The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-10-12
TEA GOES UP.
Canned Goods Also Go Soar
ing in the Air.
The China War and DrOuth in Japan Af-
fects Tea.---Eggs Are Also
Worth Money.

Because the Boxers hate the foreign
devils" and because it hasn't rained
in Japan st. Paul is paying more for
its cup of tea, says the Pioneer Press
The price of the best teas is practically
unchanged in the local market. But
the value of inferior grades has adj
vanced from 10 to 10 per cent. A fur
Their advance is not impossible. At
San Francisco from 8 to cents a
pound has been added by importers,
which is equivalent to raise of from
10 to 20 per cent.
The more, definite reason for the
higher market it the recent drouth in
the mikado's empire. There three
crops of tea leaves are picked annually
The first and best is secured in May,
the second in June, the last in July.
This year, because of deficient mois-
ture, the third crop did not develop
and was not picked at all. A cores
pondent of Kempien & Womack, local
tea brokers, writing from Japan Sept.
A, estimates the total of the present
shortage at ~, 467 piculs, or 5, 662, 600
pounds. That is about ne-seventh
of Japan's annual crop, which averages
40, 600, 900 pounds Twenty per cent of
the shortage is an accumulated de-
felt in last years product The re-
mainder is thssr estimated loss on the
crop of 1900. =
The war il China has curtailed ex-
ports from the greatest tea producing
country of the world. Most Chinese
tea, however, comes from the Southern
provinces through the valley of the
Yang -tse-Kiang, and not from the
northern provinces, were the Boxers
have been making trouble. The re-
tarded exports from the northern ports
consist of green tea chiefly But
black tea is more popular in America
The extent of the Chinese shortage is
indefinite. The best informed hongs
at Shanghai confess their inability to
analyze conditions.
Inquiry of the local wholesale gro
Gerry houses confirms the above ii.
A. Patterson states that tea that could
be secured for % cents pound some
time ago now brings % and 80 cents.
When it is considered that ten cents
of this is duty, the advance is marked,
amounting to twenty per cent on the
price of tea itself. All grades of tea
are firm, but the Omitted States STAN
dard'-the lowest grade admitted I'M
der the law which excludes the worst
tea-is the one which has advanced
most.
Canned goods have also gone up.
This is more particularly true of
tomatoes, as the late crop was short.
Besides the shortage, the higher price
of tin cans has much to do with the
advance Cans alone bring ten to fif-
teen cents dozen, as tin is more
valuable commodity now than
formerly.
Another thing that has gone up re-
Gently is the price of eggs. Whereas
they were some time ago worth only
eight cents, they are now bringing
fifteen cents at retail, and the farmers
are getting fourteen cents from the
grocers for them. The cold weather of
last week shut off the supply of eggs
to a considerable extent, which ac-
counts for the present price.
The cause which makes eggs high
operates to make poultry low. People
who raise fowls are in hurry to mar
ket them as soon as they stop laying,
not caring to feed very many over
winter. This has flooded the markets
in Mankato and everywhere else. A
local dealer remarked today that the
farmers would do well to hold their
poultry awhile, when better prices are
always sure to prevail. Live poultry
brings but five cents a pound now.