The East and West India Dock Company have made the best of this primitive method of Tea bulking. In the first place it is insisted on in their warehouses that previous to trampling the Tea into the chests, a cloth shall be placed over it to preserve it from the dirt of the man’s boots, and to some extent from injury--a precaution which, strange as it may seem, is not taken in every bonded warehouse. Then, again, Mr. Adams, the warehouse superintendent--who could hardly have the interests of planters and importers more at heart were he “in Tea” himself--uses his best endeavours to refill the boxes with as little delay as possible, and thus to prevent it from being injured by undue exposure to the atmosphere. He also keeps the floors of the warehouse as clean as practicable. But feeling that the best efforts, however well devised, and however strenuously carried out, must necessarily be attended with but partial success, the East and West India Dock Company have erected--as has already been mentioned--a Tea bulking machine, a device which is ingenious and meritorious, and which seems to be, so far as it has been tried, a great success. This machine, designed by Mr. Tydeman, of the company’s engineering staff, and constructed under his supervision, consists, firstly, of a large hollow revolving drum weighing nearly two and a-half tons, and of sufficient capacity to thoroughly bulk about 50 chests of Tea. The drum is made to hold about 100 chests of Tea, which leaves ample space for the bulking of the above quantity. Inside this drum are frames fitted at intervals with iron rods, and extending at varying angles from the axle of the drum to its extremity. Externally the drum has two openings for the reception of the Tea, and two smaller ones for its discharge. In a line with the axle of the drum, some height from the floor, is a platform to which the chests are conveyed by a double lift which simultaneously ascends with a full chest and brings down an empty one. Adjuncts to the machine are a weighing machine, a presser, and four beaters--of the two latter the nature and object will be immediately apparent. The process of bulking as effected by this machine is briefly as follows: The drum being revolved till its receiving openings are level with the platform, a chest of Tea is raised, as before explained, and the contents examined on the door of the drum, which falls back into a horizontal position for that purpose, then by closing the tray or door the Tea is passed into the drum. The lift then brings up another full chest and takes down the emptied one, which is at once taken to a scale for taring purposes, and so the process is continued till the break is exhausted. This filling process can be carried on at both sides of a drum at once, as there are two openings and two lifts. The Tea being in, the drum is made to revolve, when the iron frames thoroughly mix