8o 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[August i, i8go. 
HOME CRITICS Olf CEYLON TEAS. 
It may be relied upon, we think, that, as a 
general rule, the verdict o£ the public is the most 
satisfactory test of the quality of any article of 
food consumption. If that reliance may be accepted, 
wo may say that our teas have stood this tost 
for they have received the warranty of public 
taste. It is, however, constantly the case that 
papers published at home offer to their readers 
comments upon the method of their manufacture 
which would seem to imply that there yet remains 
much room for improvement in that method. 
We are not at all disposed to offer objection to 
this. In the first place, whether what is advanced 
is or is not to be justified, there can be no doubt 
that the articles written bring our production well 
before the public and so constitute for our teas a 
valuable advertisement. In the second, if there be 
truth in the old proverb that “in the multitude 
of councillors there is wisdom,” we are afforded 
by them an opportunity of discriminating for our- 
selves amid such diverse advice. 
Nevertheless we must bear well in mind the 
character of the sources from which many of 
the comments referred to emanate. What may 
be termed trade journals are, we think, not 
unfrequently biassed by the interests— or the sup- 
posed interests— of their chief readers, the retailers 
of tea. Among these there must be many who 
are influenced by a variety of causes in favour 
of promoting the sale of some particular kind of 
tea. One fuch dealer, we will assume, has a large 
constituency among whom he has hitherto dis- 
tributed chiefly the teas of China growth. An- 
other may be so influenced mainly to support 
Indian teas. Such men have probably resorted 
to long established agencies for their purchases, 
and have secured by their long custom exception- 
ally favourable terms. They will have no pressing 
desire, therefore, to force the introduction of a 
new growth which, if successful, must disturb the 
even course of their trading arrangements. For 
men so situated the Trade Journals must purvey 
sympathetic matter, and for the reasons we may 
perhaps believe that much that appears in the 
columns of such papers may be the result of a 
concealed bias. The arguments that we have thus 
applied in the case of the retail-dealers are not 
wholly inapplicable to a higher grade of the dis- 
tributing agencies. Among the brokers of Uondon 
there are firms who, fqually with the retail grocer, 
have long made a speciality of certain teas. When 
firms coming within such a category issue their 
circulars, they are just as likely to have their ad- 
vice tinctured by preconception as are the grocers in 
their dealings with their old-established cus- 
tomers. Of course we would except from 
brokers liable to such an influence, many well- 
known firms whose advice may always be ac- 
cepted with confidence and whose comments should 
command our fullest attention. But even when 
such exceptions are made, there remains a resi- 
duum of the often-repeated complaints which should, 
we think, always be accepted with reserve. 
But whether this caution may or may not be 
justified, one fact is certain, and that is that the 
constant and very often contradictory advice 
given is very perplexing to our planters. A 
very well-known firm of high standing has once 
more made public a statement that Ceylon teas 
are as a rule over-fired, and that statement has 
formal support by one of the trade journals to which 
wa have referred. Our tea planting industry is 
now by no means a thing of today, and its pro- 
duction has stood the test of a good many years. 
The result of that test has been to secure the 
: 4 p£frag 6 of an enormous number of tea drinkers 
throughout the world. If we are to accept the 
counsel now tendered to us and alter our methods 
of preparation, is it certain we shall still retain 
that suffrage which has been accorded upon the 
experience of our present methods? We do not 
say that we feel confident that no better method 
is open to us ; but for the reasons we have above 
stated we would advise caution in placing implicit 
confidence in the soundness of the counsel which 
is so constantly given to us by the distributing 
agencies at home. 
Indian SoArsioNE. — Steatite or soapstone is rathe*^ 
extensively used by gas manufacturers at Home* 
but at present their requirements in this respect 
are met from Germany principally. Some time ago 
the value of Indian soapstone attracted attention, 
and experiments were made and promised success- 
fully. A more extensive trial is now to be given 
to the Indian product, and the Madras Government 
are sending some tons of the material home, where 
the India Office will cause it to be experimented 
with and reported on. — Indian Engineer. [Steatite, 
we believe, is amongst our Ceylon rocks. — E d. T. .4.] 
Bricks Superseded. — A Madras contemporary 
makes the announcement that bricks are to be 
superseded. A composition called petronite has 
been discovered which, besides being cheaper than 
bricks, is of snowy whiteness, and of the hardness 
of granite. It is made of sand and silica, burnt, 
ground up, moulded with moisture under great 
pressure, and then re-burnt. As it shows neither 
expansion nor contraction after burning, and as it is 
capable, when in its moist condition, of being 
sculptured to any desired extent, it will be of high 
value for decorative as well as for ordinary building 
purposes. — Indian Engineer. 
Tea in Japan. — The Japan Weehhj Mail of 3Ist 
May says : — 
The tea trade goes on apace ; 20,009 piculs of leaf 
were taken during the week, and some firms have 
been firing almost incessantly. As remarked as prob- 
able last week, the estimated weight of the first 
crop was somewhat erroneous, and this is now ad- 
mitted, as the shortage, if any, will be compara- 
tively slight. Second crop leaf will be on the market 
by the 5th of June, but as to quality nothing can 
now be Said, though the weather reported from the 
principal districts is not unfavourable to good cup. 
The same paper in its issue of 7th June says : — 
Tea has fallen off somewhat in demand, though 
firing is still general. Parcels of second crop have 
arrived, and are reported good both in leaf and 
cup, and in another week a large quantity is ex- 
pected to be on the market. 
Prevention op Scale in Steam Boilers. — The 
Chemical Trade Journal recommends that water used 
for boiler purposes should be so treated before enter- 
ing the boiler, that all formation of scale shall be 
prevented, and deprecates the use of substances 
which merely prevent the scale from adhering to the 
boiler. As an example of how various precipitating 
agents may be used in conjunction with one another 
a water which contained 5'2 grs. of calcium carbonate, 
24'3 grs. of calcium sulphate, 0T5 grs. of magnesium 
sulphate, 4 27 grs. of magnesium chloride, 17-27 
grs. of magnesium nitrate per gallon, was treated 
with a mixture of 17 grs. of caustic soda — 77 per 
cent. — 17 grs. of sodium carbonate, 5 grs. of tribasio 
phosphate of sodium, with the result that of 12*9 
grs. of lime only 0-78 grs., and of 6-6 grs. of magnesia 
only 3'78 grs. remained to enter the boiler and this 
at a cost of 3^d per 1,000 gallons. The precipitate 
amounted to 25 tons semi-dry sludge — or nine tons 
dry— from 6 million gallons of this water per week.— 
India Rubber Journal, 
