^Jjp^V. 2, 19|^?.] TH^ T^IOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
339 
The yield of Coooa was good, 593 cwts. 3 qcs, 151b. 
having been aecared and sold, part ia LiouUon aud 
part in Colombo, at an average rate of KaT'CiS per 
owe. liaat year's crop was 42cii cwta., and realiaed 
R37'56 per cwt. The I'ea crop secured, iuclading 
14,069 lb. bought leaf, was 119,710 ib,, aud sold in 
(JoiOmoo at au average rate ot 30 66 cents per lb. 
Liast year's crop all told was 131,7tjO lb., and sold at 
28 o5 per lb. Ine Minor Products realised ±lo!j2*37. 
The total profit for the year ia R27.U5i52. After 
clearing off balance at debit of Prolii and Loss Ac- 
count (R9,835'17) and paying interest on Mortgage and 
Debentures, as well an piaomg K3,0J0 to a Debenture 
Bedamption Account, there remains a balance of 
R6,699'b6, which the Directors propose utilising in pa;7- 
ing at 4 per cent Dividend on the paid-up Capital of the 
Company, and carrying forward l:C699'3e to next year. 
Sixty Debentures have been paid off daring the year. 
The Estimates for the ensuing year are 550 cwts of 
Coooa and 155.00D lb of Tea to cost E.50,580, in- 
cluding expenditure on improvements and on minor 
products, 'The Oocoa-dryiug house will be enlarged 
nnd remodelled during the coming year, as it is too 
■mall now in every way to deal with present crops. 
A new Tea Koller also will have to be added to the 
Factory Machinery, In terms of the Articles. Messrs 
T G Huxley and A UoUingwood Small retire trom 
the Directorate, but are eligible for re-election, The 
appointment of an Auditor for the current year rests 
With the Meeting. The following is a definition p' 
the Company's property as at 30th June last: — 
Cocoa planted 1893 
Do 1894 
»o 1895 
J)o 1898 
lea planted 1890 (and Cocoa) 
m 1896 
Do 1897 
D» 1898 
72 
85 
56 
10 
119 
24 
100 
75 
223 acres 
Jangle 
Grass 
Total Cultivated 
-318 acres 
, 541 
. 180 
3 
..724 acre 
Total 
JBy order of the Directors, 
Geo. Steuart & Co., 
Agents aud Secretaries. 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
The report) which gained currency last week 
that Kussia contemplated increasing the duty 
on British-grown tea has now been confirmed. 
THE IMPORT DUTY ON INDIAN AND CEYLON 
teas imported into Russia by the European 
frontier and the Black sea is increased from 31 
roubles 50 copecks per pood to 33 roubles, the im- 
port duty on China teas remaining unchaugeil at 
the former figure. The reasons for this increase 
appear to be a wish to check the growing trade ia 
Indian tea, imports of which into Russia have, 
we believe, reached 20 million pounds annually, 
and is as yet in its infancy, and to encourage the 
import of China tea by the Trans-Siberian Railway. 
It may also be a little piece of retaliation for 
India's countervailing duties on bounty-fed sugar. 
Russian buyers are in evidence both in Colombo 
and Calcutta, and have for 'years selected the best 
tea they can get, particularly Daijeeliug growth, 
to satisfy the demand for good tea in their own 
country, so that any vexatious increase in the duty 
wiiU-b&a serious matter, both in their own interest 
and in that of the tea-producing countries of India 
and Ceylon. 
In a book entitled " Tea Hints for Retailers." 
by John H Blake, De nver, Colo., the author is 
of opinion that the Chi na teas will be retired from 
tliemarkets of the wond through the overwhelming 
and superior coihmeici ill methods of their rivals, 
which the Chinese inn ately are unable to take up. 
The tea-growiug experimeucs iu South Carolina 
ate referred to and ai^proved by the author, who 
would go so far as t o assist it with proper tariff 
consideration, which, as he thinks, would assuredly 
bring into bloom a valuable American industry 
and at the same time compel, .so far as demand 
compelled it, the use of a superior tea from abroad, 
low grades being prevented from coming in on 
account of the additional tax. 
THIS 13 THE WAY THEY PUFF JAPAN TEA IN 
CHICAGO. 
It appears in a small monthly called " Gude 
Thynges." " Tea time. The new Japan crop of 
1903 has just come in. Is there anything about 
tea that is romantic to you ? Anything away up 
the Omar Khayyam scale, with orders of pome- 
granates in Arabian Nights gardens ? Yes? We 
thought so, but— our tea, our new Japan tea of 
this season's harvesting. May we brew a sermo- 
necte about tea — our tea? It won't be unin- 
teresting. It's in, our new, fresh Japan tea. Now 
tea, though a dried leaf, may almost be said to be 
a dried flower. The dried iiower, exposed to the 
air, must give back to the sun its subtle aroma. 
So the dried leaf, so tea. Fresh tea, then, baa 
properties, that vanish in the open. So they who 
buy tea in small quantities from our great chests 
and canisters cannot know tea in its fullest 
value. But there is a way to do this. Buy teaia 
original packages of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 
pounds. Then you have tea direct from thQ 
Japanese garden to the Chicago teapot, and 
with a saving of 5 cents or more a pound. In 
tea, as in other things, the choice is at the tip- 
top. The tip of the plant and its two or three 
nearest leaves furnish the world's perfect tea^ 
Down the branch are other larger aud tougher 
leaves, from which comes tea of inferior 
delicacy. Blend some or all of these 
leaves and you have all known market 
varieties. We are great importers, as you know. 
We do not take what comes ; we direct what 
shall come. Our Japan tea, just iu, fired on porce- 
lain plates, was first picked from gardens of our 
own selection, and came to us by fast mail stea- 
mers. The crop for high-class Japan tea-s ran 
about 33 per cent, short this year." 
It is said that a watchmaker in Elpaso, Texas, 
named Anderson, expects to make a 
FORTUNE OUT OF A COFFEE TABLET 
he has invented, aud upon which he has been 
experimenting for some time. He claims that he 
has a perfect tablet made from the pure coffee 
berry. No foreign substance is used in the tablet, 
and the inventor says that he has accomplished 
something which has baffled chemists for years. 
He asserts that by the use of his tablet a mouth's 
supply of Mocha and Java coffee can be carried 
in one's vest pocket, and the aroma aud strength 
of the compound are never lost. He claim^^, also, 
that he removes the tannic acid of the berry, 
which causes nervous peop'e much trouble and is 
one of the objections raised to coffee drinking. 
The process ot coffee making is simpliCed by 
dropping a tablet into a cup of hot water. — S. an<i 
0 Mail. 
