course of their operations forces upon 
them in spite oE the oonvioiion they must enter- 
tain that it is opposed to theic fiaanoiai interests 
to make shipmants of the kind. We shall esteem 
it to be very unfortunate if, after all the efforts 
that have boon made, no satisfactory coarse for 
the disposal of these b.'eaks cau be arranged 
between the three bodies to which wa have above 
referred. It is true that the Wholesale Tea 
Dealers' Association Committee, whan writing to 
our own representative Committee ia London, 
intimates an intention to circulate among 
its subsoribe'-a, tSie several sug^jestions it had 
received. But if the Oommittee selected by the 
members to specially deal with such matters fail 
even to suggest a remely, while condemning 
both of those laid before it, we fear this appeal 
must prove fruitless of result. From what this 
Committee has written it would seam that there 
must exist among buyers objeutions to the 
sales of these breaks being conducted ia a 
separate room, though the natura of those ob- 
jections has not been stated. The omission to 
do this must, we should sjy, prevant further 
present action by either the Ceylon Association ia 
in London or by the Brokers. Had the chaiacler 
of the objection taken to the two courses pro- 
posed been ststed, it might have been possible, 
one would think, to have considered a further 
proposition tending to overooma them. The qu93tion 
is eminently one demanding discussion by tho 
Planters' Association. It may wjll ba asked 
whether the whole of our estite managers are 
unanimous in ihe belief that the practice giving 
rise to tlia difficulty is ona that cannot ba avoided? 
Does every estate, or every group of estates, 
feel bound to hive small breaks som3timis? 
Are there no exceptions to b3 found to the 
rule? It the last quojiiou can bo allirmativoly 
answered, then it is certain that there may exist 
a remedy whioh has only to be known to be moro 
widely followed. It may, of course, bo that auch 
a remedy has been found to bo liaancially worse 
than tho disease. We ahouW, howovor, be glad 
8a 
to know if this hi the case. Thit lower prices 
are obtained for small, than for large breaks is so 
well-known that wo need not again state facts to 
prove this A oartain amount of loss must 
therefore bo fores3ea by the manager of eaob 
estate forwarding parcsle of the kind. It may 
b? assumed then as a deduction therefrom, that the 
loss would not ba incurred were it avoidable. To 
hold back until a sufficiency of tea had accumu- 
lated to form a break of ordinary size must, it 
would follow, also entail a loss. In whioh of these 
two oases ia the loss the greater as a ru'e? Upon 
this hinges the action of our planters, and without 
fuller knowledge we cannot protend to reply to 
the question we have put. But if the csiffarenca 
be not seriously against the holding-back principle, 
we would ask tea plantsra to weigh in the 
balance the manifest difficulty created for the 
home trade by the present practice, and to change 
it whenever possible. 
TEA AND SCANDAL. 
Washini^toa Irving evidently would hivo approved 
of my heaJinj,far iu his poem eatitlyd 'Tea' whioh 
is "earnestly recommanJei to the attention of a!( 
raaidans of a certaia age " th^re is this introduction of 
the tima out of mind scandal associated with thst 
beverage : — 
la harmless chit chat an acquaintance they roiat. 
And serve up a friend as they serve ii;) a toast ; 
Some gentle faiix-pas, or some female misCaKe 
I3 liKe sweetmeats delicious, or relialiel as cake. 
A bib of broad soaaJal is line a dry crust 
It would stick in the throit so they butter it first 
With a little effecbei gool nature an! cry — 
" Nobody regret^ the thing deeper thaa I." 
Or young ladies nibble a gojd name in play. 
As f jr past tima they uibDle a biscuit away ; 
Whilo with shrugs and surmises the toothless old 
dame 
Ag she mumbles a crust she will mumble a name ; 
And as the fell siiters asi/Onishol the Soot 
Iu predicting o£ Baaquo's desueadints the lot, 
Ma'ting shadows of kings amidflishes of light 
To aopear iu array, and to frowu in his sight, 
yo they conjure uu spectres all hi leous ia hue, 
Which aa shades of thoir ueiahboiira are paisel in 
review. 
Tha wild statement of Percivil, in his 'AccDuat 
of Oeyloij,' that Tet h^d bean discovsrel native in 
tha forests of the Island, is too well known for ma 
to quota, but he als3 abxtes at p. 366 that " Tea, coffee, 
tobacco, and the sugar-cine had alre&dy beau cultivated 
to great advautige." He wrota in 1805, but at p. 
117 of "The life and ndventures of Jolin Christopher 
Woolf in OayloLi," 1785, I fiud tha following oooirary 
statement : — " Tea and soma other sorts of elegini 
aroiuatics are not to be found here. Some triils have 
been m\de to rear tliem, but without auocess." 
Tea is called au nrooiatio because of iti inherent 
aroma, but that th^ scent of Caiue-te Taa is not always 
tnat of CHA or Thea Hiaeiisis is wall known. The 
fjeisare Hour ' for 1879 (p. 35J) has a paragraph on 
FIjwera for perfuming Tea.' ' In a Chiueso iVIiteria 
Medial soJie informatiou is given respecting the 
flowers used ia perfuming Tea. "The principal ot these 
would app jar to ba those of Oardeni'i radicaui (Oape 
Jasmine,) Jaaminum Saiiihac (the Arabian J.isniiue,) 
oiZomte (aa interestiag Cbioesa plant named in 
honour of As5lai^,one of the Graces,) Teniitroemia japo- 
nicn, CaiiiMa Saianqua (Lady Banks' Cim'.;lia,) andiCWea 
f'rar/ran.i (the fragrant oUve.) The tl jwers of the last 
named shrub ara most highly esteouio i for the purpose 
bv the Obinase. Sometimes iu tiiis country au agreeable 
tiivour IS given tj tea by pu:tiug a loif oi the swoat 
bay into the tea-pot bafore infusmg the tea or a fow 
lewea of the l6moi--c ;nte 1 VdrbeuB." 
Alaa ! alas! bow aro the mighty falli^a. Viteauut 
HiuoliiHgbrijolt (E.G. H. Montagu) wrota a 'Diary 
in India and Ceylon 1878. 7'J.' ILtii ia Dimbult, aad 
on 18;h Novombur 1S78, ho says:— Vl am iuitiatad 
