1FEB. r, 1895.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* 
S39 
THE I'VV COMPANY 
V VCTOKY 
The grand new tea faetorj 
is a tiling of beauty. I was 
in and inspect tUe machinery 
engine, two <<\ Brown's desicc 
mlariy nice compact tea aifl 
bined all doing excellent w 
reflects the highest credit 
engineer, anil Mr. John Kettie 
t ho I \ a Company's estates. 
S NEW TEA 
1 1 In- I ' vn I Ipmnany 
privileged bo Iook 
a nice little steam 
ators, anil a parki- 
er aud cutter eoni- 
ork. This factory 
on Mr. I '"i lie. (the 
, the chisi Mana cr 
It will be a great 
GOOD NEWS FOR UVA COFFEE 
PROPBIETOKS. 
We had a call recently from Professor Albert 
Koeble, whose labours in discovering and con- 1 
veyihg from Australia, the proper enemies of the 
scale insects affecting the Californian orchards, 1 
have been crowned witli such marvellous success. 
Professor Koeble has been here since the beginning | 
of December. He has not found much to interest \ 
him as an Entomologist, though he has made a 
small collection. He leaves this week for China [ 
and Japan en route to Honolulu. Put the Pro- 
fessor lias seen our coffee bush suffering from 
"green bug" and he has no doubt at all that 
one of the beetles he introduced into California 
— namely, Bhizofnits ventriclis — would very speedily 
clear oft all the scale insect or so-called "green 
bug" from our coffee. The proprietor of Non- 
paril, ever to the front, when enterprise has to 
be shewn, expressed himself ready after reading 
our last article, to do what he could to get the 
needful beetle over from Australia and we trust 
Mr. Koeble will be able to leave such instruc- 
tions and addresses as may permit of Captain 
Bayley carrying out the experiment. Meantime 
Mr. E. E. Green of Pundaluoya has arranged to 
get some beetles from California where Mr. 
Koeble says they have the breed pure, free from 
parasites ; but it is well to have two strings to 
our bow. From Mr. Green's letter we quote as 
follows 
" I have written to Mr. Alex. Craw, 220 Sutter St., 
San Francisco, California, asking for a supply of the 
throe beetles — 
Vedalia cardinalis 
Noviua kiebeli 
Rhizobius ventralis. 
It Is Important that the beetles should bo obtained 
only from qualified agents, otherwise diseased and 
parasitized stock may be imported. Prof. Henry 
Tryon of the Department of Agriculture. Brisbane, 
ought to be able to supply them direct from Austra- 
lia. But Mr. Koebele tells me there is sometimes a 
difficulty in obtaining insects from Australia ; while 
in California they have a breeding establishment for 
keeping up a supply of the beetles. 
" I should think the Planters' Association might 
take up the matter, and start a small breeding es- 
tablishment. Theexpense would be very small. A 
sot of large glass jars, a few brooding cages and one 
or two small rousihi tonts would be all the apparatus 
required. I am going to England in May next ; but 
I hope to see a colony of the beetles started before 
1 leave. 
"Capt. Bayley Would be a gradually in getting 
over the beetles : because if consigned to him by one 
of the P. &. O. boats, they would be sure to receive 
careful attention." 
We would suggest to the three Uva Planters' 
Associations to unite in supplying funds for a 
small breeding establishment such as Mr. Green 
describes and which he might set agoing before 
Ilia departure. Or, perhaps, the better way would 
bo for all proprietors of coffee— 25 acres and 
over to Unite iii providing funds, and then direct ly 
share in the resulting benefits. 
boon to the surrounding small tea estates and 
proprietors who wish to sell their leaf or have 
it prepared economically in town. It should be 
also a great inducement for native capitalists in 
and around Badulla to invest in land and plant] 
tea on the hills and in the valley's surrounding 
the picturesque town and principality of Uva. — Cor. 
INDIAN TEA PLANTING COMPANIES. 
[A correspondent writes : — London Jan. 8. I am 
sending you a copy of yesterday's "Financial Times" 
which contains an article on Tea investments 
which may be worth reproducing in the Tropical 
Ayriculiwriiti — En. T.A .] 
Since Samuel Pepys thought it worth while re- 
cording in his Diary, as a somewhat novel event, 
that he partook of "a dish of tea (a China Drink," 
the progress of tea-drinking has been something 
enormous, especially in the British Islands. But if 
the worthy Samuel could re-visit London at the 
present time, he would have to modify his statement 
about "a China Drink," since the chances are ten 
to one that the beverage he quaffed would be dis- 
tilled from leaves grown in India or Ceylon. Few 
things, indeed, are more remarkable in the agricul- 
tural history of recent times than the rapid manner 
iii which the huge tea-trade which China for many 
years drove with this country has been diverted to the 
British possessions in the East. The development 
of this industry in India is the more remarkable 
since it only dates back for about half-a-century, 
while China has grown tea from time immemorial, 
and probably the great Confucius discoursed to his 
disciples overacup of excellent Souchong. Buttherewere 
reasons other than those arising from the excellency of 
the Indian product why China should lose her bold on 
this market. Her fine teas — and nowhere can finer 
tea be grown than in China — were too dear for us 
while her cheap qualities were popularly supposed to, 
be black-leaded, aud to have other atrocities per- 
petrated upon them for the better deception of the 
despised foreign devils. So the palmy days of the 
trade, when the tea-clippers raced across the 
Pacific for the honour and profit of being the 
first to bring the new season's growth of China tea 
to the London market, have gone probably never to 
return. For it is significant that not only are India 
and Coylon teas increasing their hold upon the British 
market, but their use is gradually but surely extending 
in the United States, the Continent, Bussia ana 
Australasia, where the product of the Middle Kingdom 
has heretofore been in vogue. 
The widening of the market for Indian tea, and the 
publicity which the Press has given to the affairs of 
the British tea companies, has opened the eyes of the 
investing public to the advantages offered by this class 
of security. As a result of the demand thus created, 
aud of the much freer market that has been es- 
tablished in the shares, as well as of the improvement 
in the Mincing-lane market for tea consequent upon 
diminished production and better quality, and con- 
siderable rise has taken place in quotations during 
the year, as will be evident from the following table :— ■ 
Quotations 
1S94 
Stock , 1 ' N ise 
Assam 
British Indian 
Chargola Pref. 
Dobara Orel. 
Do Pref. 
Dooma Owl 
1? Assam 
Jokfti Knl 
.lokai Pref 
Jorehaut 
Land. Mort. Bunk 
(.ebons 
Jan. 
2S 
1} 
13-I6ths 
W 
1*1 
13 
2J 
loi 
33 . 
nil 
«1 
Dec. 
42* 14.} 
2i 1 
l.-.-ttiths 4 
15} 2 
15} 1 
15 2 
. 3} J 
15 1 
13} 2J 
•14 11 
A 
CeyloiT T Plantation' drd 15" 20' 
,, Pref 18 15 2 
Ono objection to Indian tea companies' shares us au 
investment used to bo the difficulty of realisation 
owing to the vory limited market there was for them, 
but the difficulty has now beeu to a very large extent 
