May f, 1895.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
723 
TEA SWEEPINGS IK LONDON. 
It lias given us gre.it pleasure to place on record 
the very satisfactory Port Order issued by the 
London Customs authorities under date 4th 
instant, in reference to the subject of 
"Tea Sweepings," which has been so freely 
discussed of late, especially iri the columns of 
the Ceylon Observer through London Correspond- 
ents who have kept us apprised of the 
action taken. One gentleman who has taken 
a prominent part in the discussion considers the 
document which we published the other day; to bea 
" masterly " one, based, as it is, on the " Foods 
and Drugs Act." The Solicitor to the Customs 
had, of course, all the facts put before hi in 
through the Custom House, by the Tea Dealers 
and he could not possibly overlook the fact that 
the "tea sweepings" complained of had been 
shipped to Germany, cleaned up and sent back 
to England and sold for consumption as honest, 
wholesome tea ! It is very satisfactory to learn 
that those best able to judge, consider the 
Order as sufficient to prevent such action in 
the future and that producers and dealers may 
feel satisfied there will be no trouble in future 
on this account. 
THE TEA SWEEPINGS QUESTION. 
(From a correspondent. ) 
Loudon, B.C., March 1st, 189,5. 
There is not much to tell you by this mail. The 
Tea .Brokers' Association had a committee meeting and 
one of the members, with the secretary, went clown and 
saw the Secretary of the Customs regarding this 
question of the Tea sweepings. He promised to send 
up a report in a few days so we must wait for this 
important decision Mr. Tye. the secretary of the 
Indian Tea Planters' Association sent on' a letter 
enclosing the reply from the committee of the 
" Clearing-house" who lias to deal with the Tea 
sweepings in which tbey say " that the waste tea 
consisting of warehouse sweepings and damaged 
tea is sold to manufacturing chemists in London 
or on the Continent ; in any case it is delivered 
under a guarantee that it shall be denatured for 
the purpose of being manufactured into Caffeine, in 
the case of that shipped to the Continent under 
special certificate." The " tea sweepings that is de- 
livered to manufacturing chemists " is simply incor- 
rjet, because the Customs take charge of the Tea 
sweepings in the warehouse and they no not deliver 
it -to the chemists, but retain possession of it until 
it is denatured and destroyed for all purposes of food 
consumption. In regard to that shipped to 
the Continent under special certificate this 
is only a subterfuge, because once the tea sweepings 
have ict't this country, English. people or the Customs 
lose all control over them. The contract made this 
year by the Hocks, as you know, was made with a 
tea broker and tea dealer in Hamburg, and ho 
bought it from them purposely for consumption as 
food, and they knew perfectly well that they were 
selling it to him for food. The result has been as 
you have published ; that the tea came hack alter i I 
was cleaned and ''Iras sold in England. 
After all the row that there has been here over 
this tea from Hamburg, and after Mr. Whiffen's 
examination under tho microscope and analysis, you 
would hardly believe, that these cleaned tea sweep- 
ings have been sold into the Midland counties. This 
is known to the Tea Brokers' Association and also 
to Her Majesty's Customs, and yet, in tho face of 
these facts which have only taken place within a 
fortnight, the letter signed G. T. Poock, Secretary 
of the Tea Clearing House Committee, savs that the 
'ilea 1. shipped under a spocial certificate for the 
Continent: this shows how much tho Hamburg 
certificate is worth. 
91 
PLANTING AND PRODUCE : 
COFFEE, CINNAMON. 
Paraguayan Tea. — We hear from time to time of 
the virtues of yerba-mati or Paraguayan tea, and 
at a recent meeting of the Society of Arts, when a 
paper on Paraguay was read, there was some men- 
tion made of this tea. It grows wild, and was, and 
is, a great source of wealth to the country, and 
during the domination of the Fathers it had a large 
sale in Italy, and in parts of Southern France, where 
it was known as " Jesuits' Tea." The yerba is a 
tree which very much resembles an orange tree, but 
the leaves are much like the laurel. The branches 
are cut off, dried under a thatched roof by a bright 
wood fire made of sweet-smelling wood, and then 
either beaten with sticks on a prepared floor, or cut 
up in a kind of mortar mill by revolving knives, 
until they assume the form shown. No means have 
yet been found for cultivating the plant from seed ; 
it grows spontaneously in the woods, especially in 
the hilly district between Bosario and Concepeion- 
and in some cases, young trees have been trans- 
planted. It has vast sustaining power, but requires 
a great denlofuse before the palate becomes accus- 
tomed to it, for it is not exactly pleasant to the taste. 
Quarterly Sales of Cinnamon. — At the periodical 
sales last week only 765 bales Ceylou were offered. 
It was not surprising, therefore force, that 
they met an active demand, and were 
nearly all taken off at about previous rates to an 
advance of id. per lb. on the common and middle 
qualities, whilst the value of the finer sorts mostly 
ruled Id. above that in November, 1894 ; the prices 
established being — for firsts 7i,d. to 10d., superior at 
Is. to Is. 3d. ; seconds at OJd. to 9gd., with fine 
and finest lid. and Is. 2d. ; thirds Gd.to 8d. and lO.^d. 
to Is. ; fourths at 5Jd. to 8d., and a few broken (in 
boxes) at 5jd. to 7d. per lb. There is a fair stock 
of cinnamon chips, but next to nothing was brought 
to auction 011 the 25th ult. ; only some odd lots of 
lii bags, which were sold at 2Jd. tor ordinary, and at 
GAd. to 7d. per lb. for quillings and clippings. The next 
series of public sales is fixed for Monday, May 27. 
Coffee Disease in Bast Africa. — The coffee-plant- 
ing industry in East Africa, is suffering from the same 
trouble as that which caused the collapse of coffee 
planting in Ceylon. A Foreign Office report just 
issued this week states that the Ceylon coffee disease 
has unfortunately been discovered this season in 
East Africa. Every effort is being made to exter- 
minate it, but if it spreads it will naturally throw 
back the cultivation of what promised to be one of the 
most successful crops in the Colony. 
Planting Pkospects in New Guinea. — In his paper 
on British Guiuea recently read before the Koyal 
Colonial Institute, Sir William Macgregor, referring 
to the position and prospects of the colony, said : — 
" It occupies in the south a latitude corresponding 
to that of Ceylon in the north. But British New 
Guinea is three and a half times as large as Cey- 
lon, has mountains nearly twice as high, and has a 
greater variety of s il and climate than the older 
colony. Generally, then, it may be said that any 
tropical product can be grown in the possession. It 
seems to be specially well adapted for plantations 
of sugarcane, tea, coffee, vanilla, cocoa, kola nut, 
cotton, sisal fibre, guttapercha, maize, tobacco, cin- 
chona, spices of all kinds and every form of tropical 
fruit. There are hundreds of varieties of sugar-cane 
native to the country. Perhaps every tribe that 
plants anything grows that article. Tobacco has 
been found on the greater part of the mainland, on 
Mount Knutsford in the Owen Stanley Kange, inland 
on all the Gulf rivers, and near the meeting point 
of the Dutch, German and British boundaries in the 
far interior. It does not exist on the north-east 
coast, nor was it known in the islands. It ia 
therefore probably uot originally indigenous, but it 
is clearly completely domesticated in the country, 
where it must nave been used for generations. This 
tobacco is a small-leaf kind, and is said to be of 
very special value in the tobacco market. Cotton 
mid rice are not native, but grow well there, aud 
could doubtless bo successfully planted. It is clear 
that tea and coffee grow well there. For six mouths 
