584 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



Face value of 46 Companies' shares 



£9,500,000 



BLIGHT-RESISTANT COFFEES. 



Market value, 1st Sept., 

 ,, 1st Jan., 

 „ 1st Jan., 

 „ 1st Jan., 

 „ 1st, Jan., 

 „ 1st Jan., 

 ,, 1st Jan., 

 „ 1st Jan., 

 „ 1st April, 

 1st July, 

 1st Oct., 

 ,, 1st Jan., 

 „ 1st Feb., 

 „ 1st April, 

 „ 1st May, 

 ,, 1st June, 

 1st July, 

 1st Oct., 



1902 (lowest) 



1904 



1905 



1906 



1907 



1908 



1909 



1910 



1910 



1910 



1910 



1911 



1911 



1911 (corrected) 



1911 



1911 



1911 



1911 



6,050,000 

 8,200,000 

 7,200,000 

 8,950,000 

 9,650,0'0 

 10,500,000 

 9,950,000 

 11,550,000 

 13,850,000 

 14,500,000 

 14,450,000 

 16,400,000 

 15,500,000 

 16,010,000 

 15,900,000 

 15,900,000 

 15,700,000 

 16,550,000 



As the grand total of the share and Deben- 

 ture capital of the 170 or so companies alto- 

 gether registered in the United Kingdom 

 amounts to about double the above figure, the 

 fluctuations of the entire volume may be thus 

 approximately computed : — 



Face value of 170 Companies 



Lowest value, 1st Sept., 1902 

 Market value, 1st Jan., 1905 



1st July, 1905 

 ,, 1st Jan., 1906 



1st July, 1906 

 ,, lsc Jan., 1907 



1st July, 1907 

 ,, 1st Jan., 1908 



1st Jan., 1909 

 ,, 1st July, 1909 



„ 1st Jan., 1910 



„ 1st July, 1910 



1st Oct., 1910 

 ,, 1st Jan., 1911 



1st Feb., 1911 

 ,, 1st April,1911 



1st July, 1911 



1st Oct., 1911 



£19,000,000 



12,100,000 

 14,400,000 

 15,400,000 

 17,900,000 

 17,8OO,r.O0 

 19,300. 00 

 20, 90 ',000 

 21,000,000 

 19,900,000 

 21,300,000 

 23.100,000 

 29,000,0 

 28,900,000 

 32,800,0! 

 31,000,1 00 

 32,100,000 

 31,400,000 

 33,100,000 



The Tea market has continued steadily to 

 improve as the antuam advanced, with not only 

 the commoner and cheaper grades of tea rising 

 in price, but nearly all other grades, especially 

 the finest, sharing in the improvement. Good 

 trade at home has been supplemented by in- 

 creasing inquiry from abroad, especially from 

 Russia, but also from Belgium and Germany 

 and other central European countries, where 

 recently great efforts have been made to direct 

 public attention to the merits of good Indian 

 tea. which efforts are now beginning to reap a 

 tardy reward. 



The share market, taking its cue from that 

 for the produce, has ruled strong and business 

 has latterly been on a very large scale, while 

 values, have, with only a few exceptions, ad- 

 vanced smartly, though it will be seen from the 

 above figures that the aggregate value for the 

 first time exceeded the figure of January 1st 

 last. The advance during the nine months has 

 been uneven — several leading shares were now 

 standing lower than they did last Christmas. 

 In other cases, however, the advance has been 

 quite phenomenal. Ceylon shares have for the 

 most part, declined, owing to the collapse in 

 rubber, in which product most of them have 

 an interest, as well as in tea. — F. limes, Oct. 31. 



Since the advent of the coffee blight (Hemileia 

 vastatrix) into the Philippines some twenty-five 

 or thirty years ago, it has been practically im- 

 possible to raise even a fair crop of coffee below 

 2,000 feet elevation. This blight destroyed the 

 coffee industry not only in the Philippines but in 

 Java, Ceylon and the Malay Peninsula at about 

 the came time that it reached this Archipelago. 



An attempt is being made now by several of the 

 old coffee countries to discover or create one or 

 more varieties of coffee which will be resistant to 

 this fungus,and it is believed there is some hope 

 in some of the new hybrids of robusta coffee( Coffea 

 robusta). This Bureau now has growing at the 

 Lamao experiment station a considerable quan- 

 tity of this coffee, and a littte later seed will be 

 distributed to any one who wishes to experiment 

 with the variety. However, like several of the 

 non-com meroial coffees this robusta does not 

 have a first-class flavour, thought it is in some 

 respects better than that of either Liberian (0. 

 liberica) or the Inhambane coffee of Mozambique. 

 Another trouble with the new coffees is that they 

 are for the most part very weak in caffein, the 

 active principal of the beverage — some of them 

 possessing no stimulating qualities whatever. 

 — Philippine Agricultural Review, for Oct. 



HUBBER IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



In the September issue of f L'Agronomie 

 Tropical " some interesting particulars with re- 

 gard to rubber in British East Africa are given 

 by Mr A C MacDonald, the Director of Agricul- 

 ture there. The larger part of the rubber so far 

 exported, he mentions, has consisted of that ob- 

 tained from indigenous species of Landolphia, 

 which are to be found in the coastal districts of 

 Takaungu, Witu, and Mwele, and on the andi 

 plateau, which is 6,000 feet high. So far, the 

 methods of tapping have been so crude as annu- 

 ally to reduce the extent of the rubber produ- 

 cing districts, the plants, in many cases, being 

 bled to death. In the forests of Nandi, coagula- 

 tion by sprinkling the wound with salt after the 

 incision, has had to be abandoned, as the monkeys 

 come along, lick off the salt, and gnaw the 

 lianes. Endeavours are being made to give the 

 plants a rest, in order to permit of their regene- 

 ration, and the effect of this treatment is to be 

 carefully noted. Another form of rubber is 

 obtained from the Mascarenhasia elastica, but 

 its value, up to the present, is not exactly 

 known. In some of the more favourable loca- 

 lities, Hevea braziliensis (Pavia) has some chance 

 of success, but as a general rule it does not 

 grow very well, especially near the coast and 

 the lakes. Ceara (Manihot Glaziovii) does ex- 

 tremely well near the coast to the north and 

 south of Mombasa, and in the region extending 

 from Mazeras and Changamwe to Ribe, as 

 well as in a large part of the Lake district, as 

 experiments conducted duriDg the last three 

 years have shown. Fifteen hundred to 2,000 

 acres have already been planted and the plan- 

 tations are constantly extending. So far tap- 

 ping has beendone for sample purposes only, 

 but the rubber obtained from trees i.wo to two 

 and a half years old has been valued at 5s. a lb. 



