104 THE TROPICAL AGRICtLTURIST. [Auguht 1, 1898. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
Tea in Bond. — Tea planters know something 
about the treatment of their tea at the bondea 
warehouses. The general publio are , not so well 
acquainted with the modus operandi, ,a,aA a writer 
iu the Daili/ Mail tries to enlighten them. He begins 
by pointing out that, " of course, London does not 
consume all the tea imported. The 200,000 odd re- 
tailers in the United Kingdom obtain iheir Bup- 
pliea from the metropolis, and there are besides 
30,000,000 lb. required by tea drinkers abroad. All 
the tea sent to England in landed at the docks, and 
sent under lock and key to bonded warehouses, the 
largest of which, situated nearLiverpool Street Station, 
stands on five acres of groand. Other goods, &c., 
to the value of £3,000,000 are housed in this six- 
stoiied barrack-like building, but tea o:;cnpie8 the 
bulk of the 610,000- square feet of space, which ij not 
surprising, considering that there are seldom less 
than 100,000 packiges in stock, and that the incom- 
ings and outgoings average 10,000 packages a week. 
To finish with statistics, let it be added that there 
is enough tea at this bonded store to supply every 
one of the 5,0'IO,000 inhabitants of the metropolis 
with 12 lb of tea each. 
Warehouse Methods. — " It would be impossible in 
the limits of this article to describe the routine of 
a bonded lea warehouse," says the writer. '' Speak- 
ing generally, it may be said that the pack- 
ages on arrival are hoisted with lightning celerity 
from the yards below and stacked in piles called 
beds, damaged cases being repaired by coopers 
with a rapidity and deiLterity quite wonderful to behold; 
but not more surprising, perhaps, than the speed shown 
in sorting the packages with due regard to quality, 
marks, weights, etc. One of the busiest spots is the 
scales.' Innumerable trucks are rushed to this spot at 
full speed. One overseer will call the shipping mark ; 
the entering clerk will shout some response. Stento- 
rian accents will proclaim the desciption of tea, and 
the person for whom the information is intended will 
yell something in reply. In fact the noise here is so 
great that had nob the individual who notifies the 
wsi^htsa very penetrating voice he would not be heard 
at all. The only silent figures in this Babel are the Gov- 
erament officer, who is there to see that fler 
Majesty gets a full 4d on every pound of tea that 
comes in, and a workman whose duty it is to stencil 
the date on every box as it goes by. The emptying of 
the che'ts, which is necessary to ascertain the tare, 
frequently reveals dead rats and other foreign substan- 
ees, mostly introduced, it is feared, to replace tea which 
hiB been abstractei). There is one individual in a 
banded tea warehouse whose presence to the commu- 
nity is a boon and a blessing. Since the Sale of Food 
and Diugga Act of 1875, which empowered a public 
officer to select a sample of tea for analysis, adultera- 
tion has virtually become extinct. Prussian blue, 
turmeric, aloes, liquorice, and ash ^leaves are now 
things of the past. Indian tea being, notwitstanding its 
splendid properties, a little variable in quality and make 
has to undergo, in order to secure uniformity, a pro- 
cess known as ''bulking." It is quite a common thing 
in this warehouse to see gangs of men armed with 
shovels mixing mountains of tea of 20,008 lb. or more. 
Brokers are allowed to take away samples providing 
they tender iu exchange an equivalent in weight. 
Blending is an interesting operation, but one quite 
impossible to describe. The object of blending is to 
legitimately increase the profits of the trade, and at the 
same time tickle the palate of the public. Its mysteries 
are so intricate and profound that only the ' tea mind ' 
can tackle tbem. The 'tea nose' is even more exclusive 
than the ' tea mind.' Place before this appendage half 
a dozen samples, and it will nose you their merits to a 
nicety. In the tea world, brains of course rank high, 
but it is questionable whether noses are not more 
marketable. As evidencing the care taken by the 
officials to prevent the revenue being defrauded, the 
sweepings are carefully collected, and when a sufficient 
stock has been accumulated are taken in barges and 
emptied into the Thames near the Nore. The bonded 
tea warehouse packs tjie tea sent abroad in wrappers 
and canisters, furnished by merchants. Many of 
these labels are remarkable for the elegance of the 
pictorial display. ' 
Impoiitj or Tea and Coffee in Mav. — The trade re- 
turns show that among dutiable articles coffee increased 
by £106,000, while tea, from Ceylon mostly, fell off by 
about £ 100,000.— //. a<ul C. Mail. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
BunMAH Rice.— A Colombo Estate Agent who 
ouj^ht to know, thinku well of the prospect of 
Ceylon planters heiny; able to utilise Burniali 
rice for their coolies and at a cheaper rate than 
rice from Calcutta. It appears that Burmah will 
have about, two million tons of rice available 
for export this year. Our total requirements for 
Ceylon are umler ;WO,OlX) tons. 
Isdiahuhber. — The market is again firmer with 
sales in Para spot at llfd. to .Ss, U^d., and 
Bolivian at -U. per lb. closing buyers, report Messrs. 
Henry Kwer * Co. on the iJOth ult. In mediums 
at the sales on the 13th, the quantity ofifered was 
only partly sold at extreme rates. % bags Mozam- 
bique offered, and sold — good green bill at 2t. 
ll^d. to ii., red rather heated 3s. 0|d., good read 
3i. 2d„ mixed Lama 2s. lljd. to 29. lljd. 108 bags 
Borneo offered, and 30 sold — fine 28. 2id.. good 2s. 
Id. to 2s. Ijd.. fair 2:^., and pickings Is. 4}d. to Is. 
5Jd. per lb- 320 bags Penang offered and 23 sold— 
fine 2s. lOd., good 2s. 7d., and low pickings Is. per 
lb. — llritinh Trade Journal. 
Ceara RunuEU.— The article on this subject 
in the Itust number of the Keu- Bulletin, (to be re- 
printed in full in the Tropical AgricuHuritt) will 
be read with much interest by tropical planters, 
say.s the Gardtnrrs Chronicle, as tlie tree Mani- 
liot Glaziou\i is ea.sily propa^'ated by seeds or 
by cuttings is, very hardy, a fa-st grower, not 
subject to insect or fungus attack, and thrives 
on poor .soil. It produces rubber of good quality, 
for which there is a large demand, ana it is, 
therefore, recommended that the tree be planted 
over large areas in a dry climate and on poor 
stony soil. 
The Grevillea Question.— In my letter, I merely 
expressed my opinion to the effect that Grcvilleas 
were not injurious to tea, which is about all an 
ordinary unscientific planter may do, and my object 
in doing this was with the view of preventing a 
stranger like Mr. Kelway Bamber, authority though 
he be, running away with the idea that we gene- 
rally supposed Grevilleas were at the bottom of all 
our troubles. I admit I have proved nothing farther 
than that an estate with a plethora of trees (mainly 
gums, the planting of which throughout the tea, 
even I won't attempt to defend) can hoid its own 
fairly well in the London saleroom. Is the origina- 
tor of this crnsade against one of our most orna- 
mental and useful trees, an unfledged creeper or a 
buyer of Grevillea plants ? Is he aware that one 
of the principal reasons given for the coffee-leaf 
disease was our flying in the face of all the laws 
of nature, by confining our attention solely to the 
one product, coffee, for miles and miles on end ? 
Is it not a fact that when the heathen Chinee lays 
himself out to produce a pound of tea worth for 
weight in silver, he artificially shades his bashes, 
and the result is a thing that Queens and Emperors 
dream of ? In the face of all this, would it not be 
very foolish of us to revert to the naked, ngly-look- 
ing landscapes of old, even if our trees were not 
all of them beneficial to our tea bushes which, most 
men of any experience whatever, consider Grevilleas 
are. Comparison with my neighbours would only end 
in confusion. Most of them have sufficient sense 
nowadays to grow Grevilleas or other shelter trees. 
Some of them got better prices, some worse, which 
again proves nothing.— John Frabek, Abbotiford, 
Nanuoya, June 2fth. 
