440 
THE* TROriCAL 
AGRICULTURIST, 
[Dec. 1, 1898. 
All this advertising is very costly, aud in some casei 
is done at the expense of the quality of the tea. I have 
learnt since coming over of two orders for 1,000 cheeita 
each, one for Calcutta and one for Colombo, of tea to 
be delivered here at a fraction over Od. The one for 
Calcutta is from a firm advertising Ceylon tea only 
and boastiug of their fine cupquitlity ! 
It is a matter for congratulation, that whereae the 
total imports fof teas to the States and Canada show 
such an immense falling-off, Ceylon teas are an excep- 
tion. The shipments trora Colombo direct and via 
China are two and a half times as much as last year, 
while up to end of September, shipments from Loudon 
were slightly in excess of last year. 
Were there a duty on tea in Canada, it is probable 
there would be discrimination in favour of British- 
grown teas. But as there is no duty, one will not be 
imposed on foreign teas, to favour us. It is at present 
generally believed inCanada that a duty will be imposed 
next year, in which case it may be somewhat lower lor 
our teas, than for Japan or China teas. 
Several Canadian tea dealers expressed the opinion 
very strongly thatCeylons were rapidly onstiug Japan 
teas in Canada Un the other hand a leading Japan 
dealer told mu he never sold his imports so easily in 
Canada aa this year. On quoting ibis statement of 
his to the former gentlemen tliey said " Very likely, 
because he never had so few to sell," exports from 
Japan having fallen otf' so much this year. 
Be this as it may, there is no doubt tliat although 
the Japanese are increasing their advertisiugiu Canada, 
there is ten times as mucu noise made in tnat way by 
the offeHsive and aggressive Ceylon and Indian package 
people, as by the old dealers in China aad Japan teas, 
who are the defensive party. I believe the special 
work we are now beginning in Canada will greiiiy aid 
our friends. 
What Congress will do with regard to taking 
off the duty in the States or putting a similar 
duty on coffee, it is as yet impossible to say. 
Coffee is grown largely in some ot America's new 
possessions, espaciaily Porto Rico. A duty may be 
put on Brazil coffee to protect the newly-acquired 
colonies. In one of this morning's New York papers, 
it is stated that the cost of the war has been only 
cue-seventh of the 8800,000,000 appropriated for it. if 
so, the war duties may be wiihdrawn, unless, as is 
quite possible, every man who was enrolled for service 
and all his relatives be put on the pension list. So 
far this year, 17,000 new pensioners of the war which 
ended iu 1864 have been put on the list. Pensions 
for that war have been doubling every three or four 
years since the war ended, and now amount to 
£33,000,000 (not dollars) a year. 
Two men met on the street a few days ago. One 
said, " Glad, war is over, business will be good now." 
" What is your business ? " asked the other. 
" Pension Attorney." 
I enclose a list of 48 papers in which we are 
advertising in the States. This does not include 
magazines or ladies' papers ; also two of our recent 
advertisements which the Colombo papers might 
reproduce. An article on " Tea Culture in the Soutn," 
worth printing; one on "Making Chiua Teas Like 
India and Ceylons," one on '• Ceylon Tea Shipments," 
where the editor of the Canadian Grocer corrects an 
error regarding Russian taste iu tea, at my request. 
One on the "American Tea Bye," which should please 
the editor of the Tropical Agricultwist ; a circular on 
"Ceylon India Blossoms," "Connoisseurs Delight," 
by a leading Pniiadelphia house; and one about 
" Hondi " Ceylon tea from a Vancouver paper. I 
send the cover of the 20sh October number of the 
Youth's Companion. For the fr^nt page, Baker & Co. 
paid £1,500 for one insertion of their iiieakfast Cocoa, 
.wiiu; Alellin's Food paid £1,000 for the back page. 
Ou the page of Canadian Grocer with article on 
" Ceylon Tea Shipments," see also article on a "Tea 
Duty Mystery," showing how political influences 
determine this, as everything else here. — Yours tiuly. 
WM. MACKENZIE. 
TEA AND OTHEU CEYLON PllODUCTS, 
AND LIFE IN TEX.\S. U.S. 
Galveston, Tex&R, Oct. 25. 
Dear Sir, — Yonr principal prodact has, among 
other things in this country, to contend with not 
only the taste for and low price of coffee, the War 
Tax of ten cents per pound on tea, and the cheep 
teas that are iu general use, but the formidable task 
of changing the taste of a people, and getting them 
to buy and use an article unfamiliar and new to them, 
and which they fear to be a fraud, like so many other 
new things presented to their notice. 
The wholesale and retail prices of Coffee, e.a tbejr 
appeared in the daily papers, are: — Wholesale: ordi- 
nary about 8 cents; good ordinary 8J cents; feir 
about cents; prime to choice (I) about 11 cents; 
" Cordoba " (under which name nearly all Mexicea 
and South American Coffee is sold) and washed 
llj cents to 17 cents; Peaberry 13 to HJ cents; 
aud roasted Ariosa (Arbuckles) at 11 J cents. 
The retailers advertise nine pounds of clean or 
green coffee for one dollar, the " Crescent " brand (put 
up in one pound packets by a New Orleans house) 
at 10 cents per pound roasted, and other styles 
are sold at from 25 cents and Mocha and Java at 30 
to 3;') live cents per pound roasted. 
Cevlox Tf.a is sold by one store here from the 
chest, at one dollar per pound, while the tea in 
common use is ofteiier priced at 25 cents the pound 
and tlmt two in quantities of 5 cents worth. 
A drummer for a w'holesale hoase may sell 
what a retailer would rather not have, and which 
he makes no effort to dispose of ; and so it hanga 
file until it loses its strength and flavour, aud then 
the retailer declares he wants no more of it. la 
other words the retailer buys to please the drummer 
and then shelves the purchase. Ueino, a cheap tea 
is put up by a Baltimore bouse, and that haa for 
years been extensively advertised and has the grip on 
the Southern consumer; and how Ceylon tea la 
to reach him is an enigma, when we take into account 
the apathy and indifference of the retail dealer. 
When my present effort was first made here, I 
sent out a neat booklet aud circular, together with 
a posial card, on one side of which was the addresa 
of the Company and on the reverse a place for the 
applicant's name and the different brands and prices. 
About 1,500 went out at first and not one waa 
ever returned ! Numerous canvassers have gone out 
to return unsuccessful, which discouraged them and 
made them quit. 
On many days I have myself gone out and 
solicited, and one day's experience will tell you the 
whole story. On this occasion I took in every house 
ou each side of the street for eighteen blocks, and 
secured an order for one half-pound of tea to be 
delivered a week later ou. How is that for encourage- 
ment ? If any one wants to learn of the difficultiea 
of introducing Ceylon tea to the consumer in the 
South, let him come to Galveston, and he will learn 
enough iu one day to drivo him out of the busi- 
ness. The people here are wedded to cheap, rank 
strong coffee, which is oftener than not composed 
of chicory and other foreign substances. Some that 
I induced to use our Pure Lanka Coffee decided that 
they did not like it, that it was too weak, etc., etc. 
In one little town I made a free distribution of 
fifty-one half-pound packets of 
CEYLON TEA, 
among the best families of the place, with the pleasing, 
satisfying result that not one family gave me an order, 
although some of them sta'ed they did not dis- 
like it. 
In many places the consumer has his axe to grind 
and he is afraid of offending his grocer. In this city 
the largest and most progressive dry goods dealer 
yot au urchitect to dM,w up plans for a building that 
he contemplated erecting, cind so arranged that it 
would accommodate almost any class of business, in 
faQt a modern departmental store, and he had acta- 
