April i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
69S 
The f.300,000 shares in the Amsterdam Asahan 
Tobacco Company, recently offered, have all been 
taken up. From the prospectus the following parti- 
culars are derived. The company intends to culti- 
vate tobacco on grounds situated near the East 
Coast of Sumatia. The concession is for 5,000 
bouws, and borders the river Asahan, which oilers 
cheap facilities for importing materials and shipping 
produce from and to Tandjoeng Balei, which place 
is in regular steam communication with Java, 
Penang, and Singapore. The average price for the 
crop of 1888 was c.129, being after the Deli tobacco 
(149£) the highest price for all kinds of Sumatra 
tobacco. The concession is estimated at the value 
of 100,000 guilders in money and 50,000 guilders in 
paid up shares. Payment, however, of the shares 
is only required after a local examination of the 
director about the fitness of the soil for the culti- 
vation of tobacco. He will proceed to Asahan for 
this purpose as soon as possible. In case his 
examination should turn out unsatisfactory the 
company will be liquidated at once. The Senembah 
Company is established in this city with a capital 
of f. 1,500,000, divided in 1,500 shares, each of 
f. 1,000. Subscription is opened on 400 shares, on 
which the dividend of 1889 will be paid. The 
oompany purposes to cultivate tobacco on the estates 
Senembah in Sumatra, of which the company has 
become proprietors. — L. and G. Express, Feb. 21st. 
The East India Co. : Tea and Ceylon.— In 
the interesting paper read before the London Society 
of Arts on 17th Jan. by Mr. Danvere, Eegistrar 
and Superintendent of Eecords at the India Office, 
we find the following reference to tea: — 
By an Act of 1793, the trade was further conti- 
nued until 1813, when the 53rd Geo. III., c. 155, 
was passed, opening the trade with India to the 
public, at the tame time reserving exclusively to the 
Oompany the trade with China and in tea. This latter 
trade was to continue to the Company until the 22nd 
April 1834, and by a statute of 28th August, 1833 (3 
and 4 Will. IV., c. 93), the tea trade also was thrown 
open to the public, and the Company thereafter ceased 
to carry on any trade at all. 
The earliest mention of tea in the old records is 
contained in a letter from Mr, Wickhatn, the Com- 
pany's agent at Firando, in Japan, who, writing on the 
27th June, 1615, to Mr. Eaton, at Miaco, asked for 
"a pot of the best sort of chaw." It is not certain 
when the first consignment of tea was sent home, but 
it appears that in 1664 the Company presented the 
King with a small quantity as a present ; and three 
years later they directed their agent at Bantam to 
send " home 100 lb. weight of the best tea that you 
can get " "Writing in 1684 to Madras, the directors 
state.l : — " In regard, that is grown to be a commo- 
dity here, and we have occasion to make presents 
therein to our great friends at Court, we would have 
you send us yearly five or six cannisters of the very 
best and freshest thea." This was probably the com- 
mencement of the regular importation of that com- 
modity into England. 
Mr. Danvera referred to Ceylon as follows : — 
A brief allusion may, not inappropriately, be made 
to Ceylon before concluding, as that island was once 
governed by the E»st India Company. The first in- 
tercourse of the English with Ceylon took place in 
IZt'.'i, when an embassy was sent from Madras to the 
King of Kandy, without, however, leading to any 
result. On the rupture between Great Britain and 
Holland in 1795, a force was sent agaist the Dutch 
possessions in Oeylon, when the whole of their forts 
fell into the hands of the English. At first the island 
was placed under the care of the Eattt India Company 
arid made subordinate to the Government of Madras, 
but in 1802 the whole seaboard of Ceylon became, 
by the treaty of Amiens, a possession of the British 
Crown, and its connection with the East India Com- 
pany oeaaed. 
A Tea Visitoe. — Mr. Hickling of the well 
known London tea. firm and who, himself, holds con- 
siderable proprietary interests in the island is again 
on a visit to Ceylon, having come out in the 
" Britannia." We are glad to see Mr. Hickling well 
and vigorous and as full of encouragement as to 
the future of Ceyli.n teas as ever. Three years 
have elapsed since Mr. Hickling was out in Oeylon 
and he will see a considerable change in the growth 
of tea in the higher distriots around Nuwara Ehya 
whither he proceeds in a few days. Mr. Hickling, 
we are glad to learn, thinks it very likely that 
Mr. Goschen (in view of his promise to Mr. Picton 
last year) will take 2d to 3d off the tea duty in 
his next budget. We are not likely to hear defi- 
nitely before the middle of April probably ; but 
meantime there can be no doubt that the home 
tea trade has been disturbed by budget anticipations. 
The Government Cinchona Enterprise in 
Java. — The report by Mr. van Eomunde, Director 
of the Government Cinchona Enterprise in Java, 
for the 4th quarter of 1889, and dated Tirtasari. 
9th Jan. 1890, is as follows : — 
The weather was characterized during the past 
quarter by alternate rains and drought. About the 
middle of Deoember strong winds were experienced 
which did further considerable damage to the plan- 
tations at Nagrak by the tearing off of branches 
The small quantity of o ntmuous rain in the last 
months of the year is the cause why once again very 
plants have been put out as supplies or for renew- 
ing. Especially in the sandy soil of the Malibar 
range tbe young plants suffeied greatly in consequence 
of the continually recuiriag drought, although few 
plants died, which must certainly be ascribed to the 
use of hardy seedlings. Ihe orop of 1889 amounts to 
about 71)0,000 half kilograms of bark, of which by the 
end of December 560,507 pounds had been dispatched 
to Tandjong Priok. The plague of caterpillars, 
of which mention was made in the preceding 
report, continued to be experienced during the 
month of Ootober as) well, and extended also to 
the estate of Rioengguenoeng, where the insect was 
not noticed in former years. Neither trouble nor ex- 
pense was spared in the catching of the caterpillars, 
and in order to oombat the plague in the future 
the butterflies were as far as practicable collected and 
killed. The plague of caterpillars exercised a marked 
influence on the crop of the past year, as can be judged 
from the fact, that in the production of Tirtasari 
where bark is obtained entirely by thinning, only a 
slight increase is shown. As little bark as possible was 
taken from the trees on this estate in order to main- 
tain a maximum mass of foliage in the gardens, with 
the happy result, that after the decrease of the insects 
soon nothing more was to be seen of the plague. As 
a means of if not extirpating- at least reducing to a 
minimum the effects of the plague, perhaps the 
greatest that has yet visited the Government 
plantations, the maintenance of a dense condi- 
tion of the plants seems to be the method 
indicated, and consequently cropping by thinning out 
has been as much as possible restricted on the other 
estates. On 5th Nov. and 5th Deo. sales of cinohona 
seed were held, which realised /2,475 and /569. By 
Government order of 16th Nov. 1889 No. 3 the minimum 
prices lor ledgeriana seed were fixed at 20 cents and 
for succirubra and other seed at 10 cents per gram. 
On 5th Sept., 3rd Oct., 7th Nov. and 12th Dec 1889 
sales of cinchona bark of the crop of 1889 were held 
at Amsterdam. The unit prices reckoned per half 
kilogram bark and per cent quinine sulphate amounted 
at the last sales to 10 and 9 cents. 
The number of plants in the Government gardens 
at the end of 1889 was 3,292,800, viz., in the nur- 
series 1,249000—1,075,000 ledgeriana (including 
15 000 grafts), and 174,000 sucoirubra ; in the open 
2,041,800—1,335,000 ledgeriana (including 230,000 
cuttings and grafts and exclusive of the more or less 
3,000 original ledgerianas), 3,300 calisaya and hass- 
karliana, 016,000 succirubra and oaloptera, 08,500 
officinalis, and, 1,000 lanoifolia. 
