June i, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
TEA IN NEW YORK. 
The market is steady and in about the same con- 
dition as at the time of our last report. Jobbers are 
very conservative, and cannot be induced to purchase 
beyond mere bare requirements. Greens, and parti- 
cularly Pingsueys and Formosa Oolongs, are very 
firm; the latter are so on account of the attack of 
the Japanese forces upon the island of Formosa. 
Japans continue to favor the buyer. 
Today at noon the Montgomery Auction and Com- 
mission Company will sell 5,546 packages, viz : 1,308 
half-chests Moyune. 1.1532 boxes Pitigsuey ; '217 half- 
Congou ; 88 packages India, Java, Pekoe and Ceylon, 
including choice grades ; 271 half-chests and boxes 
Formosa, including some very fancj' early " Summer 
Crop" teas. — American Grocer, April 3. 
PIGMY RAILWAY. 
The following paragraph cut from The Times 
will show you that the Duke of Westminster 
appreciates the benefits that this has secured, 
and that lie desires to obtain the same for one 
of Ids own estates. The paragraph gives some 
details in addition to those to be obtained from 
Mr. Heywood's letter. It states this 15 inch 
line to be equal to a haulage of '20,000 tons per 
annum, and puts its cost, fully equipped, at 
£1,200 per mile. It is impossible not to con- 
trast these figures with Mr. Wiring's latest 
estimate for your northern line. Can it be as- 
serted that the traffic on that line will for 
many years to come pass beyond the capacity 
of a line of about as cheap construction? I 
hope, of course, that the limit of tonnage 
mentioned would he considerably passed in the 
case of a railway to Jaffna, and am not in- 
sisting that the capacity of this should be 
limited to that of Mr. Heywood's line. But 
surely it would not be necessary for years to 
come to go very far beyond that standard, 
lint there must be very many localities for 
which means of transport are desirable where 
such a line as that now contemplated by the 
Duke of Westminster would amply suffice. 
The paragraph referred to reads as under : — 
Tiif. Extension of Light Railways.— The Duke of West- 
minster has decided upon constructing at Eaton a narrow- 
gauge railway upon the lines of that which has been laid 
down on the' estate of Mr. A. Percival Heywood at Duffield 
Bank, near Derby, and which has already been described 
in the columns of The Tims*. Mr. Heywood has under- 
taken, at the request of the duke, not only to lay out the 
oourse of the intended line from Balderon sidings on the 
Great Western Railway, near Chester, to Katon-hall, a 
distance of some three or four miles, but to superintend 
the laying down of the permanent way, and, moreover, 
to construct a locomotive exactly on the same principle as 
his own and to build the wagons of the same class, and 
the work has already been begun. On a fair calculation 
the railway when completed, in about nine months' time, 
will allow of a 20;000-ton haulage per annum if worked 
anything like full time. The cost of the line, when fully 
equipped, will bL' as near £1,200 per mile as can be 
reckoned. A cattle railway, :tj miles in length, has been 
constructed across country in Derbyshire by a private firm 
to the town of Derby, traversing the country from the 
village of Stanley and passim; through the intervening 
parishes of Morley and Chaddesdeu. If COO tons per day 
were carried it is estimated that the cost in labour, in- 
cluding repairs of the road, would not exceed Id per ton 
for the Whole distance This is one of the longest cable 
railroads in England, and was constructed under the 
personal supervision of Mr. W. H. Sankey, C.K., of Morley 
hall, near Derby. 
It may be added with, reference to the fore- 
going topic that during the present week I have 
heard of the presence in London of a gentleman 
hailing from t lie Isle of Man. He is here for the 
purpose of arranging for the extension of a 
LIGHT RAILWAY 
opened las! year in t he island mentioned which /ms 
repaid its entire cost in its Jirst season of working \ 
This was laid down for the conveyance of tourists 
to the foot of the mountain that forms so great 
an attraction to visitors to the island, and is of 
exceedingly " pony'' character. As the result to 
this experience it has now been determined to 
extend the line up to the summit of the moun- 
tain without delay. I of course do not pretend 
that lines of a similar class in Ceylon must have 
as great success as this. The instance is only 
quoted as showing what may be accomplished by 
very trifling means and small outlay, and when 
we have it gravely put forward that a oft. bin. rail- 
way is necessary for your northern line it is 
only natural that our minds should turn to par- 
ticular instances of what has been accomplished 
elsewhere by railways of the character completed 
in the Isle of Man and that just ordered by the 
Duke of Westminster on the model of Mr. Hey- 
wood's pigmy railway. 
You must not expect this letter to include 
much that is of local bearing. Everyone has 
been away from town for Easter, and everything 
almost has been kept standing over awaiting 
the return of the holiday makers. So my letter, 
as is usual at this season, must be relatively 
barren in this respect. 
There are a number of old residents in Batti- 
caloa who will be pleased to read the following 
notification of the marriage of a gentleman who 
they must well recollect romping about as a 
child on the esplanade at that station. It will 
recall to their memory, also, his highly esteemed 
father, the late Dr. Sortain. (See in our 
"Domestic." column). — London Cor. 
PLANTING AND PRODUCE. 
Tsa Companies and the Tea Industry. — Now that 
the season for tea companies' reports and meetings 
has set in, it is worthy of note that two financial 
journals have quite recently discussed the position 
and prospects of the tea industry and the joint 
stock companies connected with it at consider- 
able length. We give elsewhere the leading feature 
of both these articles, as, apart from the views ex- 
pressed, the fact that the tea industry claims more 
attention and prominence in the world of finance 
than it has done hitherto is evidence of 
its increasing importance, and must be grati- 
fying to those interested in its welfare. The current 
number of the Investors' Repiew, and conducted by Mr. 
Wilson, a finance writer usually credited with pessi- 
mistic tendencies, contains the most exhaustive articla 
on tea companies and tea prospects we have ever 
seen iu the pages of any financial journal. 
Tea Companies' Shaues. — Another article is from 
the Citizen, a contemporary which makes a special 
feature of financial information on tea shares. While 
pointing out that the attention paid of late to tea 
shares by investors is justified in some instances, 
the writer expresses the view that China has only 
temporarily taken a "back seat" as a competitor 
for the tea trade of the world, and that after the 
war both the Celestials and the Japanese may be ex- 
pected to make the best of their opportunities. There 
seems to us no special ground for the conjecture that 
after the war both China and Japan will largely 
increase their tea cultivation, nor do we see that the 
shareholders in the tea companies of India and 
Ceylon need be iu a state of trepidation from fear 
of the successful competition of China and Japan. 
India and Ceylon growers are iu possession of the 
market at present, and they will strive hard and 
earnestly to hold it. When our contemporary sa\a 
that it would be "imprudent" to regard the future 
of tea shares as " absolutely assured, in view of the 
constant and enormous variation in the source of sup- 
ply," and the general outlook in China and Japan, it 
sounds a note of warning which might be useful if 
tea shares were dealt in by speculators, and tho 
prices were inflated, In face of the fact, however 
