Jan. I, 1894.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
VARIOUS AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 
The Morawa. Korle Tea Co. — This Company ia 
the Itteat additioa to the list of our sterling Tea Com- 
panies, and has been formed out of tha Easalwatte 
and Siivakande estaces, including a fair extent of nenr 
land whioh is about to be opened in tea. Ttie com- 
pany is to a great extent a private one, large interest 
io it being held by Mr. J. Boastead, senior. We are 
glad to hear that all the newly-opened land ia doing 
well, and that the tea is realising good prices. Messrs. 
Boustead Brothers are the local agents. 
Sale of Hanipha Estate, Passeba : — Deo. 17th. — 
At the instance of Mr. Mackay John Sobie, of tha 
Unitel Service Club, Edinburgh, the above property 
was put up for sale by publio auction yesterday, at 
12 o'clock noon, by the Fiaoal of the Uva Province, 
for the recovery of the lun of R45,000, with interest 
thereon of 8 per cent, per annuca from 1st Janu try, 
1885. The estate was bo'ight by Mr. W. Stewart 
Taylor for the plaintiff for R3,512. There were pre- 
sent at the sale Messrs. Q. E. Daaker and Charles 
Henry. The latter represented Mr. Davidson of K»lu- 
tara. — Badulla Cor. 
An iNTERESTiNa Report on Coffee Cultivation 
in the South Amerioan Republioa and the West 
Indies has just been published in the United 
States. Venezuela, says the report, ranks next 
to Brazil as a oofiee producer, oontaining large 
distriota " admirably suited for the growth o( 
ooffee." In Ecuador " there are undoubtedly large 
bodies ot land suitable for coffee oulture," but 
the berry is not as extensively oultivated there as 
in the countries last-named, ooU'ee being third in 
value among Ecuador's exports. The Guianas and 
moat of the larger West India islands produce 
coffde, Jamaica exporting it to the value of 
11,381,114 in 1890-91, Puerto Rico to the value of 
3,000,000 peaoB, and Gaadeloupa 181,000f. worth 
in 1888. The coffee of Jamaica, like that of Hayfci, 
is of fair quality, a little stronger than Java and 
milder than Rio. — Colonies a)jd India. 
The BiiANTYRE Plateau, E. Africa. — A. 
Werner writes to T/ie Speafcer -. —We started about 
sunrise, and as the day want on, the clear air and 
unclear air b8oam3 brighter, and the sky more 
inten-sely blue. The Angoni movad at a short ot 
slow jog-trot, which was far from unpleasant, and en- 
couraged one another somewhat after this fashion : — 
The Man in Front : Tii-tu-tu-tu-tu (crescendo, 
ending in a yell). 
The Man Behind : Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho (dying off to a 
grunt). 
All, (not exactly in unison, but in a sort of dropping 
fire, so to speak) : Tieni msanga ! tieni msanga ! (Let 
us go quickly !) Fired by which laudable rdsoUition 
they run a little way. Then the man in front begins 
again (in a series of quick gasps) : — 
To-to-to-to-to ! 
The Man Behind (like the fiend who so worried 
Dante) : Arri, arri. arri ! 
Somebody Else (in the rear, with reminiscences 
of the war-path) : Whu-yul— (a sharp, shrill whistle, 
in two notes.) Etc., etc., etc. 
Then, when the road begins to ascend a little — • 
a chorus of mutual .entreaties and exhortations : 
" Mbolenibole ! (Softly i) Don't run ! " etc., which I 
couldn't help thinking superfluous advice. 
The road (twenty. eight miles from Katungi's to 
Blantyre) was made by the African Lakes Company, 
I believe in 187G. It is not very well adapted for 
wheeled trat£a, but as the wheeled conveyanoea in 
the country could almost be counted on one'a fingers, 
this ia no great loss, and it i.^ a vary creditable pieue 
ol engineering. It rainad &3 wa wound up and 
up the alopea, oeising for a little, and then once 
more aottting into a steadj, even downpour, till at 
last the grey granite bouldera on Soohi oame in 
Bight, and by-and-bye the white verandah of 
Mandala House— already a historic building— and 
then we cross2d a stream and ascended a hill, and 
turned into the avenue of tall blue-gums, at the end 
of which the white dome and red-briok walla of 
Blantyre church burst on one'a view. And ao ths 
ulendo ended up with a kindly Scottish welooma, a 
blazing wood-flre — and tea ! 
Coffee.— How is it that the price of our old 
staple has not advanced beyond R16-50 a bushel ? 
This price was obtainable at this time last year ; 
but with the troubles and stoppage of trade in 
Brazil, wa should have expected tha rate to be 
nearar R20 psr bushel by this time. 
Convict Cultivators. — In diaoussing the aubjeot 
of agricultural education some time ago, we 
suggested that it wa? practical to utilise the jails 
as a sort ot primary school for instruction ia 
agriculture. Our remarks were followed by a letter 
from a correspondent who signed himself " Not a 
Jail Superintendent," and who said that in Assam 
it had been proved that prisoners can be utilised, 
and at any rate made to grow their own food. — 
Pioneer. 
The Ceylon Land and Produce Co. — We may 
certainly congratulate the shareholders in this Com- 
pany on having one ol the bast securities for 
continued prosperity that we know of, namely, 
a large and flourishing acreage ot cacao and Liberian 
coffee to back up their tea. We are glad to see 
that some ooffee as vrell as cacao are being planted 
and that a start is also made in coconuts. Vetily 
this Company is going to justify its name aa 
an all-round Ceylon Produce Company. The 
ordinary dividend for the year seems to have 
been 15 per cent with 5 per cent bonus— or 20 per 
cent in all ? Few Companies can equal this. 
Ceylon Tea in America. — In another co- 
lumn will be found a letter by Mr. A. E. Wright 
giving an extract from a letter from tha Com- 
missioner on this subject, and advising tha 
formation of a Company in London'jto carry on 
the work in America. For ourselves we are inclined 
to the opinion that with Lipton and other 
Ceylon merchants already in the field the work 
of establishing and carrying on atorea muat be 
left to private enterprise. There might be no 
harm in the Tea Fund giving assistance in 
opaning new centres, and the Committee ought 
to begin by advertising as largely as possible 
taking care to make contracts in the first place 
with those newspapers that may have auSared 
by the collapse ol Mr. Elwood May's Company. 
Tea Cultivation in Ceylon: The Condi- 
tions FOB Good Prices and Good Crops. — We have 
received quite a number ot suggestive letters from 
planters of experience on this subject, which we 
shall lay before our readers, day by day, aa spaoe 
will permit ; and we cannot help thinking that ■ 
good many besides Mr. Rutherford and other London 
residents cjoneoted with tea, will be interested 
in the discussion and the information adduced. 
One fact given to us separately by one of the 
writers is ot so much importance in its bearing 
on " jT'ts " that we give it prominenoa at once, 
Our friend writes : — 
" The China jiit tea at Loolecondeer* «lw»yi 
brought 2d (0 3d per lb. less than the Assim hybrid of 
very moderate ja»." 
That ought to settle tha question as regarda 
China jdt at the elevation ol Loole Condera ; but 
it does better in proportion, wa believe, at an 
altitude ol C,000 teet and over iu tbo ialaad. 
