684 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, i8go. 
tion of agent to work among the Russian experts. 
One objection offered to ua by a Colombo expert 
to whom we mentioned the matter today, is the very 
large quantity of any one suitable sample of tea 
which a Russian buyer would probably want at once 
to have ; but this difficulty, every season now should 
enable us more easily to overcome ; and it is 
quite possible that if the Eussian buyers came to 
know about the Ceylon trade and market being open 
all the year round, they would prefer smaller sup- 
plies at intervalt! of fresh teas, rather than the present 
fashion of buying a whole year's supply all at 
once in the China ports. 
COFFEE PROM BRAZIL. 
Total clearances of coffee from Rio during the last 10 
years in bags of 60 kilos. 
IT. States Europe Elsewhere Total. 
1889 1,814,175 797,012 138,954 2,750,141 
1888 2,080,010 1,022,998 148,207 3,251,215 
1887 1,450,223 605,434 97,309 2,152,966 
1886 2,239,119 1,090,918 140,260 3,470,297 
1885 2,648.660 1,193,672 133,566 3,975,798 
1884 2,394,462 1,200,917 168,246 3,753,625 
1883 2,223,039 1,223,086 101,396 3,547,521 
1882 2,450,759 1,457,951 152,349 4,061,059 
1831 2,160,481 1,905,241 151,878 4,217,600 
1830 .... 1,827,038 1,428,141 126,372 3,381,551 
—Bio News. 
[Readers will not forget, of course, that the ship- 
ments f>om Santos have rapidly increased of late 
■sears, un il now they are not far behind those from 
Rio.— Ed. T. AP\ 
«. 
TOBACCO CULTURE IN SUMATRA : 
United Lankat Plantations Co. . 
The first annual general meeting of the United 
LaLkat Plantations Company (Limited), was held on 
Ihe4th inat., at Winchester Hou^e, Mr. David Brown 
in the chair. 
The Chairman: I regret that the profits, though 
they may be considered large, are not up to the 
standard we expected. The loss, however, does not 
fall upon us. At the same time it is necessary I 
should explain to you the reason of this loss and the 
steps we have taken to prevent a recurrence of such 
a thing again, for I can assure you it is quite with- 
in our power. The first, but not the least importmt, 
is the change in the demand of the description of 
tobacco that is required by the Amsterdam dealers. 
In former years they used to cry out for a very strong 
brown tobacco. Now that is entirely changed. The 
whole demand now for cigars is for a green nature, 
and the coverings have to be of a very light and 
very fine description. The second point is the ques- 
tion of land. I have no doubt it will surprise you 
especially any of you interested in English farming— to 
hear that the complaint is not that our land is too poor, 
but that it is too rich. I have a letter from our admi- 
nistrator who blames the land by saying that we are 
unable to plant the same seed for many years. It grows 
to such a wonderful extent that it becomes of a coarse 
and much too dark a description, and therefore the 
only way we can meet this is simply by a question 
of seed, and upon seed really rests the whole of this 
question. Unfortunately the manager who is in charge 
of the Tjermin estate had neglected this point, and 
hid allowed the sei-d to be continued on for a third 
year instead of having new seed from a lighter soil. 
We have also made arrangements with him for 
taking a more careful supervision of the Tjermin 
estate. In 188G the estate gave a larger profit than 
the Brahrang estate, which has now given us the 
very handsome profit this year of £30,000. I now 
come to the prospects of the '88-9 crop, which is now 
in the sheds. The prospects are very favourable. 
Generally throughout Sumatra the season has not been a 
pa liou.arly favour I Jo one. On our estates fortunately, 
we are able to report thit our crop is larger than it 
was last year, and I trust that although there is a 
g';od deal of broken leaf, it will realise good prices. 
The demand in Amsterdam is, from the reports of 
our agents tbere, still very strong. America took 
48,000 out of the 180,000 sold in Amsterdam last 
year, and it is reported that for the first sale this 
year, which will be in the early part of next 
month, American buyers, are coming over to be large 
purchsers again, so that our prospects of the 88-9 crop 
will be favourable. We have a large load from the 
Brahrang estate, and as that has given good prices in 
1889, we look for a continuance of the same thing in 
181)0. The next question is as to the next year's crop. 
The administrator writes : — "Men are all on the fields, 
with the exception of forty." Besides the decreased 
expense, in the enaagementof coolies the re-engagement 
testifies, to an extent you can hardly imagine, to 
the good working of the place, and testifies also to 
the fact that the coolies, who are interested in the 
cultivation and are paid according to the amount of 
tobacco they return, are satisfied they have really a 
good thing. We have made arrangements to inorease 
the cultivation on each estate of 100 fields, and with 
this increased cultivation the expenses should pro- 
portionally decrease. I propose that the report be 
adopted, and that a dividend at the rate of 3s. be paid. 
Mr. Jones seconded the motion. 
In reply to questions, the Chairman said the ques- 
tion of the purchase of the Ashahan estate had 
perhaps better be left in abeyance. He thought it 
should not be treated too publicly. The land was very 
valuable, and they had received reports to the effect 
that the tobacco grown on the Ashahau estate was 
very gor>d, and he might mention that the average 
rate for Ashahan tobacco last jear was as high as for 
Lankat tobacco. The dividends would probably be 
paid half-yearly. The crop last year was very much 
delayed. This year it was a much earlier crop, and 
it depended on their ability to work off the crop 
whether they would pay a half-yearly dividend. The 
managers were paid a fixed sum — a small sum and 
the total of their payment for salary depended on 
the receipts of the work. This system had always 
fmrn the very first been adopted in Sumatra. It was 
a most excellent system, and ran through the whole 
• f the working of the estate. The coolies and labourers 
were paid by result, and the manager and assistant- 
manager were paid a certain portion by result. Upon 
the Brahrang estate the managers' commission 
amounted to £4,000, whereas upon the Tjermin estate 
they received almost nothing. It took two years to 
realise their crop, and when they were planting the 
crop they were not aware of the actual description 
of tobacco that would be on demand when it came 
to market. Good tobaccos of all descriptions in Am- 
sterdam would realise a very handsome profit, and, 
looking at the demand which still existed, he could 
assure them he had never known a season in which 
the prospects of tobacoo-planters were better, so long 
as their land was good and of even quality, and pro- 
perly and efficiently managed. 
The motion for the adoption of the report was 
then put and carried. 
Mr. Drought : There is one fact in connection with 
the report that our chairman could not very well touch 
upon. The fact to which I refer is the relinquish- 
ing by the vtndor company of its Bhare, under agree- 
ment, of the 1889 profits. As stated in the prospectus, 
I waa signatory of the second part to the agree- 
ment between the old and the new company, and acting 
in such capacity, as soon as I found the crop 
on Tjermin was certain to be disappointing, I wrote 
to the liquidator of the old company, under the date 
November 19th last, requesting that the group of 
veudors comprising the old company would take into 
consideration the relinquishing of the agreed amount 
of profit of the 1889 crop in favour of tne sharehold- 
ers in this company. The vendor company was en- 
titled to the sum of £16,000 out of the 1889 profits un- 
der the agreement I have mentioned, and this sum, 
less a trifling amount, was at once allocated without 
demur to the shareh ilders in this company. I beg, 
gentlemen, to move the following resolution : — " That 
a most cordial vote of thanks be tendered to the few 
gentlomon who comprised the members of the old 
