fsi Till: TiioncAL 
PORTMOEE TEA COMPANY OP CEYLON, 
LIMITED. 
Offices.— 21, Rood Lane, Lon-lon, E.G.; Directors. 
— R. C. Bo wie, L. M. Torin, W. Herbert Aiidersoxi ; 
Secretaries— Sliaiid Haldane & Co. ; Manager in 
Ceylon.— H. C. Grant. 
Tlie Directors liave tl»e pleasine to snbmit the 
General balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Ac- 
count for the year ending 31st December 1808, 
duly audited. 
£ s. d. £ s. d. 
The net amount at Credit of 
Profit and Lo.sti Account 
after providing for General 
Expenses, Income Tax, &c., 
ancl -writing ofTNcv Clear- 
ing Account £238 10s. Id. 5,107 8 5 
An Interim Dividend of 5 per 
cent, was paid 19th August, 
1898, amounting to ... 2,000 0 0 
It is proposed to pay a final 
Dividend of 7 per cent, 
(making 12 per cent, in all, 
free of Income Tax) which 
will absorb ... ... 2,800 0 0 
And to carry forward to next 
year a Balance of ... 307 5 8 
£5,167 5 8 
In presenting their .second Animal Keport, the 
Directors have pleasure in recommending a divi- 
dend of twelve per cent. 
The yield of tea has been 241,080 lb. being at 
the rate of .lO!) lb. per acre, the cost of production 
has been £4,340 8s. 8d. being at Ihe rate of 4d. 
319 per pound and the crop has netted £9,878 8s. 
5d., being 9d. 80 per pound cfpial to a profit of 
13.82 per cent, on the capital of the Company. 
The average rate of exchange for vear has been 
l8. 4 5-64d. against Is. 3 29-()4d. during 1897. 
The latest reports from the Manager in Ceylon 
dest5ribe the estates, buildings, and machinery as 
all being in good order and the estimate*; of crop 
and expenditure for the current year give promise 
of continued satisfactory results. 
The Directors desire to express their unqualified 
satisfaction with the manner in which the Manager 
and the Superintendent of the estates in Ceylon 
have discharged their duties dui-ing the year. 
By Order of the Board, 
Shand Haldane & Co., Secretaries. 
— r- ♦ 
PLATS TING NOTES. 
Quinine Spkculation has gone ahead strong 
this week, and cinchona is also in a similar 
position. — Chemist and Druggist. 
Peakls and Mother-of-Peael.— Everything 
connected with this subject is of interest in 
Ceylon ; for who does not anticipate the day 
when lucrative Pearl Fisheries will be resumed off 
our North- West Coast, and wlien not only the 
pearls but the shells will become an object of 
merchandise and trade ? 
THii; "NiLU :" ITS Districts, Habits, FLo^yER- 
ING, &C. — We direct attention to another in- 
teresting letter from Mr, Thomas Farr who did 
so much to help Dr. Triuien in describing the 
"Nilus" in his ■•Ceylon Flora." Mr Farr 
mentions there are perhaps 30 different kinds in 
the island. Dr. Trimen gives the names of 28 
species and considers all but three to be endemic ; 
but he thinks there may be other local species 
undetermined from not having been met with in 
flower. 
AGiUCULTURIST. [May 1, 1899. 
Coconut Pi.xmting in the ItTK aits. -Here 
is ncv»8 of I r )gresfi in Lower Peiak in the local 
(iarAtle of Mrticli 10th ; — Two Chirie.-e pUnieif 
frr,m Provii ce Weliesley applied im behalf of 
theni^elvps and tiieir brothers for l,&2«J acres of 
land, at ISftgan Daioh in this district, for coeo- 
nut iilantiiig, on i^imilar terms to thoce ^'iven to 
a recent Knroi'can applicant in the same locality. 
One luindied and forty-tix Tamil imniigranU 
arrived here on the 30th m the «teaiuer " PerM " 
('F.vr.oN Tea iv Fokkick and Colonial 
M ARlCliTS. — It is certainly a iittle eelf-denyinK 
un the pait of the well-knowu KoimI Laue firm 
of Tea Brokers to exjiress their great ^alisfac- 
tiofi— f«ee the^r letter eUewlieie— at tlie ptoeess 
which lias taken away so much teA from the 
London Maiket during ISfli— a process which 1* 
bound to go on during 1899, malcing Colombo a 
n)ore and more ini)iortiint tea market for the 
snpply of Australa^iia, America, Africa, the rest 
of Asia, Uu^fia and the re«t of the Continent 
of Europe direct, to the great advantage of our 
tea industry. 
Season Kkport.— The following is an abs- 
tract of Season Keport for the month of 
Febrnary for the CJalle District :— Paddy ; 
mall a harvest hab been reaped, and prepara- 
tioMs are being made for tlic bowiugs of yala. 
Miscellaneous : the supply of vegetables ia poor, 
("ficonut crop fair : price vsries from h3 to 
lU. Prices of staple food: rice, 113 t-o 1{4 per 
huslicl ; paddy, Ul -50 to K2 per bushel ; kurak- 
kan, H2 jier hnsliel : and amu, Kl.50 jier busheL 
Health satisfnctory ; a few cases of chicken- 
|iox and dy.-e:.teiy prevailed during the month. 
KainfdU : 2 21 in. 
Cevlon Te.\ Company Dividk-vus — »)ur Spe- 
c's' te e .ram frvm London affords information 
.•vs to tlie dividends ile laicd by a number of 
Sterling Tea Companies in thiir annual Beports 
just pulilislud. No one mentioned can be cxmsi- 
dered to make a brilliant appearance, the 6 per 
cent giNcn by the Piii.diluoya Company bein£ 
the highest. The Yatiyantota Company has, 
however, doubled its dividend of 1898 which was 
only 2 per cent ; but some othersof the Companies 
have done much worse. On the ()thcr hand the 
5 per cent interim dividend of the flourishing 
New Dimbula Cumpany is 1 per cent more than it 
was a year ago. 
Eucalyptus Globulus in Scotland.— Having 
read several letters in the Gardeners' Chronicle 
about these trees, my experience in the open hete 
may be of interest. Some fifteen years ago a 
plant of Eucalyptus Globulus was put out against 
a south wall of this house. The plant has thriven 
since, and now covers the entire wall, the top of 
the tree having been cut off many years ago to 
encourage the branches to spread. In 1894 this 
plant flowered freely. I gathered the seed in 
1896, and .sowed it in February, 1897. Almost 
every seed came u]i, and these are now .splendid 
young plant-, all of which I intend planting out 
when two years old. In the autumn of 1897 I 
planted in the woods two young E. Globulus, 
about 7 feet high, both these have grown rapidly, 
one making a growth of 9 leet 4 inches during 
the past summer. This plant is growing in a 
very wet jieaty soil ; the measurement was taken 
on September 30, and is accurate. Seventeen 
degrees of fro.^t was registered here in November 
last, but neither plant was in the least affected, 
Logan, Mullof Galloway, N.B. 
