Apr.il 1, 1899.] tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTCRIST. 719 
but it may soon be raised again if they carry 
out the advice given to them by the blend- 
ers and increase the exports artificially over 
the estimate. If they clo so, they will lose 
all the benefits they derive from the sacrifices 
they have made and are making to iacrea.-ie 
consumption in other countries. 
The recent advance in j^i'ices of common 
tea does not fall on consumer's, but it seri- 
ously affects the pockets of the distributors 
who advertise the finest tea the world pro- 
duces imder cost price. 
I need scarcely tell you that when the 
finer qualities advanced some time ago, dis- 
tributors, who, owing to severe competition, 
cannot raise their prices, were forced to put 
less fine tea in their blends and more common. 
In this way they worked off the surplus 
stocks of the lower gi'ades to such an extent 
as to lead them to think they might be 
C(n'nered in them. They then rushed' into 
the mai'ket and bought all that could be 
obtained at an advance of a penny per 
pound. Whether this advance is of long or 
short dm^ation, depends upon the action of 
planters during the next two or three months, 
when the big flushes generally take place. 
If they send home a large increase in the 
q uantity of pekoe souchongs, down will go 
t he price to 5d per pound. If they tell their 
tempters to get behind them, there is a 
very fair prospect of the Ceylon tea industry 
having a good long innings of prosperity. 
For the last few months I have been 
preaching to all who would listen to me, that 
the slap in the face the Indian and Ceylon 
tea planters got last year or two, was the 
best thing that could have happened for 
their permanent interests. It put a stop to 
the extensive increases in Indian planting 
at one time contemplated and compelled 
planters, especially in Ceylon, to reduce the 
cost of production to the lowest point. 
They have been so far successful that at 
least thi'ee-fourths of the tea grown in 
Ceylon do not cost more than 25 cents 
f)er pound f.o.b. or at 16d exchange 4d per 
b. With a considerable knowledge of the 
circumstances of every tea-producing country, 
I do not hesitate to say that no country in 
the woi'ld can produce tea below that figure. 
Therefore, in any future struggle for ^pxist- 
ence, it need not be Ceylon that will go to 
the wall, if the planters do not lose their 
heads. 
THE HORREKELLY CO., LTD. 
THE COCONUT INDUSTRY IN CEYLON. 
We had noted for commeni the Report 
of this old Company which declared a divi- 
dend of six per cent recently not because 
there was anything striking or imus\ial in 
the Report, hut because the Horrekelly is one 
of the few Joint Stock Companies— as it 
was, perhaps, the first — which cultivate 
coconuts alone, and its position is therefore, 
of some interest. A dividend of six per 
cent in these hard times is not to be des- 
pised ; Imt after all that has been said 
about the remunerativeness of coconuts, 
the dividend seems insignificant as comi)aicd 
with those which some Tea Companies de- 
clnre. and have declaied oven in years of low 
90 
prices and high exchange. The explanation 
probalily is that Horrekelly cannot be 
reckoned among the crack coconut estates 
of the Island, though entitled to a i^lace 
among the good average ones. Then, when 
the Company was floated, it was genei'ally 
looked upon as, at least partially, a benevolent 
scheme to relieve an old colonist, who had 
fallen on evil times, of the incubus of debt 
that was weighing on him ; and the price 
paid for the estate to Mr. David Wilson, 
was considered by many too high. Possibly 
it was according to the prices ruling 20 to 
25 years ago ; but the cultivated acreage of 
800 works out RoOO per acre for a capital 
of R400,000 ; and that does not seem to be 
too high foi' coconuts in bearing, though the 
balance-sheet shows the sale of a block of 
five acres at R300 an aci'e. We suppese there 
are substantial buildings on the property, 
including machinery for the manufacture of 
coir and fibre. 
On looking up the Reports for the last 
three years — we presume the sytem has been 
followed in earlier Reports which we have 
not at hand to refer to — we find that the 
land is separately valued at R306,400, or 
less than K400 per acre — the buildings and 
permanent works being separately valued 
among assets, and the plant and machinery 
separately. As each Report places before 
the Shareholders, a statistical retrospect of 
the two previous years, we have before us 
the output of the estate, consisting of coco- 
nuts and coir fibre, for the past five years ; 
and it is interesting to note the variation in 
crops and the manufacture of fibre. The 
following is the statement we work out : — 
Coconuts. 
Ballots. 
Expenditure. 
No. 
Ceir Fibre. 
R, 
1894 
.. 1,002,237 
40,245 
33,-'43 
1895 
.. 1,332,965 
25,703 
32,747 
1896 
.. 1.548,081 
23,859 
30,463 
1897 
.. 1,400,835 
28,553 
32,066 
1898 
.. 1,437,885 
35,474 
37,014 
It will be observed that there is a difference 
of as much as 50 per cent between the lowest 
and highest crops of the past five years — 
surely a most extraordinary divergence, not 
to be matched in a product like tea, though 
possible it may in our old staple coftee. It illus- 
trates the dependence of coconuts on rainfall 
and the influence of good cultivation. The year 
when a little over a million nuts was har- 
vested was a very droughty year, and our 
correspondents are already comparing the 
present year with that one ; and Ave fuid that 
the Report for 1896, in referring to the cioj) 
with which it deals as a large one — it is the 
largest in the table we have prepared — 
specially claims for m.vnure credit Tor the 
result. " It gives ample testiiuony," ai'e the 
words, "to the value of manure which is 
now being api^lied systematically, and on an 
increased scale, thus justifying the enhanced 
expenditure sanctioned imder this head by 
the Directois," And certainly the crops for 
the two following years, though short of 
that for 1896, do not show the gi-cat varia- 
tion noticeable in the earlier years. The 
out-tiun of fibre, we presume, depends on 
the demand. Last year shows the second 
largest output of fibre, as it does the second 
largest crop of nuts, of the years \mdii- 
notice. 
