723 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1S95. 
reason it docs not signify, the disc ission ended in 
no further practical lesult than that the Association 
should ascertain whether all Indian tea planters were 
unanimous in asking for the imposition "f a further 
duty on Ceylon tea imported into India. 'J hi ; i - far 
satisfactory in that we have to all intents and purposes 
heard the last of the absurd idea of Government being 
requested to place a bounty on an article of general 
consumption in order to enable a handful of tea 
planters to make a bigger profit on the produce of 
their estates. We have refrained from commenting 
too closely on the discussion on this subject, as we 
have only a brief summary of it before us. What, 
however, strikes us particularly is that little or no 
attention was given to the question of Indian fas 
beinc; admitted to the Colombo market. This is un- 
doubtedly the right direction for all attempts to 
equalise the duties on tea imposed by India and 
Ceylon to take. We understand that the Hon. Mr. 
Romilly, the planting Member of Council, will be 
paying a visit to Ceylon in another week or ten days, 
and we feel sure that the authorities in the Island 
will afford him, when in Colombo, every opportunity 
to go thoroughly into the matter. 
THE QUEENSLAND COFFEE COMPANY. 
In the prospectus of this Company which is being 
floated in Brisbane, with a nominal capital of £2,01)0 
in 2,000 shares of 203 etch, it is stated thn the 
Company is being formed for the purpose of selecting 
under the Crown Lands Act of 1881, 160 acres of 
land, or thereabouts, in the Blackali Ranges, above 
Nambour, and to cultivate coffee and such other tro- 
pical products as may be deemed expedient ; and to 
conduct the business of storekeepers and general mer- 
chants. Tho present price of one land is 30s. per 
acre, payable in 20 equal yearly instalments, but 
negotiations are being entered into for the purpose 
of having this amount reduced to 20s. per acre if 
possible. 
The exact location of the land intended to be se- 
lected is, for obviousreasons, not disclosed at the pre- 
sent time ; but it is in the opinion of experts pre- 
eminently suited for coffee cultivation, and the suita- 
bility of the climate and soil for the propose.! objects 
has been reported upon by Mr. Clement Wragge. In 
addition to Mr. Wragge's indisputable testimony, Mr. 
Waldegrave James Thompson, who has had 25 years 
of practical experience in tropical agriculture in 
various parts of the world, and especial^- in coffee 
growing in India, Ceylon, Borneo, Java, Fiji, and 
Northern Queensland, states that the land proposed 
to be selected by him on behalf of the Company, and 
the climatic condition of the Blackali Ranges, are in 
every way most suitable for the cultivation of coffee. 
It is intended with the small capital of the proposed 
company to cultivate at present only 50 acres of ihe 
land selected. To show the enormous profits of coffee 
plantations when properly managed with suitable 
climate and soil, Mr. Thompson, the expert referred to, 
states that 646 coffee trees are planted to the acre ; 
that, although the crops for the first and second years 
are practically nil, or, at any rate, valueless, he esti- 
mates that each tree should at the end of the third 
year yield at least 3 lb. of clean coffee, i.e., 1,9381b. 
of clean and marketable coffee to the acre, or 1)6,900 
lb. from the fifty acres proposed to be first cultivated. 
Good parchment or marketable coffee in Queens- 
land is lOd to Is per lb. in bond, and the duty is 
4d per lb. If only la per lb. is realized by the Com- 
pany, the gross returns on the basis of the figures 
supplied by Mr. Thompson for the third year would 
thus be £4,815. The yield of coffee trees increases 
greatly after the third year, and trees themselves, 
once planted, are reported to bear for upwards of 
80 years. The demand for coffee is practically un- 
limited, and, should the first experimental fifty acres 
prove a success, more land can be acquired and 
cultivated as circumstances require. 
Mr. Thompson, with all his experience as a coffee 
expert, has "entered into a provisional agreement, 
undertaking the management of the Company's pro- 
perties for seven years at the yearly salary of i'20Q 
and a pen-tutu".- of ]0 per cent on the net pioul- 
of the product* of the Company for ten years, but 
such profits arc not to e.\e • - 1 at any tune a certain 
sum or sums per annum set out in the agreement. 
CEYLON TEA IN LONDON IN 1891. 
Mkssu.s. Wilson, Smitliett & <"o. are tue lirst 
out with their Annual Report on Ceylon Ten 
(modestly entitled " Ceylon Tea Memoranda 
for 1894 ) giving a Summary of all fa. told at 
public auction in Loudon Last year, estimated 
quantity in lb., and average price... realised. 
Pending ifc publication in lull a- a Xnj,/,n iit< „/ 
to the f.A. in the cours; of a few day-, 
we proceed to notice the salient potato. 1 lie 
Report lirst refers to t lie heavy supplies which 
marked the early months of 1 85)4, Leading to 
the establishment of an abnormally !<<w range 
of prices and this continued with' lit tie varia- 
tions up to August or indeed .September. A 
great change then took place when it wan 
found that the Ceylon crop was bound to fall 
.short of anticipations, although it Mas not till 
October that the buyers of common teas awoke 
to a full sense of the position ; but this was 
of limited benefit to growers and producers 
whose supplies had now fallen off. The people 
who profited largely were the spirited buyers 
j of so-called "perishable'' Ceylon Souchongs 
, and Pekoes in the summer and these were able to 
I turn over thousands of chests at handsome 
j prolits to those who had previously spurned 
them when they were abnormally clieap ! We 
! should like to know what the critical ami carp- 
ing Mr. Hawes has to say to this bit of ex- 
perience as recorded in the Report before us ? 
The average prices in 1894 ranged from 
7*d to lU'd— the return for the year being 
8Ad against 9tl in 1893, and 9±d in 1892 ; but 
the low rate of exchange made last year equally 
j profitable to the planter. 
I Messrs. Wilson Smithett & Co. remark on the 
notable way in which the principal Russian 
Houses in London have introduced Ceylon tea 
to the great distributors of tea in Moscow and 
St. Petersburg and they feel sure this process 
is to go on with increasing good results. Here 
is the paragraph in the Report of most conse- 
quence to our planters and so we give it pro- 
minence : — 
That the complaints so frequently and loudly expressed 
! as to the early deterioration of Ceylon Teas, are to some 
I extent exaggerated we fully believe, yet we oanot sav 
I that they are without foundation. This deterioration 
I is, we consider, in some measure due to the too rapid 
firing of the leaf, especially when the liquors, owitie 
I to quick flushing, are naturally light, and also to ihe 
I leaf being insufficiently twisted in the rolling. The 
j latter process is often sufficiently " hard. ' but we are 
' inclined to think that rolling for a longer time would 
I frequently be more efficacious. The next point to which 
j we would once more invite attention is the necessity of 
j individuality in manufacture, and the desirability of 
I developing the chief characteristics in each district. 
I As material differences exist in the water in different 
! parts of the United Kingdom, a considerable variety 
j in manufacture and in the system of grading is highly 
desirable. Another factor tending to maintain a low 
; average during a great part of the year is possibly to 
be found in the ' large proportion of nondescript 
, Broken Pekoes made. The chief markets for Broken 
- Pekoes proper are almost entirely closed to Ceylon's, 
because cf the bold Pekoe character and consequent 
too light liquors of a large proportion of this grade. 
A great many of the Ceylon Broken Pekoes are 
merely such in name, and are bought by blenders 
at virtually Pekoe prices for Pekoe purposes. But 
whilst suggesting the desirability of a smaller pro, 
