872 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[June 1, 1899. 
COCONUT PLANTING IN CEYLON. 
[From Mr. llutherford's .sjieeuk at the Cct/lon Tea 
Planta'.ions Company, Limited.) 
Our issue 1 capital of £248,460 is eqnivalpnt to a 
capital val'ie of £23 per acre for ail the |jla,nte<l land 
in tea and coconuts, allo\vin{» £1 par acre for t'le 
value of cultivated lands. The advances to coolies 
last year stood at £13,008, and are now at 
i;il,201, which is a Htep in the right direction, 
and had the crop been a larger one there 
would have been more work for our labour 
force, and consequently wilh nioie wagsf. thfy 
would h;ive hem in a better position U< 
repay their advarces. Th'j inve-itncnt'i at 
cost are £29,045, an inciense of £215 over tlie 
previous year, and if the.«e .'■ecuritiesi were 
realised tliey would yield a considei a!)!e profit 
on the cof^t price, Tlie c.n'onnt. es-tates and 
mills now stand at £51,491, or £4,270 abov'e what 
they were the previous year. The sales of tea 
anionnied to £122,.385, or £8,2:?6 less than the year 
before, but tiie expenditure in Ceylon 
was less by almost exactly a like amount 
conuniasions and interest this year amount 
to the considerable the sum of £5,357, ami 
I may |)oint out that a (,'ood share of ihe profits 
so earned tomes from our having a reserve fund, 
enabling us to earn int'-rest and also commissions 
from sources other than the conimission charg-'d 
on the company's own sales of produce. I do 
not think 1 need sny anyrliiiig more with regard 
tothe figures in tiie aeconnls, than merely to 
state that the net prolit of £41,381 is only £813 
under that of last year. Reverting back to that 
portion of our reserve invested in coconut estates 
and mills, as we show very little profit under 
this head, some of you maybe of the opinion the 
investment is not a particularly good one. To 
make our position perfectly clear to you. I n)ust 
explain that of the £51,494 so invested, £28,000 is 
in young coconut estates, which cannot be expec- 
ted to give any return until the trees begin to 
bear in four or five years' time. £19,400 is the 
price of iSirangapathe Estate, the only place we 
have in bearing, and which has given us a return 
of 6i per cent, per annum from the day we bought 
it. It is not yet in full bearing, and we look for 
better results with age. The balance of £3,800 
represents the cost of our Hunupitiya Mills, 
which during tiiis, the first full year of their 
working has unfortunately resulted in a loss of 
£848. The chief reason our manager gives for 
this is that the engineers who had the erection 
of the oil machinery were unable to get it to 
work and no oil was produced in 1898. Added 
to that, the price of desiccated coconuts fell so 
low that we lost on our manufacture of this article. 
We have every confidence, however, that the 
mills will pay a good return on their cost, and 
that t!ie loss for the first year's working is more 
or less incidental to fresh ventures of this nature. 
We liave had estimates made which show that our 
capital outlay to bring our planted lands into 
bearing coconut lands (inclusive of cost of tnills) 
will amount to £57,000, and a profit of £2 per 
acre would yield fully 7 i)er cent, on that capital 
sum. The acreage we have in bearing has yielded 
an average prolit of £2 163 per acre (and that 
is not in full bearing), so that we would like 
you to understand our belief in the future of that 
portion of our reserve investment is in no way 
weakened by the unfavourable re-sult of last year. 
Tq return to our larger intere.''ts in tea. 
TEA PLANTING IN CliVLOS. 
It would Becm that at length tlie continued 
and combined efforts of Ceylon and India 
in finding new markets for llieir teas tiave 
had the de-siied ellect of increaning the demand 
in various countries of the world, and to 
turn the scale in favour of the producer. 
There is every lea-son to hope that as exten- 
sive clearings of land for tea have practically 
ceased, at any rate in Ceylon, bui>pliee for the 
future will be well within reasonable limits 
ol the deiipind, and that prices will be main- 
tained at a fair level of profit to the producer. 
This company Ueu^ inactically exhausted its 
reserve land for opening out in tea, and we 
have been asked by some shareliolders in that 
case why we do not purchase forest lands, and 
add to our acreage in cultivation. Our reply 
is that the Ceylon Government have closed 
the door to the acquisition by planters of any 
remaining forest land at high elevations, and 
that the production ot low-grade teas in the 
poorer junt'le lands still remaining in the low 
country of Ceylon is not sufliciently attractive for 
a C'lmpany like this to venture into. As you are 
awaii', we have been carefully noting the effects 
ot m muriii;;, and I think had we not cultivated 
oui lju-liei as well as we have done, we would not 
be now enjoying the good results we are. We 
began m\uunn:^ in a tentative fashion in 1893, 
and hav.' during the last three years spent an 
average annual sum of £4,41)0 on this item. It 
is our endeavour to Ijring the estates, if not up to 
a higher yiel'ling cap icity, at any rate to do all 
we can to kef I) them from going back in produc- 
tiveness, and this, naturally, can only be done 
by a more liberal system of cultivation. Where 
we have carried out manuring persistently and 
sj'stematically it has undoubtedly resulted in a 
greater prolit per acre, and sustained the bushes 
in a more vigorous condition than they otherwise 
would have been. Manuring a fourth of our acreage 
yearly would entail an outlay of nearly £7,000 
per annum, and should we come to the conclusion 
this extended policy of manuring is necessary 
to increase, or even maintain, our profits, we 
shall not hesitate to incur the extra expendi- 
ture under this heading. 
Mr, Talbot's view. 
We may reasonaWy hope that we can 
equalise our crops if we can cultivate 
sufficiently. As regards the results of our manur- 
ing, the treatmsnt we have adopted for the last 
two years in some of our estates has been en- 
tirely successful. It has repaid outlay. Having 
come to that decision with regard to our culti- 
vation, 1 can speak with confidence as to the 
future of this Company, for in my visits to 
Ceylon I saw a good deal of tea planted in ex- 
liausted lands which were not so treated and 
which in unfavouraole weather was of necessity 
unreraunevative. You gentlemen in the tea market 
know the advance being made in Ceylon tea. 
In Colombo, I know that some influential Russian 
buyers had started to take up large quantities 
of tea, and now that we know our output from 
the reasons I have given is likely to increase, 
I tiiink the company is in a much better position 
than it was before. With regard to the working 
of the estates, I dare say you will remember in 
the early part of last year there was a great demand 
for economy. vVe made good provision for the 
plucking and manufacture of tea with the resulfc 
