April i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
871 
Let us now look at the capital account of those 
eleven gardens. The figures are given in pounds sterling 
per acre, a very good method for purposes of comparison. 
These range from £27 (Jorehaut Co.) to £ 160 (Eastern 
Assam Co.), the average being £87. Now wo have 
got roasous for the opinion that £50 is amply sufficient 
to bring a garden to paying point. How then havo 
some gardens been made for £'27, while others have 
cost £100 per acre ? In the early days of the industry, 
there was no thought of economy ; where a speculation 
was popularly supposed to yield 300 per cent, there 
was no incentive to saving. Money was recklessly 
thrown away on land and on establishment, while 
promoters made fabulous sums. The crisis of 1866 
brought all this to an end. Some companies struggled 
through and are still existing, but being burdened 
with their original onormous cost, can never hope to 
pay reasonable dividends; while others Buccumbed, 
and new proprietors bought them for a tithe of their 
cost. Those gardens weighted with excess eapital 
should have this written off. When dividends on the 
reduced capital could be made, shareholders could 
not lose by striking ofl half of their capital and ac- 
cepting one share for two or three, as the dividends 
would remain the same absolutely. Another mode of 
overcoming the difficulty is to pay no dividends, but 
utilse all profits in extending. Hay a garden has 300 
acres and its capital is £30,000 ; let the annual pro- 
fits be used in extension till the garden consists of 
600 acres, when the capital value would bo £50 per 
aero. By this mode the shareholders would loss nothing. 
Now they would get no annual dividends, but the 
value of their scrip would steadily rise year by year. 
Another column contains the amount of capital 
invested for each maund of tea produced annually. 
This ranges from £6 (Assam Co.) to £50 (British 
India), and the average is £21. Allowing a garden 
to cost £50, and the outturn to b>' £400 per acre, 
this sum should never exceed £10 to bring this estimate 
within reasonable bounds, the out turn must be good, and 
the invested capital low, and this brings us to consider 
the la-'t item in tho list, viz., tho outturn per aero. 
In the list before us this item ranges from 192 lbs. 
(BritNi India Co.), to 470 1b. (Borelli Co.), and 
averages 3191b., a very fair average iudeed. Keep- 
ing out four of the lowest companies, the average of 
the other seven is 4061b., proving that our estimate 
■ 4001b., is not Utopian. We might insist on a 
much higher average, but are now only concerned 
with tho figures before us. If one company can make 
47011>. por aero, there exists no good reason why 
Others should not also do bo. Any cause which operates 
against this must bo either concerned with finances 
Pedro Plains or Piratee country.* The prevailing soil 
of the plains is composed of red marl, with here and 
or bad 
■nu.-nt, 
IH-.-ll 
1, th. It 
foolish of companies to go on making half of what 
they ought to do. If tho management be at fault- 
change it ; if the directors— change them ; and if the 
cause ho want of funds, why, sell the concern and 
g"t out of it what may be, rather than drag on a 
ruinous and bankrupt concern — Indian AgriculturUt, 
PALMETTO ROYAL PALM OR SABAL UMBRA- 
CULIFERA IN JAMAICA. 
{Gardener* Chronicle, 4th, Fob. 1882.) 
Running parallel to the southern coast of Jamaica, 
and tending in u north-western direction from Alligator 
Pond to Black River, are tho Sauta Cruz Mountains. 
These mountains aro composed of the characteristic 
white, porous linn -stone of .Jamaica, and rise to heights 
varying from 2,000 to 2,300 feet. At tho foot, and 
occupying the uudulating country between the mount- 
auis and tho a .i, varying in breadth from 6 to 9 
mill- , are sui-teh ol : av.iun.ih lands. I. in.wn :i - tho 
district 
rainfall 
i seldom 
culifera. 
KoyaL" 
quented 
ing this 
the au- 
i Indian 
as indi- 
ut to the westward, 
is evident that its 
imits of the Pedro 
;nificence there very 
in Dr. Seemann'i 
337, published a 
there a deposit of gravel and alluvi 
generally is hot and arid, tho me; 
being about 50 inches, while the ter 
under 80° Fahr. This is the home of-S 
The Palm is known locally as t 
or " Bull Thatch," and also as tho 
A recent visit to these comparat 
Pedro Plains ga**e me an opportu; 
magnificient Palm in its native cou 
thority of Purdie, Grisebach (Flor. 
Island*, 1864, p. 514) rightly notes 
geuous to Jamaica, and mentions " 
nah " as its habitat. Although sp 
along the plains from Alligator Pou 
even as far as Savanna-la-Mar, it i 
true home is confined 
Plains, and its abundance and mag 
clearly to my mind establish its ii 
It would appear, however, that b 
the original source of this noble 
in some obscurity. For instance, 
Popular History of Palms, 1850, p. 
few years before the Flora of the British West Indian 
Islands, we find the following remarks, quoted on tho 
authority of Mr. John Smith, ex-Curator of the Royal 
Gardens at Kew : — " Although we have long known 
this species (Sabal umbraculifera) to bo quite distinct 
fiom the well-known Corypha umbraculifera of the 
East Indies, yet we are still uncertain about its native 
country— it is generally supposed to be the West 
Indies, but we can furnish no evidence of that being 
actually the case. All the specimens cultivated in 
England are very old, and it is singular that new 
ones have never, so far as my personal knowledge 
goes, been imported." 
Tho botanical characters of S. umbraculifera are 
well described by Grisebach, and it is only necessary 
here to add one or two supplementary remarks. The 
trunk is singularly smooth and straight, free from ring 
marks, and uniform throughout. It sometimes attains 
a height of 90 to 100 feet, with an average circum- 
ference of 5 to 6 feet. Tho outer portions of the stem 
have an iron-like firmness, which is in marked con- 
trast to the somewhat soft and fibrous nature of the 
inner portions. On this account narrow planks are 
made from the nairow rind, and pots, beehives and 
various utensils aro obtained from short portion of 
the stem hollowed out. 
The large glaucescent and suborbicular leaves are 
about 5 or 6 feet across ; they are inultifid, from one- 
third lo two-thirds of their length, and have loose 
fibres between the bifid lobes ; the segments are very 
unewhat pendulous ; 
jer than tho leaves, 
dices appear among 
as long ; the branches 
are peneculate, with sessile blockish berries 4— 6 inches 
in diameter. Plants appear to flower and produce 
fruit at all stages. One was noticed in fruit when 
quite stemlejs. This palm is essentially gregarious ; 
it is found coveriug several thousand acres, literally 
forming extensivo groves in tho Pedro Plains. These 
are known locally as "thatch fields." They occupy 
chiefly dry elevated banks and strips of land between 
numerous lagoons and morasses— tho haunts of turtles 
and alligators. Seen across one of these lngoons the 
effect produced by a view of this Palm forest is in- 
• Thi 
descendants of tho 
in Jamaica. They aro very few in number, and are 
j gradually being merged in • I be surrounding negro 
population. Tho I'. lm CftVl • close by still contain 
interesting Oarifa remains, 
the 
and 
the 
tho only portiou of tho island whore 
aboriginal Carihs are said to exist 
