690 
THE TROPICAL/ AGRICULTUEIST 
[April 1, 1901. 
FRUIT SEASON AT NUWARA ELIYA. its mulching and manuring deposits, is an evergran 
A Visit to Mr. John Cotton's Orchard.— 
Our Nuwara Eliya corresponcten'; writes : — 
Visitors to Mr. John Cotton's orchard at Lake View 
will be agreeably surprised at the loads of English 
and Australian fruit that may be seen on the trees. 
Most noticeable for colour and appearance are the 
plums, five varieties of which ha,ve been puccessfully 
grown, viz. :— (1^ The Bed Heart Plum, (2) the Bur- 
bank, f'3 and 4) Japanese Plums of two sorts, (5) the 
ordinary variety. Of the above varieties the Red 
Heart is the best in the orchard. The trees (which 
are three years old and now carry their first crop) 
were grown from cuttings from grafts produced in 
the orchard. Many of the fruits borne by them have 
attained the size of the smaller apples of the 
Ceylon market, while the smallest are larger and 
plumper than the largest plums that have ever been 
grown in Ceylon. The colour of the fruit when ripa 
is blood-red. The flavour is delicious, albeit a point 
of appreciable acidity prevails, as is the case with all 
plums. Two of these plum trees yielded 6 lb of fruit 
at one gathering. The Bnrbank Plum is much the 
same as the Red Heart in appearance, except that the 
colour is not go daA, being of a yellowish red. The 
flavour too is not so delicious owing to what is called 
a " woody " taste, peculiar to the latter. The parent 
tree, on which these and other plum grafts were pro- 
duced, was brought out as a cutting by Mr. II W 
Kellow at Mr. Cotton's request, and may be still seen 
in the orchard. The J'apanese trees are not in fruit, 
being too young to bear ; but they look very pro- 
mising. A fruiting busH that has been very success- 
fully grown is the Currant (the black and the red). 
These are perhaps the best specimens of growth that 
may be seen anywhere in the island. 
The pears and peaches are not what may be cor- 
rectly called prolific ; but the fruit on the trees is 
second to none in Nuwara Eliya in point of size. 
Lemons too have borne well. 
A plot of strawberries (about 30 by 40 ft) yielded 
as much ks 300 lb of fruit, at a gp.;thering towards the 
end of the last year and the beginning of this, and 
Mr Cotton says that he can safely count on another 
hundred pounds before the season goes out. 
Three English (grafted) Apple trees in the orchard 
look very promising, and are at present covered with 
foliage. 
Fruits, all about the place, are doing exceptionally 
well and Mr Cotton is to be congratulated upon his 
intrroduclion and successful cultivation of the beautiful 
pums. Vegetables are not so flourishing up here and 
it is seldom one sees such good cabbages, celery and 
leeks here as those that come from Kandapola, Uda 
Passellawa and Hakgalla way, — Local '"Times." 
MYSORE PLANTING NOTES. 
South Mysore, March 11th. — The coffee blossom 
which resulted from the recent rains has, on most 
estates, been a particularly disappointing one.' Young 
coffee has, hov/ever, done well, and on this class of 
coffee the quantity of blossom was all that could have 
been desired. Old coffee which requires longer to bud 
up will have another nice blossom later on if we are 
only favoured with a month of fine weather. Crops, 
however, on the whole will this year be anrprisinaly 
bad, as the recent heavy bearing and severe attack of 
leaf-disease late last season have left their usual 
legacy in the way of dry trees. Some splendid results 
have of late years been obtained from the application 
of tank silt and lime in this District. In a bad season, 
like the present one, it is particulary noticeable how 
well coffee looks under the jak tree. In going round 
coffee estates looking at the recent blossom, one could 
not fail to notice how vigorous the coffee was looking 
under this formerly much-abused shade tree. The 
show of blossom, too, was good, being far better than 
the show under many other descriptions of shade in 
the vicinity. The fact that the jak tree, apart from 
tree and does not expose the coffee beneath it to 
the suaden transition from dense shade to the open 
at the termination of the South- West Monsoon — as is 
the case with many other shade trees, the Geraweggay 
and Howligay espeoially— is undoubtedly one of the 
chief factors in bringing about this result. The rav- 
ages of the borer and the bad after-effects of leaf 
disease are minimised uudf-r this excellent shad- 
tree. — Madras Mail, March 14. 
PORTMORE TEA CO. OF CEYLON. 
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS. 
The Directors have the pleas are to submit 
the General Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss 
Account for the year ending 3lst December, 1900. 
duly audited. 
The net amount at credit of £ s. d. £ s. d 
Profit and Loss after pro- 
viding for General Expenses, 
Income Tax, &c 5,407 1 4 
To which should be added Bal- 
ances brought forward from 
last year 477 13 7 
An interim Dividend of .5 of per 
cent was paid July 30, amount- 
ing to 2,000 0 0 
It is proposed to pay a final Div- 
idend of 8 per cent (making 
13 per cent in all, free of In- 
come Tax) which will absorb 3,200 0 0 
And to carry forward to next year 684 14 11 
14 11 
5,884 14 11 
In presenting their Fourth Annual Report, the 
Directors have pleasure in recommending a dividend of 
13 per cent. 
The Tea Crop from the Estates for year ending 
Slat December, 1900, has been 265,710 lb, being at 
the rate of 553 lb per acre against 510 lb per acre 
last year, the highest previous yield, and this in- 
crease has been attained by tne ordinary system of 
cultivation and not by the application of manure. 
The cost of production has been £4,653 15s lid, 
being at the rate of 4"20d per pound, and the crop 
has netted £10,544 Os 9d, being 9'52d per pound equal to 
a profit on the capital of the Company of 14-72 per cent. 
The average rate of exchange has been Is 4 9.64d 
against Is 4 13-64d during 1899. 
Mr. R C Bowie retires from the Board by rotation, 
but being eligible offers himself for re-election. 
The latest reports from the Manager in Ceylon 
show that Estates, Buildings and Machinery are in a 
satisfactory condition, and the estimate of crop and 
expenditure give promise of continued good results, 
but in accordance with the scheme put forward by the 
Indian and Ceylon Associations the Board has issued 
instructions to the Mannger in Ceylon to reduce the 
plucking area during the current year. 
The Directors feel that great credit is due to Mr R G 
Grant, the Manager, and Mr. H A Grigg, the Super- 
intendent, in Ceylon for the way ia which they have 
cultivated the Estates and maintained the high 
quality of the Tea during the past year. 
Bv Order of the Board, 
SHAND, HALDANB & Co., Secretaries. 
Tea IN THE And ASIANS andNicobar Islands. 
—We dii'ect attention to the interest jg sum- 
mary of progress with the tea experiment 
in the Andamans, on page 692. So much 
in earnest are the promoters that the 
nearest markets, the Nicohars, are being 
worked for all they are worth ; and alcoholic 
drinks only too popular there, are being 
rapidly displaced by gifts of tea-pots with 
the tea introduced. 
