320 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov.  i,  1892. 
year.  The  young  vines  from  which  the  unripe  crop 
was  pulled  look  exceedingly  well,  and  will  be  allowed 
to  yield  this  year.  The  nurseries  have  been  well 
tended  by  Mat  Saleh,  and  kept  well  stocked  with 
strong  healthy  cuttings.  All  the  Liberian  coffee 
plants  in  the  nurseries  here  have  been  disposed  of, 
and  more  nurseries  are  being  prepared.  In  experi- 
mental nursery  of  native  fruit  trees  was  also  suc- 
cessfully tried  on  a small  scale,  and  arrangements 
are  being  made  to  supply  the  applicants  who  were 
too  late  to  obtain  plants  from  these  nurseries. 
A large  number  of  coconuts  have  been  planted  by 
Haji  Mat  Saman  in  the  Uinta  district,  and  by  others 
>n  the  small  native  kampongs  in  the  various  districts. 
Tb6  plauting  of  coconuts  should  be  encouraged  as 
much  as  possible,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  paying 
enterprises,  and  the  trees  flourish  equally  well  inland 
as  on  the  sea  coast  in  this  State,  and  experienced 
judges  have  said  that  the  old  trees  at  Kuala  Kangsar 
are  more  than  equal  to  those  on  the  best  Ceylon 
plantations. 
The  tea  on  the  Cicely  and  Hermitage  Estates  has 
greatly  improved  under  the  able  supervision  ot  Sir. 
F.  J.  WatsoD,  and  has  given  a yield  of  over  240  lb. 
per  acre  for  the  year ; this  is  very  creditable,  as 
all  the  field*  had  to  be  pruned  during  the  year  and 
considering  the  large  percentage  of  vacancies,  the  tea 
never  having  been  supplied  until  Mr  Watson  took 
over  charge.  The  young  tea  planted  in  April  has  come 
on  remarkably  well,  and  the  plants  are  now  very  vigor- 
ous and  healthy.  The  made  tea  has  been  very  favour- 
ably reported  on  by  both  London  and  Calcutta  brokers, 
and  has  realised  a good  profit  in  local  markets.  Mr. 
Watson  deserves  great  oredit  for  the  manner  in  whioh 
he  has  managed  the  estates  for  the  lessee,  Mr.  Li  Chin 
Ho,  and  for  his  hard  work  in  pushing  the  sale 
of  the  tea. 
* * * 
The  fruit  gardens  at  Kuala  Kangsar  have  been 
slightly  enlarged,  and  are  now  in  thorough  order. 
All  the  fruit  trees  have  been  manured  and  bore 
heavy  orops,  and  give  every  promise  of  doing 
well  again  this  year.  The  pines  have  been 
separated  and  re-planted  after  the  ground  had 
been  manured.  The  field  of  Indian  mango 
trees  is  not  very  successful,  the  young  branches  blacken- 
ing back  and  dying  betore  properly  matured  ; this  is 
bard  to  account  for,  as  the  native  variety  thrives  well 
in  the  same  soil  and  under  the  same  treatment.  The 
cattle  establishment  at  Kuala  Kangsar  is  also  doing  well. 
Waterloo  and  Kamuning  estates  are  doing  exceed- 
ingly well  respectively  in  Arabian  and  Liberian  coffee. 
The  former  estate  has  some  young  coffee  equal  to 
any  seen  on  Ceylon  estates  in  their  most  prosper- 
ous days.  This  estate  suffered  a great  loss  by  the 
death  of  Mr.  T.  Fraser,  a planter  whose  wide  experi- 
ence was  invaluable  in  a new  country  like  Perak. 
Kamuning  estate  is  a great  credit  to  the  manager, 
Mr.  Darby  ; nothing  could  look  better  than  the 
Liberian  coffee,  which  is  bearing  an  estimated  crop  of 
cwts.  per  acre.  The  managers  of  both  these  estates 
find  it  more  satisfactory  to  work  them  with  free 
labour  instead  of  Statute  Immigrant  coolies,  who 
occasionally  are  quite  useless  for  agricultural  work, 
hiving  been  recruited  from  towns,  and  in  consequenoe 
are  unable  to  stand  the  exposure  to  sun  and  rain 
when  working  on  estates. 

NOTES  ON  PRODUCE  AND  FINANCE. 
Indian  Tea  Companies. — It  is  satisfactory  to  find 
the  Economist,  the  leading  financial  weekly  journal, 
devoting  one  of  its  paragraphs  to  the  Indian  tea  indus- 
try. The  following  appeared  in  a recent  issue  of  that 
paper,  and  ought  to  be  of  service  in  directing  the 
attention  of  the  highest  class  of  investors  and  finan- 
ciers to  tea  companies’  shares  : — “ We  have  received  a 
copy  of  a very  complete  and  exhaustive  table,  com- 
piled by  Mr.  George  Seaton,  showing  the  results  of 
the  working  in  1891  of  thirty-five  joint  stock  Indian 
tea  companies  having  their  headquarters  in  London. 
The  inference  to  be  drawn  from  this  statement  is 
that,  notwithstanding  an  adverse  market  for  the 
produce,  and  the  recent  very  great  competition 
of  the  Ceylon  plantations,  the  Indian  tea  industry! 
as  a whole,  still  holds  a flourishing  position,  and 
yields  pretty  good  results  to  capitalists.  The  statement 
deals  with  concerns  having  an  aggregate  capital  of 
nearly  £3,500,000  sterling,  owning  lands  extending  to 
about  300,000  acres,  of  which  80,000  are  planted  with 
tea,  and  produced  last  year  30,000,000  lb.  of  tea. 
After  allowing  for  losses  made  by  seven  of  the 
companies,  which  are  over-capitalised,  and  pay  no 
dividend,  the  profits  amounted  to  folly  6 per 
cont  upon  the  entire  capital  invested,  while  the 
dividend  varied  from  2 per  cent  (the  smallest) 
up  to  17  per  cent,  the  largest  earned.  It  may  be 
noted,  however,  that  these  thirty-five  companies 
onl.v  represent  about  one  quarter  of  the  entire 
Indi  an  tea  industry,  which,  it  has  been  computed, 
has  a capital  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  millions  sterling 
and  a total  cultivated  area  of  over  300,000  acres,  ex- 
pected to  produce  in  1S92  about  125/  00, 0001b.  of  tea. 
From  another  statement  we  learn  that  while  the 
home  consumption  of  China  tea  fell  off  in  the  twelve 
months  ending  July  last  by  23,000, 0001b.,  that  of 
Indian  tea  increased  11.000,0001b.,  and  of  Ceylon 
14.000. 0001b.;  while  the  total  consumption  of  all  kinds 
increased  from  193,000,0001b.  in  1890-1,  to  over 
205.000. 0001b.  in  1891-2,  or  about  90,000  ton*  weight 
in  the  Uni  ted  Kingdom  alone. 
The  Chinese  Government  and  Indian  Tea.— One 
of  the  causes  of  the  delay  in  the  conclusion  of  the 
negotiations  between  China  and  Great  Britain  in 
regard  to  Ti'.bet  is  said  to  be  the  difficulty  of  coming 
to  an  arrangement  as  to  the  import  of  Indian  tea  to 
Tibet.  At  present  Chinese  tea  only  is  consumed  in 
that  country,  and  it  is  generally  believed  that  it  is  a 
monopoly  in  the  hands  ot  certain  important  perso- 
nages in  Lhasa,  the  capital.  The  import  of  the  cheap 
Indian  tea,  which  is  grown  olose  to  the  Tibetan 
frontier,  would,  it  is  thought,  interfere  with  this 
monopoly,  and  hence  the  opposition  of  the  Chinese  to 
allowing  Indian  tea  to  enter  Tibet. 
The  Coffee  and  Ohicoey  Question.— This  question 
is  continually  cropping  np,  and  analysts  and  the 
police  magistrates  are  often  in  dispute  as  »o  what 
constitutes  adulteration  of  coffee.  Mr.  A.  W.  Stokes 
reports  to  the  Vestry  of  St.  Luke’s  that  in  one 
instance  where  85  per  cent  of  chicory  was  present  and 
there  was  no  “mixture  label’’  on  the  package,  the  vendor 
swore  he  verbally  stated  that  the  artiole  was  a mixture; 
the  inspector  swore  that  no  such  statement  was  made. 
On  this  the  magistrate  dismissed  the  caee. 
“ Henoe,”  says  Mr.  Stokes,  “ it  appears  that  a dealer 
may  sell  any  amouQt  of  chicory  to  a buyer  who  asks 
for  coffee  without  even  pretending  to  label  it.  Cer- 
tainly the  teetotaler  has  a worse  time  of  it  than  the 
others ; the  law  proteots  the  purchaser  from  having 
his  beer  or  spirits  watered,  but  winks  at  any  amount 
of  coffee  adulteration.”  In  another  case  a sample 
of  coffee  was  found  to  contain  70  per  cent,  of 
chicory.  Here  Mr.  Bros,  the  magistrate,  ruled  that 
because  on  a part  of  the  packet  occurred  the 
words  “ this  is  sold  as  a mixture  ” the  case  must 
be  dismissed.  Other  magistrates,  Mr.  Stokes  says, 
have  held  that  if  “ 0"ffee  ” is  asked  for  the 
vendor  commits  an  offence  if  he  substitutes  any 
mixture,  however  labelled.  We  believe  ihe  law  at 
present  provides  for  a label,  but  says  nothing  about 
the  proportion  of  chicory  and  coffee  to  be  used.  Until 
this  is  done,  and  vendors  of  ohioory  and  coffee  required 
to  state  plainly  what  they  are  selling,  magisterial  de- 
cisions  will  be  at  variance. 
Holland  and  Java, — An  important  Bill  has  been 
brought  into  the  Netherlands  Parliament.  It  is  pro- 
posed that  in  future  the  Dutch  East  Indies  shall  be 
made  self-dependent.  Their  revenue,  instead  of  being 
made  a source  of  income  for  the  mother  country,  is, 
according  to  this  Bill,  to  be  devoted  entirely  to  the 
service  of  the  "several  colonies.  All  grants  at  pre- 
sent made  to  them  from  Holland  are  to  be  abolished, 
aud  'he  colonies  are,  in  fact,  to  be  made  self-de- 
pendent. This  proposal  involves,  of  course,  many 
important  alterations  in  the  trade  of  the  Dutch  East 
Indies,  which  is  at  present  largely  under  the  control 
of  the  Home  Government,— H.  fy  C.  Mail,  Sept.  16, 
