August i, i888.] THF. TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
125 
INDIAN TEA COMPANIES. 
(From the Home anil Colonial Mail.) 
SCOTTISH ASSAM TEA COMPANY, LIMITED, 
The Chairman, iu moving the adoption of the re- 
port said tbo Assam Company stood fourth best in 
the market, in regard to the price obtained for their 
tei. As to the future price, that was an anxious and 
difficult matter to say anything about, but he thought 
then' prospects were good, lie directed attention to 
the following paragraph in the report :— "With the 
view of extending the cultivated area of the gardens, 
and tints of increasing the resources of the company 
more rapidly than has hitherto been done by extensions 
out of revenue, your directors have at present under 
considerate n the expediency of utilising a portion of 
tin: uucxpcndod capital of the company, which at 
present, lies dormant and comparatively unproductive, 
in forming a special block of extensions of, say, from 
100 to 20(1 acres, mid in maintaining the same until 
it reaches the self-supporting stage." Proceeding, he 
pointed out that they ha d about £5,000 which they could 
use in the manner indicated hut then came the ques- 
tion whether, if the gardens were extended, there 
might not be some difficulty iu keeping up the labour 
force. As it was, th< re had been a gradual extension 
of the gardens— 88 acres in all iu the course of five 
years. 
THE LUCKIMPOBE TEA COMPANY 01'' ASSAM, LIMITED. 
The crop amounted to '153/ 90 lb. of packed tea, 
showing an increase over that of the preceding year of 
111,98b' lb., and representing an outturn of 488 lb. per 
acre of plant over three years old. The average price 
realisod has been Is Ogd per lb. The estimates of the 
crop of the current year are, for Mijica J uin, 180,0001b. 
Behallie, 248,0001b'.; or a total of 428,O0O.b. on a local 
expenditure of las. 9ps. per lb. equivalent at current 
rates of exchange to about 91 per lb. laid down in 
London. The managers have, it will be observed, 
deemed it prudent to estimate the crop rather under 
that of last year, but with favourable weather there 
is no reason why tho same amount at least should 
not be mado, and returns up to 3lst ultimo shew an 
increase over last year of 3,1721b. The rates of ocean 
freights have, after considerable negotiation, been ar- 
ranged at 20S over those ol rough cargo, to be settled 
monthly, subject to a rebate of 5s per ton ; and a new 
agreement has been concluded with the steamer com- 
panies plying on the I'.rahmapootra for the carriage 
of tea and stores between Assam and Calcutta at 
greatly reduced rates of freight. 
THE LEBONO TEA COMPANY, LIMITED. 
The cultivated area on the company's gardens on iMay 
I -t lust was 1.1 1'2 acres, the largest we haveever had, 
and u considerable portion of which, as will be seen by 
the manager's report, is not yet iu lull bearing. As men- 
tioned by the chairman at the meeting of shareholders 
held in Novembl r last, a fire unfortunately occurred at 
BariiesUg factory in October last, by which Ml, 528 lb. 
of tea were destrojed, and the building completely 
gutted. The value ol t he tea bus been recovered from 
the underwrite rs, but tho building, being uninsured, tho 
Ioh hi respect thereof, estimated at K4,f>00 has been 
charged ngain.-t the 1887 revenue. 
LETTERS FROM JAMAICA, No. -J4. 
RH " MAY SEASON "— COFFEE AND THE PRESS IN 
JAMAICA— SLAVE ABOLITION IN BRAZIL — AND PBOSPECTS 
IN JAMAICA. 
Blue Mountain District, for Packet of 6th June 
|<NV 
Tu the Editor, "Ceylon observer." 
Dear Bin,— Our "May Seasons" — equivalent to 
the Ceylon little monsoon— it was hoped had come 
tn an end, but after a week of cloudy pleasant 
weather, thoy appear to have reoommpneed. It 
was not unreasonable to expect that after the long 
drought, which lasted from the end of Novombcr 
to middle of April, that it would be, as is so 
often the case, succeeded by heavy rains and iloods 
for commencing with a lew days of nice planting 
weather. The rain came down in real tropical 
style, and lasted for nearly a week ; much damage 
generally has consequently been clone, rivers wre 
Hooded and became impassable, landslips were many, 
mails were detained, people were drowned, and 
houses washed away in Kingston which is surface- 
drained, the streets became running rivers, a-id n j 
business could be transacted for some hours. As 
much as 25 inches were registered in Kingston 
for the week ; so it is easy to conjecture how 
much more must have fallen on the Blue Moun- 
tain Hills and on the north side celebrated for 
getting more rain than the rest of Jamaica. On 
this property, portions of which are very s eep 
like " Glen Alpin," in Badulla, " (iampaha " in 
Udapussellawa, and many of the Haputale coffee 
plantations, I have lost or had most seriously 
damaged by landslips and wash fully three acres 
of quite young coffee, and I have cause to be 
grateful, matters were not worse. I can quite 
imagine that much similar damage has been done 
on similar lands all over the island, particulars 
of which have not been published, for our local 
papers are not a patoh on the Observer, and do 
not seem to get the planting news. Here in 
Jamaica, especially in this district, being cut off 
from Kingston by unbridged rivers, we are 
occasionally in danger of being starved out. On the 
last occasion the local shops ran out of rice, so 
that the few coolies I have were in a sad plight, 
and had to fall back on yam if they could get 
it, and on bananas : these said coolies are Bengalis 
and not as strong or useful as my old friends 
"Kama Swamy " and " Menatchie." Would I had 
a good gang of them, and the same easy way as 
in Ceylon of feeding them, for here the people 
are mostly dependent upon their { rovision grounds i; 
everything else has to be carried on mules' backs. 
Coffee crops in ihe Blue Mountains have been back- 
ward this year, the high coffee specially so, the trees 
being still well loaded with ripening berries. It is to 
be hoped this renewed downpour will not be of long 
duration. We suffer here a good deal more than used 
to be the case in Ceylon from the ravages of rats 
and birds. The mongoose has by no means exter- 
minated the former, and now appears to prefer 
young chickens and eggs, nay even fruit and 
bananas : he will soon become as great a nuisance, 
as the enemy he was introduced to slay and extir- 
pate. None of the real Blue Mountain coffee had 
been sold up to latest advices, 101s being the 
figure so far realized this season, but the next 
advices should bring us something more like the 
old figures. And now that the grand news of 
the Emancipation in Brazil has been received, 
and is a fait accompli, we other coffee planters, 
all the world over, have great cause for 
gratitude and rejoicing, that justice has at 
length been doue, not only to the slave, but to 
coffee growers in general. The fact that slavery 
has been abolished in Brazil must soon have a 
favorablo effect npon the market, as it cannot be 
supposed that " (Juashie " will act differently in 
that country than he has done in the West Indies : 
he will take good care not to overwork himself, 
he will like his piece of " ground " and cultivate 
it his own fashion, and will make most of his 
living thereby and only work to buy such luxuries 
as line clothes, rum, tobacco, concertinas, dandy 
boots and hats, and his "carasposa" will follow 
in the same line according to her instiuc s. 
We may, therefore, unless tho Brazilians can 
adopt some way ol making their old slave, 
work six days a week for a fair day's wage 
look for a diminution of the immense pro* 
