»74 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [September i, 1885. 



Darjeeling Company 7 per cent, Moabund 5 per cent, 

 Luokimpore and Dejoe SJ per cent and 2 per cent, 

 respectively. 



"The average cost per lb. of the produce of 11 

 gardens for which our table furnishes the requisite 

 data was ll'50d and the average price realized was 

 la l'33d, showing an average profit yer lb. of I'SSd. 

 Of these 11 gardens 7 paid dividends ana 4 

 show a loss ; the average dividend for the 7 was 

 9'29 per cent, the average coat per lb. lOSOd, the aver- 

 age price realised la 2'16d, average profit per lb. 

 .3'86d. Turning to the yield per acre we find the 

 average of 11 gardens in the table was 313 lb. 

 The Assam Company tops the list with 491 lb. 

 per acre off 7,609 acres, made iis tea for 7id per 

 lb. and sold it for lljd, and paid the beat divid- 

 end but one, viz., 14 percent, the Jorehaut Company 

 paying 15 per cent. The highest price la 4id was real- 

 ized by the Jorehaut and Moabund Company's teas, 

 the latter being made for llfd per lb. from an 

 average jield of 246 lb. per acre nlT ."128 acres. 

 Here the profit per lb. was the highest but 

 one, the acreage under cultivation the smallest of 

 any, but the dividend paid was only 5 per cent. It is 

 to be noted, however, that the report under review 

 was presented at the Company's Jiisl ordinary meet- 

 ing ; and it is stated that the profit is taken after 

 paying off all preliminary expenses and that the 

 directors propose to divide only about 75 per cent of 

 the total available, the balance being carried farward 

 to form the nucleus of a working fund. Your 

 London Correspondent alludes to the regret ex- 

 pressed by the Directors of the Aspam Company at 

 the inferiority of the tea made by this Company in 

 1884. The cause is not mentioned, but we have 

 heard a rumour to the effect that it was considered to 

 be due to iuexperience in working a new description 

 of drying apparatus. Both the Jorehaut Company's 

 and Assam Company's estates are on the same district, 

 and there is, we suppose, no reason why under ordin- 

 ary circumstances the teas of the one should not h'tve 

 been a^ good as those of the other and have fetched 

 as high a price. Had this been the case in 1884, 

 and the Assam Company's teas sold at Is 4.id with- 

 out thereby increasing the cost above 7^d, the profit 

 per lb. would have heen equal to 8Jd, or very nearly 

 double what it actually was ; and possihly this Com- 

 pany might then have paid 25 per cent instead of 

 only 14 per cent dividend for the year — enough even 

 as it was, as your correspondent truly says, to make 

 the mouths of investors water. 



" The terms on which the new Ceylon loan has been 

 issued shows that Ceylon investments are coining 

 into favour again, and ; when it is known that we 

 can beat India in yield per acre, chtapness of pro- 

 ducliou, and quality of tea, there can be no doubt 

 of the tff ct on the instincts of capitalists. The 

 danger is, that with the inflow of new capital there, 

 will be another mad rush and its concomitant evils. 

 Meanwhile, there is something selfishly consoling in 

 the thought, that we can place our teas, if need be 

 in London from about 5i per lb. ! 



"In India the lowest cost of production is associated 

 as might be expected with the highest yield per aero ; 

 but it is to be remarked from the prices realized iu 

 the cases referred to in our table, that quantity was only | 

 obtained apparently at the expense of quality. The i 

 highest recorded yield is 491 lb. per acre; but this 

 has been in more than one instance considerably 

 more than doubled in Ceylon, whilst we hear of crops 

 placed f. o. b, at 25 cents per lb., the general aviraije 

 sale price according to Messrs. Geo. White & Co.'s 

 last list being Is 3Jd per lb. as against Is l»d per lb., 

 the average sale price for InJiau teas iu 1884 as stated 

 by Mesere, W, J. & H, Ihompson." | 



On pages 175-76 will be found the Report and 

 tabular statement of the Land Mortgage Bank of 

 India which we have reviewed above ; also the Report 

 of the Darjiling Company, from which it will be 

 seen that a dividend of 7 per cent has been de- 

 clared, the average for three years being about the 

 same. The average yield per acre is 323 lb., steadily 

 decreasing, however, from 369 lb. in 1882 to 2931b. per 

 acre in 1884. The average cost per lb. and price 

 realized were both highest in 1883, namely U l'17d 

 and 1b 6"59d, respectively. 



THE FRUIT TRADE OF BADULLA, CEYLON. 



In June last year Mr. Jas. Irvine addressed a letter to 

 the Assistant Qovernment Agent at Badulla on the sub- 

 ject of a light railway. Towards the end of hia letter Mr. 

 Irvine remarked : — 



*'Give us a cheap railway to Badulla town : the traffic of the 

 town will pay; thevillagers will find a market for their produce, 

 even fresh eggs and poultry will find a market. Badulla 

 is noted for fruit, and in this I speak advisedly : 

 10 acres of an orange grove supplied to the shipping in 

 Colombo will pay as well as 50 acres of coffee iu its best 

 days. Badulla could easily supply two car-loads of fruit 

 daily, which at RlOO would give E200 daily." 



A correspondent having recently referred to this 

 letter, Mr. Irvine writes to us on the subject, and 

 from his letter we quote as follows : — 



" So far as fruit cultivation is concerned, I would only 

 ask my doubting friends to look at the enormous fruit 

 trade of the West Indies. Some of the smaller islands 

 arc devoted entirely to the cultivation of the pineapple, 

 and others, high and hilly, are devoted almost exclusively 

 to the cultivation of the lime. Those who have 

 read Mr. Cottaiii's letters will note the enormous extent 

 of plantain or banana cultivation ; the fruit trade of 

 the West Indies employs almost exclusively a large fleet of 

 small but fast steamers ; in the United States and Canada 

 every train has one or more fruit-cars attached to it during 

 the season ; and on Lake Michigan, steamers .specially fitted 

 for carrying pe.iclies run from lienton Harbour and 

 St. Joseph to Chicago, a distance of over eighty miles. 

 In Singapore the road from the town across the island to 

 the Old or Johore Straits, a distauce of some 14 miles, is 

 lined ou each side with regularly-planted orchards the whole 

 way, and every morning hundreds of Chinese swarm into 

 the town with baskets of fruit. Mready the Australian 

 colonies are endeavoiuring to send grapes and pears aud 

 other Iruit to the English market, and I should think 

 Calcutta, Madras' and other large towns in India would 

 prove a good market, especially for plantains. It is the 

 working classes in the Straits in America, and even in 

 England, who purchase mo.st of the imported and other 

 fruit. The villagcrrs in Uva have the ready answer : What 

 is the use of growing anything ? there is no market 

 for it. At present with the failure of the native coffee 

 they arc so poor they cannot pay their road-tax, and I 

 have been told that Sinhalese from AVilsou's Bungalow and 

 thereabout have actually been working on the tea estates 

 on this side, partly to escape beiue put in gaol for their 

 road-tax, and partly to escape starvation, lie that as it 

 may, I myself have seen large gangs of villagers run into 

 gaol in Badulla and sent to work out their ' statute labor ' 

 by weeding the Government compounds, some 20 of these 

 starved wretches doing about as much work as two ordinary 

 c oolies. They were well fed in gaol, however, and I have 

 no doubt these unfortunates look back with unalloy,?d 

 pleasure to the days of their short iucarceration. Open up he 

 couutry, railroad it, and give the people a chance of find- 

 ing a market : a basket of eggs, fruit and vegetables, or 

 fowls, sold would often enable a villager to pay his tax 

 and keep himout of gaol, and Government would be the gainer 

 in every way. A friend told me recently that he had seen 

 a Hght railway made into a wretchedly poor and neglected 

 district in Southern Spain by an English Fruit Preserving 

 Company simply to cet the peaches and apricots which 

 before were valueless, and the people have benefited 

 lai-gely." ■ ' "• 



