462 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUIMST. 
[jA.v. 2, 1899. 
had recovered all lie liad piih in and had ;;ot 
sotiiethinj; to go niioo. In liis (Mr. Siilneii's) 
opinion tlie K5,000 aslced fov was vei j' little for the 
Vogm Company ; it niigiit amount to per cent 
dividend they would have to fore|[,'0 and that wiis 
not very nincli. Then they had to think of the 
advantaf^e they would get if they could show 
that there was phiniiiago to work, tliat there 
was something to t-ell when they wanted 
CO sell, and for their li.j,0!)i) t'ley might get a 
lakh. It was not that the R.3 0 '0 would deve- 
lop the mine [iroperly, but they might p'ospect 
and show what there was to sell, and on that ac- 
eoun the would certainly vote for tlie 115,000 
being given to the directors. 
AN EXIM.ANATION. 
The ChAIRMAV, with reference to what \Ir. 
Mitchell had said al)oat the I ist paragraph in 
Mr. Feilding's report said that the rea-'on he sug- 
gested they should slop the work was that they 
were more or less working on native methods which 
as he said before they would not do any longer. 
He also could read to them about thirty letters. 
He had 24 proxies in favour of the motion be- 
sides a lot of other proxies which were not, for 
various reasons, of any use, and it might take up 
the time of the meeting too long if he were to 
read them all. He could not s ly whether it was 
due to their having opened this mine, hut he 
might mention that pii r to their beginning the 
woT-k there, there was some talk of their get- 
ting a sixth or something like that from a 
native to lease it. That morning he was in- 
formed that they had been offered one thinl. 
Whether that had anytliing to do with the 
opening of the mine so that the natives couhl see 
what w IS in it he would leave them to ju^lge. 
Mr. H. G. BotS said his opinion did not <|uite 
coincide with Mr. Mitcliell's— indeed it was dia- 
metrically opposed to it. The leUer which Mr. 
Suhren had read was a most interesting one and 
he entirely agreed with the remarks of Mr Suhren. 
If the Company were asked to put out a very 
lar^e sum he would not approve of it, but it was 
not a very large amount that was asked and he 
thought they wo\ild be neglecting their lesources 
if they did not 'develop them to the extent of 
♦his particular sum. He moved that the directors 
be authorised to spend from time to time moneys 
in the working and winning of plumbago pro- 
vided that the m oneys due on this account to 
the Company, after crediting proceeds by sale 
of any plumba.ro, shall not exceed K5,000. 
Mr." Percy Bois seconded. 
The amendment was then put to the meeting 
and was declared carried by 4-J to 10, these 
proxies including 31 in favour of and 9 against 
the amendment 
ALTERATION OF MEMORANDUM OF 
ASSOCIATION. 
The next proposal on the agenda was that the 
memorandum of Association of the Company be 
altered by the addition of the following clause : — 
To mine, search for, work, win, and dig for plum- 
bago or other -.ninerals and to sale and realise 
the same, or to let or lease land or mines for 
working and winning plumbago and other 
mineraUi and to carry on the business of miners 
and mineral workers in all its branches " 
The ClI.ViRMAN said the reason they asked that 
the memorandum should be al ered was that 
the articles were somewha- ambiguous. Some 
people seemed to think that they could mine 
and others that they could not. To be on the 
safe side they thought it better to insert the 
Ciause proposed. 
Mr. H G Bois proposed the resolution. 
Mr. SuilKKN' seeondetl. 
The resolution was carried on a *<how of hands 
l>y 12 to 1. riie proxies in f ivoui of it were 
32 ati'l 7 again-it. 
This was all the business. 
It was agreed that the confirmatory meetius! 
shouhl be held this day thr'e week^. 
TEV PllODUCirON' AND COST 
Attached to the first annual Uepon of the 
Directors of the " ('eylon and Indian Planters' 
Association, Limited," which, by the way, 
so far seems to include only four well known 
Ceylon estates, is a table of " analysis of 
cost f.o.b. C<dombo," which cannot fail to coin- 
?M md attention. Except in the case of the 
" Ceylon Tea Plantations Company," we do 
not think such lull details have ever been 
made puldic before by any Company's Directors. 
It is not simply that tiiere is an analysis of the 
j'ear's working fo far as crop, acreage, cost 
l)fr lb. "mtnure include.l," averaL'e rate of 
exchange, yield, profit, e-tiniates, &c. nre con- 
cerned ; but that the detads of expenditure 
for each property is given in cents i»er lb. 
of tea manufactured. This latter analysis is 
a gui le to tea planting in the present day of 
the most practic il and reliable kind as regards 
the districts represented. " Plucking and Baskets" 
represent the largest proportion of the cost and 
varies from I0 (i5 ceiits per lb, on St. Andrews 
to 1 1 96 cents M.iha Eliya ; manufacture, packing, 
A:c , goes from 'i'oo cents on Laxapana to 17j cents 
on Kandaloya ; while weeding shews so wide a 
discr -pancy as 2 42 cents on Malia Eliya and no 
less 1 han 5"44 cents on Kandaloya. The total cost 
))er lb. of made tea runs from 29'()1 and 29'65 cents 
OB Laxapana and St. Atidrews respectively (in 
the same district and close together) to SI Ol cents 
for Maha Eliya and 33 33 cents on Kandaloya. 
The prolits per acre were highest (£3 11-81) for 
Maha Eliya in Upper Dimbuta ; next £2 10s 3d and 
£1 17s 7d respectively for Laxanana andSt. Andrews 
in M iskeliya ; while Kandaloya lower down in 
Yakdessa only netted a profit of 10> 5d per acre. 
Evi.lently the last-mentioneil estate must have 
sufl'cred from the prolotiged drought , for against 
an estimate of 19i,000lh only 1.34,352 lb of tea 
were made. All four estates indeed were short 
of estioi.ate ; tlie total of the Coinoany's crops 
being 625,141 lb instead of 755,000 lb estimated. 
The detailed figures have no doubt been sup- 
plied by the experienced General Manager and 
Visiting Agent, Mr. George (Jreig and the 
Directois and Shareholders' interests could not 
be in safer hands. 

New FuutT Trkk. — A new fruit Tee is des- 
cribed by A'ldree in the Bfime Hortkolc. The 
nime of the plant is Feijoa seUowana. It is 
indigenous in La Plata, South America, hut also 
thrives in Sourhern France. The tree which 
blossomed and bore fruit in Andrcf's garden at- 
tained a height of 3i metres, and had the form 
of a shrub. The fruit is an oblong, egg-shaped 
berry, four to six centimetres long 7ind three to 
live centimetres wide, retaining its colour even 
in the ripest condition. The meat of the fruit 
is firm, of white colour ;ind s>ve-^t taste, c ):iioiiniog 
much juice, and giving off an extremely agree- 
able and penetrating odour. The flavour is said 
to remind one of the pineapple, —fijJ^icC'jjmio/j.^ 
