Aug. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURtST. 
95 
Of 277 bales " nnworked," 235 bales were cleared 
chiefly at id to 3d per lb. better for " Thirds " to 
"Firsts,' which "Fourths" ruled about steady. 
""Worked" Firsts lid to Is 9d ; Seconds lOd to 
Is tJd ; Thirds 9d to Is 5d ; Fourths T^d to lid. 
■' Uuworked " Firsts 7id to Is 3d; Seconds 6Jd 
to la ; Thirds 34d to lold and t'ourths 5d to 8id 
per lb. 
Chips, &c. -1,038 bags offered and 350 bags wer« 
sold in the room, a little coarse bark at Id to l^d. 
Chips np to 22d and quillings, <fec. 5id to 9§d per lb. 
Ko wild Cinnamon catalogued. 
1901. 1900. 
Stock of Ceylon . .3.313 B against 3,442 3,644 B 
„ Wild ..1,979 ,, „ 2,725 2,606,, 
„ Chips,&c. ..2,093,, „ 3,705 5.333,, 
„ Wild bark,<fec.. 7,301 „• „ 8,242 8,100 „ 
The next auctions will be held 25tb August. 
DR. MORRIS AND VOLCANIC DUST 
FROM BARBADOS. 
Dr. D Morris, Commissioner of the Imperial 
Department of Agriculture for the West Indies, 
has forwarded to the Royal Colonial Institute a 
sample of voloanic ash collected in Barbados on 
7th and 8ch May last.— Daily Ntws, May 28th. 
RUBBER IN BURMA. 
The '* Moulmein Advertiser " writes— The ap- 
parent or seeming ease with which India Rubber 
IS extracted in the hill-forests above Bhamo in the 
Upper Province is responsible for some loose ideas 
on India rubber planting and cultivation, it being 
assumed that it is quite simple matter which looks 
after itself and only wants to be left alone. Those 
who have entered upon this kind of planting in the 
Malayan Peninsula are beginning to realise that 
rubber plantations entail a long wait for capital, and 
some very heavy work before actual planting can be 
began. And there might be much in these 'handicaps' 
to account for the long complaint made some time ago 
against thelocal Governmentfor its intention ofopening 
out about 10,000 acres of land in the .Jergui district 
for rubber cultivation as a Government enterprise. 
So far as the Amherst district is concerned, we have, 
we believe, a small rubber venture at Amherst of 
which the result is an uncertain, if it is not an un- 
known, quantity as yet. We have never been able to 
trace the origin, on the large tracts of hill country, 
inhabited by the Kachins and other tribss, of the wide- 
spread forests of the India-rubber-yielding trees. In 
those parts there is nothing to show that those forests 
were at any time artificially raised ; and during a stay 
of several weeks in that part of Burma, enquiries 
about how those forests were preserved and oontiuued 
were very disappointing. But it is quite a certainty 
now that rubber, when adopted as a special cultivation, 
is by no means the easy enterprise it looks when ex- 
tracted from a forest which apparently has been planted 
and oared for by Nature, From some reports that have 
been printed and published of India Bubber Com- 
panies, we learn that their undertakings have swollen 
financially to very large proportions by the preliminary 
work that has to be done before planting is possible. • * 
Cinder these circumstances the action of the local 
Government, which unfortunately has not always led 
where private enterprise would follow, is most com- 
mendable in having resolved to experiment in rubber 
planting on such a soale as would afford a reliable 
precedent to private companies investing large capital 
in developing the rubber enterprise in such parts of 
Borma where the soil and atmospheric conditions are 
favourable. The advantage of having these plantations 
as near as possible to a port is obvious ; it avoids th« 
heavy expenses incurred in transit. And the Mergui 
district is, perhaps, the most convenient, if it is favor- 
' kble, district in Burma foif exporting rubber, dressed 
' for ues. The enterpris* as we baY« sbewo is lo 
beset with heavy outlay that it would be almost Im- 
possible to expect private capital in following a lead 
which has been proved to have passed the initial and 
experimental stage ; it never hesitates under these 
conditions, and if the local Government does not 
succeed in establishing the rubber enterprise firmly 
in Burma and thus prove its commercial 
value to Burm I, it will have done something towards 
disarming opinions which are now very prevalent that 
the province has not been developed as it should have 
been under our present regime. — Times of Burma, 
June 7. 
« 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
At the meetin* of the Tower ILr^i, Company, 
LIMITED, 
another of those large distributing companies which 
handles tea so profitably, Mr. T Lough, M.P., re- 
ferred to the report on tea and coffee recently issued 
by the Board of Trade and given in our columns. 
The statistics given in that official document are 
certainly encouraging to those connected with tea in 
any way, but especially so to those who distribute it. 
As was pointed out by Mr. Loagh, out of about 
600,000,000 lb. exported in 1900 from the great tea- 
prodncing countries, — China, India, Ceylon, Japan and 
Java, — nearly half was imported by this country, this 
large proportion including seven-eigths of the whole 
Indian export, and three-quarters of the Ceylon export 
of tea. Notwithstanding the increase of 50 per cent in 
the duty on tea, which took place in March, 1900, 
the consumption throughout the United Kingdom 
continued to increase. Five years ago, in 1897, this 
consumption was 5"8l per head of the population, in 
1898 it became 5-86, 5-98, in 1899 6 10, in 1900 and 
6"17 in 1901. A large percentage of this recent increase 
was due to a greatly extended use of tea in Ireland. 
Iti that country the consumption was now nearly 
8 lb. per head of the inhabitants, it was difficult to say 
precisely. This placed the United Kingdom far ahead 
of all European "onntries. The recent increase of duty 
had made our '.■ .^iity stand very high in proportion 
to that of olhciL- nations. In Belgium tea ivas ad- 
mitted free, in Holland the duty was 2jd per lb., in 
Denmark 4d, in the United States 5d, in Germany 
5|d, in the United Kingdom 6d, in France 9d to 
Is 5di and in Russia from 2jd to Is lOd per lb. 
Seeing that the Empire wns so deeply interested as a 
tea producer, it was surely to be deplored that they 
did not follow the example of those countries that 
gave the most favourable treatment of this indis- 
pensable article of diet. 
THK MEETING OF LIPTON'S, LraiTKD, 
on Tueadiy was not quite harmonious. A reduced 
dividend is not conducive to excessive amiability on 
the part of shareholders. O.ily one gentleman, how- 
ever, referred directly to Sir Thomas's yacht-racing 
proclivities as calculated to lessen his attention to 
business but his remarks found little endorsement 
among his fellow shareholders. Sir Thomas Lipton 
said he was very hopeful that the current year's 
trading would prove the turning point in the adverse 
market conditions from which they had suffered. He 
had not sold one single share since the formation of 
the company ; in fact, he had increased his holding 
since the last meeting, and now owned nearly half of 
the total issue of each of the Ordinary and Preference 
shares and Debentures. The whole of the advertising 
outlay had been borne by Sir Thomas Lipton himself, 
in accordance with an arrangement made last year, 
in consequence of the bad condition of trade, and 
although the actual amount of this was not diacloaed 
it is estimated in some 'Quarters at about £40,000. 
THE BALANCE SHEET OF THE CO-OPERATIVB 
WHOLKSALE SOCIETY 
for the firsrt thirteen weeks of the present year has 
just been made up. The sales totaled £1413,708, 
b,eiDg ao iucr«a8« of 9 (ler o«ot oa (i)^ C9r;eB|pQa^| 
