52 
THE  TROPICAL 
agriculturist. 
[July  i,  1896. 
PLANTTN(;  AND  IMIODI'CE. 
The  Koyal  lloiiTicuLTimAL  Society  and  Tea  Peant- 
iNG. — Tho  Royal  Hoiticultimil  Society  claims  to 
have  played  a leading  part  in  the  establishment  of 
the  tea  planting  industry  in  India.  In  1842  Mr. 
Fortune  went  out  on  a mission  to  China,  and  while 
there,  observed  and  reported  on  the  growth  and 
cultivation  of  tea.  He  subsequently  visited  India 
with  a view  to  the  introduction  of  the  plant  into 
that  country.  The  East  India  Company  took  great 
interest  in  the  matter,  and  experiments  were  made 
which  laid  tho  foundation  of  the  present  industry 
of  tea-growing  in  India  and  Ceylon.  The  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  was  originally  due  to  a sug- 
gestion from -Mr.  John  Wedgewood,  whose  fathers 
name  is  immortalised  by  the  celebrated  ^Yedgewood 
ware.  In  1809  a royal  charter  was  granted  to  it  by 
George  III.,  and  since  that  time  it  has  existed  as 
a corporate  body.  A j'car  later  than  this  it  com- 
menced the  issue  of  that  series  of  ‘‘  Transactions 
which  has  made  it  famous  among  the  learned  and 
scientitic  societies  of  Europe.  The  cost  of  their  pub- 
lication exceeded  .1130,0()0.  It  has  also  established 
experimental  gardens  for  testing  the  value  oi  new 
• aud  possibly  valuable  plants.  At  the  same  time 
it  also  commenced  that  system  of  the  importation 
of  foreign  plants  wdiich  has  conferred  such  inestimable 
beuelits  upon  this  country. 
The  New  Season's  China  Teas.— The  season  for 
China  teas  “opens,”  we  arc  told,  “ more  auspiciously” 
this  Year  “than  for  some  time  past  " Certainly  the 
tea  trade  of  China,  so  far  as  this  market  is  con- 
cerned, lias  been  in  a very  bad  w'ay  for  so  long 
that  anything  auspicious  connected  with  it  will 
be  very  welcome  to  Chinese  growers  aud  im- 
porters, and  will  not  seriously  distress  Indian 
and  Ceylon  planters.  The  reason  given  for 
the  brighter  outlook,  according  to  the  Grocer, 
is  owing  mainly  to  the  fact  that  the  first  crop  of 
Mouings  is  likely  to  fall  9,000,U00lb  short  of  that  of 
1895.  What  is  W'orse  for  buyers  to  know  is  that  the 
quality  is  said  to  be  “ weathered,”  if  not  irretrievably 
spoiled,  by  excessive  rains.  And  these  two  circum- 
stances of  a heavy  deficiency  in  the  supply,  together 
with  an  inferiority  of  outturn,  are  calculated  to  stir 
up  a better  feeling  for  the  article  amongst  a large 
section  of  the  trade,  though  at  the  moment  symptoms 
of  a revival  of  demand  are  only  faintly  visible.  But 
it  is  early  enough  yet  for  the  dealers  and  others  to 
arouse  themselves  to  speedier  action  in  the  matter  of 
buying,  seeing  that  shipments  from  Hankow  to  this 
port  will  not  commence  directljq  and  even  when  they 
do,  it  will  probably  be  another  mouth  or  six  weeks 
before  the  new  black  leaf  arrives  here,  as  the  Ping 
Suey  with  the  first  entire  cargo  in  1895  did  not  pass 
Woosung  until  after  June  2nd,  and  was  not  in  Tha- 
mes water  until  July  9th  following.  As  usual,  rela- 
tively high  prices  were  paid  for  the  earlier  arrivals, 
but  their  novelty  soon  wore  off,  and  not  long  after- 
wards importers,  as  well  as  the  wholesale  dealers, 
burned  with  large  stocks  of  unsold  teas,  were  seen 
pressing  them  on  the  market  unreservedly  for  sale, 
at  a reduction  of  several  pence  per  pound  fiom  the 
original  prime  cost.  Thus  it  is  quotations  have  been 
brought  down  to  so  low  a point  as  they  are  now. 
The  Russian  Hesiand. — The  low  figures  asked 
for  these  teas  appear  more  strikingly  evident, 
according  to  the  authority  we  have  quoted,  when 
comparison  is  made  with  the  enhanced  prices 
at  present  current  for  the  commoner  grades  of 
India  and  Ceylon  descriptions,  through  the  diminu- 
tion of  supplies  and  lack  of  any  certain  prospect  of 
the  former  cheapness  returning  until  the  amount  of 
useful  tea  available  is  more  abundant  generally. 
The  truth  of  this  statement,  says  our  contemporary, 
will  soon  be  discovered  by  the  Russian  buyers  at 
Hankow,  if  they  muster  there  in  great  force  as  is 
their  wont  on  tho  opening  of  the  new  so.ison  foi’ 
China  teas.  As  Ningchows  are  their  favourite  kinds 
when  purchasing  for  their  homo  wants,  it  is  not 
unlikely  th.it  they  may  have  to  pay  much  higher 
rates  for  wiiat  they  require  in  the  ensuing  months — 
perhaps  Id  to  lid  per  lb.  above  the  rates  at  which 
similar  qualities  ot  old  eemou’.s  teas  have  been  re- 
cently obtained  in  our  market.  If  so,  tho  position 
of  the  article  will  be  greatly  strengthened  in  the 
near  future,  and  some  stimulus  will  be  thus  imparted 
to  a business  which,  once  flourishing,  has  for  along 
while  past  been  seriously  on  the  wane.  In  1895 
the  direct  shipments  of  tea  from  Hankow  to 
London  wore  equal  to  only  8,283,440  lb., 
against  (1,870,1801b.  in  the  preceding  year,  8,918,900lb. 
in  1893,  and  9,971,8401b.  in  1892— showing  a rapid  and 
progressive  decrease ; whilst  those  to  Russia,  on 
the  contrary,  rose  from  15, 423, 7001b.  in  1892  to 
20,504,4701b.  in  the  following  year,  to  22,233,0201b. 
in  1894,  and  to  the  swollen  amount  of  20,042,7301b. 
last  season.  The  Grocer  thinks  that  it  is  too  much 
to  expect  a complete  reversal  of  this  movement  in 
China  tea,  whereby  a lai'ger  proportion  would  be 
diverted  to  the  English  market  for  distribution,  but 
it  expresses  the  hope  that  the  decadence  in  this 
important  branch  of  the  trade  will  henceforth  be 
arrested. 
A Larue  Tea  Business. — The  latest  conversion 
to  the  joint-stock  company  form,  is  the  Mazawattee 
Tea  Company,  limited  (Densham  and  Sons  and  the 
Mazawattee  Ceylon  Tea  Company),  which  has  been 
formed  with  a capital  of  £550,000,  divided  into  40,0'X) 
5 per  cent,  cumulative  preference  shares  of  £5 
each,  and  350,000  ordinary  shares  of  £1  each,  for 
the  purpose  of  acquiriug,  carrying  on,  and  developing 
the  business  of  the  Mazawattee  Ceylon  Tea  Company 
and  the  business  of  Densham  and  Sons,  wholesale 
tea  dealers,  now  carried  on  by  Messrs.  Edward 
Densham,  Alfred  Densham,  Benjamin  Densham,  and 
John  Lane  Densham,  who  are  the  vendors  to  this 
company.  The  price  to  bo  paid  by  the  company 
for  the  businesses,  leases  plant,  fixtures,  book  debts 
trade  marks,  Ac.,  has  been  fixed  at  .£460,000,  with 
an  option  to  the  company  of  taking  certain  assets 
aud  chattels  at  £90,000,  which  option  has  been  exer- 
cised, making  the  total  amount  to  be  paid  ,£550,000, 
which  is  payable  as  to  £188,331  by  the  allotment  of 
13,333  fully  paid-up  preference  shares  of  £5  each,  aud 
116,666  fully  paid-up  ordinary  shares  of  £1  each,  and 
the  balance  in  cash.  Applications  are  now  invited  for 
26,667  preference  aud  233,331  ordinary  shares. 
Try  Turkey. — It  was  announced  last  week  from 
Constantinople  that  the  British  Ambassador  took  fea 
with  the  Sultan.  Unless  this  was  a mere  conventional 
phrase,  meaning  that  the  Sultan  partook  of  coffee  in 
the  afternoon,  it  indicates  that  Western  customs  are 
finding  favour  in  Constantinople,  and  that  there  is  a 
prospect  of  a new  market  on  the  shores  of  the  Bos- 
phorus for  the  cup  that  cheers  and  the  leaf  that  grows 
in  India  and  Ceylon, 
Tub  Consumption  of  Tea  and  the  Duty  Question 
— In  a memorandum  just  issued  explaining  in  detai 
some  of  the  figures  which  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exche 
quer  used  in  his  recent  Budget  speech  there  are  some 
interesting  figures  about  tea.  In  the  year  1885-6,  the 
produce  of  tea  duty,  at  6d  per  pound,  was  £4,187,0(X). 
In  1890-1  the  duty  was  reduced  to  4d  per  pound,  with 
an  estimated  loss  to  revenue  of  .£1,072,000.  If, 
therefore,  in  1895-6  the  consumption  of  tea  had  been 
the  same  as  it  was  ten  years  before  the  revenue 
the  duty  would  have  been  .£3,115,000.  The 
actual  produce  was  .£3,745,000,  and  the  difference 
between  the  two  sums  is  taken  as  representing  the 
elasticity  of  duty  in  the  decennial  period.  It,  ap- 
pears from  another  table  that,  prior  to  tlic  reduction 
of  tho  duty,  the  consumption  of  tea  per  head  of 
population  had  increased.  In  1875-6,  with  the  duty 
at  6d  per  pound,  the  consumption  per  head  of  popu- 
lation had  boon  1-51  lb.  In  1885-6,  with  the  same 
duty,  it  had  risen  to  1-65  lb.  In  1895  6,  with  duty 
reduced  to  4d,  it  rose  to  5'74  per  bead.  We  are 
not,  however,  to  assume  that  it  has  been  the  reduc- 
tion of  duty  alone  that  lias  served  to  stimulate 
consumption.  More  considerable,  and  probably 
more  effective,  has  boon  the  reduction  in  the  iia- 
port  price  of  te:i.  In  1875-6  the  import  price  was 
16' i3d  per  pound,  in  18S5  6 it  uas  12  M;l,  and  in  1895-6 
it  had  conio  down  further  to  ',i'65d.  So,  too,  with 
sugar,  ihe  consuiiiption  per  head  of  population  has 
increased  from  60'78lb  in  1875-6  to  89'161b  in  189.'.  6, 
per  pound  has  gone  down  Loin 
/ Cl  to  X*^‘icU 
