596 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
r MARCH r, 1891;. 
advising parents, upon a misleading basis, to educate 
their boys to become tea-tasters. I have spent the 
whole of my commercial career in this particular 
vocation, and I have no hesitation in Baying 
that the incomes which you state (namely, 
£•2,000 to £10,000 per annum) it is p 
for a competent tea-taster to make are quite un- 
heard of, either in or out of Mincing Lane. by 
all means let parents place their boys in this or 
any other walk of life for which they are competent 
and out o£ which they can earn a living ; but a.6 a 
paper of such a considerable circulation as 3'ours 
may influence parents' minds, it is a grave 1 
sibity for you to publish incorrect statements which 
might cruel'y mislead those who look to you for ad- 
vice. I have taken the trouble to answer the para- 
graph in question, as I am perfectly cert tin that you 
are only too anxious to have errors of this sort cor- 
rected." 
A New Tea. Company. — The Jalinga Tea Company, 
Limited, has been registered by Saunder6on, Hol- 
land and Adkin, 4(5, Queen Victoria St.ivt, E.C., 
with a capital of 4.22,000 in £ 10 shares. Object to 
carry into effect an agreement expressed to be 
made between P. C. Leckie of the first part. J. .YI. 
Playfair of the second part, G. Limb of the third 
part, D. I. Lamb of the fourth part, H. C. 
Newson of the fifth part, W. Duncan of the 
sixth part, A. D. Forbes of the seventh part, 
T. Henderson of the eighth part, A. Milne of the 
ninth part, and this company of the tenth part, 
and to acquire and turn to account land of any de- 
scription in British India or elsewhere ; as tea- 
planters, Sid. Managing agents P. C. Leckie. Re- 
muneration, a percentage of the profits. — //. ami ('. 
Mail. 
THE DUTCH CINCHONA AUCTIONS. 
Our Amsterdam correspondent, telegraphing on 
Thursday evening, states : — " At our auctions today 
7 766 bales and 351 cases Java cinchona bark, to- 
gether weighing 717,335 kilos., and containing the 
equivalent of 32,62) kilos, sulphate of quinine, were 
offered for sale. The tone was very depressed, and 
only about two-thirds of the bark offered— viz.. .V;:,ii 
packages, representing 21,7-12 kilos, of sulphate ot 
aviinii?e— sold, at a slight decline, the average unit 
being only 2'70 cents, per half-kilo., or just below 
the halfpenny per unit. The principal buyers were 
one agents for the English, French, and American 
works" the Auerbach factory, the Amsterdam and 
Mannheim works, and the Frankfort works. — Chemist 
and Druggist, Jan. 26. 
" TEA SWEEPINGS." 
A very serious state of affairs is revealed in the 
two letters from the City of London which we 
publish elsewhere. For some time, attention has 
been drawn in our columns by home corres 
pondents to a system which can only meet with 
the express condemnation of every tea planter 
and fair-minded tea dealer We refer to the 
practice in some of the London Docks or Ware- 
houses of periodically selling what is called 
-Tea Sweepings," the proceeds by no means 
coin- to the rigbtful owners of the tea from 
which such sweepings-or rather tne percentage 
of honest tea amongst them-came ; but ap- 
patently being appropriated by the owners or 
employees of the warehouses concerned Now 
before we remark on the quality of such " sweep- 
ings" and the : policy of selling tl.em,- 
unless, under an express guarantee that they are 
not to be used for human food,--let us oueh 
on the question of how any tea hnds its way into 
£h sweeping at all? Planters at once say the 
fac explains the charges from time to time of 
(' short weight," and certainly the principle is a 
wron" one "that would seem to make the in- 
terest's of the owners or employees m any 
^bulking" warehouses, adverse to those of the 
owners of the tea bulked, in respect of produce 
spilt or otherwise going into sweeping*. Ail 
this shows what a grand advantage it would be 
to planters — apart from the impetus u> consump- 
tion— if a "free breakfast table' were e«tab- 
ligfaed or if Mr. ('. A. Koue and hi* friends had 
their way in seeing tea freed from all duty. The 
sweeping away of the present restrictions and 
warehouse regulations, necessitated by such duty, 
would be of greater benefit to the planter than 
even the abolition of the fourpenny per lb. tax 
itself. 
But we turn from speculating <>n the future and 
on the "free breakfast table" which may come 
some day, to deal with the actual grievance 
bioiight under our notice today. And in this 
connection, we greatly regret that our absence 
upebuntry prevented attention l»eing niven 
earlier to the correspondence, so that the matter 
might be formally dealt with at today's meeting of 
the Planters' Association. As it wa», all 
we could do was to forward one of the 
samples of " the sweepings," a copy of the eatalogne 
and a letter of information, by a member of 
Committee, on the chance of this being noticed iu 
Committee, The remaining sample* and copy of 
catalogue can be seen at our office. The 
grievance is that instead of the " tea sweep- 
ings " being sold to chemists for the extraction 
of caffeine, they are allowed to find their way 
into the open market and have, in sonic cases 
been bought for export to Oerniany, either to 
be passed into consumption there, or manipulated 
and blended, and returned to the United Kingdom 
as wholesome tea. The point is that such " tea 
sweepings " are wholly unfit for human food. 
The wonder is, therefore, that on the very first 
experience of such stuff finding its way into 
dealers' hands, such a disturbance was not made 
in London, in India and out here as to effectually 
prevent the chance of any recurrence. So far 
from it, some dealers seemed to think they 
could go on with impunity ; for our correspond- 
ence shows that two parcels of what are said 
to be nothing but "tea sweepings," actually got 
at the last moment, recently, into a catalogue 
of. a first-class Broking House like Messrs. Gow, 
Wilson & Stanton, and were there described as 
"Broken Pekoe." Fortunately, tea dealers were 
able to call the attention of the firm to the 
actual quality of the tea, and as might be ex- 
pected Messrs. Gow, Wilson & Stanton imme- 
diately refused to have anything to do with 
the parcels and pronounced the "tea" to be 
fit only for extracting caffeine. Our correspond- 
ents give the particulars of the case in suffi- 
cient detail ; and we have only to ask that the 
Planters' Association of Ceylon, the Chamber of 
Commerce, and the local Tea Dealers' Associa- 
tion, should take action in reference to the practice 
of such "tea sweepings" from Docks or Ware- 
houses being sold to any other than caffeine 
manufacturers. The bona fides of the Rood Lane 
Brokers in the matter is unquestioned. They 
not only discarded the lots, but took steps to 
have the "tea" tested and expressed their in- 
dignation at the attempt made to get them to sell 
such tea. 
It is satisfactory to know that the ques- 
tion is not to be allowed to sleep at 
home. Influential tea dealers like Mr. Peek 
are likely to move in respect of the whole ques- 
tion of Tea Sweepings and Tea Adulteration ; 
* These samples, it seems, are not of the tea in 
this catalogue ; but of other tea sweepings sold for 
consumption. 
