THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1895. 
THE FULL EXTRACTION FROM TEA : 
AND THE TRADE IN " REVAMPED " TEA LEAVES. 
A somewhat curious point has been raise d upon 
proceedings recently taken in London against 
the vendors of used tea leaves. It will he re- 
membered, perhaps, that the Customs authori- 
ties were the prosecutors in that case. These 
held that the revenue had been clef] 
by the sale of the used leaf, and the judgment 
given appeared to uphold this view. In one 
sense, no doubt, this contention could be justi- 
fied. For if this revamped stuff had not come 
into the market for consumption, as a mat- 
ter of course, unused tea that had paid the 
full duty, would have been used Instead 
of it. But the question would seem naturally 
to follow, at what point can it be claimed in con- 
nection with excise, that tea leaf can be said 
to have been " used" ? Until that point be 
reached, whatever it may be decided to be, surely 
the Customs authorities, having once received 
duty upon tea, cannot fairly claim any interest in 
it ? The replies to the question raised, must, of 
•ourse, vary considerably. Taking the average of 
households among the better-off classes, it may 
be assumed that the tea consumed therein would 
be deemed to be waste after but a few minutes of 
infusion. In poorer households, however, this limi- 
tation would not be accepted. A smaller quantity 
of tea would be made to do equivalent duty, and 
would be subject to infusion for ten minutes or a 
quarter of an hour, or even longer. In such 
cases, of course, the "used" tea would differ 
greatly as to remaining strength from that in 
the first case considered. But between these two 
classes of tea-drinkers, there intervene a third. 
This is that of the extremely poor, who are satis- 
fied with the liquor to be obtained from the 
leavings of the other two. No doubt, in the first 
case referred to, there remains a very considerable 
amount of strength in its leavings nor could it 
be said, perhaps, that its extract would be likely 
to prove distinitly injurious, or even, to coarser 
palates, absolutely distasteful. It seems hard to 
insist that such leaf should be consigned to the 
dustbin, while there are many thousands of the 
poor who would gladly use it. When we give 
consideration, however, to the second class of 
cases, we should say that any further extraction 
from the used leaf would be likely to prove most 
injurious to the consumer. That there remains 
in tea leaf even after ten minutes or so of in- 
fusion a certain amount of strength that may 
be got by boiling and stewing, we see little reason 
to doubt. But the result must be an extraction 
of the tannin and chemical residuals that no 
one desirous of maintaining health would think 
of drinking. But there is even a "lower depth" 
in the grades of poverty, and until tea has 
been made to yield its last component, the 
chances are that people will be found only too 
glad to use it. The difficulty of determining 
how such use can best be checked, must be ap- 
parent from what we have 'written. How and 
by whom should a standard of finality be fixed ? 
As we have shown, a large amount of tea dis- 
carded as "used" cannot in the strict sense of 
the term be said to be so. Further extraction 
from this may be unpalatable, and yet it would be 
E resuming too much to say that it is unfit for 
uman food. But although this may be conceded, 
how can the distinction necessary between 
the first and second cases, be discriminated ? On 
the whole, we think, that although in the ab- 
stract the right of the Customs cannot be sup- 
ported, it may be that the judgment given in 
its favour may prove the best mean* of checking 
a practice likely to be hurtful to t lie public health. 
We arc, therefore, inclined to accept the anomaly 
of the claim, because we deem that it may bene 
a useful purpose. That the re consumption of tea 
leaf can ever be entirely checked mu-t l>e very 
doubtful. We should be content to pat* it over 
in all cases such as we have mentioned where 
it might be acceptable as a form of charity. 
We would, however, put down witli a iteoBfi, 
hand all attempts to deal with the article a* 
a matter of trade, in which case colouring 
with injurious material is almost certain to be 
resorted to. 
A QUININE FACTORY IN JAVA. 
The project to establish a large quinine factory 
in Java has entered upon an active phase. A 
company is said to be in course of formation, 
and it is mentioned that 300,000f. (25,UU0/. ) bare 
already been subscribed towards the capital At 
a meeting of the Java Cinchona-planters' Asso- 
ciation on November 15 a detailed scheme was 
expected to be submitted. — Chemist and Druggist, 
Dec. 29. 
BRITISH-GROWN TEAS. 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE " LEEDS MERCURY." 
Gentlemen, — You have been good enough tu this 
season in former years to print a few notes from 
us about tea, so we venture to hope that you may insert 
the following, as possibly of some interest to your 
Tery numerous readers. 
The rapidly increasing demand for the British-grown 
leaf and the diminishing consumption of China teas, 
which have been the most remarkable facts in the 
trade during the last few years, have been btill more 
accentuated in 1894. At the present time, barely one- 
tenth of all the tea consumed in Great Britain comes 
from the Celestial Empire, and it is probable that 
even this comparatively Bmall proportion will dwindle 
almost to nothing by the approaching end of the 
century. Tbe China-Japanese war is not, therefore, 
likely to appreciably raise the price paid by the 
British consumer for his pound of tea, as many 
have feared. The war, however, especially if it be 
of long duration, will indirectly affect the prices 
in the wholesale markets, since Japan, which has 
hitherto supplied the wants of North America, and 
China, from which the Russians have hitherto im- 
ported all their requirements, will naturally not be 
able to produce their normal quantities of tea. Our 
transatlantic cousins and the subjects of the Czar 
will thus be obliged to buy from the only other 
tea-producing countries. India and Ceylon, and when 
once these stronger and more economical British- 
grown teas have taken hold, as they assuredly will, 
of the affections of the Americans and Russians, 
the old-fashioned prejudices in favour of the thinner - 
liquoring growths from the two Empires now at war, 
will have been permanently overcome. Owing to 
the troubles, present and impending, in China, the 
merchants are already naturally shy of journeying, 
loaded with silver, up into the interior of that vast 
Empire, as they have customarily done hitherto, for 
the purpose of buying tea and sending it down to 
the shipping ports. They have heard that there 
are some very obvious reasons why their silver, 
and their bodies too, might perhaps remain perma- 
nently " upcountry;" thus, diminished and over- 
taxed cultivation, and paralysis of interior commerce, 
now threaten irreparable damage to the China tea 
trade. 
As to this season's crops, the quality is good, and 
above the average, but the quantity is not up to the 
estimated yield, owing to unfavourable climatic influ- 
ences. Wholesale prices have consequently risen 
slightly all round. 
