134 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Aug. i, .894. 
of tea since 1881 ; but if they consulted Sauerbeck's 
tables they would find that tea had not fulleo in 
greater proportion tba-i any other known .comm:- 
dity, the fact being that the fall ia altogether < le 
to the demonetisation of silver and the consequent 
appreciation of gold, the on'y diffe em > being that 
tea happens to bo one of the few cunrro 'ities where 
the fall in silver gives far more than it tak< b awty. 
I cannot agree with them either that (be closing of 
the Indian mints is any grievance to the Indian 
planter so long as it effects Ceylon, the only 
tea growing country that comes into any real com- 
petition witn us. The taste for China tea, so far as 
Great BriUin or the col< nies are concerned, is as 
dead as Queen Anue, and I venture to predict that 
before ninny years any person re-quiring a p mnd of 
that commodity will have to hunt through the length 
and breadth of this city before he can obtain what 
will then bo a rare curie sity. The next paragraph 
of the report refers to the proposed issue of preference 
aha r es, which we have to ask 5011 to sanction. As 
I mentioned la t year, we had then trenched npon 
our reserve fund on account of new extensions and 
other capital expenditure and I intimated as that a'l the 
ordinary Capital had been if sued, we ba 1, after much 
thought, decided to make our next increase of capi's l in 
cumulative preference shares, and, as far as I could 
judge by the remarks made at the lime, the g'neral 
feeling of the meeting was in favour of the proro- 
sit'on. Although about one fifth of the entire capi- 
tal of the Company is held hv the board, we do not 
wish to take 6Uoh an important step as this without 
the concurrence an approval of the shareholders as a 
body, and to obtain this we, for the first time in 
our history as a oompany, iFsued proxy forms. The 
response to this has been very remarkable, there 
having been enly two dissen'ients, hold the in'onsi- 
derable number of 140 share betwe en them ; while, on 
the other hand, the capital approving of the proposi- 
tion amounts to no less ttiau £75,000. One sWe- 
holder writes suggesting that debentures at 4| or 
Spir cent would be a better mode of increasing 
capital than the ieeue of preference shares, but 
we could not issue a redeemable fonr-and-a-ha'f or 
five per cent, debenture unless at a discount, or, if 
at par, it would need to bo redeemable in ten or 
fifteen y ears, at a premium of 6 to 8 per oent. 
We shoul d then be sadd'ed with a mortgage creditor 
instead of a fellow ehsreholder, and if it wore made 
an irredeemable debenture we shouid have th ; s on 
our backs for life. Wo now propose to issue £50,000 
of the smotioned increment, and to make good the 
drafts on the reserve fund for new extensions, &c, 
already put out. As I have said before, we do not 
intend to put out one additional acre for some time 
to come; but we hold it to he a matter of the most 
Vital importance that eur reserve fund should be. 
in tact. We propose to issue the new shares at 10s 
premium. We have put on this nominal premium 
so as to cover any coat of issue, and leaves something 
to be carried forward to reserve. The calls will be 
made easy and convenient, having an interval of two 
months between each ; but the whole will be called up 
before March 31st next, for, although the money 
may not be needed, we think it is desirable to get 
a Stock Exchange quotation as soon as possible, and, 
being such a small amount, we could not apply for 
such with any degree of confidence until the whole 
amount is fully paid. Like former issues, it will be 
offered rate.ibly to all shareholders in proportion to 
one to every five ordinary shares held. 
MARAGOGIPE COFFEE IN CEYLON. 
Dear Sib,— I had hoped to have had another 
year to continue my experiment, and wait and 
watch for any verification of my expectations from 
Maragogipe coffee, before speakirg or writing about 
it -, bat the attention which has been drawn to the 
subject by your publishing Mr. Christy's letter to 
the Cltemist and Druggist (on page 115) seems to 
make a few remarks desirable. 
Mr. Christy s,ef-ksof its introduction in Cejbn 
as if it bad been taken in hand hy eome planter 
seriously, and on a large scale ; bnt we have 1 ot 
beard of any, and it would be very advantageous 
if you could induoe iho importer of the seed he 
mentions to give us the benefit of his experience. 
I regret very much the scantiness of the infor- 
malion I can sfford, and the very limited 6cile 
of my experience ; but the collapse of Arabian 
coffee was so complete that, exoept experimen- 
tally, attention wbb given to o'ber produots than 
coffee though the hybridizing of kinds had been 
looked for. My idea originally was to get a hirdy 
variety of coffee possibly lees liable to disease, but 
principally I kept in view the idea tbat this variety 
might give us in the lower elevations a finer c'ass 
ofceff -e, and even if it diminished in siza some 
unit, or degenerated, s'ill there was ample margin 
left, seeing that it was a splendid bold bran and 
our lowcountry c ffee very email. 
It wa9 when our cropi became eo reduced in 
quantity that wo felt mo-e severely the great dif- 
terenoe in value between low grown and hipb- 
grown ooffe^, and size had mor< to do with it 
than elevation. I hoped also that hybridizing 
might be moro effective than it had been wi:h 
Liberian. 
Mr. Christy's speaking of the degenerating of ihe 
plant, or reverting to the ordinary size of Arabian, 
is interesting. The following experience does not 
bear out that. Some few plants were put out by my 
conductor two or three: years ago amonget Arabian 
coffee m cacao fields, and he forgot the tiact 
locality and the trees could not "be identified. 
The coff-e began to give crop in April last and 
my Superintendent sent in some exceedingly large 
beans picked out of the Arabian, fully assured 
that at !aH I had got a Liberian hybrid, They 
had nothing of the Liberian character in any res- 
pect, and as the beans were about five times the 
Size of my small low-grown Arabian 1 was forced 
to conclude they came from young Marage>gipe 
planted by the conductor and now first bearing. I 
shall wa'.t with interest for their next crop ; but the 
whole matter is experimental, and there is so far 
nothirg that I kuow of, to induce a Jarg* Venture 
with this a pres nt rather expensive "garden^' 
pliLt. At the samd time, bs it said, *e never 
know, how we may be rewarded for a little oare 
and watohfulness in the direction of second strings 
to our low. All our swans may not turn out ge-ss 
nor all our fodders Triokly Comfrey, and any 
one interesting himself in coffee, should give 
this species a trial even if only horticulturally. 
The few old trees I have are badly situated and 
were very much neglected for a period. 
I shall have more to say on the 6unj<=ct here- 
Bfter - J. M. 
TEA, CACAO, LIBERIAN COFFEE, AND 
OTHER PRODUCTS. 
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT SITUATION. 
Dear Sm.-Of what a few years ago was known as 
new products, the cultivation of cae^o i s DO w fairly 
established, while that of Libemn coffea is after 
all new steadily mogressicg. It was introduced 
into the island when the sister variety w. B failing 
to yield the mud quantity per acre, and was 
fetching low prices. At tha. time the credit of the 
island was really nil, and no one would risk his 
money or lend any to carry out hny enterprise in 
coffee thoroughly, no matter what variety. Wi'h 
the export of Arabian oo£f c e getting yearly le.s, there 
13 every probability of Liberian oofhe faking its 
plaoe. A yield of 4 to 5 cwt. wiih picp fcr manage- 
