Jan. i, 1901.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
475 
value'' ; and surely the converse is equally true, 
that over-supply is the most powerlul depressor 
of value. What remedy to propose is not my 
present object. Buyers find no fault with cheap 
tea ; and if it suits the sellers to let them have it 
in abundance— well— it's a free country.— I am, 
sir, yours, &c. D. F. Shillington. 
UNDOUBTED PROFITS ON TEA : 
WHERE DO THEY GO ? 
A QUESTION FOR THE " THIRTY COMMITTEE " 
TO SOLVE. 
" Cosmopolite "—an old Ceylon planter- 
writing on 13th November, says :— 
"Glad CO see Ceylon is in such a healthy state ; 
hope tea will go up again ; for it makes no difference 
to drinkers like myself, I pay just the same price 
for the same quality of tea, whatever the rise or 
drop of the market may be. So I always pray for 
a rise, just as a help to my old friends in Ceylon. 
Where does the difference go ? Can't the ' Com- 
mitte ot 30 ' find that out? Somebody is scooping in 
the profit that has no right to ic." 
There can be no question of the great 
profits attending the distribution and retail 
sale of teas in the United Kingdom. A 
minor London Tea-selling Company reports 
by this mail dividends up to 10 per cent 
for its last year and from the "ABC " 
downwards, all such Companies go on pro- 
spering exceedingly. Pity that the poorer pro- 
ducers cannot have a share of such profits ! 
♦ 
SNIPE SHOOTING BREAKS. 
(To the Editor of the "Asian.") 
Sir,— A certain amount of luck as well as 
straight shooting is necessary in order to make 
a long break of snipe. The birds nuist be col- 
lected together in a small space ; rise singly 
and within easy range for the shooter to make 
a long consecutive rim of kills. Of course no 
one can kill with certainty when there is much 
walking between shots. 
One man I knew shot seventeen snipe run- 
ning (near Secundenbad 1 think it was). 
Another in the vicinity of Barrackpore killed 
thirty-four snipe in thirty four shots : he had 
one miss in his break, but squared matters by 
knocking over two at one shot. As far as I 
remember it was his eleventh shot which was 
the miss. 
I should imagine that there must be several 
men in India who have killed 20 snipe or 
more consecutively. As a rule unfortunately, 
the only people who know of feats of this 
sort are the men who do them ; and the 
better the shot, the more modest the man- 
consequently many a great deed is lost in 
obscurity!' " Fleur-ue-Lys." 
—Asian, Nov. 27. 
[The writer of the above we have previously 
identified with Major GPL Birch R.A., now 
at Rawal Pindi, stationed at Trinccmalee early 
in the year for a short time.— Ed. T.A.] 
Dr. Gbor&b Watt's Annual Report of 
the Economic and Art Section of the Indian 
Museum lor the year 1899-1900 -referred to 
in our Correspondence column elsewhere — 
contains much useful information respecting 
cotton, fibres, tea, coffee, timbers, etc., from 
which we may quote in our monthly later on. 
SEYCHELLES WISH TO LEASE ALDABRAS 
ISLANDS. 
The aulhorilies in the Seychelles are desirous of 
leasing the Aidabra Islands, famous for the turtle, 
for any period from nine up to thirty years. A few 
years ago. when Mr. Kisely Gritlitii v*as Adminis- 
trator at Malie, he visited the Aldabras, and found 
the islands in a very dreary and (le.ierled condition. 
The turtle reigns supreme there, and grows to an 
enormous size, and it is not improbable that the 
islands will be leased by someone engaged in this 
profitable branch of trade If the consumpiion of 
turtle in London is to increase in proportion to the 
accietiou of mayors and aldermen, it may be a 
shrewd investment for some Leadenhall purveyor 
to secure the lease of the Aldabras. There is re- 
gular communication now between London and ihe 
Sychelles.— Dai^i/ Chronicle, November 12th. 
A MEXICAN RUBBER PLANTATION. 
The statements printed in our last number 
under the head " Keturns from Rubber Plant- 
ina;," relative to the work in Mexico of La Zacualpa 
Eubber Plantation Co. have been supplemented by 
a later issue of The Eubber Plmiters' Bulletin, 
from the company's San Francisco office. In the 
tirst place, their resident director (in Mexico), 
O H Harrison, writes of a new method of pre- 
paring rubber from the CastUloa elastica, by 
Enrique Ampudio Chavero, the plantation mana- 
ger. It consists of the addition to the latex of 
the juice of a plant found on the plantati On, 
resulting in a more satisfactory coagulation than 
has before been seen In that country. The result 
is described by Ashmore Russan, an English 
rubber expert who carried a si)ecimen from 
Mexico to London lately, as a " perfectly pure 
and almost white product." Mr. Ashmore says, 
further : "I consider it equal to the finest Para, 
that is vrorth 4s 2d per pound (or say .^1 gold). 
Certainly no Central American or Mexican rub- 
ber like the Zacualpa company's has ever been 
put on the market. It is worth at least .50 per 
cent more than that prepared by the Indians." 
A letter from Mr. Ashmore printed in this 
Bulletin states that on Jul}' 4 last he saw on 
the Zacualpa plantation a nursery of three acres, 
said to contain 2,000,000 plants of CastUloa elas- 
tica, growing so reg;ularly as to suggest that all 
the seeds planted had germinated. He inspected 
30,000 young trees, two years old from seed, 
j2;rowing amid maize and shaded by it, the 
majority looking healthy and strong. Planted in 
other areas, also chiefly among maize, were 
270,000 other young CastiUoas, looking well, and 
Manager Ampudia expected to plant 300,000 more 
during the season. On the company's old plan- 
tation he saw planted trees ten years old being 
tapped. Some of these he was unable to span 
with his arms at four feet from the ground, 
"and few, it any, were under fourteen inches in 
diameter." 
" The men were tapping the trees in the old 
Indian fashion, but it was probably the last time 
they would be permitted to do so. Senor Am- 
pudia and his colleague, Senor Lopez, are ex- 
perimenting with a view to discovering a less 
murderous, more economical, and more simple 
method, and as 1 am quite as keen as they are, 
I arn going to send out some special tools and 
knives to further their experiments. I think, 
though, that they have hit upon a method which 
will enable them to do without machetes and 
knives. I have a pretty good idea as to what the 
method is, but at this stage I prefer to say 
nothiog more about it." 
