22 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July i, 1889. 
The resolution for the adoption of the report and 
accounts was then put and carried. 
Mr. L. Malcolji said that under the articles of 
association all the directors retired ere bloc ; but he 
judged from the unanimity of the shareholders in the 
room that it was far from their wish that there should 
be any change. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, he had 
pleasure in proposing the re-election of the whole of 
the directors. 
Mr. G. G. Anderson seconded the motion. 
Mr. Attlee (solicitor) said it might, perhaps, seem 
an extraordinary thing that all the directors should 
retire ; but when the company was formed the directors 
wished particularly that they should be submitted to 
the suffrages of the whole body of shareholders. It 
was pleasant to him, as solicitor to the company, to find 
so much unanimity in the meeting today. (Hear, hear.) 
The resolution was then put and carried. 
Mr. Roberts moved the re-election of the auditors, 
Messrs. Welton, Jones, and (Jo., with a remuneration 
of £50. 
Mr. Russell seconded the motion whioh was carried. 
A cordial vote of thanks was then passed to the 
chairman, directors, and managing director. 
The Chairman acknowledged the compliment. 
The proceedings then terminated. 
— , + . 
A FLAW IN BRITISH AGRICULTURE. 
The Scots Observer says If a grazier is taken 
into a grass field, and asked what grasses are there 
it will very often be found that he cannot tell one 
grass from another : indeed, if you venture to say 
that such can be done by examing the species, he 
will probably assume that something is wrong with 
your brain. Still more, if a farmer is laying down 
land to grass, he fixes the quantity of each kind 
of seed neither by rhyme nor reason ; he has a 
special liking for this or that grass, and he mixes 
in an extra quantity of peculiar seed. It is a fact, 
indeed, that forage cultivation is one of the most 
important branches of agriculture in Britain, and 
that our ignorance concerning it is so great as to 
be quite ruinous. The most favourable time for 
remedying this state of matters is the present : 
knowledge, if it does not come now, will come too 
late. It is time that our agricultural societies and 
the Government put their hands to the plough, 
and took ways and means to give sound instruction 
on all points connected with what is really a 
matter of national importance. For with her farmers 
skilled in grass production and stock-rearing Britain 
might defy the competition of the world. 
— 
" OOLONGS " vs. "CEYLON BREAKFAST" 
TEA FOR THE AMERICAN MARKET. 
Pressure on our space forbids our entering on 
the discussion of this question beyond calling 
attention to two letters among our correspondence 
today. There is a good deal of truth in what "Ex- 
Canadian Resident" says about the people in the 
Western portion of the States and Canadian Dominion 
being far readier to accept a new article of con- 
sumption than in the Eastern States. And therein 
lies our justification for offering a certain degree of 
opposition to Mr. Francis Street, who, in a letter 
to a contemporary, apparently advocates that only 
" Oolonga" should be manufactured in Ceylon for 
the American market. This is going too far in our 
opinion. We expect to see the vast bulk of the 
American people — the coffee-drinkers especially— 
gradually brought to appreciate the full value of 
Ceylon tea as a refreshing beverage. " English 
breakfast tea" — a fair qunlity of China black tea 
— wo found in 1884 provided at all hotels from 
San Francisco to Boston, and from Toronto to 
Florida, and many Americans now regularly drink 
such tea, though, of course, the larger number still 
prefer green teas. We would have Ceylon planters 
study the wants of both. A certain proportion of 
Oolongs may well be locally made ; but certainly the 
bulk of the tea with which Ceylon is to storm the 
American market must be of the superior black descrip- 
tion which is already so much appreciated all over 
Britain. Throughout Canada, and in the Middle and 
Western States, there ought to be no difficulty in 
finding a market for such teas and in securing a 
rapidly increasing appreciation of them. The case 
is different, we admit, in New York, New England 
and the populous East Coast States generally ; 
andtherefore there is a good deal of reason at this time 
of depression why not a few of our planters should 
endeavour to follow the example of Mr. Shand of 
Rakwana in manufacturing a certain proportion of 
Oolongs. Mr. Street has been buying a small lot, 
1J chest of Oolong Pekoe at the last Colombo 
sales, at 60 cents, with which he is well satisfied, 
and he is evidently prepared to do business to 
a considerable extent, while he testifies that 
from more than one quarter, in the hill-country 
as well as Rakwana, he has had samples 
of superior Oolongs showing that Ceylon planters can 
well compete with the China makers of green teas in 
the American market. This is very encouraging 
at a time when every resource must be availed 
of to relieve the pressure on our tea making, and we 
shall at once look up the plainest instructions 
available in respect of the making of " Oolongs " 
for the benefit of those who wish to follow the 
Rakwana example. But, nevertheless, we trust 
that the bulk of the tea to be introduced into 
America from Ceylon may be of our Pekoes and 
Pekoe Souchongs and that the demand for these will 
go on steadily increasing until the taste for Oolongs 
whether of pure manufacture, or artificially faced 
— as the vast bulk of the Japan if not China green 
teas is, — is finally eradicated. 
♦ 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN JAVA : 
GOVERNMENT vs. PLANTERS. 
We have received in the form of a pamphlet, re- 
printed from the Batavia Tijdschrift van Nijverheid 
en Landbomo for May, the minutes of proceedings 
at a general meeting of the Soekaboemi Agricul- 
tural Association held on 14th Jan. The subject 
that evoked most discussion was cinchona. The 
Association had received from the Nederland 
branch of the Netherlands India Company of In- 
dustry and Agriculture a note to H. E. the Minister 
for the Colonies respecting the petition of certain 
persons : .nterested in cinchona cultivation in Nether- 
lands India to the Governor there, asking that the 
Government cinchona culture in Java should be no 
further extended but on the contrary restricted 
and gradually abandoned. The President (Mr. G. 
Mundt) having called upon Mr. Massink, a member 
of the Association, that gentleman made a lengthy 
speech. He said that on receipt of a similar note 
the Bandoeng Agricultural Association had resolved 
to refuse their adhesion thereto. The Association 
referred to had come to tais conclusion in conse- 
quence of the explanations given them by their 
President, who was also Director of the Government 
Cinchona Enterprise. Mr. Missink wished however 
to add, that the Director of the Government Cinchona 
Enterprise had handled the note of the Nederland 
branch as gingerly as a cat would treat hot porridge. 
On the minor points he was very discursive, but 
the chief questions be left undealt with. The 
question however was twofold, and it inoluded (1) 
