492 
THE TEOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan. 1, 1903. 
TEA PRODUCERS' COMBINATION. 
(To the Editor of the Home and Colonial 
Mail.) 
Sir, — Mr Seton is ri^ht, and this matter ought 
not to be brushed aside. Tea producers, though 
individually estimable, collectively are fools ! 
The language may seem strong;, but look at tlie 
facts. 
The present price of Indian tea is even now 
lower than it was this time last year, notwith- 
standing a better statistical position and pros- 
pects far better than we have seen for years. 
Bub for our folly we might easily be getting 
2d per lb more for our produce. Think of it, 
£1,250,000 per annum lost ! 
The reasons are not far to seek, and are 
these :— 
(a) Buyers combine and sellers do not. 
(b) Buyers are few, and sellers are many. 
(c) A few sellers are even now making fair 
profits. 
(d) Sellers are jealous of each other. 
The number of sellers is the main difficulty, but 
should not be insuperable if the fact that 2d 
per lb could easily be added to the present price 
were brought home to proprietors, shareholders 
and agents. 
The same argument applies to the few who are 
still making profits, for a rise of 2d per lb. would 
more than double these profits. 
Jealousy must always continue, but its existence 
need not necessarily be obstructive. 
Want of concerted action and want of money are 
the pressing evils of the industry. 
Never was there a better time to bring about 
concerted action, never can the effects of the want 
of it be better demonstrated. 
Now, how can the difficulties be met ? I suggest 
the following :— 
1. Establish an Indian Tea Producers' Combina- 
tion, which to be eflective, must be representative 
of at least 75 per cent of the industry. (Ceylon 
should be invited to join, but Ceylon's aloofness 
would not necessarily hurt us, because Ceylon's 
supplies to U K are not nearly sufficient to satisfy 
the requirements of buyers, because Ceylon teas 
arrive all the year round and because Ceylon teas 
won't keep, and therefore, must be sold as they 
arrive.) 
2. Establish type standards of all grades of each 
district, and appoint a valuing committee of 
brokers to value all the teas of the combination 
against these standards (each merchant's broker 
would watch and protect iiis respective interests). 
3. A committee of the Producers' Combination 
would fix the selling price of each standard rapidly 
raising against the price by 2d per lb., and no teas 
should be sold under the fixed price after allowing 
for variation from the standard. 
4. All teas in the Combination should be 
sold through one representative of the brokers, 
whether privately or publicly. 
5. The auctions should be held in a room 
under our own control. (This alone would probably 
suffice to bring in a large proportion of those 
who might wish to be outside ihe combination.) 
The present system is enough to eicl(en one by 
the disorderly way the auctions are at times 
conducted. 
0. Calcutta sales should be made on exactly 
the aames bases. 
7. All account sales of garden teas, Calcutta 
and London, should be charged, say, 1-12 of a 
penny per lb, which chai-ge would be paid to the 
Combination funds for its benefit. Estimating 
the Indian crop at 150 million lb, and deducting 
25 per cent, for abstentions, a fund of upwards of 
£4U,000 per annum would thus be raised, and be 
sufficient to make the combination strong enough 
financially to be respected. In years of over- 
production it could be utilised for compensating 
growers for holding back a portion of their crops, 
and at other times for the general benefit of the 
industry, 
9. No extensions should be made by members 
of the Combination beyond, say, 5 per cent, of 
their existing acreage to make up for deteriorating 
areas. 
Surely something on these lines is practicable ? 
If not, why not? Who will move in the matter? 
The Tea Associations seem helpless. Will pro- 
prietors, agents and shareholders, approving 
generally, notify Iheir willingness to meet and 
discuss it ? 
If sufficient support is forthcoming a meeting 
shall be called under the auspices of a chairniau of 
repute. 
Tea Producek. 
[If tea producers willing to meet to discuss the 
above will signify the same to us we will notify 
the writer (with or witlioub disclosure of name as 
may be desired), and if support seems likely to 
be forthcoming, arrange for the meeting to be 
called. — Ed. Home and Colonial Mail.] — Hand C 
Mail, Dec. 5. 
♦ 
MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA. 
THE GREAT MALARIA PROBLEM AND 
ITS SOLUTION. 
(From ''Old Colonist") 
Recently I went to hear a lecture deli- 
vered by Major Ross of the Tropical School 
of Medicine, Liverpool, on Mosquitoes and Malaria, 
thereby gathering a few " wrinkles " which, I 
think, is worthy of being recorded for the Observer. 
The subject is not altogether new here ; for it was 
in Aberdeen that the final link was supplied which 
binds together the insect and the disease. Dr. 
Man.son went to the Roman Campagna, got some 
mosquitoes to bite a malarial patient, and then 
despatched them to Aberdeen, where his son 
let them loose upon himself in his own bedroom, 
was bitten, and in due course developed malarial 
fever, discovering in his own blood the un- 
mistakable organisms brought from Italy. Thanks 
to quinine, he got better of the bite — the mosquito 
it was that died. 
Major Ross is a clever scientist, for some years 
a well-paid doctor in the Indian Government 
Service. He confesses, that as such, his duties were 
extremely liglit, and that he was glad to devote 
his leisure to the study of so important a problem. 
By means of a good map, coloured to show the 
chief malarial districts of the world— amongst 
which I note certain spots on Ceylon indicated— 
the lecturer proceeded to show the extent of the 
ravages by this dire malady, which keeps the 
richest portions of the world in a state of barbarism. 
In India, alone, he said, 5,000,000 of the people are 
returned as dying from the fever every year. 
Every year 18,000 whites and 82,000 natives 
were admitted to hospital, suffering from the 
disease, and many came in over and over 
again. He could not give figures for Africa. 
He did not even know the population ; bat 
