juiTE 1, 1901.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
8S7 
THE OLDEST TEA IN CEYLON AND 
PIONEERS. 
Dear Sib. — In your issue of the 29th ult. 
mention is made of the ''Oldest Tea in 
Ceylon" planted in 1868-69. I wish to call 
the attention of yourself and readers to the 
fact that Captain George Lloyd Williams, of 
Dooroomad^lla estate, Matale, obtained seeds 
and plants of tea from Dr. Thwaites, of 
Peradeniya Gardens, in 1865, and that the 
writer became his Superintendent in 1867 
and planted out tea plants and made good 
tea which was distributed in small quantities 
to Dr. Shipton, Messrs. R B Downall, Walker, 
Buxton Lawrie, Chippendall and others, in 
the district of Matale East. Mr. Thos. S 
Grigson, of Colombo, may also I'emember 
the circumstance. Captain Lloyd Williams 
also obtained 1.000 cinchona officinalis and 
1,000 cinchona succirubra from Dr. Thwaites 
about the same time, and Henry Walker 
awoke ohe morning to find himself proprietor 
of a cinchona plantation and tea bushes 
planted by — Yours faithfully, 
HENRY COTTAM. 
P.S. — Mr. Henry Walker, now in Borneo, I 
believe, bought Dooroomadella from George 
Wall & Co. and did not know he possessed 
a cinchona plantation all ready for harvesting 
at the top of the hill. H. C. 
[Mr. Cottam's reminiscences are interest- 
ing ; we should like to know from a Matale 
East planter if the old tea (34 years) on 
Dooroomadella is still in existence ? We gave 
the Loolecondera field preference as continu- 
ously worked ; but, of course, older tea should 
be found on Condegalla, Ramboda, where 
the Messrs. Worms phmted a field with China 
—still existing ? — in the " forties "; and in 
the same decade Mr. Llewellyn of Calcutta 
sent plants of indigenous Assam to Pen-y-lan ; 
but we suppose they were rooted out for coffee, 
or ran to jungle. Mr. P D Millie planted 
some tea in Pundaluoya in 1861 ; and Mr. A 
Greig put some on Barra, Rakwana, for Mr, 
C Shand in 1864.-ED. T.A.\ 
REDUCTION IN OUTPUT OF rE\. 
Kandy, May 2. 
Sir, — The following cablegram was despatched 
to London a few days ago : — " Including London 
figures total 3,500,0001b." 
The above Nvas in reply to the following 
cablegram received from Loudon in the middle 
of April :— " Indian 10,000,0001b. secured, let us 
know the number Ceylon," followed by a further 
wire on 22nd April reading " Indians meet to- 
morrow, give us all the information you have.'' 
—I am. Sir, yours faithfully, 
A. PHILIP, 
Secretary to the Planters' Association of Ceylon. 
HAVE WE POUND THE OLDEST 
TEA TREE ? 
Pen-y-lan estate, Dolosbagie, May 5. 
Dear Sir,— Mr. Tringham, of Pen-y-lan 
estate, Dolosbagie, has preserved one fine 
specimen of Mr. Llewellyn's tea planted in 
the "forties." This fine tea tree is probably 
sixty years old and we measiirerl the stem 
and found it eight inches in diameter and two 
feet in circumference ; in height it is from 25 
to 27 feet and would have been much bigger 
had not half the roots been cut away in 
the forming of a side drain near the kitchen 
of Pen-y land bungalow. — Yours truly, 
H, COTTAM. 
[We are indebted to Mr. Tringham for 30 
seeds from this old tree— we dt5 not know 
that there is any special virtue in seed from 
a very old tree — but they are well worth a 
trial.— Ed. T.A.] 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Four Tea Companies : Mail News.— In 
our daily and T. A. the reports of three 
companies, and an account of the annual 
meeting of another, appear tonight. Top of 
the four is the Balmoral Company, with its 
solid 12 per cent for the year and £720 to 
carry forward ; Tyspane pavs 3 per cent, and 
has a balance of £176 7s. 3d. which is nearly 
£10 less than last year, but the Company 
is making good progress ; Kelani Valley paid 
3 per cent interim but no final dividend and 
carries forward £456 15s, the late Mr. Donald 
Andrew's place on the board being taken 
by Mr. G G Anderson, who retires but has 
probably been re-elected. The Panawal Com- 
pany pays 2 per cent which is creditable, 
in view of a decrease of £1400 by sales, and 
and £505 19s. 6d. is placed to reserve. We 
congratulate the management and all con- 
cerned. 
Two Sister Tea Companies : the Alli- 
ance and Imperial. — It is strange what a 
difference the purchase of " one more pro- 
perty " has made to several Tea Companies 
in Ceylon in absorbing, or destroying, or 
delaying dividends. We could name several 
such that would have been all the better 
off had the Directors not been tempted to 
add to their estates and responsibilities ; but 
perhaps the most notable is the " Imperial " 
to which the addition of Nonpareil estate, 
in West Haputale, has proved a regular 
" white elephant." We suppose if it had 
never been purchased that the Company would 
have regularly given its six to seven per cent 
equally with the Alliance and that its shares 
even in these hard times would have been 
at par in place of 50 per cent below. The 
figures given elsewhere in the Reports of 
the two Companies present a notable con- 
trast. Every estate in the roll shows a 
working profit — such fine Dimbula properties, 
as Thornfield. Uda Radella and Edinburgh, 
giving each, over £2,000, — but for Nonpareil, 
there is the lamentable record of "loss 
£697 19s Od." Of course, we do not foi'get 
that it had to be turned from an old cotfee 
into a cea estate, and that there are now 
316 acres in tea which ought year by year 
to do much better and 38 acres in carda- 
moms ; but all the same, far better for the 
Imperial shareholders if their Directors had 
never touched Nonpareil. Let Directors of 
other Companies take warning when they 
are tempted to add still another estate to a 
prosperous concern. 
