496 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. . [Jan. 2. 1899. 
estimated yielcl of 400 lb. per acre, and this would 
have been secured bnt for severe drought during the 
latter part of the season which was felt throughout 
the Island, and more particularly ju the Badulla 
district. 
The total proceeds from the sale of produce amounted 
to £17,2:^1 4s 5d and expenditure in Ceylon and London 
was iK14,553 2s 6d, leaving a profit on the year's 
working of £2,673 Is lid. To tliis profit a sum of 
£691 Is 4d has to be added, being the balance brought 
forward from last year, and after debiting £100 163 8d 
for Income Tax and £900 for Dividend on Preference 
Shares to Slst July 1898, there remains a balance of 
£2,363 6s 7d now to be dealt with. 
The Directors recommend the payment of a Divi- 
dend of 2i per cent for the year on the Ordinary 
Shares which will absorb £2,000 of the above sura and 
that the balance of it'^63 63 7d be carried forward to 
next year. 
During the past season the sum of £7,191 133 lid 
has been spent on Capital Account, and recent advices 
from the Manager on Spring Vail' y lead the Directors 
to believe that the whole of the contemplated exten- 
sions, both of the Tea area and Factory, will be com- 
pleted by the close of the present year. 
The area of the estate as on Slst July, 1898, was as 
follows : — 
TKA. 
Acres. 
5 years old and over 
811 
Planted November/December 
1893 
234 
Do. 
1894 
173 
Do. 
1895 
145 
Do. 
1896 
1,')9 
Do. 
1897 
194 
Area under Tea 
1,716 
Do. Coffee 
114 
Do. Fuel 
167 
Forest Patna and Waste . . 
262 
Total Area ... 
2,259 
The Tea crop now being plucked is estimated to 
produce 499,400 lb. of made Tea, exclusive of bought 
leaf, and though the effects of the drought continue to 
be felt, this yield is still looked for. The latest 
advices report the estate to be in good order and con- 
dition throughout. 
The Direct ora regret to report the death of their 
much esteemed Colleague Mr. Norman Stewart. 
Mr. P. C. Oswald, a member of the Board, retires on 
this occasion, and, being eligible, offers himself for re- 
election. 
Messrs. Deloitte, DeVer, Grif&ths & Co., the Auditors, 
also offer themselves for re-election. 
By order, J. Alec Bobeets, Secretary. 
Dec. 3rd, 1898. 
^ 
SALE OF AN INDIAN TEA ESTATE. 
As showing the extent of the depression in the 
tea industry, Messrs. Mackenzie, Lyall and Co., 
of Calcutta, under the order of the proprietors, 
sold by public auction, without reserve, on the 
14tla instant, the valuable tea estate known as 
the Mattigarah Tea Estate, as a going concern 
as from the 1st January next. The estate, which 
is situated below Darjeeling, comprises an area of 
about 570 acres, of which about 346 acres are 
under tea cultivation, held under renewable Gov- 
ernment 25m<^«/is. The outturn of the past sea- 
son was 93,292 lb., and the estimated outturn for 
the current season is 120,000 lb. The bidding 
started at Rl.OOO, and gradually rose to K3,300, 
at which low figure the estate was knocked down 
to Mr. Smallwood, of Messrs. Davenport and Co., 
Calcutta. The number of bidders was very small, 
^Madras Mail, Dec. 16, 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Tea in America.— Mr. Ehvood May sends us a 
characteristic letter for the bcnetit ol Ct-ylon lea 
\) antens. It is Mr.'May's fixed belief lliai we are 
payin|< too much for the benelit of Indian tea in 
America, that Ceylon tta piished by itself would 
make its way more rapidly, an<i that to spend much 
money in Canada is superfluous, as the Di>miniou 
of British mbjects is on a sure way 10 use only 
Briti»li-growu leas, whether advertised and Bub- 
sidised, or not. Mr. May would have ua believe 
thai, apart from Canada, very iiitle pvoi^resn 
is being made in America; but we are glad 
to think that our fi<;uies of exports from Colombo 
shows a steady increase both Westward and 
through the I'acilic Coast. We regret to learn 
of Mr. May's ill-health, glad lie hius a fcon to 
temporarily relieve him in tlie lea bu«i«ess, and 
trust lie himself will shortly recover his u«ual 
vigour. 
Electrical Transiii.s.sion ok Powkr.— At 
the Society of Arts last night Professor George 
Forbes, f.r..s., read a paper uii the '• Long-Dis- 
tance TraBsmissiou ot Elecliic Power." Sir J 
Wolfe Barry was in the chair. The lecturer 
began by remarking that, though Ijiig-diBtauce 
transmission had been much talked about, little 
had been done, and liieie were few people who 
realized wliat a vast lield there was in that way 
for invet^tment of capital on a found commercial 
basis. He proceede<i to refer to some instances 
with which he had to deal in India, New 
Zealand, and Egypt in which long distances 
were concerned. Thus he found, when consider- 
ing tlie utilization of the Nile cat.-iracts, that the 
electric lighting of Cairo cDuld be done more 
cheaply by power generated ;it the First Cataract 
—400 miles distanct as the crow Hies— than by 
steam engines at Cairo, and he believed that if 
the gold mines in Khodesia were really good it 
would pay liand.somely to traii>mit electric energy 
500 miles from the Victoria Falls of the Zambezi, 
provided the surveys showed the falls to be as 
saiisfactory as they appeared by the photographs 
and provided that fever was not an insurmountable 
obstacle. Many a gold mir.e, hitherto considered 
worthless becau.se of the cost of power, uouKi be 
found to be valuable if water-[)ower were avail- 
able within a few hundred miles. People were 
often appalled at the capital required for copper 
conductors, but he suggested a simple financial 
transaction which he believed copper merchants 
or others would willingly make and which might 
avoid the huge capital required by those that 
transmitted power. He proposed to divide the 
capital account into two parts— ordinary stock 
that might be looked on as speculative, and bonds 
on the copper, which would be as sound an invest- 
ment as could be desired. Most of the capital 
of a transmission company was required for the 
copper. On this, which might be removed if the 
enterprise failed, and was an absolutely safe 
seciuity, a mortgage might be raised, 4 per cent 
being probably sufficient to cover the chances of 
a change in market value, and tnus by a simple 
transaction a great reduction might be made in 
the total capital required by the transmitters 
of energy, with con.sequent " increase of interest 
earned. Professor Forbes concluded by explain- 
ing some methods elaborated by himself for 
rapidly estimating the cost, on the ordinary 
lines of working, of any particular case of long- 
distance transmission of power by electricity. A 
discussion followed the reading of the paper. 
London Times, Nov, 24, 
