512 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
Feb.  i,  1893. 
the  lower  and  remoter  planting  districts  before 
the  era  of  roads  and  bridges,  and  of  a reli- 
able labour  and  food  supply. 
We  would  fain  hope,  therefore,  that  farther 
new  investments  in  planting  in  Ceylon  may 
take  the  direction  of  cacao  and  Liberian 
coffee  rather  than  of  tea;  and  that  pro- 
prietors with  considerable  reserves  in  the 
lower  districts  may  consider  well  whether 
sheltered  pockets  of  good  soil,  where  such 
exist,  would  not  be  a safer  investment  if  put 
in  the  products  in  keen  demand,  and  for 
which  high  prices  are  available,  rather  than 
in  the  one  in  danger  now  of  being  over- 
produced and  of  falling  in  value  to  actual 
cost  of  production. 
LOCAL  AND  HOME  TEA  SALES. 
The  letter  of  our  correspondent,  “A  Local  Seller,'1 
(on  page  521)  appears  at  an  opportune  moment 
when.wiih  the  figures  published  for  the  total  of  tea 
offered  and  sold  in  Colombo  during  1892,  we  are  con- 
sidering the  comparison  between  the  Baillie  Street 
and  Mincing  Lane  Sales.  The  growing  importance 
of  the  former  oannot  be  denied : they  take  off 
considerable  percentage  now  of  our  total  outturn 
as  may  be  judged  from  the  figures  oomp  led  by 
a contemporary  and  given  on  page  513.  That 
15  million  lb.  should  have  been  sold  in  Col  mbo 
this  year  and  still  more  that  so  much  as  millions 
Ehould  be  sent  to  other  countries  than  tbe  United 
Kingdom — mainly  Australasia — are  very  satisfactory 
features.  The  more  rapidly  our  direot  exports  to 
“other  countries”  increase,  the  better  chance  of 
Ceylon  teas  holding  their  own  in  the  Lane,  and 
as  direot  exports  are  chiefly  fed  by  local  sales,  it 
must  be  the  wish  of  our  planters  to  6ee  the  Co- 
lombo tea  sales  extend  and  flourish.  In  this  light, 
the  experience  of  “ A Local  Seller”  will  be  regarded 
as  extremely  satisfactory  and  will  no  doubt  en- 
oourage  other  producers  to  think  of  trying  the 
Colombo  sales.  Nevertheless,  it  muBt  not,  of  course, 
be  forgotten  that  considerable  as  the  number  of 
local  buyers  has  become,  there  is  a limit  to  what 
they  can  take  off.  A continuous  steady  inorease 
of  a few  million  lb.  each  year  in  the  quantity 
locally  offered  is  the  most  we  oen  expect  or  desire. 
We  suppose  that  nearly  all  the  finer  teas  are  sent 
to  Mincing  Lane,  and  though  for  small  paroels 
(such  aa  those  from  the  little  Naseby  garden  giving 
a total  crop  of  only  16,000  lb.)  there  is  neatly 
always  a better  demand  and  prioe  than  could 
probably  be  realized  in  “ the  Lane’’ ; yet  we  re- 
cognize the  faot  that  no  such  competition  could 
be  anticipated  for  a continuously  large  supply  of 
the  finer  teas,  (jur  correspondent’s  experience, 
however,  refers  to  considerable  quantities  of  ordi- 
nary teas  and  the  result,  as  he  says,  tells  strongly 
for  the  local  market.  Let  us  hope  that  during 
1893,  the  direct  order  to  Colombo  “ from  other 
countries”  may  so  inorease  as  to  still  further 
stimulate  local  sales  and  business  generally  in  a 
way  satisfactory  to  planters  and  brokers  as  well 
as  to  buyers. 
DRUG9,  &c„  IN  THE  LONDON  MARKET. 
(From  the  Chemist  and  Druggist. ) 
London,  Nor.  30. 
Thk  Cinchona  Sales.— The  London  auctions  of  Decem- 
ber 13th  will  dc  the  la»b  of  the  current  year.  The  first 
cinchona  sides  of  1893  are  fixed  for  January  10th.  The 
date*  of  the  ten  cinchona  sales  to  bel  held  in  Amster- 
dam in  1893  have  been  fixed  as  follows  January  12th, 
February  16th.  March  23rd,  April27tb,  June  1st,  July  6th, 
August  31st,  October  5th,  November  9th,  and  Decem- 
ber 14th. 
Cinnamon. -At  the  quarterly  lauctions  on  Monday  the 
comparatively  small  supply  of  |2,181  bales  of  Ceylon 
cinnamon  (including  some  700  bales  unworked)  was 
offered.  There  was  a fairly  steady  idemand,  which 
improSed  as  the  sales  went  on,  and  about , 1,650  bales 
sold  at  Id  fo  2d  per  lb.  advance  for  good  to  superior,  and 
Jd  per  lb.  for  ordinary  grdes.  The  following  are 
the  present  prices  Firsts : Superior,  its  lid  to  Is  6d  ; 
ordinary  to  fine  7d  to  11  Jd  per  lb.  Seconds:  Superior  Is  2d 
jo  It  3d;  ordinary  to  fine  6d  to  lOJd  per  lb.  Thirds: 
Superior  lid  to  lijd;  ordinary  to  good  6d  to  9d  per  lb. 
Fourths  and  unworked  5fd  to  8d  per  lb.  Cinnamon  chips 
sold  steadily  at  ljd  per  lb  ; quillings  at  4jd  to  5Jd,  and 
broken  quills  at  6d  to  64d  per  lb. 
Cinchona.— Tuesday’s  auctions  were  larger  by  a long 
way  than  their  predecessors  for  several  months  back 
The  catalogues  comprised  of  :— 
Packages.  Packages. 
Ceylon  cinchona 
1,381  of  which 
1.235 
East  Indian  cinchona 
464  „ 
420 
Java  cinchona 
107  „ 
107 
West  African  cinchona 
466 
466 
South  American  cin- 
chona 
.301 
250 
2,719 
2,476 
The  assortment  of  bark  offered  was  a fairly  good  one.  though 
there  were  no  very  rich  parcels,  only  one  or  two  lots 
realising  over  7d  per  lb.  The  Indian  bark  consisted 
almost  wholly  of  Officinalis,  and  there  was  an  unusually 
large  quantity  of  West  African  bark  (snccirubra  character) 
of  poor  quality.  Competition  was  anything  but  brisk, 
and  only  two  of  the  German  agents  bought  considerably. 
The.  result  of  the  auctions  may  be  summed  up  as  show- 
ing an  average  decline  of  5 to  10  per  cent,  reducing  the 
unit  to  I Jd  at  the  most. 
The  following  are  the  quantities  purchased  by  the  prin- 
cipal buyers  : — 
Agents  for  the  Mannheim  and  Amsterdam  works 
Agents  for  the  Frankfort-o/Main  and  Stuttgart 
works  ... 
Agents  for  the  Brunswick  faotory 
Agents  for  the  Auerbach  factory 
Messrs.  Howard  & Sons 
Agents  for  tha  American  and  Italian  works 
Agent!  for  the  Paris  factory 
Sundry  druggists 
Lb. 
251,112 
72,133 
54,874 
33,295 
26.091 
22,955 
22.1 10 
41,288 
Total  quantity  of  bark  sold  ...  ...  524,188 
Bought  in  or  withdrawn  ...  ...  49,610 
Total  quantity  offered  ...  ...  573,798 
Essential  Oils.— Citronella : A percel  of  24  cases  in 
auction  last  week  is  held  for  id  per  or.  Sales  of  Lemon- 
graii  oil  are  reported  privately  at  lid  per  oz. 
— 
The  Tea  Planters  of  Assam,  like  the 
Indigo  Planters  of  Behar,  and  the  Coffee  Planters 
of  the  South — who  besought  the  Viceroy  the  other 
day  not  to  touch  the  exohange  question  on  the 
ground  that  a rise  would  be  disastrous  to  the  im- 
perial interests  of  Coorg — are,  says  the  Pioneer,  jubilant 
over  the  high  prices  they  are  getting  for  their  tea. 
We  hear  of  one  concern  which  with  a capiral  of  two 
lakhs  of  rupees  is  expeoted  to  turn  over  a profit  of 
R60.000  on  this  year’s  working.  This  indicates  a 
beautiful  state  of  things  no  doubt  from  the  manager’s 
point  cf  view  ; and  may  be  satisfactory  enough  to  the 
shareholders  as  long  as  they  desire  to  draw  and 
employ  their  dividends  in  this  country.  Bit  the  satis- 
faction would  vanish  so  soon  as  they  should  desire 
to  take  their  money  to  England  : and  one  does  not 
quite  see  why  anyone  living  a Earopean  life  in  India 
should  prefer  earniug  a comparatively  large  number 
of  low  value  rupees  to  a comparatively  small  number  of 
high  value  ones.  It  is  true  that  the  labour  and  raw 
material  which  the  planter  employs  are  paid  for  in 
rupees  at  prices  which  are  tolerably  constant:  but 
the  shrinkage  in  the  real  value  of  the  planter’s  in- 
come (which  he  cannot  esoape  any  more  than  his 
fellows)  amply  takes  off,  as  far  as  his  individual 
prosperity  is  oonoerned,  from  the  inorease  in  its  bulk.” 
But  planters  are  on  the  whole  well  content  with 
the  prices  paid  in  sterling  lor  their  produoe 
just  now. 
