May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



8« 



" This is the grand secret of vegetable growing, and, if 

 our upcountry gardeners (?) would only cultivate in this 

 way, there is no reason whatever why the people in 

 Colombo should be short of such vegetables as peas, 

 cauliflower, potatoes, &c, Ac. — a truck-load of vegetables 

 should leave Nanuoya every day." 



Another extract giviug a " simple treatment to protect 

 roses against the.r eDemies"(insects, mildew, Ac ) will be 

 elcoma d by nuny cultivators of roses in the hill dis- 

 tricts. Further information refers to tuberous begonias 

 (which no many people complain do not thrivcwellm the 

 second yearin Ceylon) ; and to torenias, very beautiful 

 plants suitable for verandahs, but, like those of many 

 other plants, the seeds are generally covered too deep 

 and so never come up. For the detailed [inform- 

 ation in each case, we can only refer to the T. A. 



TEA GARDEN REPORTS. 



The Managing Agents of the Sungoo River Tea Co., Ld., 

 have issued their Report for the year ended 31st Dec- 

 ember 1884. The outturn for the season was 1,190 maunds, 

 being 110 maunds less than the estimate. This short yield 

 was due to bad weather and red spider blight ; therefore 

 the manufacture was not of good quality. The average 

 realized for the crop, exclusive of 2,080 lb. shipped to the 

 Colonies, was 8 annas 3 pie. The estimates for the current 

 season are for 1,225 maunds, at a cost of R52,300. 



The Managing Agents of the Burkhola Tea Co., Ld., 

 have issued their Report for the year ended 31st Dec- 

 ember 188-1. The outturn for the season was 1,336 

 maunds, being 30 maunds in excess of tbe estimate. 

 The gross average realized for the Black Tea was 9 

 annas 3 pie and for the Dust 3 annas 6 pie as compared 

 with 10 annas 9 pie and 2 annas 8 pie respectively in 18S3, 

 The Profit and Loss Account shows a profit of Rupees 

 8,877-3-4, out of which it is proposed to pay a dividend of 

 3 per eent. on the subscribed capital. The estimates 

 for the current season are for 1,300 maunds, at a co;-t of 

 RJ3.583. 



The Directors of tbe Monacherra Tea Co., Ld., have 

 issued their Report for 1884. The accounts show, after 

 the Managing Agents' allowance is written back, a loss 

 on the season's working of R4.201-9-6. leaving at debit 

 of Profit and Loss Account R3, 171-15-5, after bringing 

 forward the balance at credit from season 18S3. The total 

 outturn for the season was 1,942 maunds as compared 

 with 1,986 maunds for 1883 and 2,169 maunds for 18S2, 

 and the average prices realized were lower than 1883, 

 but higher than 1882 averages. Estimates for 1885 are 

 R87,918 for 2,025 maunds of Tea. 



The Managing Agents of the Bengal Tea Co., Ld., have 

 issued their Report with audited accounts for the year 

 ended 1884. The total outturn for the season was 

 Mils. 2,282-8 of Fine teas ) as compared 



374-24 „ Coarse „ 

 Mds. 2,133-33 Fine teas 

 460-33 Coarse „ 

 and the average prices realized were As. 8- 11 and As. 5-1 re- 

 spectively as compared with As. 10-2 and As. 5-2 respectively 

 for 1883. The accounts show a loss of R6,140-8-8 for the 

 season which deducted from the amount brought forward 

 from last year, leaves R2425-14-8 at credit of Profit and 

 Loss Account. 



The Directors of the Bisnauth Tea Company Limited 

 have issued their 43rd half-yearly report for the year ended 

 31st December 1S84. Total outturn of 0.041 maunds 10J seers 

 packed tea, of 208 maunds 29J seers below the estimate, and 

 174 maunds 5 seers above the outturn of the previous year. 

 According to the latest telegraphic advice received on the 

 12th March, the net average realized for the quantity sold to 

 that date, viz. 368,745 lb. was Is 0|d per lb. equal at exchange 

 Is 7 13-16thsd to annaslOiin Calcutta. The quality of the 

 manufacture, which was good at the commencement of the 

 season, fell off later on, and on the whole has been very dis- 

 appointing. Expenditure. — The total outlay for the year was 

 estimated at R-.',35,000 and tbe actual expenditure was 

 U- 11561-1-8. This increase occurred in the garden expend- 

 iture, and was due principally to a largeroutlay on account of 

 buildings than was estimated for in the beginning of the 

 ... :,snn Profit and Loss Acemint, — The balance standing at 



vith 

 for 1883, 



credit of this account is R10.184'6, which, added to tbe es- 

 timated profit for season 1884, gives a total of R44.365-7-10. 

 This sum is sufficient to provide for payment of a dividend 

 at the rate of 5 per cent on the paid-up capital, and the 

 Directors now ask the shareholders to give them the necess- 

 ary authority to declare dividend after realization of balance 

 of crop. Estimates for 1885.— The estimates for the current 

 season are : — 



Expenditure — 

 At Garden ... Rl,60,000 



In Calcutta ... R 83,000 



R2,48,000 



in addition to which there will be an extra outlay of R8,00O 

 on account of permanent buildings. The Calcutta ex- 

 penditure provides for the importation of 250 Bengalee 

 coolies. The crop is estimated at 6,350 maunds good Tea. 



The Managing Agents of the Darjeeling Tea and Cin- 

 chona Association, Ld., have issued their report for the 

 year ended 31st December 1884. The outturn of Tea 

 was 717 maunds, which realized an average price of 

 As. 11-6 pies per lb. The Cinchona bark cropped was 

 83,9571b. green, which gave 25,0891b. dry, and which 

 sold in London at an average of 9d per lb. ; the yield 

 was much better than was anticipated (nearly ' 31b. 

 per tree), but being the production of the coppiced trees 

 there was a large percentage of the inferior description of 

 bark. The expenditure amounted to R43,648-G-3 and the 

 working of the season resulted in a profit of R3,678-7-7. 

 The managing agents propose that the credit balance 

 shown in the accounts of R7 ,974-3-10 should be disposed 

 of by writing R3.636 off block to equalize that account with 

 the capital, and by carrying forward R4.338-3-10 to the 

 current season. The estimates for 1885 are R48,000 for 

 850 maunds of tea and for an extension of 35 acres of 

 cinchona bark; any barking operations it may be found 

 necessary to undertake this year will depend upon the 

 growth made by the trees during the next rainy season.— 

 Indian Planters' Gazette. 



NEW DYE*, FIBRES, FOODS. 



We fancy exploration, to become again thoroughly 

 interesting, must be directed towards things, rather 

 than places ; the whole world being searched for thinga 

 of value, and especially new dyes, new fibres, and new 

 foods. We have always thought that there was nearly 

 as much to interest men in Mr. Fortune's hunt of 

 years for the green indigo — which undoubtedly exists, 

 though he failed to find it— as in any exploration of 

 a new island. The delight of the American who has 

 just discovered a cotton-plant six times as fruitful as 

 the old variety, must be very keen, and not altogether 

 tainted by the reflection — though that is unavoidable 

 — that in such a plant there must be dollars. Just 

 imagine what that man would do for mankind who 

 found a new and vigorous potato, different from the 

 plant which now grows in Ireland, and which is, 

 according to a writer in the Cornhill, being pro- 

 pagated by cuttings, which is a single undivided plant, 

 liable to inherit, through all its millions of appar- 

 ently separate existences, the weaknesses of the 

 original tuber, and liable also to exhaustion, as of 

 old age. It has no children ; only a power, so to 

 speak, of haviDg bits of its flesh cut off and planted. 

 It is never renewed from seeds, and so, by all the 

 analogies of Nature, will perish ; though the banana, 

 which also is never renewed — and, indeed, in one 

 variety has become seedless— has lasted ages. It is 

 quite possible that there are only two bananas in the 

 world. Or imagine a new and successful cereal, — a 

 real one in the true silica armour, with a head twice 

 as heavy, and grains twice as nutritions, as those of 

 wheat. Why should wheat be the final source of 

 bread? Man got saccharine matters from all sorts of 

 things — grapes, honey and fruits — from the earliest 

 times ; but he was old in the world, and had passed 

 through many civilizations, before he discovered the 

 cane and crushed the beet, and so got his present 

 boundless store of sugar. A cereal as fruitful an 



