May 1, i886.'j 



TH'fi fRdPfeAL AGnicVLfijntsf, 



71$ 



Ko;damya is plucking in from 3,000 to 1,000 lb 

 of tea leaf a day and is likely to make tlie 

 largest quantity of tea this month, ever made on 

 any single estate in Ceylon. — Tisitor, 



Florida. — The recent cold snap in the South is said 

 to have benefited rather than injured the orange trees 

 in Rochelle, Fla. The insects have been killed, the 

 trees have thrown off all the old leaves, and are 

 nowputting out a vigorous growth. — American Grocer. 



Pkice of Kice. — The exportable surplus of rice 

 from the present crop in Burmah is unprecedented, 

 and the early shipuieTits have been sold at the 

 lowest prices ever known to the trade. Quotations 

 to arrive are 6s 9d per cwt., or less than l^c. a 

 pound. At this figure rice is the cheapest food in 

 the market. — Bradstreet, Feb. IHHG. 



Coca fob Chewing. — One of the latest novelties in 

 the specialty line is a compound of coca, tea, coffee 

 and cinchona, which is put up in the form of pressed 

 cakes, like tobacco. Portions of the " plug " are 

 to be chewed, the saliva being swallowed, and tlie 

 exhausted quid rejected. The compound is styled, 

 ridiculously enough, " Coca-bola." — Xatioiial Druij- 

 gist. 



The Bank of Brazil has recently sold a good 

 coffee plantation in the municipality of Piracicaba, 

 Sao Paulo, containing 80,000 coffee trees, half of 

 them young, for the sum of J:ilj,000. The plant- 

 ation was well mounted with machinery for clear- 

 ing coft'ee, and had 12 slaves besides. — lHo AV»-s. 

 [In Brazil coffee trees are planted about 280 to an 

 acre.— Ep.] 



Floiiida. — The surprising statement is made tliat 

 only one acre of land to each three thousand acres 

 of territory comprising the State of Florida is fit for 

 hatit ition or adapted to agricultural purposes. 

 Neariy all the good land has been secured and is 

 held at high prices. More than half the area of 

 the seventeen orange counties is under water ro 

 consists of inhospitable swamps and pine bar- 

 rens. — A mcrican Grocer. 



Tea in Uva. — After all that has been written about 

 tea i'l the Principality, no one now doubts that is an 

 assuieil success. .A friend from the Kandy side told me 

 the other day that after seeing tea eigliteen mouths 

 and two yoars old in Uva, he was not only couviuced of 

 the suitability of the Uva climate for tca,but he said the 

 '■make" of the tree was stronger than any tea he had 

 seen on the Kandy .'ide at the same age. — Cor. " Cey- 

 loft Advertiser." 



Mi:. Suaxd's Tea-driee had a good trial as 

 arranged yesterday afternoon when a number of 

 gentlemen including Messrs. .Joini Urown. Ballar- 

 die, liorsfall and others, expressed themselves 

 well pleased. It took about 2 hours previous 

 tiring to get the heat up to 350° on the plates 

 and 2.50' on the trays. With the furnace and 

 chimney outside the tea-house everything is very 

 clean and convenient by Mr. Shand's arrange- 

 ments and he liolds that his plan is by no means 

 wasteful of fuel, indeed that it will probably 

 save on the Sirocco. On one point there is com- 

 plete agreement of opinion, namely, that there 

 can be no cheaper tea-drier than that of Mr. Shand. 



Tka Pli'ckimi in Dar.ieei.inu.— AVe had most sea- 

 sonable falls of rain la.st Tuesday and 'Weduesdiiy which 

 have had the etlect of freshening everything, and the 

 hill ,-ides are beginning to assume their summer coat- 

 ing of grceu. These showers have of course improved 

 the prospects of all kinds of crops very considerably, 

 and as the rain has been followed by bright, warca snu- 

 sliiiie, good, vigorous first Hu-hes on the tea bushes 

 ought to be the result. Under the old, and bad, sys- 

 t(m of tea plucking thi.s vfjuld be an unusually early 

 tea manntaituring season, but the hill nii-ii, at ail 

 events, having jirofited by dearly bought experieuce, 

 now let the flrsi tiuoh run to a length varying from 

 eigl'.t inches upwaros according to circumslauces, and 

 the natural result is that, a< comparad with the oldeo 

 Si 



ays, but little tea is made stT the first flush. The ro- 

 ult of the new departure has beeu that many gardens 

 which used to pay an almost uoniin.al dividend, and 

 sometimes nono at all, while the goose that laid the 

 golden eggs was being slowly murdered, are now pay- 

 ing steady dividends of from 7 to 14 per cent year in 

 and year out, and the bushes come up smiling to the 

 fingers of the plurkt-rs. This change in the system of 

 plucking is certainly due iu a very great measure to 

 some of the Assam men who camo here between 1873 

 and 187(5, and notably, I think, to Mr. James Iliddell, 

 an old and experieni'd Superintendent of the Jorebaut 

 Company, who was sent out specially to pull the Dar- 

 jeeling Company round when it was really in a bad way. 

 — Indian Planters Gazette. 



TuKVAR Tea Co., Ld.— The Secretaries have 

 issued their report and audited accounts for 188.'). 

 The total outturn has beeu considerably under the 

 estimate, owing to the red spider blight, which 

 made its appearance in the beginning of May and 

 spread all over the garden by the beginning of June. 

 The rainfall (l.'i-.50 inches) during this mouth was tto 

 light to check it, and there was not much improve- 

 ment until the end of July. The estimate was tor a 

 crop of 28S,non lb. of tea, but only 24(1,010 lb. 

 were made, of which 238,610 lb. were invoiced and 

 1,320 1b. have been retained for sale at the factory. 

 Of this qu.autity 140,225 lb. were shipped to Londuu 

 and '.iS,ll.3 lb. have been sold iu Calcutta. The gross 

 average price realized inclusive of amount recovered 

 from the Insurance Co. for IS.S.sO lb. lost on board 

 the Oitii of Manehester is annas 12 pies lOJ as against 

 annas 9 pies 5 per lb. in 1884. The balance retained 

 at the factory is valued at annas 15 per lb. The total 

 expenditure amounted to K125,ti02-8-i) and the work- 

 ing of the season resulted in a net profit of Kii'!,44C)-10-(i 

 After adjustment of the ProHt and Losh Account, 

 and providing for payment of the «(■/■/■«/'( !/j( dividend 

 at the rate of 5 per cent, dochired on Utli November 

 last, there remains a balance at credit of K29,G'J2-2-3 

 from which the Secretaries recommend tlie payment of 

 a final dividend of 4 per cent., making 9 per cunt iu all. 

 at the. season's workiug. This will absorb K29,;;72 

 and leave a small balance of R320-2-8 to 

 carry forward. The estimates for the current season 

 are R124,U0U fora crop of 0,300 maunds, or 264,000 lb. 

 of tea. — Flatittrs^ Gazette. 



Cinchona Disease in Java. — To the Straits 

 Times translation we are indebted for the follow- 

 ing paragraph showing how the cinchona planters 

 in AVestern Java are suffering from canker : — 

 "The Sourabaya Couraiit has received gloomy reports 

 anent a disease among the roots of cinchona trees 

 in West Java, that calamity proving to be wider 

 spread than many persons would have thought. 

 The trees are dying out altogether throughout 

 whole plantations not at first but just when they 

 were getting valuable and into bearing. Capital 

 to large amounts invested in hopeful estates have 

 thereby been lost beyond recovery and many leased 

 tracts of land will lapse to Government. Judging 

 from appearances no kind of plantation enterprise 

 will thrive in Java with any promise of a bright 

 future to industrious Europeans. Planters in .Tava, 

 so says the Samarang I,ucoiiwlieJ\ far from being 

 discouraged by disease among canes and cinchonas 

 threatening ruin to these kinds of cultivation are 

 jointly striving to make head against them by 

 establishing experimental stations where trials may 

 be carried on to find out the best methods of 

 growing produce articles, w'arding off disease among 

 tliem and securing higher yields. To aid sugar 

 growers, measures have been taken by the Planters 

 Association to send supplies of sound and healthy 

 jilant cane from East Java to stricken districts in 

 the Western portion of the island. The Planters' 

 Association at Sukabnmie has taken sleps to induce 

 growers to take joint action to bring about an in- 

 crease in the consumption of ijuininc thereby to 

 prevent a further fall in the price of that article 

 or at least to check its decline," 



