4oo 
THF TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1888. 
Or. 
Balance at 31st August 1887 
Less Carried to Reserve 
Fund 
Tea cultivation accounts 
"Written off 
Dividend of 5 per cent 
paid * 
Interest on Investments- 
Received 
Less Aocrued at 31st 
August 1837 
Accrued to 31st August : 
In arrear at do 
£10,933 0 
£2,080 0 0 
■ 4,886 11 1 
2,250 0 0 
£3,979 5 5 
1,860 5 3 
£2,119 0 2 
613 19 10 
312 10 0 
Net Return from Estates in Company's 
possession for year 1887-88 
Bank, and Deposit Interest received and 
accrued ... ... ... ... 
Registration Fees 
3,015 10 0 
5,151 15 1 
141 5 11 
3 5 0 
£10,138 5 7 
♦ 
Tea Cultivation. — Indian tea now tonus 50 per 
cent. oE all the Tea used in the United Kingdom, 
whereas no longer ago than 1865, China furnished 
07 per cent. According to an article in Nature, the 
Australians consume 81 oz. per head of the popula- 
tion, English people 73 oz, while the inhabitants of 
the United States come next with 21 oz., those of 
Russia, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark consume only 
from 7 — 8 oz per head of the population. Unfavour- 
able contrasts are sometimes drawn between the 
services rendered by botany and botanists' to the 
State, and those rendered by chemists and engineers. 
The botanists, however, can show a good record- 
Indian Tea, Cinchona, Cotton, India-rubber, Gutta- 
percha are all substances, the development, and, in 
some cases, the discovery of which was due to botanists, 
and their culture to horticulturists. — Indian Tea Gazette. 
["Who but botanists could discover, and who but 
horticulturists could cultivate new plants ? — B.D. T. A.] 
The Secretion from Roots. — Recent investigations 
on this subject undertaken by D. Hans Molisch have 
shown that the acid secretion from the roots of plants 
attacks organic even more powerfully than inorganic 
substances, not merely dissolving them, but causing 
in them important chemical changes. It exercises? 
both a reducing and an oxidizing power. It stains 
guaiacum blue. It oxidizes tannin and huinin sub- 
stances, and hence, greatly promotes the decomposition 
of humus in the soil. It transforms cane-sugar into 
reduciug sugar, and has a light diastatic action. 
Plates of ivory are corroded by it. The root behaves 
in many respects like a fungus, specially in the fact 
that the fungus alters the organic constituents of 
the soil by definite excretions, and causes their more 
rapid decomposition. This root secretion does not 
merely impregnate the epidermis, as has been generally 
supposed, but is often excreted over its surface in 
the form of drops. — Indian Tea Gazette. 
Adaptation of Plants to Rain and Dew. — Pro- 
fessor N. Wille records in Conn's Beitrage zv.r Bio- 
logie der Pf.an7.en, 1887, the results of a series of 
experiments for the purpose of determining the ex- 
tent to which plants can absorb moisture through 
their leaves or other aerial organs. The experiments 
were made on a number of different plants by placing 
on the leaves drops of a 1 per cent solution of 
lithium chlorate, and then examining, by means of 
the spectroscope, tho extent to which the lithium 
was absorbed. The general results obtained were that 
water is absorbed so slowly, and in such small quan- 
tities, through these organs, iu comparison to the 
amount taken up tin ongh the root, that it is without 
any physiological value to the plant. This applies 
equally to ordinary leaves, and to those which pos- 
sess what have been regarded by some observers as 
organs specially constructed for the absorption of 
water.— Indian Tea Qazetto. 
Ceylon Estate Advertised in London. — Ceylon. — 
For Sale. — Good opportunity for a Small Capitalist, 
or a Father wishing to Start his Son iu Life. — A nice 
Tea Estate, in a healthy and favourite district; 
cart road adjoins the estate; the Kelani River runs 
almost at the foot of the estate boundary; splendid 
chances for extending ; good bungalow, tea factory, tea 
rolling machinery, and cooly lines. Tea in bearing as 
follows: 64 acres, from 2-7 years old. Forest and 
Chena 61 acres. Total 125 acres. Free. Crown title. 
Crop average 25,000 lb of tea. Price £2,500. Apply to 
C. F. Ross Wright, Labugama, Ceylon. — Morning Post. 
" Blister Blight " : What is it ?— The fol- 
following paragraph appears in the South of India 
Observer. Has any Ceylon tea planter had experience 
of the blight referred to ? Is it due to insect or 
fungus, or purely chemical? — "We regret to hear 
from a correspondent of the occurrence of ' Blister 
Blight ' on the tea plant. It is said to be seen 
on low and high land ; on low and high pruned 
bushes ; on bushes thoroughly cleared of all small 
twigs ; where there is shade and where there is none ; 
on young and old plants ; on well and badly cul- 
tivated gardens ; in rainy and fine weather ; it is 
also to be seen on rich and poor soil; but it may 
be said to increase where there is a continuation 
of successive rain for a week or more." 
New Caledonia. — The report just issued by Mr. 
Edgar Layard, Her Majesty's Consul at Noumea, 
upon the trade of New Caledonia for the past year, 
although to some extent incomplete andunsaisfaetory, 
owing to the slipshod manner in which the French 
Colonial Bureau at Noumea issues its official 
statistical statements, contains some highly in- 
tersting facts. The Consul ha3 had to take the 
figures as supplied to him, and Mr. Layard tersely 
explains the extraordinary confusion of the re- 
turns by observing that New Caledonia is a penal 
settlement first and a Colony afterwards, and that 
commerce holds a very secondary place in the 
estimation of the authorities. The effect of send- 
ing the heavily-subsidised Messageries steamers to 
New Caledonia has been to decrease the trade 
with the Australian Colonies, as the contracts are 
now executed in France. The French Government 
has given instructions that all orders for the 
supply of the convict establishments must for 
the future be executed at home. — European Mail, 
Oct. 12th. 
Dr. Burck's Remedy toe Coffee Leaf 
Disease. — The Seerabaia-Uourant of October 17th 
contains an extract from Be Landbouwer, a trans- 
lation of which is as follows: — " The Coffee-Do.ctor. 
— Dr. Burck, or the toean doctor lioppie, as the natives 
of the Smeroe at once named him, is at present 
making an experiment with his pricking method 
in the Toeren district, Malang division. He is also 
visiting a single private estate. We have learnt 
from a good source that Dr. B. was delighted when 
he saw the fine private plantations here in the 
Oosthoek. In Mid-Java they do not know such 
trees, he said. [A note is appended to this, as 
follows: — -"No longer at present perhaps, though we 
believe that a single good estate is still to be found 
also there, in the high lands. But five years ago 
the finest estates were still to be found in Mid- 
Java."] Dr. B. still continues to speak confidently 
of his repressive method, and explained to the 
planters that one woman can sprinkle three bouws 
during one month. Only the third pair of leaves, 
however, must be operated on, and Dr. B. maintains 
that in this manner a pair of leaves can be prepared 
each month, so that the tops of the branches do 
not die, the fruits ripen, in a word the object is 
attained. He had not yet been able to find a 
suitable pulverizator for his preventive method. 
We learn further that the pulverizator of Mr. D. 
de Waal has not given satisfaction at Buitenzorg.' 
