THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April 1, 1903. 
The Yataderia. Tea Company, Ltd.— All 
Gonoerned in this well regulated Companj'^ 
are to he heartily congratulated on the ex- 
cellent results divulgf>d at the last annual 
meeting. A 25 per cent dividend plus a 5 per 
cent honus is certainly an exceptionally 
high return. The Directors too deserve 
credit for the very t'uli and comprehensive 
report(on page 698) which through their agents 
and secretaries they submitted to the share- 
holders, and to which we direct the attention 
of our readers. 
Tomatoes in Mexico, — More than 1,200,000 
pounds of tomatoes were sold last year by the 
Bernal Orchard Company, Forlon, TamauUpas, 
according to A E Graham, vice-president and 
general manager of the Company. The tomatoes 
were produced from a tract of 177 acres between 
the months of December and May. Mr Graham 
said that 220,000 pounds were shipped by express 
to the States, a large portion of them going to 
the New York mai ket ; 800,000 to the States by 
freight, and 200'000 to the markets of Mexico.— 
Modern Mexico, for February, 
A Revolution in Mineral Prospecting. 
— One of the latest inventions, news of 
which we publish today, is calculated to 
revolutionise the work of the prospector 
for valuable minerals. This is an electrical 
ore-finder brought out by Messrs. L, Daft 
and A. Williams ot Meadow House, Baling, 
by means of which the location of lodes 
of oi-e can be effected. The numerous ex- 
periments already made prove that its 
usefulness is no imaginary thing and that 
even tin sunk at no small depth can be 
located by means of the instrument. If 
there is gold in Ceylon— and we have so 
often said it is to be found in unworkable 
quantities— prospectors might well wait until 
the instrument is available for local use. 
Meanwhile, in finding new veins of plumbago, 
it should become useful at an earlier 
date ? 
Why we should Bat Apples.— German 
chemists have estjblished the fact that apples 
contain a large per cent ot phosphorous, the 
element essential to the removal of the nervous 
matter of the brain and spinal cord, while the 
acids are of signal use to persons whose livers 
are sliiggi.sh owing to sedentary habits, the 
acids serving to eliminate from the system noxious 
deposits which would retard the action of the 
brain and induce akin ailments and produce 
boils. Hence the wisdom as well as relish 
of taking apple sauce with roast pork and goose. 
The malic acid of ripe apples, either raw or 
cooked, will naturalise any e.xcess of chalky 
matter engendered by eating too much meat, 
says the St, Louis Republic. It is also a fact 
that such fresh fruits as the apple, the pear, and 
the plum, when taken ripe and without sugar, 
dimini.sh acidity in the stomach rather than pro- 
voke it. Their vegetable salts and juices are 
converted into iilkaline carbonate.';, which tend 
to count(;rrtct acidiiy. A good, ripe, raw apple 
is one of the easiest of vegetable .sub tances for 
the .Htociiacli to deal with, the whole process of its 
diire'ition l)eing cmiiplcled in eigty-tive minutes. 
— Journal of AyriciUture of Western Australia 
for Feb, 
" Hypopeltis "—is the name given (!) to the 
local insect-ppst, by Nature in the issue of 
Feb. 5th, in which a short summary appears 
of Mr. E E Green's recent studies on the 
subject. 
Mosquito Screens in Lorenzo Marques.— 
Portuguese East Africa. The United States 
Consul at Lorenzo Marques, under date of 16th 
December, 1902, reports that there is an opening 
for the siile of mosquito netting in that district. 
The Consul says : — " This place has long been 
noted for its mosquitoes and for its malarial 
fever. Until a year ago, the only netting* used 
were the canopies for Ijeds. Recently, some of 
the foreign residents have had mosquito screens 
put in their doors and windows, and this idea 
is now beginning to gain popularity. I would 
sugge.st that manufacturers of mosquito nettings, 
as well as manufacturers of screen doors and 
window screens send sainples ot their difierent 
makes, with complete price lists." —Board of 
Trade Journal, Feb. 19. 
Papaw Tree as Mosquito Bane.— In a re- 
cent number of Nature, Mr Shipley called atten- 
tion to the influence of the leaves of Ocimum 
viride in banishing mosquitoes. Following up this 
subject, Mr. Percy Grooni narrates how his liouse 
at Whampoa was conipfiratively free from the in- 
vasion of these insects, a circumstance which he 
attributes to the presence of a line of Papaw- 
trees which intervened . between his house and 
the river. Other houses in the same island 
were more or less infested with these insects. 
Once, after a typhoon had blown two of the 
trees, and left a gap, the number of mosquitoes in 
the house increased. Mr Groom further states that 
he never siw an insect on these trees, though he 
frequently examined them, and observed flies and 
other insects upon the Bamboos and Bananas 
near by. As the Papaw has usually unisexual 
flower.<!, and is in fact generally d oeeious, it 
becomes interesting to know by what means 
fertilisation is effected.— Gardeners' Chronicle 
Feb. 7. - 
" Buyers, Blenders and Distributors. 
The economics of tea. Pacts and fallacies 
about competition and combination," — is the 
title of a paper in " Tea " for February by 
W Forbes-Laurie. We make two inierest- 
ing extracts : — 
To prove to what a low ebb tea-growing has 
reached, I annex a table showing the apportionment 
of cost in making an average pound of tea : — 
Government duty 6 00 
Cost to producer laid down in London, 
including office and all expenses*... 6.10 
Growers profit ... 1.00 
Dealers profit ... 0.60 
Retailers proti I 3.00 
Average cost to consumer 16.70 
One undoubted conclusion all agree in, that a low 
Market grinds down, until grower, dealer, broker 
and employee from manager to assistant, are in 
the lowest form of remuneration ; and from this 
cause alone arises mutual recriminations. The 
market for producer and dealer is-at its lowest ebb, 
neither are wrong, except in not seeking mutually 
to relieve the pre.--suie at the right spot — they 
are on the liorns of a dilemma. Yet it has ita 
remedy. 
