Aug, 1, 190^5.1 
THK TROPICAL 
AGBICULTURIST. 
101 
acquired a dispositiou to pay gi-adQally le^s and less 
for their tea, aud now that aa advauce ha-i taken 
place the sitaatioa has been rendered awkward. 
Moreover, the advance threatens to be of a permanent 
kind. It is satisfactory to HOte that shilling tia 
has been abolished, and that Is 2d is now the 
lowest price ; but what good is it to a grocer or to 
anybody else to be retailing tea now at Is. 2d.? 
Clean Indian or Ceylon teo, cannot bs bought on the 
London market for less than Gj 1 or B^d. On the top 
of that there is 6d. aud :^ per cent daly ; to many 
places over a farthing pound carriage ; retaUed '• fuil 
weight without the wtapper"; also tno wholesaler's 
profit to be added. We know that soma one-aud- 
twopeany blends have been lowered by the use of 
common China tea bought on the maikat at about 
SJd per lb. ; but such tinkering can only causa dissa- 
tisfaction to retail customers. Respecting the price 
alteration, is anything being done by the grocers' 
associations to acquiiut the public with the fact that 
they must expect to pay more for cheir tea— that there 
is a short supply and an advance in the wholesale 
price ? These facts might with advantage be adver- 
tised in local papers, as is sometimes done in regard 
to advances in sugar, and with good' results. This 
is one of the ways by which grocers' associations can, 
and do, please the rank and file of their members, 
because an oflScial aunouucemaut carries conviction 
to the public mind and enables tradesmen to obtain 
an advance with much less trouble than v.'ould other- 
wise be the case." The methods of the 
FIRMS WHO SRLL TEA AND OFFER PEN.SIONS 
are receiviug some attention just now from 
writers on financial topics. Tlie Financial Times, re- 
ferring to the pension system says : — " If properly 
arranged the scheme would be useful, but it is 
beyond doubt ttiat the present arrangement is 
wrong. Much more is being given to present bene- 
ficiaries than can poisibly be continued, aud the 
result will he that after, at the raof t. a few years the 
allowances will drop very far below the much smaller 
sum which mig'nt have been given all along if the 
rates had been based on actuarial principles instead 
of being made by rule-of-thumb, with a keen eye 
to the advertising value of the rou'.id half-sovereign 
weekly, 
B. C. A. PRODUCTS. 
In the first bulletin issued by the Board of Trade 
from the Imperial Institute there are references to 
products recently received from British Central Africa 
including colfee, tea, tobacco, rubber, fibres, beeswax, 
ginger, chillies, gum, cotton, and timbers. The coffee 
leaf disease is as yet unknown in the Shire 
Highlands, Chillies grow freely and require little 
attention. In recent years chili cultivation has been 
taken up by almost every planter in Nya^saland. 
Fibres from Sierra Leone and oohune nuts from 
British Honduras are dealt with, and there are 
articles on the chemical analysis of gutta percha m 
a guide in its oulcivation aud valu^-.tion, rubber cul- 
tivation in the Congo Free State, che cultivation oE 
economic pLmts in Jganua, cassava as a source of 
starch and allied products, and the cultivation of aloe 
fibres. — S, and C, Mail, June 5. 
CEYLON TEA. COMPANIES IN 1902. 
Last year again proved a very disappointing one 
to the planters of tlii.^ island, and the majority of 
the reports reeeiilly issued —or sucli of iheni as 
condescend to enter into partiaulirs — are 
FULL OF EXCUSIiS ArtD EXPLANATIONS 
of the failure to fnllil the promises made 
at tlie beginuia*:; of the season. We learn 
that after eomuieucini^ with weather c.jii- 
sidered good enough to justify tiie optimistic; 
forecasts indulged ia by tlie directors in thsir 
i«pjrts, anil at the meetings, Dame Nature iunied 
salky, and the latter part of tiie season was wet 
and unseasonable. Estimates, therefore, were 
rarely reached, ami in a few instances tlie total 
crop even fell short of that for 1901. [ii this res- 
pect the Din.bu'a Valley Company was the greatest 
snfierer, its crop being 273,153 1b. less, but the 
Alliance. Ceylon Tea Plantations, General Ceylon, 
KeiH.ni 'Valley, and Scvttish Ceylou all gathered 
smaller quantities, and in tiie case of those 
rash enough to announce their estimates for 
the year, tlie shortage vvas even more 
marked tiian the figures given in the 
following table would imply. The General 
Ceylon Estates, for instanci', looked for 2,081,190 
li), and seemed no more than 2,.3l8,88l lb, or a 
diiference ot over 200,000 lb, while the Poona- 
galla Valley, although iz obtained 417,376 lb, or 
20,783 lb more tliau iii 1901, expei;teil to gee 
450,000 lb. That poor struiyglmg company the 
Nahalma, however, actually got nearly Q,'J)0 lb 
more than it looked for, and about 30,00'J lb over 
the previous crop. Most of tiie undertakings re- 
frained from i)abl!shing their estimates, but ic 
may reasonably be assumed that their e:cperianc.i 
was in no way different. 
Plucking Crop. Price 
Company. Area. per lb. 
1901. 1902. 1901. 1M2. 1901. 1902. 
Acres. Acres. lb. lb. d. d. 
Alliance 2,6.55 2,711 1,036,861 1,034,836 (i6-60 a6-84 
Bandarapola 782 788 408,901 509,18,5 6-2.5 G' 
Burnside 1,144 353,284 4^0.002 6 53 — 
Ceylon 
Tea Plan- 
tations 8,962 8,887 3,957,335 3,885,821 7'41 7'24 
Dimbula 
Valley 2,059 2,157 1,193,357 920,201 B'll 9-37 
Eastern Pro- 
duce and 
Estates 11,023 11,007 3.83),333 4,001,313 6 61 6-39 
EdorapoUa 1,336 1,057 503,053 533,049 6 19 S'i? 
General 
Ceylon 5,436 5,477 2,371,738 2,318,881 6-04 6-05 
Highland 617 586 241,481 24L983 7^ 7^ 
Imperial 
Ceylon 1,630 1,630 647,742 627,979 a6-58 f66-29 
Kelani 
Valley 1,222 1,238 549,906 570,163 6-21 5'81 
Nahalma 416 446 185,268 215,890 4-66 4-41 
Nuwara 
Eliya 2,506 2,597 1,225,614 1,300,326 48 a8-28 
Panawal 590 590 273,322 275,563 6 — 
Poonagalla 1,2S0 1,269 396,593 417.376 7 7k 
Portmore 522 — 226,282 221,148 9-72 928 
Eangalla 716 b — 230,002 b — a6'40 b — 
Scottish 
Coylon 1,720 1,721 795,098 719,637 703 6-60 
Standard 2,481 2,484 1,105,998 1,183,972 a7 — 
Y'liyantota 2,970 2,932 1,261,484 1,434,496 aS'lO a4-84 
Nor was the weather the only cause of 
disappointment, as in spite of the forced 
restiiction of the output, the supplies 
coming into the market were still 
HEAVY ENOUGH TO KEEP PRICES DOWN, 
and the beSter figures so hopefally talked 
of were never reached. Here and there, 
perhaps, a company managed to secure a 
fraction of a penny more psr lb, amounting 
to as much as in the case of the Alliance 
and Higliland, and Jd in the oase of the Poona- 
g.iUa, whili the Dimbula Valley found some 
consoliiion for its short crop in a price about 
l^d higher. On tiie other hand the B uiJarapola, 
Eastern Pioduce and Estates, Bderapolia, [mperial 
Ceylon, Kelani Valley, Na'ialm i, Portmore, 
