THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July 1, lg9t. 
CfiYLON TEA IN AMERICA. 
KEPOKT FROM MR, R. E. I'INEO. 
It was neither my purpose nor intention, in a 
previous communication, to point out, or even 
supigest, improvements on past methods. My ob- 
ject was to awaken and concentrate interest in 
the arduous^ undertakinj^ of making our tea better 
and more widely known to the geueial public of 
the United States. 
The "Tliirty Committee" has announced its 
purpose to continue the camjiai^in in America, 
aod has voted six thousand pounds for 1900, to 
further exploit and endeavour to gain }4reater re- 
cognition for our staple in the United States 
of America, It should be the study and aim ot 
the " Thirty Committee" to solve this one Icnotty 
question, i.e. how can the consumer he most quicld;/ 
and effectually readied, and, ivhoi ca/itured, 'per- 
manently retained? Tliis query covers the wliole 
ground, and embraces every feature connected 
with the crusade. 
It now remains for me to make known how, 
in my opinion, tiie consumer is to be secured, and, 
of equal moment, thereaf ter / This can only 
be accomplished by working throucjh and with 
the retailer, who should be assisted, in every 
reasonable way, by the Commissioner. Help ti)e 
retailer by adverti'-^ing in the local papers and by 
demonstrations. The retjiiler will then have an 
incentive to doing good work, as lie is the only 
proper medium between the wholesale dealer and 
the consumer, whose aid sliuuld be invoked. 
Once you have succeeded with, and gained the 
energetic assistance of, the retailer, the result is 
certain to be satisfactory; the consumer will be 
secured, and the wholesale dealer will be forced 
to keep and provide the retailer with everything 
he wants. 
The representative in America of the " Thirty 
Uomniittee " should be constantly on the move 
and work systematically. For example, let him 
visit Boston and every town having a population 
of 10,000 and upwards in the New England 
States; then take up the Central, Western, Paci- 
fic, and Southern States in tlie order named. 
In each city or town let him seek out a few 
of the most prominent, progressive retailers, ob- 
tain their co-operation, assist them in locally 
advertising, and show them how best they can 
make attractive, popular demonstrations. 
! Special, Local Advertising.— The lepresent- 
_^ive should seek and act upon the ad^■ice of the 
retailer, and select such mediums as he— the re- 
tailer — may recommend. In some localities, more 
especially where the town may be the centre of a 
large agricultural district, Ihelocal weekly should 
be availed of, as every agriculturist uses tea, and 
Veads everything -irscluding advertisements— tb.at 
appears in bis weekly newspaper. 
General Advertising.— Monthly magazines 
that aie rea<l by the luasses like " Muucey's " 
and the " Cosmopolitan," can be occasiona ly, 
used to great advantage, au<l there are also a few 
'Of the weekly papers that could be profitably 
utilised. 
" Demonstrations.— One of the most successful 
"and permanently profitable entertainments given 
lay me was in connection with a bazaar held in 
*aid of a large hospital, by the society ladies of 
Brooklyn, and what made it attractive and re- 
mRmbcred, was the fact that about a dozen of the 
handsomest young women, daugliters of society 
leaders, appeared in Tamil costume and served 
t;ea. The IJazaar was a huge financial success, and 
the costumes and tea formed the subject of many 
a chat long after the whole thing was closed. 
Now the representativeshould be furnished with 
at least a d izen washable, rich Tamil costumes, 
including a goodly show of native jewellery — and 
when making demojistrations in a shop, should 
engage a couple ot handsome coloured women to 
appear in this costume and serve vi-itors with tea. 
This would prove a drawing card, and, in the 
smaller cities, a powerful attraction. Where it 
was found a Church festival w a bazaar was in 
progress, the feature that made the Brooklyn 
aiiair so telling, might be introducei!. It may be 
thought that anything done, as lieiein mentioned, 
would be a slow, tedious o|iciation, and take too 
long a time ; but 1 maintain thai it is the only 
method that will give lastiui; results at a mini- 
mum cost, seeing that the wholesale dealer cannot 
be lelied upon to create a demand for an article 
that is not called for by the retailers, hence the 
latter's support must, 'in the first instance, be 
secured and his cfibrls assisted and fostered. 
The retailer is, therefore, the one person wliose 
goodwill and aid should lie sought, liusbanded 
an(i promoted. Let the retailer work energei ically, 
hopefully and sucee-ssfuUy, and you have maile a 
friend and coadjutor of the wholesale dealer or 
jobber. The method herein outlined may a])pear 
to some silly, childish and iniperfect, "and un- 
worthy of consideration, but— frequently— simple, 
direct .methods lead to the greatest successes. 
Jjater on I may, perhaps, refer to Canada and 
Biissia. K. ii\ Pjnko. 
MINOR PKODUCT REPORT. 
Crdton Sfed3.— Offered 69 packages. Sold 0. All 
the ol'feriijns at the drug auctions today were bought 
iu at from 50s to TOj. 
CiTitoNF.r.LE Oil. — Very quiet privately and quoted 
at the same fignres. For today's auctions 2 drums 
w^re cataloguc-d, but had been sold when reached.— 
B. ^- C. Driifiuist, April 23. 
Cinchona.— At the London auctions on Tuesday 
only odd lots of low psreeiitage bark found buyers 
at a decline of about 25 per cent to .SO per cent 
on last sales' vate, the unit valae being Hd per lb, 
against 21d at the previous sale. 
Ceylon — Lederiaria., original stem chips. 8id ; poor 
red orginal chips Sja and Sid per lb for fair. 
The bark sold to manufacturers on Tuesdo^y repre- 
sents GO,(IUO oz. or theiehy of quinine sulphate. They 
were low quality barks. It will be noted that the 
firms who generally buy most largely were on this 
occasion small buytrs, because they declined to pay 
the prices asked by the sellers for the higner quality 
barks. Tlie sales scarcely form a criterion for the 
quinine speculator, and these matters must wait next 
week'.^ auctions at Amsterdam. There the total 
quantity of quinine sulphate in the bark to be offered 
equ:il? 19,450 kiios (680,750 cz). The manufacturing bark 
contains an average yield of 5 52 pei- cent, against 5-26 
per cent in March, and 5-31 per cent for the ten auctions 
of 18D8, How the sales will go is a knotty pro'olem. 
The Java shipments last week were nil (so it is said). 
MeariTvhile tbp r.rrivals iu Amsterdam are large, no 
le.Ter than 1,410 packages having arrived by one vessel 
this week. 
LEM:,iS Oil. — There has been a large amount of 
business done during the past ten "dp.ys, and as 
large orders are availii.ble, holder.^? are this weeksligbfcly 
■easier at Ss to ys 9d, c.i.f., according to quality and 
b^•nnd. 
QuiNi.NE.— The course of this article has again been 
downward, and fruitless attempts were made by spe- 
culations to bolster up the market on Friday and 
Saturday last, but on Monday the improvement 
was lost, small gales being made for August delivery 
at Is 4d, and there were buyers for Blay delivery 
