4o8 
one dollar for common to medium grades, the latter 
being throughout the seaaon most in request. The 
second crop was more satisfactory in quality than the 
first, and towards the middle of July gome slight 
ooDcesaions on the part of holders, conpled with 
encouraging advices from the consuming markets, led 
to considerable business, the lower grades again meeting 
with most inquiry. Increased firmness on the part of 
sellers followed, supplies beintr also withheld with a 
view to forcing up prices, and as the season progressed, 
a marked deterioration both in the quantity and 
quality becime noticeable. A. decline of 50 per cent, in 
Suez freights materially assisted the Japanese in 
maintaining values, notwithstanding the high rates of 
exchange then ruling, and business continued on 
about the same ba^is until the end of September, 
holders taking advantage of eyery opportunity 
to raise prices until they reached such a point as to 
render further buyiog unremnnerative, especially 
in view of the inferior selection and paucity of 
stocks, which by this time had dwindled down to 
some 270,000 lb. The financial crisis in Europe, in 
the fall of the year, put a sudden stop to business in 
the United States of America, the effeot of which 
was quickly felt in Japan and the season was virtu- 
ally closed by the end of October, although, as 
usual, a few desultory purchases continued to bo 
made, amounting to some 530,000 lb. The totel 
business for the season was 21,639,431 lb., that for 
1889 having been 18,245,735 lb. 
An increase in exports of 3^ million pounds is by 
no means to be overlooked more especially in an 
advanced country like Japrin, which will probably 
import all tne latest itiashinery, when she realises that 
by cheap and improved methods of manufacture she 
can obtain a share of the custom of the world. The 
flavour of the Japan leaf is said to be more delicate 
than Oeylon or Indian, and nearer in approach to 
China. As we know, in England the popular taste has 
turned, and the tea-drinking public demands stronger 
and more pungent liquors than the Pekoes and Oon- 
gous of Hankow and Formosa supply. But both in 
Bussia and the United States — two great consumers — 
the delicacy of the latter is still appreciated, and it 
appears as if many years must elapse before our 
British-grown leaf is liked, nor will the job be 
easier if Japan can supply China grades at Indian 
prices. As we have coastantly urged in these columns, 
it behoves the whole tea-planting community to 
spare no labour nor care in the cultivation and the 
manufacture of leaf, and to flood the markets 
with low grades is to undergo the very great risk 
of throwing away the advantage cow gained. Already 
a warning note has been sounded against the ill-effects 
of tea, in the argument that has been waged over 
alcoholic drinks. Excess of tannin undoubtedly is as 
deterimental to the human frame as alcohol, and it is 
possible to turn out of a tea factory leaf an iafusion 
of which is hardly a whit less poisonous than the de- 
oootioas of grape that find their way out of France 
under the name of brandy. [The comparison is most 
unjust to teas. Strength depends on tannin, but an 
infusion properly made contains only an innocent pro- 
portion of this ingredient. — Ed. T. A.j 
The increased activity of tea cultivation in Japan 
should bring home to planters in this country the 
necessity of keeping up the quality and not sacrificing 
everything to a perfidious pride in outturn of pounds 
per acre. By putting together the London brokers' 
reports on Travancore tea and the last accounts which 
our Peermaad correspondent sent us we are afraid there 
is a tendency to err in this way down south, for until 
a short while ago Travancore tea commanded as good 
value as Ceylon, whereas for some weeks past now 
its average is 20 per cent, lower than thnt Island, and 
from 30 to 35 per cent below Assam.— Times. 
^ 
The Auerbaoh quinine factory have obtained a 
contract from the Dutch Government for the supply 
of .000 kilof. (about 1G,0U0 oz.)o£ sulphate of quinine 
standing the test of the new i)utch Pharmacopoeia. 
—Chemintund Druggist, 
The China Tea Trade Iekevocably Doomed. 
— The Tea Report of 23rd Oct. of Messrs. Purdon 
& Co. of Shanghai says : — 
Disastrous sales are still being wired out, chiefly 
teas on native account, the percentage of 'osa reach- 
ing as high as 50 percent; these losses should prove 
a lesson to the Chinese and show them that their 
teas are not wanted. Advices from JRussia are very 
discouraging, the fall in the rouble exchange and 
the internal distress having a very bad effect on trade 
in general. The large quantity of ' high cost ' teas 
shipped to Russia last season will be sufficient to 
keep that market stocked for fully two years, and a.8 
it is very apparent that the London market only 
require 'tea for price,' next season's prospect of a 
fine crop is very remote. Unless the export duty and 
the lekin duties are reduced, the China tea trade ia 
irrevocably doomed, and it behoves the authorities to 
act promptly and prevent what will otherwise prove 
to be a national disaster. 
DuEiNG the first six months of the current year 
the trade demand ran on common teas, on the 26th 
June Pekoe Souchongs realising sevenpenoe-half- 
penny to ninepenoe per pound whilst Broken and 
Orange Pekoes sold for niaepenee-farthing to a 
shilling per pound. Of course, a few of the finest 
marks sold at fancy prices, as they always do. On 
the first arrivals of tho South West Monsoon teas, 
which are always inferior owing to the difficulty of 
manufacturing tea in wet weather, the trade 
demand turned round to the finer descriptions, and 
common kinds are now unduly depressed and 
neglected. Whilst Pekoe Souchongs have given way 
quite twopence per pound, Broken and Orange 
Pekoes and the better classes generally have ad- 
vanced from twopence to fourpenoe per pound. Of 
course, as there is not a supply of these to meet 
a monthly demand of five and a-quarter million 
pounds, the improving quality of the recent arrivals 
will soon begin to attract attention, for after all 
it is the common teas that furnish the supply of 
the masses. But svithout adequate tasting they have 
not a fair ohanoe. — Financial Times. 
Oeylon Women ahd Ceylok Tea. — Mr. R, E. Pineo 
sends us a copy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper, 
containing the portraits of " A Cingalese Girl" and 
" A Tamil Girl." They are both good-looking, but 
the " Cingalese " girl is evidently a Tamil._ The 
following letterpress accompanies the illustration : — 
The earliest notice of Ceylon is probably con*ained 
in the Hindoo poem "Eamayana." The tradition 
handed down that Buddha traversed Oeylon, leaving 
his foot-print on Adams Peak, cannot be vouched for, 
but is believed by all Buddhists, The antiquity of 
Ceylon reaches back to 543 B.C. England, m 1798, 
made Ceylon a crown coicny. It is one of the garden 
spots of the world, and contains about 25,000 square 
milea, or 16.233,000 acres. It is especially celebrated 
for its elephants ; and its valuable gems, viz., sap- 
phires, rubies, cat's-eyea, alezandrites, and its most 
exquisite pearls help to add to the charms of the fair 
sex all over the civilized world. Moreover, it produces 
— according to the English, who are considered the 
best judges— the most delightfully flavored tea known 
and the export of which rose from twenty-three pounds 
in 1873 to about 54,000,000 pounds in 1890. The pre- 
sent population (composed of a f«w Europeans, but 
chiefly of Tuoiils, Moora, Cingalese, Malays, etc.) is 
about 3,000,000, and Colombo, the capital, contains 
about 120,000 inhabitants. Like the oity of the great 
World's Fair, a single product helps to make its citizens 
not only wealthy, but important. Chicago boasts its 
pork, Oeylon its tea. No business interview or politi- 
cal conclave ever fakes place on the island in which 
Ceylon tea is not a necessary factor. Thesplendid break- 
water, which was built at a cost o! $4,000,000, gives the 
stranger within its gates a sense of absolute security 
upon reaching the harbor of Colombo. We are indebted 
to Mr. S. Elwood May, the president of th(! Ceylon 
Planters' Tea Company, of New York, London, and 
Colombo, for the use of the accompanying illustrationa 
