634 
rHf TftOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. FMakch i, 1892. 
Lovers of "the cups that cheer but not inebriate" 
will learn, without any degree of pleasure, that 
there is likely to be a rise in the price of tea in 
the London market. In consequence of the early 
and most severe weather, the Indian tea crop season 
has closed with a considerable deficiency on the 
estimates. There will also be a falling off in the 
supply which was expected from Ceylon. This was 
expected to reach seventy millions of pounds, but 
the actual export is not now likely to reach sixty- 
live millions, if even that figure is reached. The 
monthly exports have gone down steadily from the 
unprecedented total of 7,075,000 lb. in June to 
3,678,000 in November, the aggregate export for 
the eleven months being 60,379,000, so that sup- 
posing four millions be added for December, the 
total will be considerably short of* sixty-five millions. 
The total to this country, both from India and Ceylon 
in 1891, will not greatly exceed 150 or 160 millions of 
pounds, so that with such figures, and in view of the un- 
settled state of China, there is the prospect of the fa- 
vourite beverage in so many families being rather dearer. 
BRITISH INTEKESTS IN CHINA. 
By Colonel Howard Vincent, c.b., M,P. 
II. — Tea and Opium. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY GRAPHIC." 
Sir, — The staple export of China, and the one with 
which the Celestial Empire is most closely idetitified in 
the popular mind is, of eonrse, her tea. In 1670 80 lb. 
of China tea were exported into Bnglant', and, despite 
export duties, varying iu China and in the United 
Kingdom from 400 per ceut on the productive cost, 100 
per cent at the present time, the trade incriased to 
108,000,000 pounds iu 1880- 
COMPETITION OF INDIAN TEA. 
Since then there has, however, been a seri ons decline 
iQcreaaing so much, from year to year, as to jeopardise 
the entire industry. This is declared to be mainly 
owing to the fortuitous development of tea planting in 
India and Ceylon,* and to the preference shown by the 
Eaglish consumer for lea of British growth. Twelve 
months after the Queen's af ceRsion, 400 lb. of Indian 
tea were sent to England as an experiment. In 18911 the 
consignment was over 100,000,000 lb., and Ceylon sent 
nearly half is much. The effect has be' ii that, while 
in 1865, out of every lOIt lb. of tea sold in England, 97 lb 
were Chinese and only 3 lb. Indian, in 1890 tie Chinese 
proportion had fallen to about 50 per cent, and the oofit 
to the British tea drinker wus also in a like degree re- 
duced. One reason put forward by the experts, con- 
■nlted by the Maritime Cuatome, is that *'a good stout 
tea, that will stand several waterings, is what suits the 
mass of English consumers, and this India provides 
much better than China." Tho English merchants at 
Shanghai and Foochow affirm, however, that this 
greater strength is purohaaed by the retention of dele- 
terii^us properties. 
APATHY OF TH» CHINESE. 
It is in vain that the attention of Chinese cultiva- 
tors has been called to the condition of the tea industry 
by all concerned. Moreover, fmr years ago, the In 
spefttor-GeuGral of Customs '.bus addresfed the Imperial 
authorise!: — 
" To a government, its people's induatriea must be of 
higher importance than rnvenue. I would, therefore, 
advise that tuxes be remitted, in order that industries 
may be preserved. Think for the people, and forego 
revenue. Export duties ought to be light, in order 
that the surplus production of a people mai^ go for sale 
c-lricwhere. Import duties, on the contrary, aie the 
duties which ought to be rt'tsined ; but the use to be 
made of each commodity ought to be well weighed. If 
it ih something people cannot do without, it ought 
to bo exempt from duty ; but if it in a luxury it 
ought to bo heavily taxed. On the right npplication 
of ttiohe principles depend llie nation's wealth, andlho 
people's too." 
DECLINE IN EXPOET. 
Nothing whatever hua been dune. From Foochow 
» How " fortuitous "y We are romindod of D'lsraoli's 
"fortuitous ooncourBO of atoma." — Ed, T.A, 
the export has declined by one-half iu ten years, and de- 
prived the revenue of a million taels a year, and the 
people of five million taels in wages. The opinion is, 
indeed, general " that the gradual extinction of the 
China tea trade is practically assured, unless some thing 
ratards Indian and Ceylon production, of drastic mea- 
sures are adopted." 
The " Shauli," or hill tax, the " Likin," or war tax, 
and the export duty are all maintained intact, and the 
unfortunate Chiness growers have to complete with the 
untaxed tea of India and Ceylon. What distress ia 
likely soon to ensue may be gathere l from the fact that 
the production of one half only of the output of the 
Assam Company, with its few hundred employe^, affords 
the main sustenance of 4,500 Chinese familief, or, say, 
about 20,000 perfons. They tire themselves, morf over, 
60 apprehensive that the introduction of the machinery 
in vogue in India and Ceylon will diminish emp.oyment 
that the Government has not felt itself strong enough 
to protect its use. 
STATELESS CASKS. 
Have you heard of the new Bystem of manufac- 
turing " staveless casks" after the fashion described 
in the London Tiims : — 
Staveless Casks — It is doubtless a matter of 
general knowledge that the bodies of casks and barrels 
are composed of a number of tapered staves, which 
are assembled together, held in posistion and hooped 
up. By a novel and ingenious method of manufac- 
ture, invented by Mr. Oncken, casks are now being 
manufactured from one piece of wood, and therefore 
without any staves, or, it may be said, with only one, 
the body constituting in itself a long, single stave. 
The method of preparing the body of the cask may 
be likened to the sharpening of a lead pencil by a 
pocket sharpener. The stem of the tree is first cut 
up into pieces or logs, of a length according to that 
of the barrel required, and is then boiled for two or 
three hours in a closed vessel to soften the wood, a 
current of electricity being passed through the water 
the whole time. From the boiler the log of wood 
taken to the machine, where it is held at each end 
horizontally between two points, much in the same 
way as a piece of wood is held in the lathe. Rota- 
tion is given to the piece of timber, which is advanced 
towards a broad blade fixed on a frame having a 
slot in it in a line with the edge of the blade, just 
as in a plane, which the cutting part of the machine 
may be said to resemble. As the trunk of the tree 
is revolved against the blade a continuous sheet of 
wood is produced of any desired thickness. The wood 
is drawn out flat from the rear of the machine by 
hand on to a table. The sheet of wood thus obtained is 
cut transversely into pieces each of the required length 
for one barrel. The pieces are then passed through 
a grooving machine, which cuts the groove in which 
the hend is eventually fitted. Another machine cuts 
narrow V-shaped pieces at intervals out of the edges 
of the pieces of wood, which are then easily bent 
round into a cylinder and firmly hooped, the V-shaped 
slots enabling it to assume the necessary conical 
form at each end. There is thus only one joint in 
the body of the cask or barrel. The casks are after- 
wards dried in a special apparatus, after which they 
are ready for use. A factory is in operation in Ger- 
many manufacturing these caske, some of which we 
recently examined at the offices of the Oncken 
Patents Syndicate, 10, Old Jewry Chambers, London. 
We were also shown a model of the machine and 
some samples of wood of various thicknesses, includ- 
ing some exceedingly thin veneers. 
LlPTON AND HIS TEA TRADE. 
I am sorry to see no sign of the "Ceylon tea 
planter" or "tea estate proprietor,'' Mr. Lipton, 
doing anything to promote the sale of pure Ceylon 
tea: a deputaiion to sit on him is perhaps more 
needed than on Sir Arthur Clark ; for in the 
latest Lipton circular placed before me of " grand 
opening" of new branches, "Lipton, the largest 
Ir a dealer in the world," announces only blends 
Is, Is 4d, Is 7d (the last of Ceylon and Indian} 
described ; — 
