Jy,LY I, 1.893.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
13 
SCOTTISH CEYLON TEA COMPANY. 
(LIMITED.) 
Beport of the Board of Directors to be presented 
ib thiB Shareholders at their Fourth Accual Ordinary 
Meeting on 25th May, 1893. 
Tho Directors beg to tntmit (o the Shartholders 
the Accounts and BHitnce-shett for the twelve monihs 
fending 31n December, 1892. The uett profits for 
the year are £7 016 lis Id., which, with the balance 
Of £807 Os 6d. carried forward fjom previous year, 
make a total of £7.823 He 7d., available for distri- 
butioD. A dividend of 5 per cent, (free of Income 
Tax) h«s already been paid, and the DTeotors now 
propose a further final dividend of 10 per cent, (also 
free of Income Tax), in all 15 pfr cent for the year. 
Of the baUnce of profits remaining it is proposed 
to place a further sum of £1,000 to the Reserve Fund, 
which would then stand at £3,000, and to carry the 
remaining- £673 lis 7d. forwarded tc next scccunt. 
The season of 1892 in Ceylon proved Bbcormal, and 
resulted in a considerable general shrinkage in the 
estimated production ot Tea, from which ihe Com- 
panj's Estates also suffered, the estimaie for the year 
being 587,0110 lb. while tho guautity secun d was 
520,969 lb. la view of this diminution the Directors 
consider the result quite eatipfactcry. The Company's 
Estates are all reported on as in excellrrnt cou^ition, 
and give every promise ot favourable results for com- 
ing year. The factory on Lonach has been completed 
and is now in full working order. 
It will be borne in mind that the total cost 
(£4,315 10s 2d.) of the origiaal factories and machiiiery 
was paid for out of Eeveaue iu the first ytar of the 
Company's existence, and no item for depreciation 
ftcoordiogly appears in the attached account?. 
Thegioas avtrago price obtained for the Company's 
Teas in London was lQd l95 per lb. 
T)ie following ip a list of the Company's proper- 
ties, with tlicir reRpective acreages :— 
a) 
£ 
* 
% a 
3 
ri 
(h 
u 
SI'S 
<u 
Of 
■a 
a 
aj 0 
^ B. 
Sf <=■ 
"3 
& 
0 
E-i 
Invcry . . 
... 477 
9 
27 
513 
Mincing Lane 
... 183 
11 
194 
Strathdon 
.. 292 
4 
8 
304 
Abergeldie 
.. 170 
5 
18 
193 
^enachie 
... 270 
68 
338 
Loo ach 
... 241 
165 
406 
1633 
18 
297 
1948 
The Directors have again to express their high 
appreciation of the services of the Ccrapany'B 
Staff in Ceylon »nd in London. The date for the 
General Meeting has been made rather later than in 
past years. The Board hope by this to enable the 
Ueyion Manager to be present. He is now on hie 
way heme and the Directors feel sure it will be a 
satisfaction to the Shareholders to meet him, and 
to have fiom him personally the most recent reports 
of the Company's estates. 
Crop ^Account, 31st Pec. 1892. 
£ 8 d 
To Cost of Cultivation and manufacture 
of Tea, &c, 
To Ccmmission P(iid to Superintendents 
To Difference in Exchange . . 
To Balance (Gross Profit) carried down 
11,930 15 9 
265 0 10 
72 9 i 
8 5bT 2 7 
£ 20,775 8 
By Net; Proceeds of Produce Sold 
By Sundry Receipts in Ceylon in respect of 
Tea manufactured, profit on Kice, Pro- 
duce sold locally, &c. .. 
19,(67 12 4 
Peojit and Loes Account, 31st Dec. 1892. 
To London and Ceylon Expenditure iucluil- 
iijR Kent, Office Expeoecs. Directorss' 
Fees, Income ax. Auditor's Pees, Inter- £ ad 
est, Telegrams, T&c, and iCeylon Mana- 
gers Salary ... ... 1,490 U 6 
To Balance, Net Profit for Year carried to 
Balance Sheet ... 7,0] 5 n 1 
^8,607 2 7 
^8,607 2 7 
By Balance from Crop Account 
1,717 16 a 
THE TEA PLANTEK'S FOES. 
Next to mofquito blight, red spider is probably the 
most injurious pest with which the tea planter has 
to contend. Hardly any locality is free from it in 
dry seasouF, and tho damage it occasions on some 
gardens has been estimated at many thousands of 
rupees in the year ; for though it does not kill the 
bushes it saps their vitality to such an extent as 
to interfere very seriously with the yield of leaf. 
About six years ago attention was called, in a paper 
emunating trom the entouiologieal section of the 
Indian Museuui, to the eflSoiency of the sulphur 
treatment, which had been successfully adopted in 
Florida for d. strojing a closely allied pest upon 
orange trees. The treatment seems to have been 
tried at the time by a few planters in Sikkiro, butit 
attracted so little attention that even within the 
last two years costly and laborious methods 
of dealing with the pest by spraying the bushes 
many times over with decoctions of tomato 
leaves have been seriously discussed in plant- 
ing circles. It is interesting, therefore, to find, 
in a publication recently issued by the trus- 
tees of the Icdian Museum, a detailed ac- 
count of an extensive trial by the treatment which 
has been carried nut by Mr. G F Plajfeir on one 
of Messrs. Barry & Co.'s gardens in Oachar. Five 
tons of refined flowers of sulphur were sent tip to 
the garden and applied over an area of 138 acres, 
and the results appear to have b« an so suocesful that 
the treatment is likely to be very widely adopted. 
The sulphur was put into bags made of common 
marTcing cloth, which were shaken over the bushes 
so as to distribute the powder. In some cases the 
bushes first splashed with water, but in localities 
where water was not easily obtain»ble, the sulphur 
was applied without any previous watering. The sul- 
phur was found to adhere fairly well, even dry bushes 
in spite of the high wind which was prevalent at 
the time. The average cost of the treatpjent has 
been estimated at R8'4 an acre including the price 
and freight of the sulphur and the cost of application. 
The sulphur was applied in the first instance, at the 
rate of one huudredweight to the acre ; but a large 
area waa afterwards successfully treated at the rate 
of t»o hundredweight to three acres. Anexperimeot 
v!as alfo made over some eleven acres, of sprinkling a 
mixture of one part of sulphur mixed with two parts o£ 
fitted linje; but this application does not appear to have 
been so effective as the undiluted sulphur. Besides dee? 
troying the red spider almost completely, Mr. Playfair 
is inclined to think that the sulphuring is neeful against 
mosquito blight. Upon this point, however, we are 
warned that it will be desirable to make further 
investigations, as mites like a red spider, are the only 
pest against nbich sulphur has hitherto been used 
successfully in other parts of the world. 
It is interesting to notice that while the resnlta 
of the dry sulphur treatment teem to have been so 
successful as to leave little to be desired — for eight 
or nine rupees per ecre is a very small price to pay 
for securing healthy flushes over areas which would 
otherwise lie idle — an improvement open the method 
has already been adopted in the United States and 
England. This consists in mixing the sulphur with 
soap, which is then dissolved in water and applied in 
the form of a fine spray, by means of a force pump. 
The oheapnesa of the little hand force pumps which 
h6Y6 been invented for tbis kind of woik, and tbg 
