Dec. I, 15^93.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
415 
2. The coffee crop shipped to London was 837 
owts., against 914 cwts. 3 qr. 4 lb. last year, and 
realised £4,170 16s 3d net. The acreage under 
coffee alone was 347 acres on the 30th June last, 
all on the Ouvah side of Ceylon. Every eftort 
will bo made, consistent with economy, to preserve 
as much coffee as possible, but the old causes of 
decay are still in operation and some of the 
coffee above referred to is already being replaced 
by tea. 
3. The total crop of Cocoa gathered on Yattawatte, 
from the 341 acres in bearing, amounted to 1,457 
cwt. 1 qr. 4 lb., of which 1,399 cwt. 3 qr. 26 lb. were 
sold in London, against 707 cwt. 0 qr. 26 lb. sold 
here last year, and realised £6,451 16s 7d net. The 
autumn crop was of very fine quality, and, arriving 
to a strong market, sold at extreme prices. The 
spring crop was gathered in less favourable weather 
and, owing to the market being depressed by the 
heavy arrivals (shipments from Ceylon being 10,000 
cwt. in excess of the previous year), and to the 
cessation of the American demand, had to be parted 
with at much reduced rates. The Superintendent 
reports that the trees carried their crop extreniely 
well, and that they are in good heart and condition. 
The Directors desire to extend the cultivation of 
CoEoa to the full extent of the suitable land ; 85 acres 
have been planted during the late financial year, and 
arrangements are in progress for increasing the acre- 
age to 600 acres by the end of 1894. 
4. The Tea received from the Company's estates 
amounted to 415,833 lb., being at the rate of aboiit 
3001b. per acre from fields in full and partial bearing, 
and has been sold at an average of 8gd per lb , real- 
ising £14,048 10s, against 377, 327 lb., averaging S^d, 
and realising £13,028 Os 3d last year. Flushes were 
much checked and the recovery of the pruned bushes 
retarded by the unfavourable weather which prevailed 
in the early part of the season. The total acreage 
under Tea now stands at 2,009 acres, against 1,899 
acres last year. The leaf from the Eappahannock 
and BillamuUe estates was manufactured in arljacent 
factories, and that from Thotulagalla sold to a neigh- 
bouring estate. As the acreage and yield of Tea on 
these properties increase, it may be necessary to 
erect our own factories. 
5. The following Statement shows the acreage 
and state of cultivation of the Company's Estates 
on the 30th June last :— 
Estate. 
Am pittiakaude 
Arnhall 
Fruit Hill 
Fordyce, Garbawn, 
Gonagalia and 
Paramatta 
Rappahannock 
Rillanmlle 
Totulagalla 
Yattawatte 
o 
U 
110 178 
39* 332 
30 
141 
182 
20 373 
225 
12 
.. 237 
762* 
39 
135 936 
35 
290* 
25 
43| 
80 473| 
230 
2 
6 
20 258 
172 
183* 
7 
114 
79 555 
497 
95 
145 
210 947 
347 
2009 
497 
173 
5021 
583 4111J 
(being 3 per cent per annum), on the Ordinary Shares, 
oarryiDg forward a balance of £968 48 7b to the 
next aocoun*. It will be remembered that the divi- 
dend for the year ending the 30th June, 1892, was at 
per cpnt. — By order, C. M. Robertson, Secy. 
12, Fenohurch Street, London, K.C., 4th Nov. 1893. 
• Partly in coffee. 
6. The Directors who retire on this occasion are 
Mr. George Allen and Mr. Pettit, who being eli- 
gible, offer themselves for re-election. 
7. Mr John Smith, the Auditor, also retires, and 
being a shareholder, offers himself for re-election. 
8. The profits for the past year amounted to 
£8,401 2s 8d, out of which the customary 10 per cent, 
has been written off the suspense account, viz 
£1,669, and £500 has been written off the tools and 
machinery account, reducing the same to £832 12s lOd 
Having already paid a helf-year's interim dividend on 
the 6 per cent. Profereuco shares to the 3l3t Dec. Itsyi 
the Directors recommend the payment of a Braaller 
dividend on those Shares to the 30th June Injt, and 
(k dividQud ol 6/- per Share, free of Incomo Ta& 
A COMPAIUSON OF TEAS. 
TO THE EDITORS OF THE LEEDS MERCURS. 
Gentle men, — The letter of your correspondent, J. 
Latchmore, in yesterday's " JSIercury " should be 
widely read and oonsidered by householders from a 
domestic p )int of view. The statements therein con- 
tained I substantially endorse, having been a pro- 
festiinal tea-taster in Miocing-lane, London, for more 
than thirty years. Therefore I do not write theore- 
tically or from a sentimental standpoint. I have 
nniformly upheld and advocated the greater purity 
of China tea, compared with the astringent Indian 
teis. For invalids and weekly persons I consider such 
teas (Indian) prejudicial to health, and should be 
avoided or taken in a modified quantity. To those 
who may desire to draw a contrast between the two 
olasfes I would suggest, in passing, that a cup of 
each kind (Indian and China), without cream or 
sugar, should be allowed to stand until quite cold '. 
when it would be found that the infusion of the Indian 
tea would resemble yellow clay-watrr, while 
the China tea would retain its bright and transparent 
I'quor — thus demonstrating its greater purity. 
I append a verbatim extract from a lecture delivered 
to the students of the London Hospital by Sir Andrew 
Cl»rk, Physician to tfce Queen. — Your?, &o., 
Harrogate, Oct. 26th, JOSHUA WHITWORTH. 
SIR ANDREW CLARK ON TEA DRINKING. 
Let the patient at the close of hia meal aip a oup of 
milk and water, or a oup of tea. Tea to be useful 
should be, first of all. Ohint black tea. The Indian 
tea whioh is being cultivated has become so poworfnl 
in its effect upon the nervous system that a oup of tea 
taken early io the mornicg, as many people do, so 
disorders the nervous system, that those who take it 
aotnally get into a state of tea intoxication, and pro- 
fiuoea a nerve disturbance which is painful to witoess. 
If you want to have, either for yonraelvea or for yout 
patients, tea which will not injure and whioh will 
refresh, get China black tea." 
Gentlemen, — The interesting letter from Mr. Latch- 
more in your issue of today reopens the debate 
which filled so many columns of the daily and weekly 
Press throughout the kingdom acme two years ago. 
We will refrain, therefore, from wearying your lay 
readers with the highly teohnioal facta and figures 
which would be necessary to enable Bcientists to 
arrive at a conclusion. Lat it sufiBce to say that Mr. 
Latchmore will find, even by referring to his own 
figures, that Indian tea possesses also more theine 
than China tea, as well as more tannin. Now 
theine is not oiily " the refreshing quality, " as 
he tightly calls it, but it is indeed the eflsen- 
tial characteristic of the tea-leaf, and mainly 
constitutes the dietetic valuo of the infusion. Ho and 
we therefore agree that lodian tea has the Uri^er 
percentages of theine and tanuin. But boiling water 
extracts the theine very much more quickly and 
readily than it extracts the tannin, and in a know- 
ledge of this generally ignored but simple llttio fact 
lies most of the art and mystery of "making tea." 
If tea were always made for the good people of the 
North by analytical chemis'a intent on extracting the 
utmost decimal of everything out of tea, or if it were 
made and kindly kept warm for them from ten a.m. to 
ten p.m. by the accommodating young lady of the re- 
freshment (!) bar at Slowbjrn-on-le-Moor railway 
(tation, we should strongly advise the good nortliernera 
to uso only China tea, for they would then bavo less 
tannin to digest. But luckily every northern lady-of- 
tbe-house— whether in the Bishop's palace or the pit- 
man's cottage — prefers to make her own toi, and cun- 
I gmly enough ehe knows wbioh juita ber btH— beUe^ 
