456' 
THE TEOPICAI, AGRICULTURIST. [Jan. 1, 1903. 
bein? that the high price to which linseed 
has risen, has driven dealers to look out 
for a substitute. That India has been able 
to meet the heavy demand is due, in a great 
measure, alas ! to the recent famines which 
have materially reduced the number of 
cattle which remain to be fed; but the 
urgency of the demand may be gathered 
from the fact that Egyptian seed continued 
to rise, despite the quantities which Indi. 
was able to throw into the London marltea 
The appreciation of the seed in Americs 
seems to have been as recent as it haa 
been ancient in India. In Texas there was 
a law malting it penal to dump cotton 
seed into streams— a provision which would 
scarcely have been called for, had lankee 
cuteness discovered the value of the seed 
earlier. Now, at least 500 mills .are said to 
be crushing the seed, and the estimate of 
the annual value of the product is over 
£10,000,000 ! 
The extent to which cotton seed is used 
in feeding cattle in India will militate 
against its rivalling America in the erection 
of mills, or in the export of the raw mate- 
rial to anything like that value ; but, given 
the demand, it might utilise the seed in 
manutactures to an appreciable extent. We 
read that the seed " is used in Europe in 
the manufacture of innumerable products, 
such as lard, butter, candles, dyes, paints 
and general oils," and if there is no present 
demand for all these products in India, 
the crude oil might be exported with greater 
profit than the seed ; but the local demand, 
especially for the oil, as food, is sure to 
grow. The present average price of cotton 
seed is given at K7 per candy of 658 lb , 
and the calculation is that a profit of 17'U 
per cent is to be made on its conversion 
into oil which is now selling at £20 per 
ton in England. 10 America can no longer 
supply the London market, the price of 
oil is scarcely likely to fall, and India 
may find it profitable to retain the residuary 
products and ship the oil to Europe. Can 
the continuance oC high prices for Ceylon 
Coconut Oil be connected with the active 
deniand for Cotton Heed Oil which must be 
coming into competition with it in some 
directions ? 
THE POSITION IN THE TEA TRADE. 
BY. J. INNES ROGERS. 
[Special for the "Indian Daily News."] 
London, Nov 7. 
For several months past there has been a dis- 
pute in the tea trade upon a point which is of 
vast importance to the growers of tea in India and 
Ceylon. It has to do with what is known as the 
Clearing House, and institution where the home 
tea trade lodge their papers for the purpose of 
obtaining deliveries, instead of taking them round 
to the various wharves where the goods them- 
selves are stored. A central office of this sort is, 
of course, a con«ider.able convenience, and to its 
principle there can be no objection whatever. It 
was created some 14 years ago in consequence 
of the then existing difficulties, and at that time 
the whole of the home trade and of the wharves 
and docks storing tea joined it, A condition of 
membership was inserted, among others of an 
ordinary character, which passed without much 
notice at the time, and was in fact then of no 
importance because the whole of those interested 
formed part of the Clearing House. It was to the 
effect that the home tea trade agreed only to buy 
teas lying at wharves and docks, the owners of 
which were members of the Clearing House. As 
was stated above, no particular importance was 
attache*! to this condition and up till quite re- 
cently the whole ef the wharves storing, tea were 
members of the 
clearing house. 
In the early part of last year, however, a wharf 
called Gun Wharf, obtained a bond from the 
Customs which enabled it to store tea. This was 
entirely a new departure, for the Customs had for 
some years past, in accordance witli an agreement 
with the Clearing House, declined to issue fresh 
bonds for the warehousing of tea, thus 
giving the wharfiingers a monopoly. This 
monopoly has recently been worked to create a 
pool or trust, among the warehouse keepers for a 
certain number of years of which the members 
agree to maintain the existing charges and to 
divide the profits or losses among themselves in 
certain proportions. The customs naturally 
resented this attempt to use Government facilities 
as a means of boycotting, and representations were 
made to thetu by some members of the home 
trade that they were desirous to no longer oppose 
the issue of bonds to fresh warehouses, and in fact 
that they desired competition because of the 
existing high charge? on tea which had become 
increasingly burdensome as the price fell. The 
result of this was the issue of a bond to 
GUN WHARF. 
The proprietors of that place were refused admis- 
sion to the Tea Warehouse pool or to the Clearing 
House, and they thertu))on elected to fight on 
their own account, and to receive and distribute 
tea at prices some 30 per cent below those charged 
by the pool. 
The appearance of Gun Wharf upon the scene 
placed the home trade in a position of some 
difficulty, for tiiey were not as a whole directly 
interested in cheipeniiig the import rates on tea, 
because, generally speaking, they buy in London 
after tiic parcels are landed. It was felt, however, 
that although this was the case, the crushing 
weight of the import charges, and of rent and 
sampling on tea, indirectly interested the home 
trade very much. They were, in fact, part of the 
excessivecostof distributing tea which has rendered 
the home trade so unprosperous. They were 
anxious also to come into touch more than hitherto, 
with the growers of tea and the large Indian and 
Ceylon importers in this market, and they feit 
that as the wharf charges formed so important a 
question fjr India and Ceylon, it was desirable to 
take up the question in the interests of our fellow 
countrymen abroad as well as indirectly in their 
own. The first step that was taken by 
THE HOME T'ADE 
in this matter was to approach an Indian and 
Ceylon Association in London, and to hold private 
conferences with a number of leading importers. 
These, however, led to no results whatever. The 
trade were desirous of opening up the whole 
question of the cost of distributing lea in connec- 
tion with the wharf charges, but no progress was 
made. Several large distributors of tea, after 
