Deo. 1, 189S.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. 
421 
duction of about jd a lb. of tea, the tea market iu 
the early months of the year was depressed, the 
weather was very unfavourable during the first 
six months of the year, causing a febortape of 
crop, and the dislocation of trade caused by 
the fear of the phigne in Calcutta caused the 
bates of freight to rise considerably. I am glad to 
be able to cojitratulate the company on having 
weathered the storm very creditably, if I n ay as a 
director use the expression, though not without a 
certain loss of profits. The Is Id exchange has, as 
far as I can jnd;^e, come to sta3', for whether a gold 
currency be adopted or not the weight and influence 
of the Indian officials will probably be able to keep 
up the rupee to that rate, prejudicial as it is ack- 
nowledged to be to the producing interests and trade 
of India and Ceylon. On the other hand, the tea 
market has improved, and is now as high as it was 
at this time last yeai-, the fear of the plague has in 
a great measure passed away, and freights have re- 
sumed iheir normal rates, and it is hoped that the 
short fall of crop in the first half of the year 1898 
will in a measure be made up during the last half. 
Turning to the accounts you will see that directors' 
fees and income tax iu the aggregate are £1-10 ITs 
4d more th'<u in the accounts of last year; this i? 
because the income tax on the profits of the company 
for both yetirs is charged in 1897-98 expenditure. 
Then we come to the profit earned, which is 
.£"607 less than last yenr. This is accounted 
for by the loss of 1 5d by exchange, amounting 
to £.890, and the shortfall of 25,000 lb of tea 
which is responsible for £225, aggregating i'615. You 
will see that the price realised for our tea was more 
by :\ of a Id. than last year. Roughly speaking, this 
has been swamnod by the increased cost of production 
in a minor degree, and chiefly by the higher rale of 
freight. I may tell you that iu the early part of the 
year I went to Ceylon and had the advantage of talking 
over the working of the estates with our agents, ilessrs, 
Geo. Steuart & (,'o. 1 also visited the Kintyre estate. 
Any questions that any shareholder may wish to ask 
I shall be happy to answer. I now move the adoption 
of the report and accounts. 
The proposal was seconded by Mr. W. Nevett. 
In reply to questions from Mr. Fort, the (-Chairman 
stated that the price of the Kiutyre tea sent to Aus- 
tralia was 10 &3d, the net price being 8-C7d, while the 
net price realised in London was6'l8d. He went to 
Kintyre to ascertain whethei there was a fair divi.'^ion 
of the two classes of tea. The tea maker stated that 
they were ;he same, hut Mr. Bell, the manager, was of 
c piiiioii Ihdt the teas sei,t to Austialia we:erat':er 
better. The prices in Australia were very good — much 
batter than in J',nglaud. The latter had, however, im- 
proved of late, but were not what they ought to be. 
The estimate for this year was IGUjOOO lb. of tea, and 
the cost 2(jiJ cents, including manure. 
Mr. Fort suggested that in future more particulars 
should be given iu the report. 
The reports and accounts were then unanimously 
adopted. 
On the proposal of the chairman, seconded by Mr. 
Baumann, the retiring director, Mr, W. Nevett was 
unanimously re-elected. 
Mr. Port piopo.sed and Mr. Worthington seconded 
the re election of the auditor. The proposal was 
carried. 
The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to the 
chairman. — //. and C. Mail, October 21. 
Secon 1 report of the Directors submitted at the 
geneial tn^eting held on lloaday, the 17th October, at 
the otiiees of the Cuylon Association in London, 61 and 
t)2, (irncechurch Street, E.C. 
Tiienct prtifit on the s iles of the Company's produce 
amounts tof l.liGO IGs 7d, and after paying Directors' 
foes, income tiix, etc. £J(;t> 9^ 9d and Coinniissiun to 
tho estate Superintendents £2:-!2 G-f Od, there remains 
a balance at piofit and loss account of JE;J,9lj2 Os id. 
The Directors have paid lialf-vcarly tho dividends on 
the Preference Shares absoihiiig i'l.OUO ; they have 
written illUO off preliminary expenses thereby extin- 
guishing that account and put aside £2,'iO for wear and 
tear of machiner\ , etc., and they now recommend that 
a dividend of 5 per cent for the past year be paid on 
the Ordinary Shares which will absorb i'2,250, leaving 
a bal ince of i;73 lOs 8d to be carried forward. The 
Company's estate suffered a good deal from unprece- 
dented cry weather, which while it does not appear to 
have inflicted any permanent injury on the trees, 
greatly effected the quantity of leaf gathered. Kot 
only was the tea crop considerably short of the esti- 
mate, but it was much under last year's output, only 
reaching a total of 45-1,790 lb. and this iu spue of the 
young tea on Ayr which came into bearing. 
Tlie average yield of tea in bearing aas 519 1b. per 
acre. The gross average price of the tea sold in London 
and Colombo was 7'61 d., this being e.xclusive of the 
Kintyre produce sold in Australia. 
PLANTING COCONUTS. 
Mr. Thornhill Meedon, writing on the sub- 
ject of plantiiif; coconuts, says : — "I recollect when 
1 was a new cliurii in the early sixties assisting; 
in planting some coconuts under the sujiervision 
of an old vA est Indian planter, who placed them 
all eye downwards, giving as a reason that in 
a natural state tiie majority of tl'.ose that giew 
were such as tell in that position. He al.^o stated 
that if tlie nuts was not buried the shoot would 
always seek tiie ground to root hetore growing 
upward. Those we planted mostly came up, but 
wete subsequently destroyed by cattle, so that 
I can say nothing as to linal success of this 
method of planting."— '','('cr;?.s7«»rf Acir'wnltitral 
Grizdie. 
THE VANILLA CROPS. 
Paris reports that the 1897-98 crop of Bourbon and 
other vanilla producing countries has now completely 
arrived in Europe. As foreseen, 120,000 kilos have been 
supplied by iiourb' n ; the exports to the end of 
July from St. Dennis amounted to 120,802 kilos, 
and there was then about 5,000 kilos, on the spot . — 
Kilos. 
Seychelles supplied the market with .. 30,( 00 
Madagascar, Mauritius, Comores .. 25,000 
Jionrbon about .. ..12.'),0l'0 
Total . . 180,000 
The most exact conjectures for this year are : — 
Kilos. 
Seychelles .. .. .. 22,000 
Madagascar, Maui itius, Comoros .. 13,000 
Bourbon .. .. .. 80,000 
Total ..115,0 0 
The large decrease in the crups of Mayotte, Great 
Comores, Anjouan and Mukali is due to the two 
disastrous cyclones which destroyed most of the 
Comores crop in Februarj'. From Bourbon, the news 
of the large decrease, consequence of the persistent 
drought of the first months of 1898, is now confiinied 
some think it will amount to fifty per cent, but a 
crop of 80,000 kilos as a maximum may be reckoned 
upon, so that we should have a decrease of 65,000 kilos, 
on the 1898 — 99 crop, as compared with that of 1897—98 
S.'^ocks are not much larger than last ye-'r iu spite of 
the very large pi eduction of 1897 — 98, owing to great 
increase in the consumption. The stock in Paiis 
is 23,0ii0 kilos ; in Bourdeaux, 17,000 kilos ; together, 
40 000 kilos, composed principally of very ordinary 
vanilla, and some of doubiful preservation. In 
London, Hamburg, Ac, tho stocks are small. We 
are only now getting into the busy months ; stocks 
will bo quickly dwelt with, and at the beginning of 
of 1899 the deficit in the new crop v\ill lie a ccrtained. 
But already the line extra (putlitios aie very scarce 
