With the great reduction in importation price and keener competition the retail prices have been brought down to a very low figure, and as the dealer has educated the public to the purchase of poor teas at low prices it is not likely that the retail prices of teas will ever reach any higher figure unless war or other cause should lead to a duty being placed on the article. Yet, notwithstanding these unprecedented low prices, the _per capita_ consumption of tea is comparatively very low in this country at the present time, one of the chief causes being traceable to the custom prevalent among dealers of charging exorbitant profits in order to make up for the losses made in other goods. This impolitic practice may be forgiven were it not for the greater mistake they make of sacrificing quality to profit, which in articles of daily use like tea is an important consideration. By rectifying this error, and giving more attention to the careful selection of their teas, there is no valid reason why the consumption of tea in this country could not at the least calculation be doubled, more particularly in the present state of the coffee market, as it is generally calculated that one pound of good tea equals four pounds of coffee in amount and strength of its extract, besides being cheaper and more convenient to prepare. Under these circumstances it may be assumed that there is no probability of any material change in the cost of tea to the dealer and there should be no further reduction in the selling price to the consumer, any further reduction in the retail price involving a diminution of profit which the trade can ill afford to bear at the present time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER X. TEA-CULTURE, A PROBABLE AMERICAN INDUSTRY. --------------