Aug.  I,  1896. 
THK  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
79 
coffee — in  fact,  I am  informed  that  the  adulterating 
material  is  present  in  a larger  proportion  than  the 
pure  coffee.  Yet  in  both  France  and  Germany  it 
IS  most  important  that  the  trade  of  their  colonies 
should  be  fostered!  In  conclusion  I would  like  to 
remark  that  so  many  people  ask  for  coffee,  and  if 
they  only  had  pure  coffee  given  to  them,  the  demand 
for  genuine  coffee  would  be  so  great  that  it  would 
cause  a rise  in  the  market  price,  and  at  once  tend 
to  improve  the  revenues  of  our  dependencies. 
Thos,  Christy. 
— Journal  of  the  Society  of  Arts. 
« 
THE  APPLE-TAINTED  TEA  QUESTION 
London,  July  3rd. 
The  Tea  and  Produce  Committee  mention  Monday 
afternoon  to  discuss  the  apple-tainted  tea  matter. 
There  were  present  Messrs.  Eutherford,  Chaiiman, 
W.  Martin  Leake,  Dickson,  Cameron,  Stanton,  C. 
Scott,  G.  White,  A.  L.  Hutchison.  Brooke,  Thompson, 
J.  Hamilton,  (who  is  now  no  longer  with  Messrs, 
S.  E ucker  & Co.,  but  has  an  office  in  the  same  build- 
ng),  Corbert,  who  was  made  a partner  in  Messrs. 
iWhittall  & Co.,  just  before  Mr.  Whittall’s  death 
and  who  has  no  Ceylon  experience  whatever),  and 
Keith  (of  Messrs.  Arbutlmot,  Latham  (Sr  Co.,  the 
largest  importers  of  Ceylon  tea  on  this  side).  It 
appears  the  position  Messrs.  Anderson,  Anderson  cS: 
Co.,  have  taken  up  is  one  that  does  not  leave  much 
hope  that  they  will  accede  to  the  demands  of  the 
twenty-one  firms  claiming  about  one  thousand  pounds 
(£1,000  sterling),  although  I am  told  that  the  market 
loss  is  a good  deal  more  than  that  sum.  There  is 
precedent  to  back  the  demands  of  the  claimants,  for 
the  Orient  Line  allowed  a certain  amount  upon  a 
small  shipment  of  tea  which  was  affected  by  oranges 
taken  in  at  Malta.  There  seems  to  be  a good  deal 
of  difference,  however,  between  the  taint  produced 
by  oranges  versus  apples.  It  vms  said  that  the 
oranges  flavoured  tea  found  considerable  favor  amongst 
buyers,  and  actually  fetched  Id.  or  2d.  per  lb.  more 
than  it  was  expected  to  realise  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances. That  term  “ orange  pekoe  ” is  still  a 
delusion  and  a snare  to  many  a tea  retailer  and 
consumer.  It  was  only  this  week  I was  asked  for 
a tea  “flavoured  with  orange  blossoms.”  Possibly 
it  was  for  a wedding ! To  see  what  the  ordinary 
tea  man  would  say  if  asked  for  such  an  article  1 
went  into  one  of  the  large  city  retailers  and  asked 
for  it.  It  was  promptly  produced  a China  pekoe 
“ made  with  orange  flowers,  and  whence  the  term 
orange  j)ekoe  was  derived the  man  said.  The 
price  was  3s.  per  lb.  But,  however  favourable  may 
be  the  sales  of  orange  flavoured  pekoe  and  other 
grades,  there  is  not  much  doubt  that  the  smell  of 
a ripe  strong  apple  is  not  a desirable  addition  to 
your  staple.  If  it  is  necessary,  as  it  is  I hear,  to 
charter  special  steamers  from  Jamaica  to  carry 
bananas,  it  seems  advisable  that  those  engaged  in 
the  apple-carrying  trade  from  Australia  should  go 
and  do  likewise.  Eum  and  sugar  as  an  instance, 
has  always  to  be  kept  entirely  separate  from  coffee, 
except  when  a certain  well-known  Ceylon  merchant 
sent  them  all  off  together  during  the  “ diggins  ” 
time  to  Australia  and  scored  the  best  deal  there 
he  ever  did  in  his  life.  The  season  for  the  Australian 
apples  covers  a period  of  about  two  and  a half  months, 
and  unless  soma  special  arrangements  are  made  by 
the  Orient  and  P.  (!k  0.  people  they  will  find  them- 
selves pariicularly  short  of  freights  from  Colombo 
in  the  future  during  that  time.  I have  heard  it 
stated  here,  and  on  good  authority,  that  any  tea  that 
comes  home  in  an  apple  ship  is  under  a disadvan- 
tage whether  it  is  tainted  or  no..  Certain  people 
make  it  their  business  to  ferret  this  information  out 
and  take  advantage  of  it  to  lower  the  price  by  reports 
that  the  tea  is  tainted.  We  all  know  these  methods 
on  the  Stock  Exchange.  Why  should  the  tea  market 
be  free  from  such  modern  highwaymen  ? Short  of 
freights  these  liners  will  be,  and  their  troubles  will 
not  cease  at  the  apple  season  point.  Several  chiefs 
here  have  wired  out  instructions  to  Colombo  not 
to  ship  tea  at  all  by  either  line  without  a guarantee 
That  guarantee  has,  I am  informed,  been  refused, 
and  the  business  is  passing  into  other  hands.  And 
certainly  unless  these  lines  put  the  whole  matter 
on  a more  satisfactory  footing  than  it  at  present 
is,  these  firms  will  adhere  to  their  decision  ami 
doubtless  others  will  follow.  The  Indian  bill  of 
lauding  for  tea  is  worded  differently  to  those  in  use 
from  Colombo.  A clause  is  stamped  on  that  hides, 
turmeric,  and  several  other  evil-smelling  articles  will 
not  be  carried  on  the  same  deck  as  tea.  But  not 
one  of  those  articles  enumerated  on  the  Indian  tea 
bill  of  landing  is  in  the  same  street  with  apples, 
especially  if  they  are  a little  more  ripe  than  they 
are  usually  carried.  The  Tea  and  Produce  Committee 
decided  that  the  Chairman  and  Messrs.  Cameron, 
Dickson,  and  Keith  be  formed  into  a sub-committee 
to  reply  to  Messrs.  Anderson  Anderson  & Co.'s  letter, 
and  to  draw  up  a tea  clause  to  be  stamped  on  all 
tea  bills  of  landing  similar  to  that  in  use  on  tea 
from  Calcutta.  That  clause  they  will  endeavour  to 
get  the  Shipping  Companies  here  to  agree  to,  and 
if  they  succeed  the  tea  per  “ Cuzco  ” and  “ Austral  ” 
will  not  have  been  spoilt  in  vain,  although  even 
such  a clause  will  not  dispose  of  the  reports  which 
are  put  about,  and  it  is  also  the  opinion  of  many 
here  that  the  bad  results  from  apple  taint  are  not 
to  be  got  rid  of  by  carriage  on  a seperate  deck, 
SMALL  BREAKS. 
For  the  past  eight  years  the  question  of  small 
breaks  has  been  forced  upon  the  attention  of  brokers 
and  others  here,  and  the  Tea  and  Produce  Committee 
has  from  time  to  time  discussed  the  matter.  The 
big  men,  who  will  not  even  look  at  anything  below 
a certain  size  of  break,  leaving  the  smaller  fish  to 
the  smaller  fry,  have  object  d to  being  kept  idly 
chewing  their  quills,  whilst  smallest  lots  are  being 
sold.  The  Brokers’  Association  has  approached  the 
'Tea  and  Produce  Committee  to  increase  the  Ceylon 
liniits  to  18  chests,  24  half-chests  and  40  boxes.  This 
will  doubtless  be  carried  through,  and  anything  under 
these  limits  will  be  relegated  to  the  small  lot  sale. 
Of  course,  the  object  really  is  to  induce  the  planter 
to  increase  the  size  of  his  breaks,  the  enormous 
quantity  of  different  teas  to  be  gone  through  being 
a great  tax.  Even  one  half-chest  of  dust°sent  se- 
parately must  be  liquored  and  valued,  and  there  are 
a great  number  of  little  “dabs”  in  the  Ceylon  sales 
that  are  perhaps  unavoidable,  but  none  the  less 
difficult  to  deal  with.  Various  days  and  times  have 
been  suggested  for  the  small  lot  sale.  Wednesday 
has  been  spoken  of  as  a good  day.  It  has  been  said 
that  Thursday  might  be  devoted  to  it,  or  that  the 
“minor  canons  ’ might  be  disposed  of  at  2 o’clock 
on  Tuesday,  at  the  same  time  the  “big  guns”  are 
buying  in  the  big  sale.  If  the  result  of  the  above 
increase  of  limit  is  that  the  small  lot  sale  becomes 
more  important,  perhaps  the  division  of  the  sale  of 
tea  that  the  abortive  Thursday’s  sale  was  to  effect 
will  be  better  carried  out  by  the  sale  of  the  “gros” 
lots,  and  the  little  “ dabs  ” in  separate  rooms.  The 
Ceylon  Planter  whose  shipments  are  small  is  better 
off  than  the  Indian  Planter,  the  limit  for  the  teas 
of  the  latter  being  20  cheats,  .30  half-chests,  and  50 
boxes.  As  Ceylon  properties  become  more  and  more 
absorbed  into  limited  Companies,  however,  the  small 
lots  will  berhaps  show  a tendency  to  become  fewer 
and  fewer  But  there  is  no  doubt  there  are  plenty 
of  buyers  here  who  took  as  carefully  after  the  suiail 
breaks  as  the  hi^  men  do  after  the  large,  and  it 
would  be  instructive  if  some  one  who  knows  all  the 
buyers  would  inform  the  Tea  and  Produce  |Committee 
how  many  of  the  usual  bidders  are  unrepresented  at  the 
small  break  sale.  Very  few,  I fancy,  although  possibly 
the  bidding  is  done  by  a less  important  representative 
of  the  firm  than  at  the  big  sale.— Local  “ Times,’' 
Florida  Camphor.— 'The  Florida  camphor-forest  is 
looking  up.  We  mentioned  sometime  ago  that  many 
camphor  trees  had  been  planted  there.  Now  it  is 
reported  that  a small  quantity  of  an  e.xcellent  quality 
of  camphor  has  already  been  made,  aud  a sample 
lot  has  been  sent  to  Washington  for  analysis.  E.v- 
periments  will  be  undertaken  to  ascertain  whi -h 
reduces  the  more  camphor,  the  trunk  or  leaves  of 
the  irce.— Chemist  and  Druggist,  UniiQ  27. 
