12 
THE TROPICAL AOPJCrLTURLST. 
[Jl'LY 1, \m. 
decluction of j;l,023 by the Nuwai-a Eliya or 
about 7 per cent, of the pr fits, is poor cb- 
pecially when it is remembered that £48) of 
the sum is represented by tlie wiiting off of the 
balance of preliminary expenaes. Yet thie company, 
of the quartette, needed most in the way of accu- 
mulation from revenue, for taking the generally 
accepted formula, its capital cost works out at £69 
per mature acre, as af;ainst about £30 per maluie 
acre) for the Eastern Produce and Standard Com- 
panies, and £21 per acre for the Ceylon Tea Planta- 
tions. Of course, we know that an acre of tlie Nuwara 
Eliya must be more valuable than an acn^ of the oiher 
three, for on an average it obtained last year 018 lb. of 
tea per acre, worth iljd per 11). Accordingly, in working 
out the formula we have treated every acre of 
immature Nuwava Eliya tea as being worth £40 an 
acre, as against £20 per acre for the immature tea of 
the other Companies. Even allowing for these circum- 
stances, we must assume that the con)pauy is highly 
capitalised, and it would have been more prudent lo 
have paid less in dividend and studied reserves to a 
greater extent. It is, however, a high-grade company, 
and so far has not worked the whole of its properties 
for a year. Of course, the shares of the Eastern 
Produe, Ceylon Tea Plantations, and Standard Com- 
panies stand at higher premiums in the market 
than those of the Nuwara Eliya, but even when 
this is taken into account the latter company com- 
pares badly. Treating debenture and loan capital 
as being worth par, the market valuaticn per mature 
acre works out as follows ;— 
S; =s o Si ac 
£ £ £ £ 
Osylon Tea Plantations ... 581,654 109,9.51 8,067 58 5J 
Eastern Prod. & Estates . . 485,000 96.2.58 9,505 41 5* 
Nuwara Eliya . . .. 2.50,000 25,517 2,802 97 sjj 
Standa rd .. ..136,100 20,055 1,680 69 7 
Yet if we take the present price of £11 per £10 share 
for Nuwara Eliya, £27 per £10 share for Ceylon Tea 
Plantations, £62 per £5 thare for Eastern Produce, and 
£14 per £6 share for Standard, we find the yield to 
an investor works out at about 5J per cent 
in each case. It is not, perhaps, a high return 
for an industry subject to fluctuations of exceeding 
severity, but then the three older companies have 
never paid dividends up to the hilt, and lass year 
their profits were reduced from every cause. Kice 
will certainly not be so dear this year, and in other 
respects these older couoerns ought to be better 
fitted to meet the future ihan the weedy productions 
of the last fev/ years. ^V^■ are giad to learn that 
the increased cost of working List year has proved 
a blessing in disguise to prudeatiy worked concerns, 
as the putting out of heavy exteu.<ions has been 
brought to a standstill. Many of the new companies 
were to do this upon borrowed money, bat the money 
has not been forthcoming, and so the extensions have 
had to be postponed. A year or two back, when Sir 
John Muir, the Buchanans, and others of that enter- 
prising c/emis were launching their ill-balanced pro- 
ductions, the older concernt; were very much in 
the state of mind assigned to Wellington at 
"Waterloo by French writers when they say, he 
prayed " for night or Biucher." In the tea-growing 
industry " night and Biucher " have come together 
in the shape of a liigh exchange and low prices, and 
the consequence is that crudely formed a]id 
wasteful schemes are feeling t! o "inch severely. It 
is yet too early to estimate the mischief such have 
given rise to, but of one thing we may be certain, 
the bad results achieved by o. jiumber of them will 
effectually prevent more capital being put into this 
industry for some time to came, 
IHK STATISTICAL AND MAUKET 
ruSITION OF TEA, 
It is certainly ii bliikin;; fact at tliiii time of 
low tea priccK, thai, statistically, the position of 
our staple was never better in tlie London 
market. Botli a« rejianls rate of consumption 
— (leliveiies— and the (iiiiinlity now iu Ktock, 
no t'eylon planter coc.ld wi^li for more favour- 
able ti^iure.s. They are aln)ot>t unpiecedentedly 
f,'oo(1. They are, nioieover, backed up by bbort 
t^liipmentj and a fallin-j-oli' in estimates ironi 
this t-iile with evideriee that ibese expericnees 
are likely to be siriin;rly accentuated in the 
approaching months, if not durin;: the rest of 
the year. And yet in the face of these facto, 
jirices continue almost at th'-ir iowe«t ! How in 
Ibis tact to be accounted for ? There muxt be t^me 
luuKual if not :.iy.<ierious factor, cjualifyinj; the 
.situation, and in the absc'ice of any rlther ex- 
planation, we cannot but fall back on the con- 
trol which the big tea-buying and distributing 
liou.scs are said to exercise over the Mincing Lane 
market. It is also said th.-it a temporary cause 
aflecting the price of tea has been the great run 
upon cocoa and especially vi-cocoa ; hut it iii 
now recognised that this v.'as a mere pa-ssiiig 
"boom" and that there is not likely to \te 
any special rise in the consumption of cocoa 
of a pe.-manent character. If then the prices in 
the tea market do not shortly improve, 
we can only be shut up to the conclusion 
that the big tea buyers are too many even 
for the very strong statistical position. In such 
a case, we should liail the .advent of a new 
firm like Gilbey's taking up tea, as it in 
rumoured to be doing in return for Lipton's 
going in for wines ; for, it is evident that 
the more numerous the big distributors, the 
less likely they are to arrive at a c.mmon 
understainling anri the greater the chance of 
healthy coni|)etitiou. We can lind no encourage- 
nientfor the suggestion tlmt a Planters' Direct Tea 
Supi)ly Association should be started ; but ob- 
viously if there is no improvement, au exj>eri- 
ment of this kintl will be forced on the pro- 
ducers. 
TflE PADDY WEEVIL PEST. 
A\ e are indebted to Mr. Vandei jioorten for a 
practical suggestion .as to lighting the very 
serious attack of weevils on ihc i>addy of the 
North-Western and Western Provinces. In the 
case of Indian corn and wheat in America 
naptbalme is used, the smell of which is sufficient 
to keep away weevils without doing any iiarin 
to the corn. Mr. Vanderpoorten would recom- 
niend t.ie use of a series of pieces of bamboo say 
each o feet long to correspond with the usual depth 
of heais of paddy. Along the sides of these 
bamboos gimlet boles should be bore<l -up even to 
an inch m diameter. Pinches of nai.tbaline should 
then be put in.side the bamboos which should be 
wrapped m a piece of clean cloth to prevent 
the rice getting into the bamboos. The naplba- 
fine is .so volatile tiiat when the bamboos 
were stuck into the heaps of paddy, say at o 
feet apart, tlie smell would very speedily permeate 
tlie heap and drive away the weevils, or prevent 
paddy as yet free, from being attacked. Mr 
Vanderpoorten has already sent some napthaline 
ti the Ivnrunegaia district to be expeiimented 
with, and it would be well if the Government 
Agent.s and Headmen and all intelligent natives 
