896 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULT CRIST. 
[Dec. 1, 1899. 
the Queen's Cottage pond is largely due to the 
fact that a pair of Kingfishers settled by the 
pond, and that otters infest the pond and cannot 
be kept out through want pf fencing. 
(B.) HORTON PLAINS. 
Mr. T Farr reports as follows rcL'arding the 
fry placed in the Horton Plains Slewponds, viz. 
—1,500 Brown Trout fry and 150 llainbow fry. 
(1,000 Brown Trout fry were turned into a 
stream falling into the Horton Plains River.) 
9th August, 1899. 
Dear Sir,— In reply to your letter of August 
8th, I do not think the time has yet arrived 
to transfer the trout from the ponds to the 
river, therefore I can only by observation guess 
at the number of fish in each. 
They may, so far, I think, be considei'ed a 
success, and I should estimate the pond into 
which 1,500 fry were placed as containing say 
500 to 700, and the rainbow fry should turn 
out 50 per cent of the number put in. 
I may mention that the growth of fiy in 
both the ponds is very uneven — some of the fisli 
being very strong and of good size whilst others 
have grovi'n very little. 
The Rainbow Trout appear to have grown 
better than the Faro.— Yours faithfully, 
(Signed) T. FARR. 
(C.) OTHER STEWPONDS. 
(I.) Calsay, Nanu Oya. — Mr. Ross-Clarke re- 
ports of the "Calsay" Stewponds, where 1,500 
Brown trout fry and 75 Rainbow fry were 
placed, as follows : — 
July 25tl), 1899. 
Dear Sir, — On the 19th instant I emptied my 
two stewponds with the following results : — 
the Top Pond contained 196 trout 
the Lower Pond ,, 305 ,, 
out of 700 and 800 put in ; the following day 1 
took 209 up to Ambewella and turned them in 
there in good condition, 40 were turned into the 
Rajah Patna stream, several 5 inches long, and 
the average about 4 inches. 
I returned 250 about an average of 2J" to the 
Stewponds, where they ought to thrive well now 
that the bigger fish are gone. 
I am of the opinion that the larger fish were 
preying on the smaller latterly, hence the perhaps 
rather small out-turn. During the five months I 
only found some ten dead ones which were picked 
out, they were in very good condition and ap- 
peared to have died from enlarged liver, with 
the exception of one which had his tail bitten off. 
The Rainbow trout are doing very well and 
are of a fair size, one dead and one was found so tar, 
I propose keeping the 250 in the Ponds for 
another three months or so, or until they reach 
a size of 4" or 5." 
These are the figures : — 
..-.-Took out of Top Pond ... 196 
, ,, „ Lower ,, ... 305 
Turned into Ambewella Stream 209 
,. ,, Rajah Patna ,, 40 
Returned to Stewponds 250 
Escaped 2 
501 501 
Yours faithfully, 
G. G. Ross-Clarke. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
Keeping their Packers up. — In this review of the 
trade of India during 1808, Mr. O'Conor proffers 
comfort to Iiician tea planter?. He points out that 
last year the outturn of Indian tea was the largest 
on record, giving a total of 157 million pounds, 
being more than double the quantity exported thirteen 
jears ago. When a limited market is found in con- 
junction with an unlimited supply, the inevitable 
result is a heavy fall in pricep. Yet Mr. O'Conor 
would not have Indian planters despond, fie recalls 
the fact that it lock Indian tea tv/enty years to drive 
Chinese tea out of the market, and he reminds ns that 
Indian tea is at present consumed in a comparatively 
liiiiiled area. A very large proportion of the 
white race of the world does cot yet consume tea 
Mr. O'Conor warns the planters — by the way, they 
are well aware of the fact — that in thfir efforts to 
force their way into these huge untapped markets 
they must be prepared for a struggle as strenuous 
as that undertaken by them when they entered the 
list." against China tea. But with courage and per- 
severance there is no reason why they should not 
forge ahead. 
Really!— The writer on "Trade Top'cs in "The 
Grocer" has the following :—" Now that the pound 
tea draft question is settled, it is not surprising to 
learn that tliose who proposed its abolition are'feel- 
ing the results of their ill-advi.=ed attempt to abolish 
it. At a meeting of one of the large tea-producing 
companies the other day. the chairman said there 
was no doubt that the falling off in trade which they 
had experienced was due to the agitation in connec- 
tion with the question. It would, of course, be wrong 
to rejoice too loudly over the victory which has been 
achieved, at the same time it is satisfactory to note that 
those who stirred the matter up have learned that they 
cannot attack the distributing trader with impunity. It 
is certain tliat only a few even now fully realise the 
importance of the issiies involved in that struggle, 
but it is to be hoped that it will be very many 
years before we shall again witness such an attempt 
to interfere with the rights of such a large body 
of traders, as is the retail food distributing industry 
of this country. " It should be noted that his ma- 
jesty, tlie " distributing trader," must not again be 
disturbed in his beneficent v/nrk of distributing tea 
at very profitable prices to the consumer, and any 
further attempt to interfere with his right will — well, 
it is too awful to contemplate what might happen, 
so we will consider the incident closed. — H. & C. 
Mail, Oct. 27. 
THE PUBLIC SALE DAYS. 
A report has reached us to the effect that cer- 
tain parties are agitating for some alteration of 
the days for tlie public auctions of Indian and 
Ceylon Tea in Mincing Lane. It is perhaps too 
much to expect that any state of finality will ever 
be reached in regard to tea matters, but as the 
chanfies proposed are in our judgment rather 
opposed to the best interests of the whole body 
of buyers and, therefore, indirectly antagonistic 
to the interests of the sellers, we make no apelogy 
for exaurining the arguments put forward pro. 
and con. more especially as we took consi- 
derable interest in the arrangement of the 
present system, and con.sider it too satisfactory 
to be rashly disturbed. 
Fioni a circular emanating from the secretary 
of the Tea Buyers' Association we learn that the 
pre.sent practice is objectionable to some of its 
members, but whilst we do not claim for t.'ie' 
present arrangements absolute perfection, we 
should have been glad to know why and where- 
in it is objectionable, and this is not stated; 
There are manifest advantages to buyers 
