20 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July 2, 1894. 
and St. Leonards estates. Coffee there was suffering 
a good deal from bug. Away from the grevilleas the 
coffee bushea were black— boughs, leaves, and such 
berries jib there were. Cnder the full-grown grevil- 
leas, where tliey had show' red down a thick covering 
of their foliage ou the coffee bushes and the environ- 
ing ground, the coffee looked vigorous and thriving, i 
boughs 11 nd l(aves I ealthy, and berries plentiful; in 
marked contract to tbe butties beyond the range of the 
grevilleas. All the ooffee on the company's estatss nn- 
planted with tea had been planted up with grevilleas. 
It was to be hoped that a cure had been di-covered ; 
for at least one of the evils that coffee suffers from. 
The St. L'Orards tea factory te ng now complete 
is a great oomfort. It is a handsome buldiug, 
and very perfect of its kind, reflecting credit on \ 
•II concerned, especially Mr. Bagot, and also on Mr. 
Michie, who A< s : gned it un 1 started the maohincry. ' 
The paragraph iu the Report about the leaf plucked j 
before and after the comp'et'on of the factory, though \ 
atriotly accurate, required modification The quantity 
sold to ntighb'.unng estates was for a net price. For 
purposes of comparison there ought to be a charge 
added for making the tea ; and it would be fairer 
to fay that the two-thirds orop sold in UJa Pussellawa 
realised a sum equal to £3,400, and the one-third in 
London £4,000. Tne produce of Eskiale used to be 
sold to the Kandapol'a factory, where they treat e 1 
the company well, paying fur the tea on a eliding 
scale, giving a fair price as a minimum, 
apd a shira in whatever over tbat the tea 
eventually realistd. Nothing could be fairer. 
The tea was now coming on, though there was 
still a groat deal very young on most of the 
esta'es. It was so intermixed, tea and coffee together, 
that it wae difhoult t > give exact acreage. Roughly 
Eskdale is the only estate without much tea not yet 
in bearing. Tea no dunbt, the chairman contended, 
has its diseases; but it seems freer from disease than 
coffee aud most articles of produce, owing probably 
to its periodio heavy pruning, when the plant ia pretty 
well cut down altogithei, and latent disease got rid 
of with the primings — indeed, in some parts of the 
island the stumps left are cleaned with a solution 
rubbed into them. The chief risk in tea planting, 
bar war or such calamity, seems orer-produotion Bnd 
inadequate prices. Ceylon and Indian teas have dis- 
placed Cbinain Great Britain, and doubtless in time will 
do bo elsewhere. Native manufacture, whetliu - by China- 
men or a nigger, means some iudifferor ce to cleanliness: 
The Ceylon process of tea making in a well-c nstruoted 
factory is a clean one at all events. In St. Leonards 
factory everything is scrupulously dean— anyone might 
eat his dinner off the factory floor. The export de- 
mand for Ceylon teas inoreases. It helped onr 
market t'ngibly when lately the home trade held 
off, probab y frightened by rumoured heavy Oolombo 
shipments; and the demand will cout'iDue to increase, 
and the cleanly, though possibly the mo^t expens'vely 
made, tea of the British plan'er must more ai d more 
oust the native product, both in Europe and America. 
It must, however be borne in mind that it is a 
cheap article that has to ba ousted, and tbat it is 
difficult to persuade thrs9 accustomed to buy a 
cheap tea to pay double the price for an article even 
many times as good. 
The Chairman ooncluded by moving the adoption 
of the report and accounts, which was carried after 
remarks by those present, in which Mr. Grieve alluded 
to his plantiug the now matured grevilleas at Liddes- 
dale iu full expectation of te efifc to the coffee, now 
apparently being realised, and said he had not quite 
shared the fears that coffee in Uva Pussellawa would 
enylddeeudi out. 
A dividend of 7i per cent (making, with the 
interim 2£ per cent distributed on October 20tb, 
ten per cent per annum) was voted, and 
also the paying off the balanoe remaining of 
the preliminary expenses, and the plaoing £2,000 
to reserve. Mr. Robert Kay Shuttleworth was re- 
elected a direotor, and returned thanks. 
Mr. Weight said it seemed that there was a race 
for the coffee between bug and grevilleae. That 
bug might win by killing coffee before tije gtevi<leas 
were sufficiently mature; or the d ore happy remit 
be obtained of tbe grevil'eas nim ing by coming to 
maturity in time to auve coffee. It was a highly 
interesting race. He moved, in v<ry compliment >rf 
terms, a vote if thanks to the direct) rs, to tbe 
manager*) of the estate, and to the CeyUu igeuta 
Mestrx. George Si euart & Co., including Mr. Edward 
S. Grigs n. Mr. Johnston seconded. 
The Chairman, in acknowledge g tbe vote, ex- 
pressed p'easure tt Mesare. George rtuuart & Co. and 
ftlr. Grigfon b> iug included in it, and m d he was sure 
he had with him Mr. Moir, his solo coll' ague in a «*t- 
ing the Standard Tea Compat-y, when le sai l how 
muoli they had been, from the romraeocerueut . 
wisely, thoughtfully, thoroughly guided t-y Mesira. 
George Steuart & Co., both in what ih y should 
Luy a- d what they should not, from the time vbea 
tbey comrr eaced with tbe purchase tf tbeSt. l<eonarda 
Estate aud even before that. 
Mr. Moib briefly but empha'icallv . - >.•• d ; and 
the prooeedings terminated. — 11. and C. Muil, M«y 4. 
THE ACME TEA CHEST. 
In one of bis recent reports, the Inspector-General 
uuder the Companies Winding-op Act poinied out 
that a very large proportion of the losses incurred 
by investors in connection with joint-stock companies 
was due to their putting money into enterprises 
promoted to work patente. Notwithstanding this 
quasi-judicial utterance, which m an- a great doal, 
the enterprising patentee, or the syndicate farming 
hi6 invention, is ever on the qui vne to secure the 
co-operatiou of the credulous investor. The latest 
exploit of this kind is the Acme Package Company, 
which appears to be a Glasgow venture, no less than 
five of the directors being Glasgow men, no doubt, of 
highly-approved respectability. The company is 
formed, according to the prospectus, to acquire the 
business and patent rights, together with the 
spec al machinery and plant, of the Aeme Tea 
Chest Syndicate, incorporated fof testing the prac- 
ticability, cost of production, and commercial value 
of an invention for tbe manufacture of tea chests 
and similar packages. These chests are made of 
lead-coated sheet steel, under hydraulic pressure, 
and certain advantages are claimed for tbem which 
it probably requires an expert in the tea trade to 
appraise at their true value. We do not profess 
to any more knowledge on the subject than is 
possessed by the ordinary investor ; but we have 
read the prospectus very carefully, and we fail to 
discover any good reason why the public should find 
£50,000 in hard cash for what, after all, is only an 
enlarged sort of experiment. The whole capital is 
fixed at £75,000 but shares of the value of £25,000 
are to be allotted to the parent company in part 
payment of the purchase money, in addition to 
which it is to receive £3,000 in cash, " to cover 
expenditure already incurred. '' That ia to say, the 
syndicate is to be recouped for the whole of its outlay, 
to transfer the risk to the sharehold- rs of the public, 
and to receive five thousand £5 shares as the price of 
good wiil and patent rights. Whatever happens, the 
syndicate will be all right. If it gets its £8,000 in 
money, it will stand "five thousand ehares to nothing" 
as a sporting man would put it. No evidence is 
forthcoming of the value of the plant, and, for all 
the investor knows, it may be worth nearer £800 
than £8.000; but, whatever it is worth, the proposed 
arrangement is an uncommonly good one for the 
Acme Tea Chest Syndicate. 
The authors of the prospectus appear to rely very 
muoh upon a trial of six week*, when e'even thousand 
four hundred and eixty-nine ches ts were made ard so d, 
showing a net profit of £208. We do net suggest that 
there is anything incorrect in this statement ot results; 
but it is as well to point out the following clause : — 
" The foregoing statements in the separate sheet en- 
closed with the prospectus are foui.ded on information 
supplied by the managing director of the syndicate, 
and the directors Relieve them to be in all respects true. 
It will, however, bs a condition of allotment that 
applicants agree with the company as trustees for 
