Aug. 1, 1800. 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTUEIST. 
Ill 
KELLIE (CEYLON) TEA PLANTATION 
COMPANY. 
ANNUAL Report. 
The following is the report of the directors 
submitted at the meeting held on the 5th inst., 
for which we are imlf bted to Messrs. Aitken, 
Spence & Co. : — Tlie directors beg to submit 
herewiHi the accounts for the year ending March 
31sfc, 190O. 
The balance of profit and loss account, 
after writing off 10 per cent, de- 
preciation in vaUie of machinery 
and buildings is (including £333 7s 
9d brought forward from last year). . £842 1 0 
Out of this sum the Directors recom- 
mend a dividend of 3| per cent, on 
the preference shares . . . . 350 0 0 
Leaving to be carried forward to next 
year .. .. .. .. £492 1 0 
The tea crop for last season amounting to 
345,220 lb. is largely in excess of any past year, 
ma.B y attributable to the careful application of 
artiliL'ial manure on different parts of Uie Estates. 
The Directors purpose continuing the treatment 
as may be required. 
Prices for tea liave not been maintained, and 
the average of the Company's crop is barely S-^-d 
per lb., against fully 6Jd per lb. last season. Th.is 
has negatived almost entirely the profit which was 
expected from the increased yield. 
The Directors have excellent accounts of the 
cardamom clearing, and have decided to increase 
it from 40 acres to 70 acres. This work is now 
in hand. A small quantity of cardamoms have 
been taken oft' the 40 acre clearing, which shews 
good quality. 
The Engine and Boiler being too small for 
present requirements, basides being considerably 
worn after so many years use, the Directors have 
decided to replace at a cost of between £500 and 
£61)0. The order has been entrusted to Messrs. 
Brown & May. 
One Debenture Bond for £500 has been paid 
off during the yeur. Mr. Spence retires, by rota- 
tion, from the Direction, and being eligible, 
offers himself for re-election. The Auditors, 
Messrs. Brown, Fleming and Murray, also retire, 
and ott'er themselves for re-appointment. 
Rhea AGAI^^. — We have not lately heard much 
of rhea locally ;■ but with the Northern line 
open, we should hear more of it in a few years. 
The following news published by the Friend of 
India, is encouraging: — " A new demand, which 
promises to be permanent, has arisen for rhea, 
Messrs. Thirkell & Co., of Fenchurch Street, 
London, have written to the Secretary and Curator 
in tiie Indian Section of the Imperial Institute, 
to say that they are prepared to take at £15 per 
ton, all the rhea ribbons that India can produce 
for some years to come, and they otier to supply 
at £40 each, decorticators which .".re cspable of pre- 
paring about ten cwb of stuff a day. Government 
has been asked to foster the cultivation of rhea as 
much as p.-.ssible. In forwarding the correspondence 
on the suliject to the Bens'al Chamber of Commerce, 
Dr. Watt, the Keporter on Economic Products, 
observe that Messrs. Thirkell & Co. require the 
jUea ribbons in ther crudest form," 
TEA ESTATE CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 
{By Chaii-iuan Dinibida Valley Co., 
Mr. John Sinclair.) 
THE QUESTION OF USING ARTIFICI.\L j\I.\N{JEES 
I shp.ll quote a paragraph from an o'Jier- 
wise interesting circular issued iy a lirm of 
tea brokers, Messrs. Gow, \Yiisou nda Stanton, 
to whom, by the way, tea planters owe 
much for intormation wdiich they evidently 
spare no trouble or expense in obtaining from all 
parts of the woi ld. The paragraph is as follows : 
— " Again have producers asked themselves 
whether manuring will develoji permanent strength 
and vigour sufficient to withstand the strain of 
continued pluckings, especially in the event of 
over-production reducing the prices so low that 
artilicial manure cannot be attbrded." Now, 
apart altogether from scientific opinion, the ques- 
tion has been abundantly answered by exp-rience 
of at least twelve years that artificial manures 
not only do not develop weakness, but 
absolutely the reverse, even when pplied 
with the specific object of increasing the 
yield, and that by these repeated applications 
not only are the owners of estates not living on 
their c ipital— as it was rather inaptly termed by 
a trentleman recently in explaining to his share- 
holders his ideas on the subject, and to whom I shall 
have presently to refer— but, a.s I will .shovv, are 
adding to the capital value of their gardens! If 
tea drops below the price at which artificial 
manure can be afforded, woe betide those gardens, 
which, without it, never yield over 300 lb. per acre' 
I will tell Messrs, Cow, -Wilson and Stanton that 
but for the use of the very manure they depre- 
ciate, a very large number of tea gardens could 
not for some time now have met expenditure, to 
say nothing of leaving profit. There are many 
gardens which have been, by the judicious use of 
artificial nianur'% brought from maximum crops 
ofSOOlb. per acre per annunj to 700 lb. and over 
yearly — tlie former only capable of being laid in 
iiondon at about 6i per lb. and which, wTiilst the 
average price was 8d, left some profit, but which 
for some time now, and certainly today, would 
barely have paid cost of proJnctio J ; while 700 lb. 
has been put in London for less tnoney— namely, 4^d 
to4i^-d per lb., also a better tea, and even tod.ny I'eav- 
something for profit— the bushes, too, alter all 
those years of the treatment I speak of, as vigor- 
ous as could be wished for, in fact, rai.sed in many 
cases from having a low fob appearance to the 
very best. Whatever apperehension is professed 
by some, a walk round the gardens I refer to 
will demonstrate to the merest tyro that there is 
no sign of defunctien about, and those who saw the 
laces prior to mannrial applications can have 
at one opinion— namely, that the estates are 
better in every way, and look like lasting longec 
than non-manured ones, 
SCIENTIFIC OPINION. 
Now for a little scientific opinion. Probably 
many of you wi;l liave heard of the discussion 
which has taken place in Oeylon regarding a 
speech made in London by a director of a larga 
and sivccessful tea Company at a recent meeting 
of shareholders, the purport of which, I rather 
gather, took the shape of a warning to planters 
and those interested in tea to avoid the use of 
artificial manures, or, to put it more correctly, 
forcing manures, otherwise the efl«ct would 
