April 1, 1903.] THE TROPICAL AaRlCULTURIST 
Meetings. — Daring the year three General meetings 
and three tneetinga of Comniittee have been held. 
There have also been two meetinga of the sub-Com- 
mittee on minor roads. 
Membership.— There are 46 estates registered on the 
roll of membership against 48 in 1901. There are also 
two private members against the same number in the 
previous year. 
Finance. — The books and accounts of the Associa- 
tion are laid on the table for the inspection of mem- 
bers. The balance at credit of the Association at 31st 
December, 1902 amounts to K36'61 cents. 
Tea, — Crops generally in the district have been well 
up to estimate. The weather throaghout the year was 
favourable, and the rainfall good and well distributed. 
The South-west Monsoon was late in setting in, 
and tea in consequence flushed very finely in June and 
July. However, though leaf was abundant, much of 
the fine flavour and quality characteristic of the tea 
from these districts during the dry months from June 
to October was absent, and there was less fine tea sent 
from the districts this year than usual. 
The Tea Crop for 1903 is estimated at 7,080,975 lb, 
and 91,000 lb from native gardens. The acreage under 
tea is 17,458 acres, of which 15.829 acres are in bear- 
ing ; the yield per acre on tea in bearing is estimated 
at 447 lb. 
Labour. — Labour has not been quite so plentiful in 
the districts generally, and advances ha\eDeen rising 
considerably. More coolies from the coast are required, 
and your Committee would be glad to see immigration 
encouraged to the fullest extent. 
Tin Tickets. —This system has worked well and will, 
your Committee believe, be of great service to the 
planting community as well as to the cooly. 
Main Roads. — The principal roads have been kept 
in good order, but on some roads, notably the Madul- 
sima Road up to the ll;h mile, the quantity of metal 
laid down is scarcely sufficient to maintain the road in 
good order for a year. The traffic on this portion of 
the road has iucreased considerably of late years. 
Minor Roads. — These have been kept in a fairly good 
state of repairs, but more liberal votes are in some 
cases required for the improvement of these important 
roads, the bridging of stream and other works. A new 
road has been cut to connect the minor road at 
Kuduoya with the bridge at Badnlla, This will be of 
some service to the BaduUa district, but your Com- 
mittee regret that Government was unable to grant 
the bridge across the BadduUu-oya at the ford on 
this road. 
Your Committee are urging upon the Provincial 
Roads Committee the necessity of constructing bridges 
across the streams at Pilpola and Nahavillii, aud they 
hope that these will be made before the close of 1903. 
New Tcleoraph Office. — Your Committee are 
pleased to report that a sum of R20,000 has been in- 
cluded in the estimates for 1903 for the opening of a 
telegraph office at Madulsima. This will be a great 
boon to the district interested. 
Railway Extension. — In December last a resolu- 
tion was passed by your Association asking Govern- 
ment to survey a light line of railway from Bandarawela 
to Badnlla and Passara. Your Committee feel that 
the°e important districts should no longer be left 
without the benefit of a railway through them. 
Many of the estates are from 40 to 50 miles from 
the nearest station, and the heavy cost aud un- 
certainty of transport form a severe handicap upon 
the tea enterprise of Badulla, Passara, and Madulsima. 
Your Committee sincerely hope that Government 
will be pleased to carry out this survey, and that 
the railway will be constructed at no distant date. 
Obituary. — Your Committee records with much 
regret the death during the year of Mr Norman 
Rettie and Mr F G Hoate, both esteemed members 
of the AsBooiatiou, 
In conclusion your Committee are pleased to think 
that l^etter titnes are in view for the toa industry of 
Uva, and that with a continuance of the same careful 
system of plucking, which has always been characteris- 
tic of these districts, a bright future is before the 
planting enterprise of Badulla and Madulsima. 
COCONDT PEARLS. 
The following txtracfc is taken from Chemical 
Studies of the Coconut ivith some notefs on the 
changes during germination. By J A Kirk- 
wood and William J Gics, lepriiued from the 
Bulletin of the Toney Botanical Club, 1902, pp. 
32:-359, and issued as No. 26 of llie Contributions 
from the New York Botanical Garden for June 
1902 :— 
Within the nut there is occasionally found a 
small stony substance of a bluish white colour, 
a kind of vegetable bezoar, called in India 
calappa, which is eagerly purchased by the 
Cliiuese, who ascribe great virtues to it as a sort 
of amulet to preserve them from diseases. The 
cause of its formatiou in the uut is unknown. 
According to Harley and Harley these pearls, 
like those of niolluscan origui, a^ipear to cou- 
sist almost entirely of calcium carbonate, 
with water and orgiinic matter in smaller pro- 
portion, liiedel, quoted by Harley aud Harley, 
states that in 1886, while in iNorth Celebes he 
found a pearl iu the endosperm of the coconut. 
One such pearl was pearl-shaped in form and 
28mm, long, 
AVe are greatly indebted to Dr. D Morris, c M G, 
Imperial Commistioner of Agriculture for the VVest , 
Indies, for the following very interesting quota- 
tion from a letter to Dr. MacDougal : — 
"More than two hundred years ago Runiph, 
an eminent botanist in the East, sent a; a pre- 
sent to the Grand Duke oi Tuscany a ring in 
which a coconut pearl had been set. Further, 
Kumph himself described coconut pearls in his 
great work with considerable minuteness and 
gave illustrations of two of them. One was 
perfectly round, the other was oval or egg- 
shaped. Travellers in the Philippine Isl.inds 
have heard of coconut pearls, hut seldom or ever 
have seen them. The native:?, it is sairij keep 
' coconut stones ' as charms ugaiusc disease and 
evil spirits. The Knjahs, we were told, higl.ily 
prized them and woie them as precious sto'iies. 
It was only a few years a-^o that re.nl c conut 
pearls were at last broiiglu to England. One 
is now at the Museum at the Royal Gardens at 
Kew, brought by Dr. Hicksou. It is almost cgg- 
shuped, perfectly Avhiie, and composed almost 
entirely of carbonate of lime. It has, in fact, 
a somewhat similar composition to the pearl 
of the oyster, and yet there is little doubt 
it is a purely vegetable product" (Hee H,irley 
and Harley : Pruceedings of the lioval Society of 
London, 43, 464. 1887- ll — Agricultural News, 
Barbados, Jan. 3. 
TOBACCO IN JAFFNA, 
The planting of ipbacco has been completed m all 
parts of the DistriA, The area under cultivation ia 
annually on the increase and the cost of labour and 
manure is almost double of what it was about half 
a dozen years aj^o. But the deinaud for this tobacco 
iu the Travancore market which is tbe only one 
outside Ceylon is not so great as it waa soma yean 
back.—" Hindu Orsan," Feb. 
