Sept. i, 1894.! THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
201 
hills of Southern InrMa, but experier.ee has shown that 
where it does not fbari.h it is but a sign (hat the 
soil and clinaUe are m< re favourable for tea. Ceylon 
has proved this beyond a question, and in Travmcore 
the truth uf this diotum h m also been mlly establishe i. 
South Wynaad is folio* ing suit and the new e'earings 
of tea there are giving a promise which, if the dis- 
trict were only iu Ceylon, would en>ure the pro- 
prietor being irbli without trouble to start a Com- 
ptny successfully and be so wished it. Reut r te'e- 
grapbel to us yesterday that the most cot oe- 
able f a'ure iu the Londou marke's is the re- 
markable risa iu b11 t e best Stocks due to 
the plethora of money and to the bankers redu- 
cing the rate of interest on d"po>its to | per ceut. 
This plethora of money is alro causiDg people to piy 
more attention to iuvestmeits other than public funds, 
railwa\s and mines. Tbe f blowing paragraph which 
appears in the money article of Vanity Fair, received 
by la^t Mii 1 , is but a sign of tbe times : — 
We bave been told that we do not give sufficient 
attention to the att actions (»f Tea Sharer, which — if 
we may believe all that we hoar— .tad Consols a close 
ra;e for security while c impletely out-di;tareirjg 
them in the matter of int r. St. W thout subscribing 
to every extravagant encomium upon Tea Shares 
whioh is uttered by the true believers, we yet regaid 
the following selection as being fairly good upat- 
ing for the investment of a moderatj amount of 
capital. 
The selection includes some half dozen Companies 
in Assam aud one in Ceylon. In anoth< r Eng ish 
cou'emporary we see it statid that there ia begiuning 
to ariso an incraasing desire amoug invent >rs on the 
Co itinen', more particularly in France and in Holland, 
to turn their a'teutiou to tei-pl*nting shares, owing 
to the good returns afforded, and in ibis connection 
it lias been sugge-ted that, to meet the requ r ments 
of foreigners, some of the larg< r corapan c s might 
with advantage issue a portion of their capita in the 
shape of "Boarer" shares, the same as is done by 
most Continental industrial co'iipauies, and as lias 
latterly been done by not a few) English industrial and 
commercial companies as wel 1 . Ail this gives evidence 
that the investing public is beginning to evinca 
more interest than formerly iu ti a-property. There 
is at the preseut time no Dew district tba s , gives 
better promise than VVyuaid. Withiu the last two 
year* some fivehundred acraa hive beeu opened ia the 
southern part of ih's district, 320 acres by the 
Honourable Mr. liumlly, and 170 acres by the 
PauOru Comp iny, all of which is doiog marvellously 
well. We unde stand the lutast intichinary is to b.i 
put op and every rare bestowc 1 on tha maoufa:- 
lurei f tbe leaf. The heavy yield which o'd t< a ciu 
eivei.itbis tiistrict his alieidy been est»bli hedat 
Peril ditty and the simples sent homa from Richmond 
E tate iu South-East Wjnsal sou.e two yeurs a^o, 
showed what supi rior q lality cm be proluced here 
by bushes of good j;V. Extensa na of tta in Wynaad 
are not likely to te of any very great sza for 
s me time to come, but now undoubtedly is the 
time for iuvestors, when there i$ plenty of Lnl iu 
the market an t therofore a g >cd ohoiea at reasonable 
prices. — M. Mail. 
the Mannar district was 288 tons, viz. : — 
Tons. 
Mannar . . . , . . 15 
Vidattaltivu .. .. 157 
Silavatturai . . . . 87 
Uyilankulam . . 24 
Kallikaddaikadu . . . . 5 
and the whole quantity was exported to Colombo. 
A sum of R2 was paid as royalty per ton, and the 
amount of cost to the traders per ton was from 
R35 to R40. The amount for which a ton was sold 
iu Colombo was between R60 and R100. Deducting 
all tbe cost, there is a net profit of about R30 per 
ton. The persons engaged by the traders to collect 
the bark are paid at from R1T2 to RT78 per cwt. 
— Mr. Iwynam's Report. 
RUBBER. 
Under tbe beading " Rubber-yielding trees," the 
Government Botinist (Nilgiris) after relating the want 
of success, which atteideJ the tappii g-operations for 
rubb.i, performed ou the Ceara and Castilloa trees, 
grow ; n< in the Burliyar Gardens, suggests the ad- 
visability of Government applying to the Chief 
Commissioner of A»sim w.th a view to obtaining 
the services of an expert rubber tapper, in order to 
ascertain whether the uon-!u:cees hitherto experienced 
in the tapping of these plants was due to the 
una klfuluess of the operator.— Nilyiri. 
COSTA RICA REDUCES THE DUTY ON 
COFFEE. 
The Bureau of the American Republios has teaei 
officially iuto.-med that tbe government of Costa Rica 
by deirea ul Juna 8th 1894, b^s re luced the export 
duty on coflae to 4 shillings Eng ish money, for each 
46 kilograms. "When the coffee is exported in its 
inn r husk, the said duty shall be reduced oy making an 
allowance of 18 per cei-t. en the gross weight. This 
dearee will be in foroo cn and after Ootaber 15 h 1891 
— American Grocer. 
AVARAI (CASSIA AURICULATA) BARK : 
A New Industry in the North op Ceylon. 
The collection of this bark has been extensively 
carried ou this year in the Mannar district, and 
has afforded employment to the distressed villagers 
there. The plant grows wild over ihe district and 
other parts of the Province. 
A Mahommedan merchant of Malras, who attended 
the fisheries of 1887 and 1888, and invested largely 
iu pearl oysters, tried in the beginning of the year 
to get a monopoly of the trade in this bark. The 
bark is said to be used for tanning. 
The following information is furnished to mo by 
tho Adigar of Musali regarding this industry : — 
The quantity of avarai bark collected in 1893 in 
L1BERIAN ARABIC A COFFEE HYBRID. 
We hear that Mr. Lamb of Vythery, to whose 
inteiesting find of hybrid coffee plants we alluded 
some months ago, is very sanguine as to the value 
of his plants. He had in the firdt place two plants 
only which are now 3£ years old. A year ago one 
bush yielded 330 cherries (or seeds, we are not 
sure which) and this year 1760. Last year's 
crop Mr. Lauib sowed and the requiring tee ilings are 
to all appearance true to the hyb.id type. 
The eurice of the hybrid has a very thin tkiu in 
which it is very tuperior to pure Liber.an, and it 
shows a stroog teudenoy to run ta pea-btrry By 
1896 Mr. Lamb hopes to be able to supp'y seed to the 
pu 'lie and be las meantime l.irnself tikea up 300 
acres of land which he intends to plant with the new 
cofLe. Of cau.-be is remains to be seen whether 
later tenciatiobs will reman true to type, and it 
also h.s yet to ba tean how ftr it will ba proof 
tga nst leaf disease aud the other ills to which coffee 
i= heir. Those however who have seen the plants 
either a'. Panoia or in Mysore, appear to be ve y 
bopetu', aud, as we bave beiore remarked, if these 
fulfil a tune of whit their owners anticipate/, thev will 
be of vei y great value.— South of India Obsener, 
Java Tea.— On page 203 will be found an in- 
teresting lo.ter about the total exports of tea frcm 
Java (9,400,000 lb. in 1892-3) aud the consumption 
in Hollttiid.which has doubled in ten years being 3 
m llioa lb. iu 1893. More than bulf. the Java crop 
is still sent to the London market. This is a 
pity. We should like to ace tho Java planters 
more alive to pushing their produce into new 
markets on the Continent of Europe. 
