260 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1881. 
SPRING VALLEY COFFEE COMPANY, LTD. 
The Directors have pleasure in presenting their an- 
nual statement of accounts, with the completed returns 
of crop 1879-80. 
It will be seen that the total sum realized from 
sales of coffee, with the proceeds of a small shipment 
of cinchona bark, was £31,823 83 8d, and that after 
charging the entire expenditure in Ceylon and London 
for the 12 months, a profit has been obtained of £10,199 
7s 3d or 12| per cent on the capital of the Company. 
This, in these days of leaf disease and small crops, must 
be looked upou as a highly satisfactory result. 
With the balance carried forward last year of 
£1,243 17s 4d, there appears a total revenue of 
£11,443 4s 7d, out of which an interim dividend has 
been paid of 4 per cent, or £3,200. It is now recom- 
mended that a further dividend be paid of 4 per cent, 
making 8 per cent for the year, or £6 400 free of 
income tax ; and from the balance remaining, the 
Directors propose that £3,498 8s (3d, be employed in 
writing down the cost of the estates to the level of 
Share Capital £80,000. leaving a balance of revenue 
unappropriated of £1544 Id's lcV. 
It may, perhaps, be as well to remind you at this 
point that the total sum applied from the revenues 
of the Company in payment for extensions and im- 
provements other than the ordinary costs of cultiva-. 
tion has been no less than £27;119 03 5d ; and that 
the area under coffee will now stand in the books 
at a cost of less than £52 per acre, leaviug out of account 
forest, grass land, and fields planted with cinchona. 
It is hoped that during the next few years, surplus 
profits may be availed of to make considerable addi- 
tions to the Reserve Fund, and so your Company will 
hold a position second certainly to none connected 
with the island of Ceylon. 
At the time of paying the interim dividend in 
January, it was hoped that the crop, ' now being 
gathered on Spring Valley, would be not less than 
that of 1879-80 ; but the autumn blossom upon the 
lower and older fields failed in a large measure in 
consequence of the' dry season, and the outturn of the 
two properties will probably not exceed 6,700 cwt. • 
Spring Valley is reported to be in most respects 
in a satisfactory condition, though leaf disease has 
again ravaged parts of the estate and affected the 
production of crop materially. Energetic measures are 
taken, and appliances are being brought to bear to 
increase the manured area year by year, but, unfor- 
tunately the cost of those portable artificial manures, 
which by careful application would immensely benefit . 
the property, is almost prohibitory so long as cart 
transport only is available; and it is _with much re- . 
gret that the Directors have to announce that the 
authorities at the Colonial Office are, with all the 
information at their disposal, not alive to the fact 
that the revenues of the Colony, which are said to 
be falling olf, would, no less than the interests of all 
connected with the Island, be better served by an 
extension to Uva or Haputale of the line now in 
course of construction, than by any proposition which 
has been before them for many years. 
Not only do they decline to entertain this exten- 
sion, which would cost but £600,000, and be immedi- 
ately a handsome source of revenue, but they refuse 
to allow it to be constructed by private enterprise, 
which would be at once forthcoming. 
The extension of Cinchona planting on Spring Valley, 
and of Cocoa and other products on Oolanakande, 
has been actively prosecuted during the year, and 
thus returns for the future, independently of coffee, 
are being secured without outlay of capital. 
If prices be maintained, there seems no reason to 
look lor other than good and substantial returns from 
your property in years to come. 
UVA COFFEE COMPANY LIMITED. 
Presented herewith is a statement of the Company's 
Accounts, including the closed return of crop 1879-80. 
The sales in London comprised 9,837 cwt. of coffee, 
and the net profit realised, after payment of all charges 
for the year in Ceylon and London has been £15,334 
Is., a result which cannot be considered other than 
highly satisfactory. 
The balance unappropriated last year was £1,750 
15s., so that the total revenue now to be dealt with 
is £17,084 16s. . 
In January last a dividend was paid of 8s. per 
share, and it is now proposed to divide an equal 
amount for the seond. half year, making 8 per cent, 
for the year, payable. as usual free of income tax, 
From the balance remaining the Directors recommend 
that £1,000 be added to the Working Expense Fund, 
and that £8,0S4 lCs. be held in reserve. 
The crop of 1880-81, which is now in course of 
shipment, is to be smaller even than was thought 
probable when the Circular of January last was issued: 
hence the necessity for carrying forward so large a 
balance from the previous year's revenue. It is not 
likely that shipments will aggregate more than 4.000 
cwt. of coffee, but the returns will be supplemented 
by the proceeds of a considerable quantity of bark 
peeled from the cinchona trees first planted on some 
of the properties, and now brought to market. 
The prime cause of so great a reduction in the 
quantity of crop secured has been no doubt the 
failure of blossoms, through prolonged drought; but it 
is none the less disheartening to confess that the 
hope expressed in last year's report on the subject 
of the leaf disease has been ruthlessly upset by one of 
the smartest attacks of the pest yet experienced in 
Uva. And so long as the estates are subject to 
these periodical visitatious, it is no easy matter to 
calculate on results from even the most carefully 
liberal cultivation. 
It is, however, satisfactory to be assured, as the 
Directors are, by those in charge of the properties, 
that the trees are in a promising conditiou for yield- 
ing remunerative crops, in 1*81-82. And they con- 
sider that their proposal to equalise dividends by re- 
serving the excess obtained in a prosperous year is 
one which should commend itself to shareholders. 
Expenditure during the current year has been as 
much as possible kept within the value of the crop 
expected to be picked ; but the importance of extend- 
ing the application of fertilising agents has not been 
lost sight of, and at the present time appliances are 
in course of being perfected, by means of which large 
deposits of manure removed from the town of Badulla 
to a central depot are to be distributed over three 
of your estates. A considerable area of grass land 
adjoining Ballagalla is also by this means to be cul- 
tivated in coffee. 
Twenty-five acres of forest lately cleared adjoining 
Glen Alpin estate are this season to be planted with 
cinchona, for which an abundant supply of fine plants 
is available. 
On Rockhill and Ballagalla, it is thought that cocoa 
can be cultivated successfully, and nurseries have ac- 
cordingly been prepared. 
The Directors cannot close their report without ex- 
pressing the disappointment which they in common 
with others have felt on reading the despatch lately 
sent by Lord Kimberley to the Ceylon Government 
on the subject of the railway. The Secretary of State 
does not see his way to meet the demand for railway 
extension from Nanuoya to Haputale, and it appears 
doubtful wheiher the line already sanctioned and now 
in course of construction to the former point, wiil 
prove remunerative. 
Proofs are not wanting that only by tapping the rich 
and fertile districts of Uva, Haputale, and Madulsima, 
can traffic be expected in quantity on the line now 
