42 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[July  i,  1892. 
ing,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  climate  in  which 
plantations  are  situated.  In  large  portions  of  the 
island  the  climate — warm  but  moist — is  of  a re- 
cuperative sb  well  as  a forcing  nature,  the 
atmosphere  supplying  muoh  of  the  constituents 
needed  for  the  formation  of  leaf ; and  when  signs  of 
exhaustion  begin  to  appear,  or  even  beforehand, 
fertilizing  substances  ought  to  be  applied  to  the 
soil.  If  justioe  is  done  to  the  culture  in  this  way 
the  period  of  exhaustion  of  the  tea  bushes, 
frequently  pluoked  as  they  are,  can  be  indefinitely 
postponed  to  forty,  fifty,  sixty,  or  moro  years, 
instead  of  the  twelve,  which  we  find  in  Fortune’s 
book  was  the  period  of  exhaustion  and  replanting 
in  the  tea  regions  of  China  some  forty  years  ago. 
We  believe  we  represent  the  general  opinion  of  the 
most  experienced  and  intelligent  Ceylon  tea 
planters,  when  we  say  that  the  evils  of  over-pluck- 
ing have  been  greatly  exaggerated ; that  the 
planter’s  wisdom  is  to  pluck  crops  of  flush  as  they 
attain  the  proper  size  ; and  that  medium  and  not 
fine  plucking  is  not  only  most  profitable  to  the 
planter  but  the  least  injurious  to  the  health, 
vigour  and  life  of  the  tea  plant. 
FROM  THE  METROPOLIS. 
May  20th,  1892. 
ANOTHER  CEYLON  TEA  ESTATES  COMPANY. 
<1  The  cry  is  still  they  come,”  and  is  it  any 
wonder  in  the  fao9  of  satisfactory  reports  of  the 
working  of  existing  Companies  and  the  fact  that 
money  is  now,  once  again,  so  abundant  and  so 
“idle”  in  the  London  market.  “ The  Caledonian 
(Ceylon)  Tea  Plantations  Company  ” is  the  title  of 
an  Association  with  a capital  of  £30,000,  formed 
to  take  over,  work  and  develop  oertain  tea  estates 
belonging  to  Mr.  Alex.  Ross  in  Maskeliya  and 
Dikoya,  including  Venture,  New  Caledonia,  Merria 
Cotta,  &o.  I am  not  sure  if  a oopy  of  the  pros- 
peotus  will  reaoh  me  in  time  for  this  mail  or  be  sent 
to  you  direot ; but  meantime  it  may  suffice  to 
say  that  Messrs.  A.  Sinolair,  W.  Gow  and  A.  Ross 
are  among  the  Directors. 
THE  SCOTTISH  CEYLON  TEA  COMPANY,  LIMITED, 
had,  as  you  may  imagine  from  the  Director’s 
Report  sent  you  by  last  mail,  a satisfactory  gather- 
ing at  the  offioes  of  the  esteemed,  popular  Secretaries, 
Messrs.  Anderson  Brothers,  in  Philpot  Lane,  on 
Monday  afternoon  last.  Mr.  H.  L.  Forbos  looked 
quite  the  veteran  Ceylon  planter  as  he  presided  in 
his  double  oapacity  of  Chairman  and  Managing 
Director.  He  was  supported  by  Mr.  John  Anderson 
and  Mr.  R.  W.  Forbes  (and  I suggested  afterwards 
that  they  should  have  been  photographed  as  a 
model  Board  only  equalled,  perhaps,  by  that  of  the 
famous  Yatijantota  Company,  leaving  out  of  view 
of  course,  so  big  a oonoern  as  the  Ceylon  Tea 
Plantations  Company).  Mr.  Forbes  proved  an 
admirable  Chairman  for  olearness  and  preoision  in 
his  several  business  statements,  and  no  less  so  in 
his  sympathetic  and  well-expressed  reference  to 
the  sudden  and  much-regrettsd  death  of  the  Chair- 
man of  another  and  perhaps  leading  Ceylon  Tea 
Company,  Mr.  David  Reid.  This  very  becoming 
testimony  to  the  worth  of  Mr.  Reid  and  of  regret 
at  the  loss  to  his  family,  friends  and  the  colony, 
is  to  be  embodied  in  a letter  by  the  .Secretaries  and 
sent  on  to  the  sister  Company’s  Directors.  After 
a little  discussion  in  which  the  Chairman,  Mr. 
Wm.  Cooper  and  some  others  took  part,  the  usual 
resolutions  and  votes  were  proposed  and  carried. 
It  was  intimated  that  the  new  Factory  now  being 
ereoted  on  Lonach  in  Upper  Ambagamuwa  or 
rather  Lower  Dikoya,  will  cost  between  £2,600  and 
£3,000.  It  was  pleasant  seeing  Major  Forbes,  the 
father  of  the  Chairman,  bearing  his  years  so  well. 
THE  RISE  IN  TEA — 
— each  succeeding  sale  now  indicating  a firmer  market 
— is  putting  everybody  interested  in  Ceylon  and  its 
staple  industry  in  good  humour. 
ALTERATION  OF  RAILWAY  GAUGE. 
A great  deal  of  attention  has  been  attracted  this 
week  to  the  work  of  the  Great  Western  Railway 
Company  in  converting  their  very  broad,  into  the 
English  standard,  gauge.  It  is  Eaid  that  even 
now  the  conversion  of  200  miles  will  cost  the 
Company  quite  a million  and-a-half  sterling: 
the  conversion  of  the  stock  alone  absorbing 
£370,000.  Now  what  is  to  be  thought  of 
this  operation  and  of  the  original  cause  ? Very 
diverse  opinions  are  entertained  and  it  is  well 
before  the  ordinary  cry  of  “ See  the  mistake  made 
in  taking  up  with  too  broad  a gauge  even  in 
England,"  should  be  re-eohoediu  Ceylon,  that  there 
is  a very  strong  view  entertained  even  here 
that  Brunei  was  right  in  his  very  wide  gauge,  and 
the  other  Engineers  were  wrong  in  choosing  a 
narrow  one,  so  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned. 
A Railway  Direotcr  remarked  to  a Press  corres- 
pondent the  other  day  that  Brunei  had  demonstrated 
it  was  possible  to  build  both  a ship  and  a railway 
too  big.  But  this  is  ecarcely  eorreot.  Brunei  was 
simply  before  bis  time.  Our  ships  are  now  follow- 
ing close  on  the  size  of  the  ‘ Great  Eastern, ’’  and 
leading  Railway  Engineers  are  very  free  in  ex- 
pressing the  wish  that  Brunei’s  seven-feet  gauge 
had  been  adopted  as  the  standard  for  English 
railways.  It  is  only  now,  wheD  too  late,  that  he 
has  been  acknowledged  to  have  been  right.  Mean- 
time there  is  every  reason  for  congratulation — 
especially  on  the  score  of  safety  and  power — that 
our  Ceylon  lines  (up  the  mountains  especially)  are 
on  so  good  and  wide  a gauge  as  they  are. 
THE  STABILITY  CF  THE  CEYLON  TEA  INDUSTRY  : FROM 
THE  PLANTER’S  POINT  OF  VIEW. 
Just  as  I am  closiug  this  long  contribution 
there  comes  in  The  Financial  Xeius  of  today  with 
my  reply  on  the  discussion  raised  by  the  Editor 
and  continued  by  Messrs.  VV.  J-  & Henry 
Thompson  and  Mr.  F.  S.  Hawes.  I think  I men- 
tioned in  my  last  how  I was  specially  requested 
in  “ the  Lanes  ” and  by  Ceylon  men  to  deal  with 
the  matter  end  put  forward  the  case  for  the 
stability  of  our  s ;aple  industry.  I hope  the 
Planters'  Association  and  the  Planting  community 
generally  will  consider  I have  done  fairly  by 
them  in  the  limited  time  at  my  disposal.  Per- 
haps some  of  them,  or  at  any  rate  some  members 
of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  may  think  I ran 
wild  in  anticipating  that  150  million  lb.  of  tea 
could  ever  be  produced  in  Ceylon  ; but  who  oan 
tell,  if  Chi.ua  is  shut  up,  how  far  planting  may  go 
in  the  lowcountry  ? At  any  rato  no  harm  is  done  if 
such  figures  discourage  planting  in  India  and  Java, 
and  the  development  of  tea  trade  in  China.  My 
letter  is  as  follows: — 
THE  CEYLON  TEA  INDUSTRY. 
ITS  POSITION  AND  PROSPECTS  FROM  THE 
PLANTER’S  POINT  OF  VIEW. 
To  the  Editor  of  The  Financial  News. 
Sir, — My  attention  has  been  called  by  a friend 
interested  in  tea  to  your  recent  editorial  deliverance 
on  the  tea  trade,  the  comments  on  some  points 
affecting  Ceylon  tea  offered  by  Messrs.  W.  J.  and 
Henry  Thompson,  and  the  rejoinder  of  Mr.  F.  S. 
Hawes,  in  which  he  specially  questions  the  stability 
of  the  Ceylon  tea-planting  industry.  It  is  on  this 
