Aua. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL 
will be consumed there. Moreover, there are signs 
that Indian and Ceylon growers in addition to 
realising the necessity of opening np new 
markets, are also now more inclined to look with 
favour on a combination for, amongst other things, 
a general restriction of output for a year or two. 
The directors are hopeful that some scheme may 
be brought forward which will bring tcgetlier the 
greater part of the industry, and they are prepared 
to send their cordial support to any fensible pro- 
posal. Buch a combination would undoubtedly tend 
to at once raise the price of tea. The directors 
regret to state that Sir John Bluir, who has acted 
a? na chairman of the Company since its forma- 
tio , has been obliged to resign as a member 
of the board on account of the state of hia 
health. They hope that after a time he may be 
able to again preside «t their meetings. In the 
meantime. Mr A K Mnir, who was offered and 
accepted a seat on the board, has agreed to act as 
chairman. Mr Miiir has been in India for the last 
eleven years, latterly, as senior manager of the 
Calcutta agents' firm, and during the greater part 
of that liime has been connected with the management 
of the company's estates. In terms of the Articles 
of Association two of the directors, Mr A B 
Murray and Mr R H Sinclair, retire at this time. 
The directors regret that Mr Murray finds it necessary 
to retire on account of his health, and they 
have considered the question of filling his place. 
They approached Mr J T Tullis, of Messrs John 
TuUis and Sou, Limited, Glasgow, and he expressed 
his willingness to be nominated for a seat on the 
board. Mr Sinclair is eligible for re-election. 
The Auditors, Messrs. Alexander Sloan & Co., C.A., 
and Messrs. Jackson, Pixley, Browning,- Husey & Oo., 
C.A., retire and offer themselves for re-election. 
James Finlay & Co., 
Secretaries. 
Glasgow, Uth June, 1902. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands— 
as the result of 13 years' Observations 
shows an average temperature in the shade 
of 74'11, the extremes being 57 deg. in 
February and 87 deg in August. The rain- 
fall is very low— only 28'39 inches as the 
annual average of 18 years : the maximum 
49 82 and the minimum 1.3'46 inches. The place 
of observation is 50 feet above sea level. All 
this we learn from tables in the "Hawaiian 
Planters' Monthly." 
Scientific Production and Manup-^c- 
TURE. — Commenting on the Review of the 
Trade of India by J EO'Conor, Director-General 
of Statistics, the Pioneer of July 10th 
says:— In all the great staple industries of 
India — in tea, indigo, cotton, sugar, etc, — the 
time has come for the application of uji Lo- 
date scientific production and manufacture, 
and India can only iiope to hold her own in 
so far as she makes use of labour saving 
metliods and of the advantages which science 
places at her disposal. In discussing the ex- 
port of animal bones, which averages about 
lOO.OnO tons annnall.y. Mr. O'Conor'says thac 
Indian bones are also sent to Ceylon, where 
they fertilise the fields on wliieh is grown 
the Ceylon tea that undersells Indian tea— not 
only out of India, but in India itself, This 
statement of the facts seems to point to the 
absence of capital, skill, and enterprise in 
undertakings dependent on agricultural oper- 
ations. 
AGRICULTURIST. 129 
Thirty Thousand Young Trout— this .sea- 
.son's liatc-h at the Matlock Fishing' A -social ion's 
liatclieties, have been de-stroyed. Tliw eaii-e is 
attributed to poisoninE; by river polluli:]n. Tlie 
association lias appealed to the Govi'-nmpnt for 
an ollioial inquiry to be held. — Moraine/ Leader, 
June 14. 
The Holta Tea Company of Kanora Val- 
LKY report that enconraging results followed in 
the manufacture of 20,000 lb. green tea for tlie 
American market la;-jt year. This year it is pro- 
posed to make 60,000 lb. of tlie same. For this 
purpose the Company have installed the Drum- 
inond Deane system and inacliinery, wliich is a 
good testimonial, coming as it does from a Kangra 
garden. — Indian Gardening eind Plcmtinq, June 
26 th. 
Sugar Growing in the East Indies.— Mr. 
R. W. Egerton Eastvv'ick, lately secretary 
to the Penang Chamber of Commerce and 
Agriculture, writes to the London Times of 
May 2lst on tlie subject of the existing 
depression in the sugar industry in the West 
Indies. At the very outset he denies that 
the depression will cease when the bounties 
have been abolished. To support his asser- 
tion he ]ioints out that although the prose- 
cution of the industry has ceased to pay in 
the West, yet in the Eastern part of' the 
Empire sugar-growing is regarded as a pro- 
fitable undertaking. " In British Malaya " 
he goes on, " encouraging results have long 
since been succeeded by permanent pros- 
perity." He points out that the conditions 
under which the industry is followed in the 
West Indies and in Malaya are very similar. 
Both countries, he allows, will benefit by 
the abolition of the bounties but not to any 
appreciable extent, " but the change which 
would materially benefit the West Indies is 
one of currency. A silver currency prevails 
In British Malaya, where labour is paid in 
silver. Might not the gold standard be 
dropped in the West Indies, and might not 
British and Mexican dollars take the place of 
sovereigns, with a varying rate of exchange ? 
The Real Rubber Tree.— The so-called rubber 
tree, with its thick, glossy, green leaves, eom- 
nioa in hot-houses and garden^i, is that which pro- 
duces the gulta perclia. Ic is little like the 
greac tree from which comes tlie best rubber of 
commerce. The real rubber tree is not unlike 
other forest trees, resembling the English nsli 
and growing to a height of more than sixty feet. 
Us bark is silvery gray, wheie it has not be- 
come black from being tapped. Its trunk is 
about as big as a man's waist. Wiiere it has 
been tapped it often swells out at the base, so 
that it is much larger. It blossoms in August, 
being then covered with little white flowers. It 
bears nuts and in December and January, when 
they are ripe, the shells burst with a noise like 
a lire-cracker, throwing the nuts some distance. 
There are so many nuts on each tree that a man 
could easily gather enough in a day to plant a 
hundred acres of land. The tree can be easily 
grown in the rigiit soil, and they thrive without 
cuhivation ; but to yield rubber they iiui<t be 
15 years old. Fifteen years is too lonu a time 
for a man to wait in Australia, and at inesent 
the trees which produce rubber are wild. — 
Journal of Department of Aqricnlture, W.A. 
