Dec. 1, 1899.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
427 
CExMRAL TEA COMPAiNY OF CEYLON, LD. 
[Tlie followinf; is a coiiy of the report.] 
The Directors have the plea ure lo subicit the 
General Balance Sheet ani! Piofic ,ind Loss accouut 
for the year ending 30th June. 1S99, duly audited. 
The net amount at ' redit of 
Piotit and Lles a. ccn' t, inju.l- £ s d £ a d 
iijf; the balance brontht foiw. rd 
at 30ih June, 1S98, ar.d at e: 
providing for General E>piESJs, 
JJirectorb' Fe.s, Income lax, 
&c., is ... — 2,f3,5 7 7 
Dividends on the 6 per cent. 
Preference Sh.iies were paid for 
1898 9 (Itss Income Tax) amo!.:nt- 
ing to ■ .. I.b05 0 0 
It is pioposed lo pay a Divi- 
dend of 6 percfnt (e alrcome 
Tax) on the Ordinary Shares 
which w:ll ab.oib .. 1,073 0 0 
And to cairy fcrwaid 'o next 
vear a balance of ... 557 7 7 
£2,935 7 7 
The Directors trast the results of the j-ear's work- 
ing of the Estates will be considered satisfactory 
by the Shareholders. 
The gro.=s average price realised for the tea was 
7'87d per lb., as against 7'75d per lb. last season, 
and the rale of exchange \\as Is 4 19-64d as against 
Is 4d. 
The yield of tea A-as 331,427 lb . being 377 lb. 
per 8cre over a plucking area of 879 acres. 
The acreages of the Estates ate as under — 
Tea. 
o rh CO tfi 
32 397 937 
33 443 
Estate. 
Kabragalia .. 431 61 16 
Somerset . . 387 . . 13 
(laclnding Easdale 
andLoxa) — — — — 
Total .. 818 61 29 32 430 1370 
Under clause No. 24 of the Articles of Associa- 
tion Mr. J. Bancroft Holmes retires on this occasion 
from the Board, and being eligible, offers himself 
for re-election. 
The Auditors, Messrs. Harper Brothers, Chartered 
Accountants, also retire from oiBce, and offer them- 
selves for re-election. — By order of the Board, 
Wm. Johnston, Secretary. 
MINOR PRODUCTS REPORT. 
CiTRONELLA Oil. — Quiet and unchanged, with small 
sales at ll^d per pound in tins, and H i in drums 
on the spot. 
Spices.— A quantity of (jinnamon-chips, offered 
without reserve, sold at 7d to 8d per pound for 
pieces, quillings at ojd per pound, featherings at 
4d to 'j|d per pounc!, hark and common chips 
at 2nd to 3J per pound. — CJteinist and Druggist, 
Nov. 11. 
UNITED COFFEE GROWERS' CO. 
Tlie statutory meeting of The United Coffee 
Growers' Company, Ld., \v:,s he'd in the Assembly 
Kooni, Coonoor, on Wednesday. A .statement was 
placed by the Directors before the sliareholder , 
in which they wereinfoinied that the land for the 
erection of the buildings has been acquiied in 
Coimbatore, but the I u Iding will, it is hoped, be 
completed in from two to three months' time ; that 
roasting, uiixing, and grinding machinery, as 
36 
w ell as a tin-making plant, has been ordered from 
the Continent, and is how on its way out. It is 
estimated that this machinery will be capable of 
di a'ing with 400 lo 500 tons of coll'eo per iinnum, 
■which amount by the addition of another roasting 
machine, can be incieased to SCO to 1,000 tons per 
annum, the engir.e-povi-er and the tin-making 
niachinery be n;,' .sullicleDt f(ir this additional out- 
jjut. '1 he s; rviees of p gentleman who has been 
tlirongh a ie;:nlar course of in.struction in London 
and on the Continent have been secured. The 
Company hasspared nopainsloput itself into a 
jio.sition to place the best article on the niaiket at 
the lowest price. A statement of the financial 
position of the Company was made by the 
Diiectovs and was fouiid to be in every way satis- 
fiictory. This being a Statutory Meeting, no other 
business was transacted. The Annual General 
Meeting of the Com;'any was fixed for July, 1900. 
— Bladras Mail, Dee. I. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
Adulterated Tea. — It is to be regretted that the 
Commi;sioners of Customs, in their leferenco to the 
examinaiion made by their analyst on imported 
teas before they are taken out of bond, do not state 
wheie the teas of doubtful character upLii which they 
repoit come from. It is not difficult for the export 
lo gues F, but the public, not so well acquainted with 
the tricks of certa n growers and manipulators in 
the Par East and in Germany, possibly imagine 
that Indian and Cey.ou teas are someiimes adulte- 
rated. The report of Mr. \V Cobden Samuel, tea 
analyst, is as follows of the 938 samp'es analysed 70 
samples of green ten faced, 20 tamplts of green tea 
nnfated, 46 samples of gieen tea capers, 595 samples 
of black tea, congou, 160 sami-l^s of black tea dust, 
47 samples of black tea tiftings. Of the total 854 were, 
on analysis, considered satisfactory, and the importa- 
tions represented by them were accordingly deli- 
vered on the ceitificaie of the analyst. The remain- 
ing 84 samples repre entei leas of doubtful character, 
the results of analysis cfv. h'chwere reported to the 
Board for their cecision, with the rebult that the 
whole of these, lepiesentii g 1,603 packages, were 
restricted to exj ortat.on or for manufacture of 
caffeine. In regard lo tamples of tea examined by 
public analysts, it was slated in the annual repoit for 
1896-97 that of the 4,289 samples examined in the 
previous five years only four had been reported 
against. In 1897 one sample was condemned, but 
during the past year, out of 480 samples taken, as 
.many as fifteen were adulterated, while eight more 
were returned as of inferior quality. Many, of these 
were of the variety known us ciper tea, and were, 
reported to contain excessive quantities of mineral 
matter, Respecting this revival of an old and some- 
what ingenious method of adulteration, which con- 
sists of the addition of stones and sand to tea in 
order to increase its weight, the analyst lor 
the country of Derby writes : " The practice 
is defended by iuleresled persons on the 
ground that the mineral matter is un- 
avoidably intioduccd during the process of 
the preparation of the tea for the market. This con- 
tention, however, cannot be sustained, as genuine 
tea practically never contains 1 per cent, of mineral 
matter iu the form of sand, wheie sand and stones 
are present in the proportion found in the samples 
under observation, thesa foie:gu substances must have 
been purposely intioduoc-d, and possibly caper tea 
is chosen as the chief medium for the operations 
because the shape of the leaf after its preparation 
for sale is favourable for the concealment of the 
stones. The tea certified by me to contain 4 per 
cent, of sand and stones was sold at the high price 
of 3s 8d per lb. and the adtdteration, which was act- 
ually iu the excess .of the amount certified by me, 
was obviously of a fairly remunerative character, 
