March t, 1895. | THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
TEA LEAF PURCHASES : — A COR- 
RECTION. 
St. Clive, 16th Feb. 1895. 
Dear Sir, — Kindly permit me to correct an error 
which crept inadvertently into my letter of the 13th 
inst. re " Tea leaf purchase." What my informant 
said to me was " people employed to buy Tea leaf 
for cash " but not as I put it in " people employed 
going about with cash " ; whether these so called 
employees were stationary appendages, or locomo- 
tive caterers ! will remain matters of conjecture. 
We hear such a deal spoken about this " burning 
question " that one's remembering powers get perfectly 
dazed. Only the other day I was told that some 
lunatic had started the theory of a cart and bull 
with a bell going about convassing for Tea leaf ; 
all this, of course, sir, are purely heights of imagin- 
ation.— Yours truly, J. H. STEPHENS. 
No. II. 
Feb. 17th 189.5. 
Dear Sir, — The "Tea leaf controversy" so fair as 
I am concerned is at an end, till united action, as I 
suggested, is agreed upon. Perhaps Mr. Walker 
to whom G. D. J. gives the cake, might if he 
chooses to call on that gentleman, enlighten him on 
the subject he is so keen about. J. H. S. 
"TEA SWEEPINGS"— AND TEA FROM 
HAMBURG. 
Feb. 1st., 1895. 
Sir, — Some time back there was a shipment of tea 
which came from Hamburg on the ss. " Iris." This 
tea was sold in the market, and one of the assist- 
ants of a large tea dealer, thinking that it was very 
rich in "points," secured it at 4d per lb. When it 
came before the heads of the office they examined 
critically this parcel of tea, and found that these 
pekoe points were really only pieces of wood. The 
contract was repudiated and it was thrown on the 
broker's hands. Last week this same lot of tea was 
found at another broker's office, and the young men 
who had been caught napping with the first parcel, 
and who were accustomed to go round and look at 
the teas, at once recognized this parcel by the 
" Iris." The dealers very soon enlightened the 
broker aa to what he was selling, with the result 
that the samples of tea were brought round to me 
by this broker, with the request that I would have 
it valued for caffeine, and if possible get them a bid 
for it, as this would remove it from the market. I 
that very evening sent down to Mr. Thomas Whiffen 
of Battersea the sample, with the request that he 
would examine it and test it for Caffeine and send 
up a bid. On the 30th January Mr. Whiffen wrote 
as follows : — " The sample from 17 chests and 17 half- 
chests ex the ' Iris ' which you sent me last week 
struck me at once as being the worst rubbish I have 
ever seen offered as tea dust. Under the micro- 
scope I find at least three varieties of wood in chips 
and splinters, beside some few pieces of entirely 
foreign matter, such as oxide of iron (rust) and small 
pebbles. I have tested the sample for Caffeine 
and find a result which is too low for Indian 
tea alone, and would seem to point to a 
large admixture of Ceylon, or more probably to a 
proportion of China. Tin- value for Qaffeine* at pre- 
sent is 2.J pence per lb." This letter I handed 
with the following document to the brokers :— " Re- 
ferring to tin' bid we have made lit' the broken 
pekoe at 24(1 per lb. it is distinctly und. isl.md that 
this tea will ma be takei) out of the hands of the 
Customs until it is destroyed in their presence so 
as to prevent it being offered again for food pur- 
poses.' Much to my susprise on the following 
m iming 1 received a letter dated Jan. 80 th from 
the aforesaid brokers, stating 1 : — "Replying to your 
favour of equal date, we have submitted your offer 
to the owners of the 1. chest-; and 17 half chests 
ex ss. ' Iria' aud we mi informed that the ten has 
already been disposed of. This we regret, as we 
consider it would have been far more satisfactory 
to have known the end of the parcel in question, as 
we would have done had you purchased it. We 
now beg to return Mr. Thomas Whiffen's letter ad- 
dressed to you, under this cover. We thank you 
for having submitted a bid on the terms you 
named." 
Of course it is a pity that this Hamburg tea so 
fully described by Mr. Whiffen was not denatured 
by the Customs and destroyed for food. 
The feeling is very strong in the tea trade that 
the United Dock Company and the Warehouses 
who ship their tea sweepings to Germany should 
not assist by united action in preventing this tea 
which they sell to the Hamburg merchants at 55a 
per ton (which is close upon |d per lb.) being sent 
back here after being fanned and sold at 4d per lb., 
which was the price fixed in the first instance, and 
even valued by Mr. Whiffen at 2^d per lb. Either 
price shows the enormous profit which is made and 
proves that as long as the Syndicate in Hamburg 
can secure London tea sweepings they can well 
afford to part with a share of their profits. Na- 
turally some of your readers know that there is in 
the London tea sweepings a certain amount of wood 
and iron. Ji we allowed 20 per cent for this it 
would still leave an enormous profit to play with. 
Take another view of it : after the wood and iron 
have been removed, then there is a quantity of 
dust left. This dust is sold in Germany to the 
Caffeine maker and he is willing to pay up to the 
highest figure for this dust, say 55s. io 60s. 
a ton so that there is no loss from this. 
It will therefore occur to your readers that it will 
not be very long before the Dock Companies who 
now ship their tea sweepings to Germany will have 
to decide whether they intend to support the Indian 
growers, the Indian and English dealers in Tea 
and the brokers in this country or cut against their 
interests. 
There is another singular side to this question. 
The Caffeine makers in England offer to the Tea 
Clearing-house that if they sell to them the tea 
sweepings, they are willing' to pay them aii 
equivalent amount to anything that they can get 
from the Continent. This shows that there must be 
other interests at work besides the first cost of the 
tea sweepings, and besides the risk they run in 
offending the Tea merchants. 
This Hamburg Tea trade is not of novel creation, 
this "well trade marked tea" finds its way to the 
English Colonies as well as to Great Britain. The 
tea dealers and tea merchants know perfectly well 
that it must militate against their interests to have 
this class of Tea sold as British Tea. 
Again having such broken leaf at such a low 
price Jd., per lb. the Hamburg Tea dealer can mix 
it with other tea and compete against the Tea 
dealers of London in all European and Colonial 
markets. They are just rousing up to this fact, not 
having been informed of the details previously. Now 
that their pockets are touched, we shall find them 
uniting to stop this German trade in London Dock 
Tea Sweepings— Yours truly, THOS. CHRISTY. 
CEYLON TEA IN" AMERICA. 
K.-mily, 20th, Feb. 1895. 
Sir, --I enclose copy of a letter from the Secretary 
.Indian Tea Association (London) addressed to the 
Chairman which explains itself. — I am, sir, yours 
faithfully, A. PHILIP. 
Secretary " Thirty Committee:" 
Indian Tea Association (London) II. St. Mary 
Axe London, January 88rd 1894. 
A. Melville White Esq: Chairman, Joint Com- 
mittee Ceylon Planters' Association and Chamber of 
Commerce, Colombo. 
Dear Sir,— I am desired by the American Tea 
Committee of this Association to inform you that a 
copy of your letter of instructions to Mr. William 
Mackenzie has been laid before them, and that theV 
cordially reciprocate the news you express. 
