700 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April 1, 190L 
CLAREMONT ESTATE- COMPANY. 
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS. 
The Directors submit lierewith the accounts for the 
jear ended 31st December, 1900. 
The CTop secured was 86,374 lb. as against 81,281 
lb. in 1899, and the cost of putting it on the 
market was 24-58 cents, realizing 26'40 cents nett, 
as against 24'54 and 34"97 cents respectively in 1899. 
The estimate of crop for the current year is pat 
down at 95,000 lb. *to cost in Colombo 24 08 cen^s. 
Interest on mortgage (£3,000) has been paid to 
the end of September, 1900, and the next payment 
will be due on the Slst March, 1901. Interest on 
the mortgage debentures retnains as yet ur.naid. 
A change of Superintendent was deemed necess-ary 
during the year, and the present arracgemeiits are 
giving satisfaction. 
In consequence of the poor results of the year's 
working, the Directors have written back their fees. 
The mortgage of £3,500 was called up during the 
year. The Directors, however, were able to effect a 
fresh mortgage of £3,000, and secondary mortgage 
debentures to the extent of 1123,500 were raised to 
cover the balance of the old mortgage and the 
amount due to Syndicate appearing in last year's 
balance sheet. 
During the year Mr. J G Eussell resijcned his 
seat on the board, and Mr. W P Barber was elected 
a Director. In terms of the articles of Associp.tion 
Messrs. A. Orchard and R. Huyshe Eliot retire 
from the office of Directors, but are eligible for 
re-election. 
The appointment of an Auditor for the current 
year also rests with the meeting. 
TEMPLESTOWE ESTATE COMPANY. 
THE REPORT 
of the Directors was submitted as follows : — 
The Directors have the pleasure to submit their 
report and accounts for the year ending 31st 
December, 1900. 
The crop amounted to 202,405 lb. tea costing 
about 26| cents per pound, and the p ice realised 
was about 37 cents per pound, shewing a profit of 
fully 10 cents per pound, which, in view of the low 
prices ruling, especially during the latter half of the 
year, may be considered satisfactory. 
An interim dividend of three per cent on the 
preference shares and two pes cent on the ordinary 
shares was paid in September last, and after allow- 
ing for this the amount now available is Ell,939'46, 
which your Directors recommend should be disposed 
of as follows, viz. : — 
By the payment of a final Dividend 
of three per cent on the Preference R c. 
shares (making six per cent for the 
year) .. .. .. 3,258 00 
By the payment of a final Dividend 
of two per cent on the Ordinary 
shares (making four per cent for the 
year) .. .. ... 3,284 00 
By transfer to Depreciation account 3,3/5 00 
By carrying forward the balance of. . 2,022 46 
Rll,939 46 
In terms of the articles of Association, Bir Giles 
P Walker retires from the Board, but being eligible 
offers himself for re-election. 
It will also be necessary to appoint an Auditor for 1901. 
A MALARIAL EXPERIMENT. 
The India.n Medical Gazette leports that 
Captain C J Fearnside, I. M.S., of Rajaniundry, 
succeeded in inoculating himself experimentally 
■with malarial fever by means of mosquitoes. 
On the 17th Decembery, 1900, several anopheles 
(of a light fawn colour) were fed on the blood 
of a person known to be affected with spring 
tertian fever. On the I2th day, 29th December, 
two of these infected mosquitoes were made to 
bite Captain Fearnside's arm. The presence of 
zygotoblasrs in tiies veneno-salivary glands was 
verified by microscopic examination. Other in- 
feded mosquitoes also bit him on 1st -Tanuary 
and 8tli January, 1901 ; on January 12th, 14 days 
after the first bites by infected mosquitoes, he 
felt "seedy." His indisposition bee ime more 
marked and on the 18tli he felt distinctly ill. 
On examination of his bleod there were found 
mnoh pigment in the leucocytes, young spring 
tertian hfemamoebae and pigmented spheres. The 
fever lasted all night and he was too ill to 
work on tiie 19th. There can be no doul)t ot 
the genuineness of this experiment, or that it 
\v;is produced by the infected n)o»quitoe=. We 
are glad to state that Captain Fearnside has 
taken plenty of quinine and is now none the 
worse for his scientific experiment. 
CARDAMON CULTIVATION. 
For the three districts — Medamahanuwcara, 
Nitre Cave and Rangalla— we showed 1891 
acres in our last Directory as under Carda- 
moms. A planter, thinking of native gardens, 
considered we were much below the mark 
in reft-rence to the first-named district, but 
referred to a well-known resident as the 
best authority. This gentleman, on being 
appealed to, dissented, as we expected, from 
the larger estimate, and shows that Mr. 
de Silva's Kan de watte and some of the 
bigger gardens might aggregate 200 acres 
apart from very small gardens of other 
natives. We do not think, therefore, that 
there can be now more than 3,000 acres 
under cardamoms in all the three districts, 
including native gardens. Even at 100 lb. 
an acre, such an area woiild yield more 
than half the total export from "Ceylon for 
last year which was 538 000 lb. Of course, 
the greater the area already planted, the 
greater the discouragement to extend culti- 
vation ; but Ceylon has nearly got to the 
end of its suitable land, and it is in India 
that there is a risk of overdoing cardamoms, 
as well as tea, unless planters there take 
warning in time. 
COCONUTS IN THE KELANI VALLEY. 
We have few regular returns from estates ; 
bxit we hear generally that a great many 
tea estates in "the Valley" have fields 
planted up with coconut palms at 30 to 
40 feet apart. This is carried out up to 
1,000, 1,300 and even to 1,600 feet above sea- 
level, and so far the palms flourish. The oldest 
planting in the district is from 6 to 7 years, 
so that the time has not come for bearing. 
Most of the seed niits have come from Mr. 
Beven's well-known Franklands property in 
the Veyaugoda district. We do not find 
fault with— in fact we highly approve of 
— this plan of having a second product in 
the Kelani plantations ; but at the same 
time we are quite sure that proprietors 
should lay to account the getting of smaller 
returns from the tea when the palms- 
voracious feeders with wide-spreading roots — 
come into bearing. At the same time we 
should expect the crop of nuts to more than 
compensate foi,' any de:l^ciency in the tea^ 
