Sept. 1, 1900.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. 175 
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. 
Kandy, Aug. 18. 
Dear Sir,— I send you copy of report presented 
at the meeting of tlie sliareiiolders on 31st July 
by tlie Court of Directors of British North Borneo 
(Jo. The noticeable items are that the receipts 
for 1899 exceeded the expenditure by £17,372 
8s 9d, and that a dividend of two per cent, to 
shareiiolders for the year was recommended : — 
In 1893 the revenue was only $289,220. 
In 1899 do. do. §5-12,919. 
Very nearly double. The comparative results in 
the more important items of receipts are :- 
1899. 
1898. 
Farms 
Customs 
Land Revenue . 
201,967 
199,254 
26,410 
180,255 
184,069 
24,081 
Comparative statement of principal exports for 
1899. 1898. 
Bird Nests 
Camphor 
Copra 
Cofiee 
Cutch 
Gutta 
Hemp 
India Eubber . . 
Tobacco 
Sundries 
Timber 
&c. 
47,465 
39,084 
19,161 
30,185 
146,690 
122,588 
61,803 
69,777 
1,862,455 
299,689 
189,027 
&c. 
47.160 
37,047 
12,840 
28,620 
267,536 
125,280 
24,590 
79,600 
1,316,660 
147,416 
214,346 
&c. 
Total 
13,439,560 
$2,839,844 
The imports are stationary : — 
$2,455,968 
$2,419,087 
— Yonrs truly, 
W. D. GIBBON. 
SIR JOHN LAWES AND MANURING. 
Aug. 22. 
SiR,_Depend upon it, there is again 
some big blunder over the interpretation ot 
Sir John Lawes' views by Mr. Talbot-or 
rather by the Ceylon " Times " and its corre- 
spondent. The wish is father to the thought 
in some quarters, in trying to get manuring 
checked. But those will score who keep on 
their way, guided by 
EXPERIENCE AND SCIENCE. 
THE LATEST AND riGGEST BOOK 
ON "TEA." 
" Tea Machinery and Tea Factories : A 
Descriptive Treatise on the Mechanical Appli- 
ances required in the cultivation of the Tea 
Plant and the Preparation of Tea for the 
Market. By A. J. Wallis-Tayler, C.E.. Assoc. 
Memb. lub't. C.E. (London : Cvoshy Lock- 
AVOod&Son; Calcutta : Thaclcer Spuik& Co.). 
We have juyt veeeivt'd troiii Messrs: 
Thackev Hnink & Co., of Calcutta, a copy of 
this well printed, profusely illustrated and 
generally handsome volume of iOSpages octavo. 
There are 218 diagrams and illustrations, 
mainly of machinery or mechanical appli- 
ances ; for, although the cultivation and 
preparation of tea are specially dealt with, 
there can be no doubt this is an Engineer s 
book, and one based chiefly on Indian ex- 
perieace and modes o£ working. Ws cannot 
see that Mr. T, C. Owen's, or any Ceylon, 
tea manual or essay is referred to and we 
suppose Mr. Wallis-Tayler has never visited 
Ceylon to note the widely different and 
differing conditions of our tea country. 
Nevertheless, the volume is full of interest 
to all tea planters and in the section on 
" transport," illustrations are given of the 
wire rope or aerial tramway erected by 
Messrs. Walker Sons & Co., Limited, on the 
Goorookelle estate of the Galaha Co. 
Justice is done to the tea machinery of 
"Jackson" and some other patentees; but 
the author says nothing of certain either 
machines which are well known and much 
appreciated in Ceylon. The book is divided 
into seventeen chapters, the first of which 
treats of the mechanical cultivation and 
tillage of the soil ; the second of v£ rious 
methods of plucking or gathering the leaf ; 
whilst the ten next succeeding chapters are 
devoted to descriptions of the factory and of 
the various machines and apparatvis employed 
therein. The next two chapters deal with 
the means of transport on the plantation ; 
one chapter is taken up with the miscellaneous 
machinery and apparatus used in and about 
tea factories ; another with machines for the 
final handling of the tea— such as mixing, 
blending, or bulking machines, and packet- 
ing or parcelling machines ; and in the con- 
cluding chapter of the work we have a number 
of tables and memoranda likely to be found 
useful by those engaged in the tea industry. 
The principal aim of the book cannot be 
better indicated than by quoting what Mr. 
Wallis-Tayler says at the conclusion of his 
preface; — "It should be remembered 
that whilst the possession of a good plant of 
machinery, and of a well-designed factory, 
will enable good tea to be made from an 
inferior quality of leaf, on the other hand, a 
good jat, suitability of soil and climate, and 
the most efficient possible cultivation, will 
be all thrown away if such means be not at 
hand to facilitate the preparation or manu- 
facture of the tea from the green leaf." 
There is much truth in this ; and altogether 
the volume is one that should be in the 
hands of all who can altoid the cost which 
the Calcutta publishers have now fixed at 
the special cash price of R20 net ; the pi'evioua 
rate being R227}. 
PLANTING IN PERAK. 
SUGAR. 
The planting community suffers from the coill- 
petition of mine-owners in the labour market, but 
until recently, this competition lias not been severely 
felt, as the labour employed on plantations, excepting 
those owned by Chinese sugar growers, has been 
almost exclusively Indian, while that employed in the 
mines has been Chinese ; recently, however, the supply 
of Chinese labourors has been so disproportionate to 
the demand, mainly owing to tho quarautiuo res. 
ttiotiona imposed in connection with bubonic plagne, 
that both Chiueoe planters and niiue-ovv'ncvs have 
supplemented it by tho employment of Indians. 
Judging from the demand for sugar land, and the 
success which has attended the m-ajority of planters iu 
Perak, there is every reason to predict a considerable 
extension of this form of cultivation in the immediate 
future; and the local conditions of the Federated Malay 
States, which are easily accessible both trom India 
and China, and in which the labour rates ara siill 
compaititively low, shguWi'ender it possible tlien^ 
