THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
559 
Feb. 1 , 1898 .] 
a,D(l is sending small shipments forward to each 
town. The duty in Belgium is 4d per lb. Holland 
2^d, Germany 3d, Denmark 4^d, hi 01 way Is, and 
Sweden 3d. He has made arrangements with 
the largest tea importing firm in Stockholm for 
making known Ceylon tea in Sweedm, and also 
with a Firm of good standing in Norway. 
He said “1 can quite understand the British 
Commercial Agent giving Kussia a wide berth. 
It h.as taken two clays hard work to get my 
tea through the Customs, and then 1 had to 
pay duty on nearly double the coirect weight in 
this country there is no redress and foreigners 
are treated with the greatest contempt. 
Mr, Webster suhsequently visited Sr. Peters- 
burgh, Moscow, Kief Odessa, and nearly every 
seaport in the Black Sea and writes as follows : — 
“ Large quantities of Ceylon Tea is finding its 
way to Russia and I am certain there is a 
great future in this field for our teas which are 
mostly used for blending with China.” 
I know of two Firms who each imported last 
year over a million pounds of Ceylon Tea : — “ The 
imports of Indian Teas into Russia have fallen 
oft' during the past few years, while those of 
Ceylon have very much increased, as they find 
them better suited for their blends.” 
Mr. Webster completed his three months tour 
on the continent by visiting Austria Hungary 
and Italy and has appointed Agents in many 
towns who will endeavour to push Ceylon Tea. 
He will return to Ceylon in the ss. “China” 
due on the 25th instant,— I am, dear Sir, yours 
faithfully, A. Philip, " 
Secy, to the Thirty Committee. 
India Tea Association 138 Front Street, 
New York, Dec. 7th, 1897. 
The main trouble with India and Ceylon teas 
in the American market is that when teas are 
sold forward 011 samples that it is most difticult, 
if not impossible to make the goods match the 
sample. 
A firm may order from standard sample a 
couple of hundred chests of tea, when the ship- 
ment comes forward this is found to be made up 
of several “ breaks ” from one garden, or even from 
distinct gardens. These lines must differ some- 
what under present conditions of manufacture, 
and, as a consequence, the buyer has a right, 
and exercises it of rejecting those which are least 
like the sample. Indeed, he may reject the entire 
shipment. This may be done in perfect good 
faith, for, he, in turn, may have sold to his 
constituents on the original samples, but finds 
the goods are not suitable for his trade either on 
account of leaf, or liquor not having been matched. 
In the event of such rejection a great deal <1 
cross correspondence ensues. The tea may have 
been paid for on letter of credit. The merchant 
rejecting it, has to notify the local agent who, 
in turn, notifies his principal in Calcutta or 
Colombo. Bills have then to be drawn on the 
shipper, and there is a delay of from two to three 
months before matters are adjusted. Or the 
tea may have been shipped and the documents 
drawn against. The bills have to be accepted 
by the merchant who ordered the tea, purely as a 
matter of courtesy, and bills drawn against the 
shipper. 
In the case of the shipment being taken over 
subject to revelation and an allowance made, the 
same tedious process has to be gone through. 
The meichant buying on mail samples feels he. is 
running risks as he is not buying on actual 
samples drawn from the chests as he would do if 
69 
the tea was on the spot, or where he a buyer in 
London, Calcutta or Colombo. The gist of this 
trouble is that it is apparently impossible to rely 
upon teas ordered on samples being matched, 
This trouble will exist so long as no provision 
is made for blending teas in the Eastern markets. 
Until then there is no guarantee that san)ples 
will be accuiately matched, and the trade is 
carried on practically upon the local agents’ good 
character and reliance upon his good faith. 
In some cases the buyer of a house refuses to 
buy on samples, and will only go so far as to order 
teas on approval. Such orders are at the risk 
of the local agents, and he in turn has to rely 
upon the Calcutta buyer, following his in- 
structions as to selections of tea. In filling the 
order the same difficulty occurs in obtaining 
long lines, and the shipment is compo.sed of several 
breaks bought at diti'erent prices averaging the 
limit imposed. The buyer here may select the teas 
which brought the highest price, and the balance 
on sale in the open market may lose the sipper 
the entire margin of profit which would have been 
obtained, had the whole line sold at the avera*'e 
expected. ” 
All in this class of business are of opinion that 
it would be better in cases where tea cannot 
be matched absolutely, or where only a portion of 
an order can be filled to match thestandard, that 
that portion only be shipped, or the order left unex- 
ecuted, rather than that byers here should be 
subjected to the trouble and annoyance of deal- 
ing with teas they do not want, and have not 
ordered. 
WELL DONE MATALE : 1,066 LB. OF 
MADE TEA PER ACRE. 
Sir,— I last year reported to you a crop of 993 lb. 
made tea per acre from this estate for 1896. For 
1897 I realized from a total bearing acreage of 204i 
acres, a crop of 218,290 lb. made tea, equal to a yield 
of 1,066 lb. made tea per acre. This has been 
realized without manure and by medium plucking, 
I manured some 25 acres in October, but no result 
has shown itself to date. Also I may say that some 
fields were '‘off” flushing, having run to leaf owing 
to my not having been able to prune them, other- 
wise crop might have been larger. 
I believe that several Matale 'Valley estates can 
run my figures very close, too.— I am, &c., 
^ H. STOREY. 
VS arakamure Estate, Matale, Jan. 12th. 
THE BAMBARABOTUWA DISTRICT- 
AND CORRECTIONS, 
Ratnapura, Jan. 17. 
Dear Sir, Some errors have crept into your 
leading article re opening of the Bambara- 
botuwa-Ratnapura distr-icts. 
Hopewell ^estate is 40 miles from Ratnapura : 
if you go via Balangoda outlet, but only 23 by 
cart road now being constructed via Hapugastenne 
it joins in, or branches off at Vewalkettiya. 
Government did not give three acres heavy 
forest for one, but three acres chena mixed with 
bothersome native holdings per acre of jungle. 
Hopewell factory is intended to turn out L250,C00 
or H not 21 million lb.— Yours faithfully, 
JAMES GRAY. 
[Ihe correspondent who distinctly wrote 21 mil- 
lion to us, should be metaphorically “ handed.’ 
— £jD. T,At^ ° 
