458 
THE TROPICAL AaRICULTUElST. 
[Jan. 1, 1903. 
themselves have an even tare, that is, unless their 
^veight is approximately regular. Unless this is 
the case, every chest of tea has to be turned out 
here in order that the Customs may ascertain the 
tare. In China Tea, with the much inferior ap- 
pliances of ihe Chinese, this was never necessary, 
and the Customs siiuply hnd to tare a few pack- 
ages out of hundreds to ascertain the adual weight 
of the chest. la further conuection with the 
question of 
BULKING, 
it may be suggested to the tea-growers to con- 
sider vk hetlier the separation of their produce into 
so many different sized leaves pays them, and 
whether it would nut be rnucli better and more 
economical for all parties to obtain larger breaks, 
wiielher it would save net to sort out the tea ao 
a'l. As a matter of fact all the tea elaborately 
separated out into dift'erent sized leaves in ladia 
has again to be lebulked here in tlie smie small 
breaks at a tea warehouse, and then the dift'erent 
qualities after delivery are all mixed together in 
one blend, either by the whol sile or the retail 
blenders. This as a whole constitutes an immense 
addition to the cost of tea. The great fall in value 
of late years has not been distributed propor- 
tionately over the different qualities, but the fall 
"has been greatest in the best teas, so that whereas 
the margin betiween the liighest and lowest price 
in former years used to be very great indeed, the 
difference between the best and the commonest 
qualities is now very small. To a large degree 
mis is due to the system of unrestricted public 
sales, the results of which with the cost of each 
lob are sent out broadcast to all the chief small, 
wholesale, and retail distributors throughout tlie 
Kingdom. One reason for this extreme publicity 
was that the planters were under the impression 
that what they called " Mincing Lane," that is 
the old established wholesale dealers in tea, were 
thought to obtain too heavy a profit at the cost 
of the planters. This was a very great delusion. 
The result of the present system of unregulated 
and enormous 
TEA SALES, 
has been practically to abolish the class of dealers 
whom the Planters had in mind. With their dis- 
appearance or retirement millions of capital have 
bte:i withdrav,n from the wholesale lea trade, 
which money was formerly employed in better 
prices being paid at a time when supplies were 
large, and keeping them up later in the season. 
The capitalists who conducted such operations 
naturally expected a fair return for their money, 
laut with the present system this is impossible, and 
it pays no one to buy and hold the better classes of 
tea, because, in tl^e first place, all their important 
customers are acquainted with the cost of each 
particular parcel, and secondly, because there is no 
security tiiat at any moment similar tea may not be 
forced off without reserve upon the market, without 
the slightest consideration for the interests of pre- 
vious holders. With the partial or entire departure 
of the old style of merchants dealing in tea, fresh 
classes of wholesale distributors have grown up. 
The first is that of whole iale blenders, who do not, 
as the old dealers did, sell a particular parcel on its 
merits, but mix a number of teas together, so that 
their identity is lost, and t hey can obtain, therefore, 
such prices as the merits their mixture enable thenj 
to get without being limited, as in original teas, t;o 
a certaia small proportion on a cost which their 
customers know, beveral iaiportaut blending houses 
are public Companies, and their returns are pub- 
lished. Further than this, it is a matter of common 
knowledge that their gross and net profits infinitely 
exceed those of the old fashioned tea dealei s whom 
the planters ignorantly put under the naaie of 
*' Mincing Lane." Another great departure from 
the tea trade has been the introduction of 
PACKET TltA 
by wholesale firms who advertise largely. Here 
again tl:e profits are very heavy indeed, and together 
with the cost of advertising, have largely to come 
out of the pockets of the tea planters. This is the 
price which thelatter are paying for the abolition of 
what they call " Blineing Lane," and if it goes far 
enough, tea will fall or rise to the position of cocoa, 
where half the cost of a cup represents the ex- 
pense of advertisements. Some efibrts were made 
a short time ago to stop this condition of 
things by obtaining some privacy in the pub- 
lished prices of individual i)arcels at public sales. 
The question was entirely misrepresented to the 
planters, and it was held to bean attempt to help 
Mir.cing Lane to get back its old monopoly. There- 
upon the proposal fell through, to whose detriment 
it has yet) co be seen. The final result of the pre- 
sent system is that the average retail pi ice of Tea 
througliout the country and the chief sale there 
of is at Is 4d. per lb. If 6 J. be taken off this for 
duty, and 3d. for the retailer's profit, it leaves 7d. 
per lb. for the cost of blending, and in the case of 
packet tea of packing and advertisement, without 
allowing in either case for the wholesale profits. 
It will be seen that if this state of things con- 
tinues, the average price of tea, sufiposing the 
present duty is maintained must fall to something 
like 5d. per lb., and every day the finer teas will 
become relatively cheaper than the common ones, 
so that this disastrous tendency is progressi^e. 
The interest of the tea growers in this question 
is a vital one, but whether they, on full considera- 
tion, favour or do not favour any alteration in the 
system of distributing tea through dealers, blen- 
ders, or packers, they are every one of them most 
vitally interested in reducing the cost of importing 
and distributing tea to the wholesale buyers of and 
whatever class. It is to be hoped, therefore, that 
their support will be secured for the system by 
which economies will be effected in the warehous- 
ing and other import charges on tea. One way 
another some £250,000 a year in the aggregate 
might be saved in these respects by careful reforms. 
— Indian Daily News, Nov. 25. 
GIFTS OP THE TROPICS. 
Chief O P Austin of the IJ. S, Treasury Bureau 
of Statistics contributes to the June Forutn an 
article on the growing importance of tropical 
imports, from which we abstract as follows i— 
Tropical products which earlier generations 
considered luxui ies are now necessaries of life every- 
where. The average consumption of sugar has 
risen from thirty-three pounds per capita in 
1870 to sixty-eight pounds in 1901 ; coffee 
from six to nearly twelve pounds per capita ; 
cocoa has increased six times ; despite these gains 
of its rivals, consumption of tea is still as great; 
silks and satins are no longer luxuries ; and rubber, 
a generation ago almost unknown, is now usei 
everywhere. 
The great railways have turned right angles 
and are facing towards the equator, bringing 
tropical products more into reach. The efiecb^ U 
