THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTUEIST. [Dec. 1, 1899. 
the gl'ower/wliicli only entails unnecessary labour 
on tile home trade, with no advantage in return. 
HUGGEK MUGGUR AUCTIONS. 
The system of samplinf,' the pahlic sales on the 
part of the trade is a very cumbrous one. In other 
business the samples are on show in the brokei's 
sale rooms, but that is mostly in the case of 
commodities where elaborate tasting is not so 
essential as ib is in the case of tea. It has been 
suggested that it would be more convenient if the 
public sale samjdes were sent round to the trade in 
time for the sales, by the bonded warehouse-keepers 
and payment taken" for them at some average price, 
or so many pounds of " returns" given. At present 
the whole number of the representatives of the 
wholesale dealers attend at the different bonded 
warehouses, and the supply of the separate samples 
to them creates an immense amount of expense and 
of waste of time. We do not suggest this as a de- 
finite solution but only as one that might be con- 
sidered now that the new Tea Buyers Association 
is engaged in going into all such questions. As it 
the time 'allowed the trade tor valuing is quite 
insufficient, 'and only the largest houses can cope 
with the samples, and then only hurriedly. Tlie in- 
terests of groWers must.often be seriou.-,ly afitecled 
by this excessive haste. , , 
As we pointed out some time back it apjiears 
certain that much of the present great depreciation 
inthe value of tea,ascompared with former years is 
due to the system of unrestricted public sales. W he- 
ther the teas are or are not wanted, they are pushed 
upon the market in constantly increasingquan titles, 
and fall to a dead level in price in consequence, be- 
cause it is not worth while for anyone in this coun- 
try to stock more tea than they can possibly help. 
It' is our firm conviction that what the Indian tea 
planters have been long trying to do, that is abolish- 
in" what they erroneously call the Mincing Lane 
monopoly, is the source of half their trouble.^. In 
former days when the varieties and qualities of tea 
were tar less than they are now, it was worth the 
while of an intermediate class, acting as merchants 
here to buy up suitable teas, and to wait 
tor ' markets," so that the prices were equa- 
lised. At present this class of dealers practi- 
cally' confine themselves to hand-to-mouth pur- 
chases, for they can always get plenty of supplies 
at auction, and there is no reward whatever for 
holding larger stocks than are sufficient for a few 
days' trade. So tar as we know, there is no other 
article whatever, which taste and fancy so largely 
enter into, which is sacrificed in the same way as 
Tea is, in tliis hugger-mugger without re.?erve 
system. In years past we have strongly advocated 
public sales for Tea, as the only way to fix values, 
and to this we fully adhere, if they are supple 
luented by large private transactions, conducted 
in a more leisurely way. The Indian and Ceylon 
trade can never "be on'a satisfactory basis until 
the public sale system is largely supplemented in 
this fashion. 
BULKING AND TRADING IN INDIA. 
We alluded above to the great cost inflicted 
upon the Indian planters, throuis;h the necessity 
for bulkint.' and for separately taring their Teas i'n 
tliis country. Some progre.ss ha.s been made with 
regard to bulking abroad, but it is inconceivable 
here why the system has not become universal. 
Years ago we heard the old excuse about thedanip- 
iiess of the climate and the dilficulty of keeping 
Teas ; but if the facts are as alleged, the difficulty 
can easily be remedied by such simple appliances 
as hot-water pipes. Then again, as regards 
the taring of the teas, the smaller gardens 
no doubt have to rely on rougb native 
labour, and this is given as an excu>e for the 
chests not being cut to scale. The excuse seems 
to us totally insutfisient, and we can only ascribe 
the continuance of the existing system to ignor- 
ance. In these ilays when metal chests can so easily 
be obtained, as well as the beautifully-made 
" Venesta " and other artificial wood chests, un- 
even tares seem simply inexcusable. It pays our 
Sugar refiners to import ready-cut wood for such 
a cheap commodity as theirs, and when a single 
manufacturer requires 40,000 or 50,000 cases a 
week cf the siz;; of a tea chest, it surely would 
be worth the while of Indian planters to import 
either the " Venesta " packages or wood cut in 
proper shooks from other countries, in places 
where the native labour and the appliances are 
so deficient as they appear to be in a vast num- 
ber of cases. The planters also go far to neces- 
sitate relnilking in this country bj' the exces.sive 
subdivision of their teas into different sized leaver*. 
This can only be effected by a costly syotem of 
sifting, in addition to the exposure of the tea to 
friction, which breaks a large portion of the leaves, 
and turns them into comparatively waste dust or 
broken leaf. We have lonf held that the planters 
would do far better to buy a reasonable-sized 
grocers' bulking and cutting machine, and then 
make much larger breaks of an average quality. 
The cost would be less, and, we believe in the 
long ran, the rel.itive price would be higher. 
INCREASING PRODUCTION, LOWER PRICES, AND 
THE ARTIFICIAL RUPEE. 
The production in India, Ceylon and Java, is con- 
sequently increasing, for the fresh plantings are 
year by year coming into bearing. Even if another 
tea plant were not planted for the next five years, 
the increase would still continue from previous .sow- 
ings. The consumption of tea in this country has 
reached its li^:iir, and the next great consuming 
country— the United States— uses only something 
like one-sixth of what we use, and is at present 
greatly wedded to the flavoury China teas. The 
same is the case in Russia, and although we hope, 
and believe, that Indian and Ceylon teas will 
readily make their way in both these countries, the 
demand cannot be important for years ; its progress 
is not quick, and the increasingsuppliesmust there- 
fore continue to deluge this market. The action of 
the Indian Government in artificially fi.xing the ex- 
change value of the rupee at the rate of Is 4d, when 
the intrinsic value of the coin is something about 
lid, is also most injurious to the Indian tea plan- 
ters. In these depressing times it must to a large 
extent tend to ruin our own growers, or to tlivert 
the trade to the common tea of China, because China 
owing to the uni estricted exchange for the dollar, 
enjoys an advantage of '2d in every pound of tea. 
While the possibilities of economies in the trade are 
great, we fear that the possibilities of decreasing 
prices are even greater, so that the question should 
be actively taken in hand. It is, therefore, ob- 
viously to the interest of the whole trade to take up 
tea reform in earnest. It is possible that the result 
of the coming depression will be the extension of 
something like the Central Factory system. If so, 
the small gardens would cease to manufacture tea, 
and would sell the green leaf to the larger 
operators, who can work better and more econo- 
mically than the small growers. This is the 
system which long usage has established in China, 
and it is already beginning in India. These latter 
