168 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUIMST. 
[Sept. 1, 1900. 
America, the bounty will lue paid. (/) There is 
no objection to the teas beinjf sold on the 
Calcutta market if the producer so desires ; but 
payment of the bounty to him can only be made 
on proof that the tea has been sliipped to America. 
(g) It must be clearly understood that all teas 
upon which the bounty wilt be paid will be for 
the American market only, (h) The Association 
will not undertake, or be in any way responsible 
for, the shipment of the teas. 
In the forepioing paragraph the Committee have, 
they think, euibodied all the arrangements it is 
necessary to make at present to carry out the re- 
solution. They would, however, remark, regard- 
ing the quality of the tea required, that any- 
thing in the nature of " dust or fannings " is, it 
is understood, entirely unsuited to the American 
market. This should be borne in mind by all Car- 
den Managers who purpose to mauufacture green 
teas. 
The Committee propose to the resolution 
into practice immediately. Tliey therefore now 
invite those members of the Association who are 
desirous of manufacturing green teas, to favour 
them, if possible, by the 3lst inst,, with samples 
of the teas they propose to make, and information 
as to the quantity. On receiving these the further 
action above indicated will be taken. — Yours 
faithfully, W. PARSONS, Secretary. 
—The Planter, Aug. 11th. 
PEARLS FROM FISH SCALES. 
Franck. — I have had an interview with Mr. 
Leuret, the manufacturer of artificial pearls from 
fish scales. He will go to the United States and 
erect works there as soon as he hears of a locality 
where the riglit kind of .scales can be bad in large 
quantities. ] suggest that a suitable place might 
be found on the St. Lawrence River, among the 
Thousand Islands. Some years ago, the State or 
national authorities cast quantities of spawn into 
Lake Ontario, among which was the spawn of 
some salt-water fish. The latter die before 
maturity, as soon as the water becomes warm. 
Every summer, many thousands of them are cast 
upon the shores of the river and islands. They are 
called by two names — menhadden and alewives. 
If these were tried and found suitable, works 
could be built and put in operation there in a 
short time. The scales should be small and have 
a silvery sheen. The brighter they are, the 
higher price they will command. The scales 
should be removed while the fish are alive, if 
possible. They should be packed with slime, very 
little salt being used (about five grams per pound 
of scales). All organic matter tliat may cause 
decay should be removed and the scales left 
suspended in a mosquito netting until the surplus 
slime oozes oif ; then packed in a zinc can of 10 
or 12 pounds capacity. Tin oxidises where zinc 
will not. Scales will rust tin, but not zinc. The 
opening in the top of the can should not be larger 
than half a dollar. If larger, the scales will suffer 
from the heat of the soldering iron. Twenty-five 
thousand pounds of these scales can be used per 
year. It is anticipated that twice that quantity 
may be useil in a few years. The price paid wiil 
be 80 cents to f 12.5 per pound, according to quality 
and the amount of shiny matter on the scales. 
'J'lie present su|)ply is frotn a fish called the bleak 
or blfiy. Mr. Leuret thinks that a child twelve 
years old can easily remove four or five i)oands of 
scales per day. — UnUed Slates Consul at Lyons. 
CALIFORNIA ORANGE AND LEMON 
CROPS. 
The President of the Southern California Fruit 
Exchana-e, gives figures to the Los Angeles Herald, 
from which the following interesting review of 
the citrus fruit is prepared :— 
Oranges and lemons .shipped to date Cars, 
(end of May) since October 1st ... 13,000 
Oranges yet on the trees ... ... 2,000 
Lemona yet on the trees . . . . 2,000 
Total Season'.s production ... 17,000 
Boxes. 
17,000 cars of 362 boxes each ... 0,154,000 
Highest previous record (1898-9) ... 5,090,000 
Production last season ... ... 3,500,000 
Average price obtained this year about a dupli- 
cate of that of two year.s ago and very satis- 
factory. Such is the. citrus fruit industry as it 
stands todav. 
PLANTfNG NOTES, 
Indian Tea Companies' Result.s.— The 
Financial Times of August 3rd has been review- 
ing the Indian Tea Companies and we quote as 
follows : — 
Tarniug to the results attained by individual com- 
panies, we find that out of forty-three whose reports 
have been issued, twelve liave declared dividends 
ranging from 10 to 15 per cent, thu'teen dividends 
ranging from !> to 8.^ per cent, and ten dividends 
ranging from 2i to 4^ per cent, while eight have 
failed to make a distribution. This cannot be called 
a bad showing, especially when it is considered that 
several of the companies not making a return on 
Ordinary capital, are in the earlier stages of develop- 
ment, and may be expected later on to pay fair 
interest. The exhibit is rendered still more satisfac- 
tery when the large sums carried forward and placed 
to reserve by many companies are taken into consi- 
deration. A bird's-eye view of the main results 
attained by the leading concerns is given in the 
following table, for the statistics contained in which 
we are indebted to Mr. George Seton, of the ludixu 
Tea Share Exchange :— 
Ratio of Reserve and balance 
expenses Divi- forward. 
to dend. , , 
receipts 1898 1899 
Company, 
1898 1899 1898 1899 3 capi- 
< tal. 
p.c. 
p.c. 
p.c. p.c. 
£ p. c. 
Assam 
. 88 
89 
10 
53,907 28-8 
,, Fron- 
tier 
82 
77 
4 
8 
461 02 
Brahma- 
pootra ... 
. 74 
77 
15 
15 
28,490 24-9 
Chargola . . 
. 91 
78 
nil 
7 
4,618 30 
Chubwa .. 
, 92 
86 
6 
7 
10.272 9-7 
Darjeeling.. 
. 78 
79 
5 
4 
4,151 30 
Dooara 
75 
78 
12i 
10 
51,057 22-7 
Doom 
Dooma . . 
, 73 
70 
12| 
13 
47,772 27-0 
Empire of 
ludia 
84 
85 
, 4i 
4i 14,646 3-4 
Jhanzi 
, 92 
89 
5 
5 
15,301 17'0 
Jokai 
, 81 
82 
10 
8 
60,639 17 3 
Jorehaut ... 
, 84 
85 
11 
1(1 
35,812 35-8 
Lebong 
. 80 
77 
10 
8i 
7,298 11-1 
Nedeem 
, 77 
71 
2i 
4 
11,941 2-9 
i' p.c. on 
3 capi- 
< tal. 
£ p. c. 
10 
4,404 
4,423 
2-9 
9-8 
33 
3-5 
16-3 
4-7 
The ratio of expenses to receipts varies, of course, 
with the price obtained for tea, but it will be seen 
that in several eases the percentage has been vqry 
considerably reduced, Vi'hile the increases recorded are 
only slight, Comparing the div deuds declared by 
the above fourteen companies with those for 1893, we 
find that four companies have increased their distri- 
butions, three have maintained them at the previous 
level, and six have reduced theni. 
