jULY I, 1853.] THE tRbPtCAL AGRICULTURIST. S9 
Storie, an Aberdonian : — ' My gross receipts from 
4 aores of peaches amounted to £206. Among 
pears, I consider the Bartlett (Williams' Bon 
Chretien) the best variety. From li acres of young 
trees I took off £25 worth of fruit. Nectarines are 
a very good crop, bearing and paying well. I have 
netted £20 an acre on this fruit. Apricots pay from 
£25 to £30. French prunes do very well, and from 
4$ aores of this fruit 1 received £200. With a 
judicious selection of fruit trees there is much 
money in fruit.' 
" Both of these aooounta are very satisfactory, 
and it must not be forgotten that both Major 
Nolton's and Mr. Storie's orchards are still young, 
and that the older trees become, llio heavier will be 
the returns. In giving such iostances as these, 
although these are only two out of thousands, I do 
not wish readers to think that such resulta can be 
attained immediately on a cottier's arrival in 
California, unless he is in a position to purchase 
outright an improved orchard or vineyard. Long 
weary months of anxiety and labour are neoossary 
before either a vineyard or an orchard can yield such 
returns as the two cited. Still, in no part of the 
world can a man so soon see the result of his labour 
as in Oalitornia, and in a very few months frL tu ihe 
time of his going on to what may be considered a 
waste and useless piece of land, it can be transformed 
into a veritable paradise. As an instance of this, 
I may, en passant, cite my own vineyard, of which 
I took possession some few years ago in a desert 
state. Within some 60 days I had the whole 160 
acres ploughed over twice, to a depth of 18 inches, 
and carefully harrowed, the whole planted with 
some 70,000 vines, 10 feet by 3 feet apart ; some 5 
miles of roads and avenues laid out, whiht on the 
borders of the avenues I planted alternately, fig and 
olive trees. In that time I also constructed some 
7 or 8 miles of irrigating ditches and canals ; en- 
closed the whole property under close wire fence ; 
erected suitable buildings, stables, and coach- 
house ; and planted an orchard consisting of no 
fewer than twenty-one different varieties of fruits, 
and a vine arbour of some twenty varieties of 
grape vines ; whilst, as an adornment to the 
residence, I laid out a lawn and flower-garden. So 
that within the short space of three months [Is 
there not some mistake here ?— Ed.J I had trans- 
formed into one of the most promising vineyards 
in Oalitornia a piece of land which only sixty days 
previous might have been considered a barren piece 
of waste and useless land. This will ^ive some idea 
of the forcing nature of the soil, and the magnifi- 
cence of the climate of Oalifornia. 
" With such results as these, it is only but natural 
that the intending settler should wish to know 
what capital is required for the opening up and 
bringing into successful bearing a vineyard or an 
orchard. This, of course, is largely determined by 
the amount of capital he has available for invest- 
ment ; but my advice — with the experience I have 
had — is that it is better to own a well-kept 20-acre 
orchard or vineyard, than a 40-aore tract poorly 
attended to owing to lack of sufficient capital. But 
assuming the settler to have suflioient capital to 
open up and properly cultivate a 2i)-acre orchard 
or vineyard, until it begins to yield him a return — 
which cannot be calculated sooner than three or 
four years — I estimate that he should possess at 
least £500. With this sum, and provided he is 
willing to work, he ought, in the couree of four 
or live years, to be in an independent position. 
With such a sum to commence with, he will be 
in a position to pay a portion of the price of his 
land, build himself a modest house, ereot a barn, 
Btable, and fowl-house, and purchase all requisites 
&eQ«esBi7 foe making himself a comfortable tiome ; 
and should he be further blessed with a thrifty 
wife, it will be no time before he is enjoying 
himself, with her help, under his own vine and 
fig tree. Although I mentioned this sum aa 
necessary for the intending settler to possess before 
proceeding to California, I could enumerate hundreds 
of iiiatances where I have known men landing in 
California without any other capital than their own 
labour, and working themselves with the help of a 
wife up to such a position as to be able, through sav- 
ingrt and economy, to own an orchard or a vineyard 
within a few ytars of their arrival. In no country 
in the world can a man who is willing and anxious 
to get OP, be so successful as in the golden State 
of California .... In this account I have 
given of California and its possibilities as a field 
for emigration, I refer especially to those who are 
willing and anxious to work, and who are at the 
same time not afraid to put their shoulder to the 
wheel. I do not wish readers to imagine that my 
description has been overdrawn, or that I have 
been carried away in my statements, as is generally 
credited lo the ordinary American." 
Mr. Malcolmson intends, through the influence 
of some of the most prominent citizens of Aber- 
deen, to arrange for the purchase of a moat 
desirable tract of land, of some 16,500 aores, known 
aa the San Fernando Banohe, near the city of Los 
Angeles, in Southern California, and to coloniEe 
the same with a thrifty lot of Saotohmea. 
SCOTTISH CEYLON TEA COMPANY. 
A FIFTEEN PEE CENT DIVIDEJID, AND AN ADDITION TO 
THE EESEEVE FUND. 
The fourth annual ordinary meeting of the Scottish 
Ceylon Tea Company, Limited, was held yesterday, 
at the offices, 16, Philpot-lane, E.G., Mr. H. L. Forbes 
pre,'<iding. 
The Secretary (Mi-. .lohn Anderson) having read the 
notice of meeting, and the report and accouats having 
been taken as read. 
The Chairman said: — Gentlemen your Directors 
are very glad to see you here again. There 
are certainly some faces miasing, but we will 
take that as a vote of confidence in the com- 
pany. We have very great pleasure in present- 
ing you with this fourth annual report, and 
thouKb, perhaps, it is not so encourgitig as that 
which was laid before you last year, still, we look 
npo.'i it as a viry satitfactoty report indeed. We 
must remember that Oylou during last year paesed 
through an abnormal eeBSon— peculiarly abnormal I 
may call it ; for we had drought when we ought to 
have had raio, and rain when we ought to have had 
drought, and, cot sidering the circumstances, we onght 
to be very well satisfied. Taking it all round, I 
think that the shortt ess of crops of BOtrething like 
6C,flOO lb. may be looked upon as a tort of liUle 
blessing in disguise ; for the market here for tea was 
already over-stocked, nn^l 1 think tometimes that our 
tea buih<s are too hardly worked, and would there- 
fore be all the better for a little rest. If we can 
pay cur 15 per cent with a shortceas of crop, we 
oui;ht lo be well pleased. The amount available for 
distribnlion is £7,823 lis 7d, out of which a dividend 
of 5 p r cent, has aln ady been paid, and your]Direc- 
tors LOW propose a further final dividend of 10 pet 
cent., free of income-tax, making 15 per cent frr 
the year, nnd the traneference of £1,000 to the re- 
serve fond, biiugiog it up to £3,000. I may hero 
take tlio opportunity of telling you that the reserve 
fund has been invested in approved stockp, and iho 
additional £1,000 will be similarly dealt with. The 
gross leverage price of Ceylon tea for the ye»r 1899 
was 9.{d. per lb., and the company's tens show 10'l',t5d., 
or lOiit. which ie, I think, very satisfactory. The 
largest uudirtaking during the year, in the way of 
increase of capital, has been the completion of lha 
Lontoh faotor^r, and, from tH I o»q he»r, it leemi. 
