552 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. i, 1894. 
the brokers, and that tlie brokers wouM afterwarils 
have to take them rouad for private eale as if 
there had beea no public Bale ; but this would 
remedy itself by the force of ciroumslaac3B and 
the brokers would have the remedy in their own 
hands byBimply ref uaiop; to take the parcel round and 
cutting it up again at the next eale. 
CEYLON PLANTING NEWS- 
t. (Notes hy Wanderer.) 
Tea Prices are getting worse and worse. Exchacge 
falling is the only comfort we have. It is time the 
Planters' Association published their estimate of Tea 
for 1894. A jump of 11,000,000 lb. in 1893 will pro- 
bably be fcllowed by a jump of only half that 
amount in 1894. Then we shall struggle on to reach 
the 100,000,000 lb., perhaps repeating the struggle in 
coffee days to reach the 1,OUO,00'J cwt., and after 
that No I I don't like to even dream what may 
then follow. A cheap tea market now may prevent 
the China tea buyer going out with gceat expecta- 
tions and large Bank credits. 
KoADs. — The road from Galagedara to Karanegala, 
I think, takes the cake for bad order. I was told 
that it had been lately repaired. If bo, so much 
the worse for the ofiBicer in charge. 
Weather and Coconut Chops in Kuru.vegala. — 
Weather is very dry in the Kurunegala district and 
if rain does not fall soon, the coconut crop will be 
light, and the blossoms for Ib'Jl crop wiU also be 
harmed. The dealers in this product may have to 
pay through the nose in two or three mouths' time. 
Factory Fire Insurance. — The canny planter, 
Ibacked up by a portion of the Oeylon press, often 
eighs for aa Island Office willing to take lower 
terms than those granted by the respectable offices 
that are already at work. A friend and I the other 
day made a calculation and we came to the conclu- 
sion that the prospects of such a Company making 
much of a dividend to their shsreholderd were noc 
radiaat. Let ns presume there are 500 estates in the 
tea diilriots of Ceyloa that insure their factories np 
to R30,000 each paying a premium of 7-8. h per cent 
per annum, which will givo the proposed looul Com- 
pany a gross income of .. .• 11131,500 
S»y the Company put aside a reserve of 33 
per cent to meet losses .. .. .. 43,833 
And to have one faotory a year totjily destroyed. 
The above reserve would not help them much. 
That there are factories burnt we La7e manifold 
proofs. Heatherloy, OsmpJen Hill, Agra snd Ne.v 
Peradeoiya factories hava been total losses in the 
last three or four years. [But there is other business 
beeides f actories ?— Ed. T.A.I 
1893 has been a bad year for insurance factories 
at homo. They have had to face a dry season 
an! laboar troubles. Regarding the latter, a fire 
iaBurance paper matces the assertion that there was 
an uapreeedeoted number of iucendiary fires, many 
of whom, respectable assessors assert, were delibe- 
rately planned for the purpose of getting the few 
Bhilliogg for labour expended on extinguishing the 
fl'^mes. 
ExcHANaE beloR la 3d for six months' bills is a 
good thing for the tropical agriculturist. As the 
Indian Government Chancellor of the B.'cchequer 
has thrown up the sponge, and ceased to bolster up 
the rnpee, toe China tea man will not have an 
undue advantage over his Indisn and Oeylon brother, 
Hei.opeltis in Tea. — What was likely to be another 
bad attack of helopeltis in the Kelani Valley has 
been nipped in the bud by vigorous catching of the 
jnosquitoes. When any punctariog of leaves appears 
even on individual trees, planters should at oace offer 
suitable ioducemeuts to make the coolies catch the 
. insect. It is the only way we know of at present to 
^Jjeep dqi^n the peet. 
TEA IN FRANCE. 
A strong effort is being mile to introdaoe te> 
driiking into France. We notice that a <^'aiDese 
tea-agent is making a amill fortune intheaoath- 
west provincej of France by selling Chinese tea 
got up la packets covered with Chiaese oharaatera 
and dssigns. The mijority of the country folk 
take the tea out ot curiosity, and the general 
opinion is that it is a capital m3dioine, espesially 
for o'.d people! The Palais Iiidien Tea JJjuse 
Company wiil m'lka ano'her oampiigo in Paris, 
if the necesiary fundj are forthcomiog. — Indian 
planters Gazette, 
PLANTING AFFAIRS IN NOUTH BOKNBO. 
The crjp from the Eina Batangan estates, the 
district from which the better class of wrap to- 
bacco has been obtained as yet, averaxes about six 
and a half peculs a field. This is a good dca 
better than laBt year, but does not, of coarse, com- 
pare with Deli, where 10 peculs are sometimes ob- 
tained ; but if prices of this year's crops are the 
same as those obtained this year for laat year's 
crop, the result will be very profitable. The Arends- 
burg Company, the largest of the large Deli Com- 
panies, obtained the best results — 7^ peculs ou their 
estate on the Temegang, a tributary of the Kina 
Butangau. They had but .50 fields, bat are so en- 
couraged with the result that they are now opening 
np double that number for nezt year's operations. 
In Malluda Bay! np to lOi pecuh have been 
taken this season, but the value of the tobacco from 
that district has not hitherto been equal to that from 
the KinaButangan, 
The effect of the email spurt has be«n that two or 
tbrae Europeans who were about tbe place hoping for 
something to turn up have obtained billets, and that 
nocojlies are now to bs bad loaally, all having been 
picked up. 
In various qu triers remarks have been made as to 
the little attention yet bestowed up3n other products 
Ibao tobacco, and tliere are many people who pio their 
frtith to coffee, Manila hemp, and suear in preference. 
These views feem to be justified by the manner in 
which these various things thrive when tried. On the 
9fch inst., the Governor paid a vWii to the Develop, 
ment Corporation's estates on the Byle and Weston 
Jarvia rivers, where h'^ wa» shown a considerable 
acreage under cotfee, hemp, snd padi, and two imail 
cattle-power sugar mills. 'The coffee plants were very 
ctrong and vigorous and large tor their age, 
those planted in April, 1892, having their branches 
covered with ropes of fruit. A flush of bloom had 
taken place the day before, and ou all the trees of 
over 14 months of age berries were forming. The 
sugar mill^ were on quite a email scale, bat tbe 
various operations were carried on without hitch or 
difficulty, and sogar produced at a profit, with every 
promise that on however Urge a scale matters were 
undertaken the result would be the same; while the 
Manila hemp up to 16 months of age was sbowiog 
Urge and handsome stems, the first of which were 
ripening and being converted. When the padi crop 
is harvested a lot of men will be freed for this industry. 
The padi was of unusual size, shoulder high, and with 
very targe heads. Health on tbe various estates was 
simpyl perfect, there being no one ill at all, 
Cofl'ee is now at a price — S40per peoul — inSiogapore 
which it has never reached before. Sugar is in in- 
creasing demand in Hongkong- for refining, from 
whence it is shipped to Japan and \merioa, compoeiog 
a large portion ofthecargo of the increasing number 
of steamers which cress the Pacific. Manila hemp 
is in constant and steady demand. All three pro- 
ducts are giving very goo I results to tbe growers at 
present, and as they are all grown only in gold-cur- 
rency countries at present, it is felt that North Borneo, 
a silver currency country, will have a very important 
advantage in competing with them — an advantage so 
great that it must perforce o'raw attention era loog, 
with the vrhite metal eo low as it is •( ^(eeent, 
