102 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1887 
commission to managers, &c, added, £'24,095 8s lOd, 
being an increase of 5,541 lb. over the estimate, and of 
135,248 lb. over last, year's crop. 
The produce has been all disposed of as follows : — 
Sold in London ... ... 019,299 lb. 
„ India ... ... 865 „ 
„ New Zealand . . ... 15,910 „ 
Account Sales, Net Weight ... 630,080 „ 
Loss iu Taring, Trade Allowance, &c. 7,461 „ 
Invoiced Weight ... ... 643,541 „ 
The "/hole thus accounted for realised, with £514 10s 
7d proceeds of tea seed, the gross sum of £31,636 4s lid, 
being slightly under an average of Is per lb., shewing a 
drop of 2T6d. per lb. from the average price realised 
for last year's crop. The general fall in value of Indian 
tea was, however, rather more than this, the average 
of all sales iu Miucing Lane being Is. in 1886 against Is 
2Jd in 1885. The net profit of the season's working, 
after deducting commissions to managers and agents, 
amounted to £7,540 16s Id, and the Board paid on 
account from this an ad interim dividend, in December 
last, at the rate of 4 per cent, which absorbed £2,633 
4s, thus leaving a balance of £4,907 12s Id. This sum, 
with the balance brought forward from last account, 
gives an available total at the credit of profit and loss, 
of £5,269 12s lOd, which the board recommends shall 
be dealt with as follows: — 
To the payment of a final dividend at 
the rate of 0 per cent, bringing up the 
total dividend of the year to 10 per cent. £3,949 16 0 
To be transferred to form a reserve 
fund .. .. .. .. 1,000 0 0 
To carry forward to next account a 
balance of .. .. 319 10 10 
£5,269 12 10 
The results of working since the first formation, of 
the company three years ago are shown in the sub- 
joined tabular form. 
Area Under 
Cultivation. 
Mature Plant . . 
Young Plant 
1884. 
Acres. 
425 
171 
1885. 
Acres. 
982 
180 
1886. 
Acres. 
1,013 
171 
Total cultivation . 
596 
1,162 
1,181 
Total Crops — Account 
sales weight 
lb. 
. 254,200 
lb. 
501,774 
lb. 
030,080 
Yield per acre of 
Mature Plant 
lb. 
. 020 
lb. 
511 
lb. 
028 
Realized Price, per lb. 
Total cost per lb. 
s. d. 
. 1 0-02 
. 0 9.94 
s. d. 
1 2-09 
0 10-92 
s. d. ' 
0 11-93 
0 9-09 
Net Profit per lb. 
. 0 2-08 
0 3-17 
0 2-84 
Dividends paid 
.10 perct. 
10 per ct. 
10 per ct. 
This record the board considered extremely satis- 
factory, and reflects much credit on the local 
management in Assam. The most noticeable 
feature being the large and steadily increasing yield 
per acre, an increment, which may be expected to 
go on for some years to come, as the managing 
director estimates that the entire cultivated area 
will yield not less than 720 lb. of similar tea, per 
acre, when in full bearing of, say, eight years old. 
Estimates. — These are given in detail for both 
Indian and English expenditure; they point to an 
out-turn of 073,000 lb. o£ tea, to cost a gross sum of 
£26,437, or an average of 9.42d. per lb. in London, 
sale charges inclusive. As the estimates have been 
framed with great caution, there is very little doubt 
that the quantity estimated for will be at least ob- 
tained, while the expenditure on the other hand will 
probably be Iobb. 
Extensions. — About 12 aeries have been planted at 
Eiiabari and nurseries sufficient to plant out 70 ad- 
ditional acres were put down during the last cold 
weather at Panitola. 
The saw mills at Hukanpukri have worked satis- 
factorily throughout the year. 
The managing director in Assam, Mr. A. W. Madden, 
is at present in England on leave. He reports that 
he left the several properties in the high state of 
cultivation which has been the characteristic of this 
company's estates ; that the machinery is in admir- 
able order— there being a reserve of steam power and 
machinery at each factory — and he speaks in high 
terms of all the managers employed under him. — 
H. AC. Mail. 
COCONUT PEARLS. 
Our readers may remember a recent notice in 
our columns of pearl-like concretions found in 
coconuts, so rare that we have never seen one 
or even heard of its being found in Ceylon. The 
case appears to be different in the Eastern Archi- 
pelago, however ; probably in consequence of a 
greater abundance of carbonate of lime in the 
oil in which coconuts are grown. We confess to 
a good deal of surprise to learn that formations 
in juice apparently entirely saccharine should 
consist of pure carbonate of lime. Specimens of 
the coconut pearls ought to be obtained for our 
Museum. The " tabasheer " to which Mr. Thisel- 
ton Dyer alludes is a silicious concretion found 
in bamboos. We quote from Nature : 
The following letter has been sent to us by Dr. Syd- 
ney J. Hickson : — 
" During my recent travels in North Celebes I was 
frequently asked by the Dutch planters, and others, if I 
had ever seen a ' coconut stone.' These stones are 
said to be very rarely faund (1 in 2,000 or more) in the 
perisperm of the coconut, and when found are kept by 
the natives as a charm against disease and evil spirits. 
Tnis story of the coconut stone was so constantly told 
me, and in every case without any variation in its de- 
tails, that I made every effort before leaving to obtain 
some specimens, and eventually succeeded in obtaining 
two. 
" One of these is nearly a perfect sphere, 14 mm. iu 
diameter, and the other, rather smaller in size, is irreg- 
ularly pear-shaped. In both specimens the surface is 
worn nearly smooth by friction. The spherical one I 
have had cut into two halves, but I can find no concen- 
tric or other markings on the polished cut surfaces. 
" Dr. Kimmins has kindly submitted one-half to a 
careful chemical analysis, and finds that it consists of 
pure carbonate of lime without any trace of other salts 
or vegetable tissue. 
" I should be very glad if any of your readers could 
inform me if there are any of these stones in any of the 
Museums, or if there is any evidence beyond mere hear- 
say for their existence in the perisperm of the coconut." 
On this letter Mr. Thiselton Dyer, to whom we sent 
it, has been good enough to make the following re- 
marks : — 
Dr. Hickson's account of the calcareous concretions 
occasionally found in the central hollow (filled with 
fluid — the so-called " milk") of the endosperm of the 
seed of the coconut is extremely interesting. It ap- 
pears to me a phenomenon of the same order as taba- 
sheer, to which I recently drew attention in this 
journal. 
The circumstances of the occurrence of these stones 
or "pearls" are in many respects parallel to those 
which attend the formation of tabasheer. Iu both cases, 
mineral matter in palpable masses is withdrawn from 
solution in considerable volumes of fluid contained in 
tolerably large cavities in living plants — and in both 
instances they are Blonocotyledons. 
Iu the case of the coconut pearls the material in 
calcium carbonate, and this is well known to concrete is 
a peculiar manner trom solutions in which organic 
matter is also present. 
