560 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i 1890 
Native Enterprise in Tea, — We learn that 
several native gentlemen are engaging in tea- 
planting on a considerable scale in the Eentola 
district: one of them, Mr. Clovis de Silva, a well- 
known Moratuwa renter, is ooening about 200 
acres of forest land, and doing hx work on a 
thoroughly liberal scale. Other clearings of 40 to 
100 acres are reported. 
The Diamond Industry of Amsterdam — The in- 
dustry at present is in a sad plight, owing, it is said, 
to the dearness of the rough stones. More than 
7,000 diamond cutters are believed to be idle at 
this moment. So much, at least, was stated with- 
out contradiction in a mass meeting of over one 
thousand workless cutters, held the other day at 
Amsterdam. It is now proposed to start a co-opera- 
tive diamond cutting factory, for which a capital of 
half a million guilders is required. If the money 
cannot be found in Amsterdam, the promoters 
propose to transport 5,000 or 6,000 workers to 
London, and negociations have already been opened 
to that effect with the Rothschilds, who would pro- 
vide the necessary funds for the emigra ion scheme 
and the London establishment. Nothing is as yet 
settled. — Industries. 
The Chemical Trade of Germany. — The American 
Consul at Mannheim, in a recent report, states that 
Germany exports to all parts of the world all kinds 
of drugs and chemicals in a finished state. Last 
year about 233 million marks worth of raw material 
was exported, and 236 millions worth of manu- 
factured chemicals was exported from Germany. 
This branch of trade forms 7 per cent, of the total 
trade of the Empire. The raw materials imported 
included medicinal drugs, resins, pitches, and tann- 
ing stuffs, while the exports were composed of 
bases, acids, salts, ether, oils, medicines, per- 
fumeries, colours, &o. The Consul says that the 
Germans are labouring with ceaseless energy to 
get the command of this profitable and important 
branch of commerce. Time, money, and energy are 
expended in ever-repeated efforts to beat others 
and secure new discoveries. In Mannheim and 
the adjacent towns "a large number of skilfai 
chemists are constantly employed producing and 
experimenting. The gold mines of an El Dorado 
or the silver ores of Colorado are not richer in 
yielding wealth than the laboratories of these 
establishments. Ther alembics yield more wealth 
than the necromanc. s of the middle ages dreamed 
of getting from theirs." — London Times. 
Assam. — Assam, under the rule of Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
enjoyed a year of more than average prosperity _ in 
spi'e of a very hoavy rainfall, and the comparative 
failure of the cold-season crops. The tea industry was 
severely tried by the weather, but although in 
some parts the outturn was prejudicially affected, the 
total production amounted to upwards of 72| million 
pound?, or nearly 4J millions more than in the previous 
year. At the close of 1883 there were 863 tea-gardens 
in the province, a favourable sign of the times being 
the amalgamation of six gardens with others, with a 
view to economy and convenience of working. The 
largest outturn was that of the district of Sibasgar 
(16 127.240 lb.,) followed by Oaehar (15,477,096 lb.,) 
Lakhimpur (14,481,587 lb.,) and Sylhet (13,575,338 1b.) 
All districts except Oaehar and the Khasi Hills showed 
an increase as compared with the preceding year, but 
the falling off in Cachar alone was considerable 
(1,079,202 lb.,) and is attributed to the weather and 
the prevalence of blight. The average outturn per 
acre for the province was 3S6 lb. against 384 lb. in tbe 
preceding year, and, as in previous year, the gardens 
in the Lakhimpur district were mos' productive with 
an average of 522 lb. per acre in 188;-!, again-t 487 lb. 
in L887. Comparing the two valley-, the avorng= yield 
per acre in the Surma Valley win 3 9 lb. agninst 379 lb. 
in the preceding year, while in the Brahmq uba Valley 
it was 415 1b. against 3881b in the preooding year,— 
/in'jttshmcm. 
Tea in Badulla District.— Writes a planter 
on the 20th instant : — " Old Gonakellie has now 
nearly 800 acres in cultivation and the tea is 
grand." Well done ! And yet there are croakers 
who say the estimated tonnage of traffic will not 
be available for the railway : why each acre of 
tea gives much more traffic up and down than 
a similar area of coffee, and besides cinchona is 
bound to keep up in Uva. 
The Ceylon Tea Plantations Company 
which is announced as once more earning 15 per 
cent on its capital in the island and whose splendid 
Mariawatte property has done so well again last 
year, is evidently full of confidence in tbe future 
of our tea enterprise. We judge this from the large 
way in which they have been buying and adding 
to their tea investments out here of late. From Sir 
Wm. Gregory they have bought the Dimbula estate 
of Tangakellie with 323 acres of tea. Some time 
ago they took over the Alton property in Maskeliya 
with 410 acres; and the other day another estate 
purchase was reported by a contemporary which 
we cannot refer to at the moment But today we 
learn on, we believe, good authority that Mr. Her- 
bert Anderson of Dimbula has arranged to sell to 
the Company his valuable and extensive Dimbula 
estates of Holyrood — nearly 500 acres under cul- 
tivation — and Waverley of 157 acres. The Ceylon Tea 
Plantations Company, it is evident, therefore, is in a 
fair way to own a greater acreage under tea than 
any other proprietor or Company connected with 
Ceylon. We wish them continued success in their 
investments. 
Nyassaland.— The Eev. Horace Waller, the 
companion of Livingstone, has come out with a 
timely volume on Nyassaland, and from a review 
in the London Times we learn how great is the 
progress made not only by Mission bodies, but 
in planting and commercial settlements. One firm 
Messrs. Buchanan Brothers has taken up some 
hundreds of square miles of splendid land suit- 
able for coffee, tea, cinchona Ac, and they have 
begun planting coffee and cinchona in good 
earnest — 200 acres of the former having been put 
out already with large nurseries and clearings of 
land for extension. And all this is in the terri- 
tory which, for the first time in history, was 
lately invaded and claimed by the Portuguese ! 
No wonder though Lord Salisbury was firm re- 
membering how from Livingstone's day onwards, 
the settlement has been uniformly British. — 
From the notice in the London Times, we quote as 
follows : — 
He does justice to all the branches of the Church 
that are carrying on the work of civilization in the 
Shire highlands and in the neighbourhood of the lake ; 
as also to the enterprise of the Lakes Company. He 
gives especial prominence to the work of the Bucha- 
nan Brothers, who, on the slopes of Mount Zomb8, 
have coffee, sugar and cinchona plantations, with the 
necessary machinery for the manipulation of the pro- 
duce. Their estates at the present time extend to over 
50,000 acres of the very best and healthiest land in 
Central Africa. The titles to these lands were granted 
by native chiefs ; copies were lodged with Consul 
Hawes on the spot, and also with our own Foreign 
Office. Sawmills and sugHrmills have been erected, 
and tropical plants are on their trial from various parts 
of India and other countries. Last August no fewer 
than 27 .000 additional pits for coffee-trees were dug on 
the Mndi estate, bringing the acreage up to close on 100, 
while at Mlunguei and Mount Zomba another garden 
also of 100 acres is in full bearing. Morrover, very large 
tracts of bind in the neighbourhood of Blantyre have 
recently been purchased by gentlemen iu England and 
Scotland, who for the most part have examined the 
country for themselves. This is just one fact among 
many presented by Mr. Waller as constituting the Brit- 
ish title-deeds to Nyassaland. 
