Nov. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
325 
TEA INSPECTION AT THE PORTS. 
Keouction of dt;ty. 
SiE,— There are two circumstances effecting the tea 
trade at the present time which demand attention. 
The first is the excessive duty, for it is against all 
the traditions of the country that the most wholesome 
of non alcoholic stimulants, which has become the 
staple beverage of the masses, should bear a tax 30 
per cent over the cost of production, while a tax 
representing only one-third of the same ratio is raised 
on beer. That the tempeisnce party has not taken 
this up is a matter of surprise. The second circura- 
statice which equally calls lor attention is the necessity 
of preventing the importation of really bad and 
UDSound teas. 
These two questions are inter-related, and should be 
taken up as parts of one scheme of reform, for it will 
be useless to reduce the duty if the result is only to 
flood the country with bad tea, and so prejudice, 
instead of stimulating, consumption. The year 1900 
gave a good sample of what some producers can do in 
that respect, and that a stop must be put to the practice 
is proved by the admissions of the planters" own news- 
papers, which vould have been very prejudicial to the 
sale of tea had they been read in this country. It is 
also becoming daily more necessary to disarm the 
medical opposition to the use of tea, which is justifiable 
on'y if confined to badly manufactured teas, none of 
which need be passed by the Customs. 
One fact no f;ener lly known about tea is that it is 
the only commodity of universal consumption the 
supply of which can be indefinitely increased at a few 
weeks' notice by the action of a few large companies. 
We cannot instantly increase the supply of coffee or 
cocoa, because these are fruits. Even a grain crop 
requires u6w cultivation, and a full year must elapse 
before much increase can occur. It is not so with tea. 
The same bush can at a fortnight's notice be made 
to increase its production 30 per cent by " coarser 
plucking." Nor does the evil merely end in glutting 
the market and so injuring the stability of the 
industry. In coffee, cocoa, or wheat the article— 
whsther it be a bean or grain — remains the same in 
quality ; but in tea simuUaneonsly with this sudden 
increase of the supply the quality is deteriorated and 
the consumption — a very serious matter alike to th« 
consumer and the distributor — is prejudiced. It these 
are facts they must be met by any remedy that may 
be practicable and within the limits of fair legislation. 
The Food and Drugs Act is provided by the nation 
in this spirit, but is inoperative in tea, because it deals 
with teas after they have passed through the " blend, 
ing process," instead of detecting the bad constituents 
before they have left the Custom House. No grocer 
wants '• rubbish teas," but if tea, however bad, may 
be offered without restriction at public sale — which is 
the delightfully permissive state of ihe law at present 
— there will always be people to buy it and pass it on, 
flavoured with someihing else, to the grocer. 
It is this, specially bad tea, which will not 
keep that ought to be put under the ban of the 
Customs, specially in view of the extortiont te duty 
levied Now I am no supporter of the principle 
fo (jrovernnient interference, sneh as ni ght be 
attempted on the unfortunate retailer thiough the 
Food and Drugs Act, but I do believe in prevention 
beirg betttr than cure, and can show that prevention 
in ihis instai.oe is the more easily applied. All that 
tlie Govet Timent need do is to appoint a few trade tea 
exp rts — the o ly people who have an instinctive 
knowledge of tea- to detect the really noxious teas. 
Tbe^e ucen, as inspectors, should have the necessary 
authority to draw samples at will, as the shipments 
are Unded, from the teas indicated by the brokers' 
published salf-iists to be under suspicion. 
It; would mean sampling but a very small percentage 
of the supplies, but the mere risk of a mark being 
condemned would deter unscrupulous producers from 
tiikmg the risk of plucking foe quantity regardlesi 
of their ability to convert that quantity to whole- 
some tea. 
41 
If it is said that this form of Government interference 
is objectionable it may be replied that the Gove>n- 
ment do employ inspectors as it is, but they merely 
examine the dry leaf — a test which is practically 
useless, and may just as likely stop good tea as bad. 
This actually did occur a few months ago, a maik 
of a well-known Ceylon estate having been condemned 
by the Customs on its appearance, but proved 
on analysis to be of excellent quality. Yet the Cus- 
toms authorities who had condemned this were 
passing millions of pounds of offensive teas. 
From amongst them a set of samples was 
obtained in the ordinary trade wav for the pur- 
pose of the pamphlet, " The Tea We Drink," recently 
noticed in your columns. These samples proved to 
be of a very objectionable description. They can be 
produced and verified, and they represent estates 
owned by some of the first tea companies in India and 
Ceylon. 
Obviously, then, a change of the system of inspection 
from a mere ocular examination of the dry leaf to an 
infusion test by experts is necessary if the public 
and distributor are to be protected. There is no 
necessity that the test, in the first instance should be 
an analytical one, but only that the analyst should 
report on what the trade expert has condemned. By 
this means much assistance might be rendered to the 
planter in avoiding faults of manufacture. If it U said 
that now is not .the time to introduce the reform 
because little bad tea is coming in the reply is that it 
is of all others the very best time on that account. 
If it had been introduced last November, when much 
bad tea was coming in, it would have created a great 
deal of trouble. 
Now the person who should lead the way in pressing 
for these reforms, viz., the reduction of the tea duty 
and the stoppage of really bad tea, is the grocer. In 
doing this he will be fighting both the people's battle 
and his own for it is, to start with, a trade question 
requiring some technical knowledge. The public do 
not possess this, but will support what is in their 
interest if pressed for by the grocer. 
lam, c&c, E. H. SKRINB. 
5, Victoria avenue, Bishopsgate-street, E. C., July 
30, — Grocer. Aug. 3, 
FRUIT CULTURE IN JAPAN. 
(To the Editor, "North-China Daily Neivs") 
SiE, — The subject of fruit culture has always been 
of interest to me, and when I first came out to the 
Bast in 1863 we always uued to wonder why it was that 
the Japanese insisted upon gathering their fruit before 
ripe and that even then you could hardly erer 
get a peach that had not a grub in it. I thought I 
would try for myself, and got a collection of peach and 
pear trees out from England. I also got some of your 
excellent peach trees from Shanghai. 
Under my care, for a variety of reasons, chiefly that I 
had not room, tbey never really succeeded. I gave the 
plants away in various directions, and now in the 
country hereabout, partly thanks to these trees, the 
cultivation has increased and is rapidly increasing. 
It is found that a light, sandy soil, especially wher* 
it is well watered by a river, is best suited for fruit 
culture and some of our peaches are really splendid ; 
u hilbt among the pears I have seen fruit of a size 
that I never saw in Prance or England. But my object 
is chiefly to tell you how the Japanese have managed 
to get good crops of peaches with no grubs in them, 
for in talking with an old Shanghai resident the other 
day, he told me you were still unable to secure a crop 
of peaches free from this pest. The Japanese select 
the peaches they wish to keep on a tree, and when the 
fruit is the size of a walnut tbey cover it with a paper 
bag made from the ordinary cheap Japanese paper, 
which has been steeped in what is called here "Shibui," 
a preparation of the juice of the persimmon tree. This 
has a peculiar acrid odour that insects will not ap- 
proach. Ihe bag is virtually air-tight, and the throat 
\8 fastened by a string round the branch to which the 
