494 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan.  2,  1893. 
st  the  tea  sales, — that  the  tea  he  bought  in  nt  81 
(uot  7<3)  was  hn  own  tea  grown  on  one  of  his  own 
estates  in  Ceylon,  and  that  on  his  telling  the  man 
who  stood  next  to  him  that  the  lot  had  been  knocked 
down  to  him,  that  person  offered  him  first  9.1,  then 
10 1 end  finally  lid  a pound  for  tea  which  while 
under  the  auctioneer’s  hands  he  had  declined  or  at 
least  had  failed  to  bid  more  than  8d.” 
We  have  also  her r 1 from  London  by  a recent  mail  to 
the  effeot  that  1 those  concerned  do  Dot  allege,  that 
the  ciroumstances  stated  would  be  impossible  of 
occurrence,  though  they  deem  it  to  be  extremely 
unlikely  that  they  oan  have  been  altogether  oor- 
rectly  reported.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they 
hold  that,  supposing  the  faots  to  be  as  stated, 
these  could  not  justify  the  conclusion  that  there 
exists  any  combination  among  the  brokers  to  keep 
down  prices  at  the  sales.  Even  if  it  might  pay 
buying  brokers  to  enter  into  any  suoh  combina- 
tion, it  would  be  distinctly  adverse  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  soiling  brokers  to  join  in  it.'  Now, 
on  this  point  of  *'  combination”  we.  having  lately 
returned  from  Minoing  Lane,  can  give  the  fullest 
assuranca  that  from  all  we  saw  and  learned  of 
the  modo  in  which  business  is  transacted,  such  a 
suspicion  can  at  once  be  dispelled.  At  no  sales  in 
the  world  we  suppose  are  there  freer  competition 
and  therefore  less  chance  of  combination  effecting 
any  result  than  in  Mincing  Lane.  Of  oourse 
the  particular  Broking  Firms  who  have  been 
addressed  by  Mr.  Leake  and  whose  letters  we 
published  the  other  day,  can  never  have 
have  been  thought  of  in  oonneotion  with  the 
•'  queer  story.”  What  may  have  happened  may, 
we  suppose,  be  indicated  by  what  we  learned  many 
years  ago  from  an  Anglo-German  coffee  buyer 
whose  aoquaintanoe  we  made  in  Eastoheap.  He 
had  never  seen  Ceylon  nor  a Ceylon  Direotory, 
but  he  was  accustomed  to  buy  in  the  Lane  a good 
deal  of  our  coffee  for  the  Continent  and  the  way 
he  ran  over  marks  and  names  of  estates  classifying 
the  coffee  very  fairly  (according  to  altitude) 
astonished  us.  Well,  he  told  us  that,  occasionally  at 
the  end  of  a very  extensive  and  prolonged  sale  (alas  1 
over  15  years  ago)  when  the  big  English  buyers 
had  got  all  they  wanted,  if  there  were  small 
lots  (2  or  3 casks)  at  the  end  of  the  catalogue, 
they  were  sometimes  sold  distinctly  below  value 
from  want  of  competition.  But  this  was  a rare 
ooourrenoe  ; and  on  the  average,  our  friend  added, 
nowhere  could  producers  be  more  certain  of  a sale 
aooording  to  value  than  in  Minoing  Lane  coffee 
sales.  Well,  we  believe  the  same  is  true  of  tea  ; 
but  there  may  be  an  exceptional  case  now  and 
then— we  should  want  to  know  the  size  of  the 
break  and  the  time  of  day  at  whioh  the  tea  was 
offered  and  whether  “ the  broker  ” (a  buying 
broker  we  Buppose)  who  cried  out,  was  the  only 
one,  or  one  of  two  or  three  stragglers  in  the 
room  left  at  the  end  of  a loDg  afternoon’s  sale; — 
before  we  attaohed  importance  to  the  experience. 
We  are  giving,  bb  we  say,  the  impressions  we  have 
gathered  after  being  back  and  fore  in  “ the  Lane” 
at  intervals  during  twelve  months.  Daring  this 
time  we  oould  not  but  form  the  highest  opinion 
of  the  mode  in  which  business  was  done  consider- 
ing the  enormous  quantities  of  produce  passed 
through  the  salerooms.  Of  oourse  no  system  can 
be  perfeot  : and  just  as  a cask  or  two  of  ooffee  now 
and  then  dropped  through  below  value  on  big  sale- 
days,  so  may  it  be  with  a small  break  of  tea,  for  we 
cannot  believe  that  the  lot  bought  at  8d  and  for 
whioh  lid  was  refused,  could  be  otherwise  and  one 
too  sold  at  the  dose  of  the  day?  On  this  point 
we  will  now  ask  our  informant  (in  whose  Iona  fi des 
we  have  perfeot  confidence— but  he  is  not  a tea- 
planter  himself)  to  oommunioate  with  the  gentle- 
man whose  experience  he  related,  to  ask  if  he  h&s 
any  objeotion  to  further  inquiry  such  as  is  indicated 
as  to  size  of  break  ard  time  and  date  of  sale, 
and  further  to  the  giving  of  names  ? Of  course  it 
rests  now  with  the  London  tea  estate  owner  to 
decide  ; but  as  to  “ combination  ” among  broker 
to  keep  down  tea  prioes,  cur  personal  experience 
of  the  Lane  and  the  sale-rooms  ehews  it  to  be 
absolutely  impossible. 
«. 
A “VINTAGE  YEAR”  FOR  TEA. 
(To  the  Editor  of  the  Leeds  Express.) 
Sir, — As  “ Tea”  interests  everybody,  we  venture  to 
submit  the  following,  as  possibly  worthy  of  the  atten- 
tion ol  your  numerous  readers. 
About  half  of  this  reason’s  errp  having  now  arrived, 
and  having  been  seen  ami  sampled,  we  are  happy  to 
assure  the  tea-loviug  British  publio  tbat  1892-93  is 
fairly  entitled  to  rank  bs  a “ Vintage  Tear”  tor  Tea — 
a season  of  exceptional  quality.  The  crops  gathered 
in  the  fertile  vsll  ys  of  Assam  aDd  especially  on  the 
rich  lands  bordering  on  the  Bramapootra  ltiver  are  of 
marked  merit  and  strength.  This  is  mainly  due  to  the 
sample  raiufall  but  moierste  heat  of  last  summer. 
(Such  propitious  weather  inducts  the  tea-bush  to 
grow  vigorously,  but  cot  rankiy.  Its  medium-sized 
leaf  contains  less  water  aud  more  ” sop,”  meaning, 
when  dried,  exceptional  strength  and  fragrance.  In  a 
season  of  temperate  warmth,  too,  like  the  present, 
the  skilled  pioker  plucks  maiuly  the  riober  lip  and 
the  ends  of  the  leaves,  leaving  the  lower  halves  on  the 
plant  to  protect  its  ooming  bods  from  being  unduly 
cheoked  by  possible  cold. 
The  yield  of  ’92  is  consequently  smaller  than  was 
estimated  before  the  growth  matured,  and,  as  a 
rule,  a lesser  crop  is  of  fiuer  quality  than  a larger. 
The  Indian  teas  which  have  hitherto  been  plaoed  upon 
the  market  display  the  greyish  leaf  with  bright  yellow 
tip  which  experts  know  to  be  oharaoteristio  of  a 
season  such  as  this. 
An  exoessively  wet  season  unduly  stimulates  the 
“ flushing”  of  the  plant,  producing  a somewhat  rank 
foliage,  drying  ultimately  into  a Tea  of  a weak, 
watery,  “ sapless”  ty  pe,  with  characteristically  black 
loaf  and  yellowish-white  “ tip.”  In  an  exoessively  dry 
yesr,  on  the  other  hand,  the  plant  is  very  shy  of 
“ flushing”;  and  owing  to  the  scanty  yield  of  the 
older  bushes  planters  are  reduoed  to  stripping  the 
younger  plants  to  exoess.  The  expert  at  once  identifies 
a dry-season’s  Tea  by  its  browoy-red  tiDge  and  bright- 
yellow  tips,  yielding,  on  infusion,  a liquor  of  clear 
ruby  red. 
Of  the  vast  bulk  of  more  than  two  hundred  mil  ion 
pounds  of  Tea  consumed  in  the  United  Kingdom 
during  the  ourrent  year  more  than  two-thirds  come 
from  our  own  possessions  in  the  East,  from  Iudia 
and  OeyloD,  while  less  than  a sixth  is  drawn  from 
China.  Only  a generation  ago  the  Celestial  Empire  sent 
us  all  our  Tea.  Even  at  this  reduced  rate,  the  Tea 
tax  produoed,  last  year,  the  stupendous  total  of  three 
and  a half  millio  11  pounds  sterling. 
Owing  to  the  qualities  being  finer  and  the  crops 
smaller  than  anticipated  at  the  beginning  of  the  seaeon, 
Teas,  especially  the  kinds  preferred  by  the  masses, 
have  suddenly  aud  considerably  advanced  in  prioe 
during  the  last  thtee  months.  On  the  Minoing  .Lane 
market  they  are  now  fetching  nearly  twenty-five  per 
cent,  more  money  than  they  oould  have  been  bought  at 
in  August  last. 
Thanking  you  for  permitting  us  to  occupy  so  much 
of  your  valuable  spaoe.with  these  notes, — We  are, Sir, 
Yours  faithfully,  Bbooke,  Bond  & Co.,  Limited- 
November  21st,  1892. 
CEYLON  TEA ‘IN  THE  LONDON  MARKET; 
WHAT  THE  REPORTS  SAY. 
The  following  is  the  cream  of  a number  of 
Reports  by  a reoent  mail  on  Ceylon  tea 
Geo.  White  & Co.  from  25th  Nov.  to  1st  Dec 
