S16 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. 1, 1889. 
of the estate, or as a shareholder, am justified ia 
expecting of them. It is obviously afjainst the 
interests of companies selling in London to have 
their teas bulked there, as the charges are 
heavy, and besides the teas deteriorate in quality 
from the operation, and it is surely the duty of 
the home agents to see that those charges are 
avoided. They, however, say the broker is the 
responsible party, and if this connection be correct, 
then on what grounds do they — the agents — claim 
to earn the 2J per cent commission on grass 
sale proceeds of the teas. My agents charge 2i- 
per cent at Calcutta and 2j per cent on this 
side." 
"The Geisha" up to Date. — An Anti-tannicTea 
Infuser Syndicate has been formed to exploit the 
merits of a patent teapot, the invention of Misa 
Bain, and as one of the means to that end, arrange- 
ments have been entered into " to supply by cable 
notice sixty Gei5ha girls who would serve tea in 
full Japanese costume." Whether Japanese tea is to 
be served from the teapot or whether Indian and 
Ceylon teas will be considered good enough does 
not appear from the circular issued to the share- 
holders. This circular, which extols the merits of 
the "Geisha" teapot, mentions that it "should 
more or less cause a revolution in the liquid tea 
trade, and be placed in the heart of every house- 
hold. Being a source of novelty as well as 
utility, it should also open up a splendid field 
for advertising. It is our intention," says the 
circular, " to take advantage of this means of 
profit by introducing so many thousand tea- 
pots to the public, as, for instance, the Lyons, 
the A.B.C., Slaters, Limited, or any other large 
company that will remunerate us for such ad- 
vertisement without disfiguring the article. With 
regard to the dry tea trade, we intend to manu- 
facture specially-designed pots, such as the Tower 
teapot, Miizawatte, &c., and to sell to all agents 
who deal in these particular brands of teas, so that 
their advertisement will always be under the im- 
mediate eye of the user. The Carpetto Syndicate 
have kindly consented to push our concern to tne 
best of their ability, and as they are more or 
less working in every theatre, restaurant, hotel, 
music-hall, mansion, club, &c., their aid should 
prove invaluable — in fact, they are now putting the 
' Geisha' before the Gordon Hotels, London and 
North-Western Eailway and others with a view to 
supplying them throughout. It is reasonable to 
suppose that, if the A. B.C. could form such a 
gigantic concern on aerated bread, an article such 
as we possess must eventually prove to be nucleus 
of the liquid tea trade. We hope at no very dis- 
tant date, if successful, to place before the share- 
holders a group of City shops, which we have well 
in hand, with a view of working them on the 
lines of a 
' GEISHA ' TEA-HOUSE. 
Our chairman has also entered into negotiations with 
Japanese agents to supply by cable notice (if necessary) 
sixty Geieha girls, who would serve tea in full Japanese 
costume. The absolute novelty of this idea, combined 
vrith a better and healthier cup of tea, should 
prove very lucrative to the syndicate if they 
think it desirable to take the matter up. An 
attractiva display of ' Geisha' teapots is on 
view at the Greater Britain Exhibition, Earl's 
Court, and inquiries are daily reaching the office 
from various parts of the country asking where these 
teapots can be bought in London and the provinces. 
It is gratifying to report that the ' Geisha ' has been 
awarded the Exhibition gold medal. We have quite 
unexpectedly executed a trial order from Paris for 
teapots, and are now picking several teapots in 
completion of a repeat order from Messrs. Cooper, 
Cooper and Co., Limited, London, which firm has 
now had over2,0U0 teapots within the past few months. 
Several china and earthenware manufacturers have 
applied to us for permission by lioonse to mauufacture 
for sale to their own customers our patent teapots, 
for which they offer to pay royalty from 4d to 4Jd 
per pot. For the present we have considered it 
prudent to grant only one license, and in that ins- 
tance we have restricted the output to 100,000 teapots, 
which must be sold at prices and discounts uniform 
with our printed lists. We are at present consider- 
ing offers from foreign manufacturers to make and 
sell in foreign markets; it is also our intention to 
have our teapots made in Japan at very low cost, 
and sample patterns are now on their way out." 
The Teapot and the Tea. — As regards the effect 
of the teapot on the tea, a report from Mr. George 
Combe Stewart, f.c.s., m.b.p.c, &c., public analyst 
and consulting chemist at the County of the City 
of Glasgow, says : "I hereby certify that I have care- 
fully tested, in a practical manner, an ordinary teapot 
fitted with the tea infuser and separator (Bain's patent) 
which was submitted to me. I have also read the 
descriptive pamphlet which you have issued to the 
public, and I am of opinion that there is nothing 
stated in the pamphlet which the performance of the 
apparatus does not fully justify. The following points, 
which are not mentioned in your circular, were brought 
out by me in my experiments — namely : 1. It isi 
considerale saver of tea over the ordinary methods 
of tea rr.aking as now practised in this country. Given 
a teapot laige enough for a family meal there would 
be no" necessity for second infusions, the last cup 
served being as free from tannic acid as the first 
served off. 2. It thoroughly filters the infusion, 
allowing no sediment or powdered tea to be found 
in the beverage, and uniformly insures a beautifully 
clarified and refreshing cup of tea. 3. It allows the 
boiling water to be kept in contact with the tea leaves 
just the exact and proper time for extracting all the 
tbeine, allowing none of the bitter elements to go 
into solution." — H. and C. Mail, Sept. 22. 
COFFEE CURING. 
MK. JAMES WESTLAND'.S LETTER, 
Planting Opinion to hand contains a copy of 
a letter addressed by Mr. James Westland, of 
Ganiinaduwa, to the Secretary, United Planters 
Association, of South India, and forwarded through 
the Ceylon Planters' Association. The {greater 
part of ic is devoted to a description of coffee 
curing in Ceylon, which need not be reproduced ; 
but the beginning and end of the letter is as 
follows :— 
Sir, — In today's paper appears your resolution in- 
viting information from members of your District 
Associations as to the result of any special system 
adopted in the Curing of Coffee on Estates. Although 
not a member of your Association, I have been a 
long time connected with coffee growing, and have 
had some experience as a Coffee Estate Manager 
during my nearly thirty years' residence in Ceylon. 
My system of curing cofiee on the estate may be 
the system generally adopted by Indian planters ; 
if so, you will know how to treat this, but should 
it be slightly different from that in general use. I 
think it will pay your coffee planters to closely 
follow my system, which I carried out on Golconda 
from 1872 to 1888, Old sale lists will prove, with 
what result 
Coffee dried slowly, and given a half-day's sun a day 
or two previous to despatch, will, when finally cured, 
be a far prettier bean than coffee cured by two or 
three successive days in the sun. It may help you 
to realize the importance of the system if I mention, 
at the risk of appearing egotistical, that the owner 
of an extensive property in Haputale gratefully ack- 
nowledged these hints, and gave me, through his son 
who was then the President Manager, a present of 
a cheque for R250, because of the result from his 
adopting my system of curing, and afterwards, on 
every occasion his son left for England, I had the 
