August 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUPJST. 
75 
perhaps in the aggregate add appreciably to th 
duty on tea. If so there is more m the pbilosphy 
of the Customs thau I dream of. But I maintain 
that the process of weighiug net for duty is more 
sensible, more exact, and more expendiiious. But 
since gross and tare the Customs will have, let us 
endeavour to got them to allow us a reasonable 
margin of 3 lb. or, if possible, 4 Jb. in the variation 
of ths tares. This is a matter which I think the 
Indian Tea Association ought to take up. It is a 
matter which will enable the Indian Tea Industry 
to save many thousands of pounds sterling annually, 
as I will show in biaclt and white. Take my illus- 
tradve crop of 144,000 lb. Pack it in 100 lb. chests, 
aad send it to Loudon. Now here is what you v/ill 
save by bulking and taring at the factory, if you 
can succeed on getting a tare that will come within 
the Customs Rsgulations. 
London balking and taring charges on a crop of 
144,000 sent to market in 1,440 chests of 100 lb. each, 
and weighing gross over 129 each. 
Bulking at 5d, per chest less 10 per cent. ... ±'27-0-0 
Taring at 1/3 do do ... i'Sl-O-O 
Total expense if balked and tared in London £108-3 0 
But, if bulked and tared at Factory, only 
10 per cent, of the chests will be tared 
in London for purposes of Customs' check, 
leaving 144 chests at 1/3 per chest less 
10 per cent, to be charged, say ... 8-2-0 
Leaving a clear saving of .. ...i;99-18-0 
or in round figures i'lOO. 
My factory taring costs me anna, or one farthing 
a chest, whicli is the extra allowance I make my 
carpenters for even weights in their work. They 
are allowed to make chests from 23 lb. to 33 lb, 
each, and these are stacked separately according to 
their weight. On 90 per cent of my chests sent to 
market I can save exactly 1-53 each, and so can 
every planter who tries. It is nearly 2h per cent, 
on the average price I get for my tea. At preseut 
it gives me a great deal of trouble to achieve this, 
but if the margin of permissible difference in tares 
were raised from 2 lb. to 4 lb. or even 3 lb., then 
it would give me practically no trouble at all, to 
save £100 a year out of hand. 
With regard to factory bulking this is a most simple 
and satisfactory operation. My bulking bin cost me 
Rs. 8U. It is made of galvanised iron sheets, bolted 
together, and holds 4,000 lb. to 5,C0U lb. of tea. The 
bottom is on a slight slops to let the tea run out 
easily. The top is fed from two superimposed shoots 
whose mouths deliver at the same point. The tea 
naturally falls conically and scatters. AVhen full a 
slide on the lower side of the sloping floor is drawn 
and the tea runs oat, almost of its own accord, 
on to a surface of zinc-lined flooring. Here two 
coolies i-ake it over and over to the end where the 
packers receive it. In practice the tea is twice balked, 
once vertically and then horizontally. The process 
costs me about four annas for 4,0001b : for the same 
work the London wharfinger would charge me fifteen 
shillings. I stencil all my boxes 
"Chests numbered — to — 
bulked at Factory, and 
guaranteed even quality 
throughout." 
1 had not a single complaint last season, except 
for three chests country damaged, which would of 
course have been damaged whether factory bulked 
or not, 
EXCKSSIVE Cn.iEGES. 
One final word about factory bulking and taring. 
Brokers and wharfingers are dead against it : the 
form^r from trade sympathy I imagine: the latter 
for obvious reasons, for, as I have shown, it is cal- 
culated to decrease there revenue from £l03-')-0 to 
£8-0-0. I imagine the wharfiugers make the greater 
part of their profits out of London bulking and tar- 
ing. Fancy a charge of Is. 6d. for bulking and 
taring 100 lb. of tea sold lor 4d. per lb.! Why, it is 
4| par cent, on the value! The wharfingers are 
getting this rate of payment for thousands of 
chests every week, and the work done in return 
could not be worse performed. 
_ I have endured much tribulation through my in- 
sistence on bulking my teas at factory. " We would 
point out to you," write my brokers pathetically, 
'" that not any of your teas have been balked in 
London this season. Had this parcel been bulked 
at the London warehouse the damage would have 
been discovered before the tea was sold ! " A plain 
dig against factory bulking aud its evils! Bat the 
" damage " was country damage, whi;h had not the 
remotest connection with the factory bulking of 
my teas. It cost me £1-10-8 to make good ; and my 
factory bulking saved me over £80. 
Listen to the plaint of the wharfingers: — ''From 
our experience certain teas, even if bulked at the 
factory, show a variation when landed, and we 
know the brokers find it necessary to bulk these 
teas for the purposes of sale, and in some sale 
catalogues they are marked '• Bulked in London " 
in order that the sale may not be prejudiced!" 
To which I felt inclined to reply : " From my 
experience I do not feel inclined to follow your 
purely disinterested and kindly advice, because I 
find by bulking at factory that I have to pay you 
£30 less than I should if I did not do so." 
If teas require re-bulking in London it is because 
they were not properly bulked or properly fired at 
factory. A properly balked and fired tea will of 
course turn out as even in London as when it left 
the factory. 
8. Sale Charges, Brokerage and Commission. — I 
find that on my crop of 144,000 lb. brokerage cost 
me i'43-15-8 or 'OTd. per pound of tea, and sale 
charges (lotting and advertising) £10-8-8 or '02 per 
pound of tea. Both I should hold to be perfectly 
reasonable and good value for money, if it were not 
for the expense of discounting the prompt, to which 
I shall refer later on. 
Commission cost me, at Ij per cent, on account 
sales, £64-7-8, or nearly '11 per lb. of tea. If my 
agent had taken the same trouble as I have myself 
to analyse the warehouse charges and shown me 
how to avoid unnecessary expense I would not have 
grudged him a commission which is, I think, at 
least i per cent, in excess of the value of the work 
he performs. It was not until I extracted from him 
the detailed warehouse accounts for the year that I 
saw what I had saved by bulking and inefficient 
factory taring, and how much more I could save, 
and how to save it. In the present state of the 
tea industry I consider li per cent, selling com- 
mission too much. The whole of the detail and 
checking of the selling work can be done by any 
London clerk at a pound a week salary, and for an 
invoice of 10,0unlb. done in about twenty minutes 
applied work. The skilled part of the business is 
done by the broker. The agent merely asks — What's 
your valuation?" The broker says ''Seven pence." 
The agent rejoins, '■ Sell at seven pence." and the 
job is done. The bust agent in England cannot get 
you a farthing more for your teas than the mark t 
values it at. All ho has to du is to sign the war- 
rants and check the accounts presented to him, and 
take the money. He is the best paid man in the 
industry for the purely mechanical work he does, 
and 1 per cent is ample remuneration for him. His 
accounts are no more intricate than the brokers, and 
he is not required to bring the same skilled technical 
knowledge to the planters' assistance. He is merely 
a necessary conduit for tlie planters' money to reach 
them, and the planter should now insist on his 
commission being reduced to 1 per cent. Any larger 
commission is behind the requirement of the times. 
An Unnejessap.y Levy. 
9. Trade Taxes. — I now come to the last factor 
ia the cost of production. There are two species of 
