i88 
THF. TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1888. 
NOTES ON PEODUCE AND FINANCE. 
We are glad to see that one of the financial papers 
has called the attention of its readers to Indian tea 
companies as investments. The Statist, which has been 
earning golden opinion of late by reason of its ex- 
posure of company rnongering, says : — "Investors in 
search of something over 4 per cent, on their money 
may find some profitable returns from judicious in- 
vestment im Indian tea company shares." It quotes 
the following : — 
Yield at 
Dividend per cent. present price 
Company. per annum. on 1887. 
1884. 1885. 188G. 1887. dividend. 
Assam 14 ... 20 ... 10 ... 10 ... £5 2 6 
British Indian 1 ... 1± ... § ... 1J ... 6 18 9 
Darjeeling 7 ... 8 ... 7| ... 7 ... 6 19 
Dooars Estab. 1887. ... 7 ... 6 10 10 
Jokai 10 ... 10 ... 10 ... 10 ... 7 11 6 
Jorehaut 15 ... 15 ... 18 ... 15 ,.. 7 2 9 
Lebong 9 ... 9 ... 8 ... 8 ... 6 6 0 
Luckempore 3J ... 4 ... 6 ... 6j ... 9 5 9 
Discussing the introduction of Ceylon tea into 
America, and the remarks made by Mr. J. McOom- 
bie Murray as to the advisability of working inde- 
pendently of grocers in the matter, the Canadian 
Grocer, a new trade organ published at Toronto, says: 
— " We believe it impossible to create a universal or 
extensive demand for any article of food or drink 
without the aid of those who are engaged in their 
general distribution. The retailer is intimately asso- 
ciated with the consumer, and if it ia made his in- 
terest to talk up the merits of a new article, he will 
do it in a very effective way. It is a work demand- 
ing system, hard and persistent work, and a scheme 
of co-operative advertising." 
By-the-way the London Grocer has a good deal of 
advice to give Ceylon planters. It says i — " In order 
to secure the constant patronage of consumers gene- 
rally, the Ceylon planter needs hardly to be reminded 
that to retain his present hold upon them he must 
maintain a high standard of quality, so as to attract 
the greatest number of customers and not disappoint 
them by afterwards producing an inferior article." If 
the Ceylon planter is the man of business we take him 
to be he knows all this and much more. 
The Grocer also says far greater efforts will have to be 
made in the direotion of opening up new markets 
in America and Canada if British-grown tea is not to 
fall still further in price. Considering that the game 
of opening up new markets has only just begun, and 
that the active operations hitherto have been practi- 
cally nil, there is a great deal of truth in what the 
Grocer says. — II. and, C. Mail, Aug. 10th. 
COCONUT PLANTING IN THE WESTEEN 
PEOV1NCE OF CEYLON. 
THE CROP AND DRY WEATHER — A SPLENDID COCONUT 
DISTRICT IF — ! — A COCO PALM CANNOT OVERBEAR ! 
— SOL ENGINEERING THE ROADS — THE CEYLON RAIL- 
WAY MANAGEMENT REPELLING TRAFFIC AS NO OTHER 
RAILWAY IN THE WORLD DOES. 
Hapitigam Korale, 11th Aug. 1888. 
We had iu this district a fair share of the June rains, 
but since the beginning of July we have been practi- 
cally without rain, as the two slight showers that fell 
during the first week of August were hardly enough 
to lay the dust. 
The weather has been rather cloudy, therefore the 
effects are not so serious as they would have been 
with hot sun. These effects are, however, bad enough : 
the pastures are dried up, the lately sown paddy is in 
the way to be utterly ruined, and the coconut trees, that 
were promising to take on an unusually large crop, 
are dropping germs in thousands, and the weaker trees 
are beginning to bang down their lower leaves. Two 
dry seasons in the yoar is rather hard on the coconut 
planters, and the crops decline in proportion. We 
have a beggarly account of barren flowers between 
Christmas and Easter, and just when we began to re- 
joice in the full swing of heavy bunches in course of 
forming, this second drought comes to damp our hopes. 
The effects of the January-February drought of 
this year has been less injurious than that of the 
previous year. The May and July gatherings last j<:ar 
in some cases took over 1,700 nuts to the candy of 
coppera ; the worst heard of this year is under 1,400. 
What the effect of a second drought in July and 
August may be has yet to be seen. 
Were it not for those long spells of dry weather, to 
which we are subject, this would be a splendid coconut 
district ; even with this drawback and without any very 
efficient cultivation, some of the older estates yield 
annual average crops, up to 60 nuts per tree, which 
even at the average size and current prices makes each 
tree good value for RIO. Yes, a tree that bears 6u 
nuts per annum will yield a clear 10 per cent of profit, 
with a sufficient margin for the usual cost of au im- 
proving cultivation ; while every cent beyond that 
expended in manure and manipulation will give a re- 
turn of at least cent per cent. I have many nine 
year old trees carrying over 100 nuts, and so far from 
their seeming oppressed, the only surprise is that such 
grand trees bear so little. 
I have deliberately arrived at the opinion that a 
coconut tree never overbears. Few thriving trees have 
less than twenty germs on each flower stem, and some 
have habitually as many as fifty. As a vigorous young 
tree opens sixteen flowers in the yesr, the number of 
germs at twenty to each (lower is 320. Not one tree 
in 100,000 bears 300 nuts per annum, they necessarily 
drop germs, and keep dropping them till they carry 
no more than they can supply with the neces- 
sary pabulum ; and in the event of an unfavour- 
able season they proceed to drop more advanced nuts, 
till in very bad cases they have few or none left. That 
trees do fall out of bearing, that they drop more leaves 
than they open, and that each leaf produced is shorter 
than the last, there is no doubt ; but over-bearing is not 
the cause, — that is to be found in the mechanical 
condition of the soil, in its incapacity of retaining 
sufficient moisture, in its utter poverty or in an 
originally feeble plant, to which not the most favour- 
able conditions of soil can impart vigor. 
Old Sol, a much more diligent and efficient engineer 
than any of those belonging to the P. W. D., has been 
fit work on our roads, and has for the time put them 
into very fair order. Unfortunately his work is not 
of an euduring character, and as soon as he ceases to 
operate, we may look out for glaur and pitfalls, as 
nothing else has been done. 
There is perhaps, of all the railways in the world, 
none except the O. (Sr. R. that deliberately repel cer- 
tain kinds of traffic by excessive charges. This fact 
was specially brought to my notice the other day in 
this way. I had a cow and her young calf to send 
to a friend in Colombo, and on inquiry we found that 
the railway charge for 30 miles was R7'50, or nearly as 
much as five third-class passengers. The parcel rates 
too seem rather anomalous ; the P. O. deliver parcels 
at 5 cents per oz. at the remotest stations ; the rail- 
way charges 10 cents on any parcel under 10 lb. for 
any distance under 30 miles and doubles the charge over 
30 miles. Our district isspecially unfortunate in this 
particular, as our station is just outside the 30th mile. 

Bad News for Cinchona Planters, or rather 
perhaps exporters, at the present time is contained 
in the following paragraph from the latest Chemist 
and Druggist to hand : — 
"The German Consul at La Paz in Bolivia states 
that the Bolivian Government, in accordance with 
the expressed unanimous wish of the cinchona plan- 
ters, have abolished the export duty of 3 l-5th 
bolivares per quintal (46 kilos.) on cinchona bark. 
The Consul adds that for some time the exports will 
in all probability be enormously heavy, as the planters 
had caused large supplies to accumulate in anticipa- 
tion of the abolition of the duty." 
On the other hand it is rather strange that the 
above intelligence and the resulting large exports 
have had no special effect on the London bark 
market : perhaps the movement was discounted 
at the time of the very great depression in bark 
early in the year ? 
