Little Falls herald., 1900-08-31
PREPARE FOR THE
=.
FAMINE IN TEA.
The Trouble in China, the Importers
Say, Will Have a Disastrous Effect
on tue Price AMI Quality Of
lie chinese herv.
Tea is going to be scarce!

Tea is going to be scarce!
That IS what the tea dealers say, and
they ought to know.
In EalA there are those who whisper
that the tea OF commerce comes from
Cuba and that the real Canton and the
excellent Peking brands have never
been further away than Porto Rico and
the Hawais The importers insist
that the war in China will make tea
scarce ard that the herb viii be as
hard to obtain as the pure ginger Of
India.
The tea crop is just ready to be har-
vested. The first growth is gathered.
Fast steamers are now on their way
from Europe and Russia to China
They go by the Mediterranean and
Suez canal, and they stop at Ceylon
to Shanghai and up the Yang-tsc
Kiang 700 miles into the interior Of
China. They stop at the city of Han
kow, which is the greatest tea market
in the world. Here they load as quick
ty as possible and steam back home
as fast as they can. These tea ships
run race every year, and the steamer
which gets in first receives the highest
price for it's tea. Should the Yang-tse
river be closed by war in late summer
it will result in a great loss to the tea
merchants.
The price Of Japanese tea will GER
tainly be increased, and it's export will
probably be greater than ever. The
Japanese tea is by no means so good
is that Of China, so it is said. 1t is
nerve-exciting, and if it stands it be-
comes bitter. The majority of people
Of this country do not know what good
teo is.
They like green tea, and they mix the
green and black together in a most
barbarous way. They think they are
paying high price when they give 81
for pound of tea. and it will be sur
prising to many of them to know that
there is tea in China which is worth
s25 pound, and tea which costs more
than S100 a pound
The Chinese tea which we get for a
dollar a pound brings about twenty
five cents a pound in China, and what
the Chinese call good tea is worth at
least a dollar pound wholesale in
China, and it would bring in the Unit
ed States 81 a pound Tea which costs
$40 pound is by no means uncommon
among rich Cinnamon, and there are
some Chinese nabohs who serve up $50
tea to their guests. The man who
knows nothing Of tea, but thinks he
knows good deal, wants the liquor
to be dark colored and considers this
a sign of strength. The best Chinese
tea is often as clear as crystal, and the
color of good tea should be very light
yellow, hardly as dark as light am
ber.
THE FIRST CROP.
The first leaves OF the tea plant are
the tenderest, and the first picking. OF
course, brings the most money. We
use every year about $11, 0o0.O 900 worth
Of Chinese tea, and we are fast hecom-
ing big consumers Of Ceyon and IN
dia tea. The Chircse do not ttinl:
that milk or sugar should be used with
tea. Boiling water should be poured
over the tea, but 4he tea should by no
means be boiled.
The Yang -tse-1:;c1g is the river
which runs right through the center OF
the Chinese Empire, cutting the coun~
try almost in half. They say that the
best teas were raised south Of this
river, and that no good tea could he
raised above it. The great central tea
market is at Eankow. Here there are
vast tea factories and tea warehouses
and the very air is filed with tea.