356 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov, 2, 1903. 
Ibis estimated that Brazilian mica averages about 
£150 a ton for the better qualities, and that this 
yields a profit of close on £lOO a ton. The output 
in the last two years has nearly doubled what it 
was in 1900, and it seems likely to increase very 
materially. 
New York and London are the two great 
markets for mica in the world, the quantity sold 
annually in each city being about the same. 
In 1900 the mica imported into the United 
Kingdom from India amounted to about 1,700 
tons, of a value of about £175,000, Madras and 
Bengal contributed almost equal proportions to 
make up this total. The United States takes an 
enormous quantity of mica, a large part of that 
sold in Londou being reshipped to New York. 
Nearly all the Brazilian output goes to the States, 
and as the tonnage is increasing by leaps and 
bounds it seems likely that the Indian mica 
industry has a very serious rival to contend with 
in the immediate future.— " S " in the Pioneer, 
THE NEW DIMBULA TEA COMPANY, 
LIMITED. 
REPORT, SEASON 1902 1903. 
Submitted to the meeting of Oct. 21st.] 
The Direotors have the pleasure of submitting 
the a3Counts for the financial year ending June 30tb, 
1903. 
The crop, l,189,438ilb., is practically the same as 
the estimate. Though the season has not been a 
favourable one, reports from the Estate are very 
eatisfactory as regards the general appearance of 
the Tea, 
The yield was 5061b, per acre as compared with 
500 lb. for the previous season ; the net average price 
was 8 032d. as against 8-035d. in 1901-1902. 
The Electric installation is wotkiug well in the 
Factory, which with the machinery is in lirst-rate order, 
as well as the other buildings on the estate. 
The labour supply is still a difficult matter to deal 
with, and especially when cultivation is more exten- 
sively taken in hand, but the latest reports are 
satisfactory. 
The Accounts now presented show a surplus of 
£19,268 8s 4d, after writing off the amount of Tea Ex- 
tension, viz, £380 43 3d, Cinchona Expenditure £95 23 
8d, and the amount of the Factory and Machinery 
Account, via, £116 10s 4d. The Directors propose a 
dividend of 20 per cent per annum for the year ended 
June 30th last, 6 per cent of which was paid in March, 
togetber with a Bonus of 1 per cent, and the placing 
of 1,600 to the Beserve Account. 
For the working of the Estate during the past secson, 
the shareholders have every reason to be grateful to 
the management in Ceylon. Mr Dick Lnuder has 
unfortunately been in ill-health for some months, and 
left Ceylon in June on farlough ; his unwearied 
evotiou to the interests of the Company is well-known, 
nd to him and the Staff in Ceylon special thanks are 
due, Mr S Payne-Gallwey has taken over charge of 
the Company's property. It is satisfactory to add that 
Mr Dick Lauder will still continue his valuable advice 
and assistance by joinine: the Board while in England. 
— By order of the Board, A Crabbe, Secretary. 
LATEST HOME RUBBER SALES. 
Since last mail the market has become quieter, 
values showing a decline of fully 2d per lb. Para.— 
Fine hard cure on the spot is worth 4s 6Jd, and 
forward delivery 4s 5d per lb., business in all posi- 
tions being restricted. The auctions on the 2ud 
instant showed good demand at steady prices. 
East Indian kinds were in consequence of the firm 
tone of sellers mostly bought in, the sales com- 
prising 4 packages Ceylon, mark Yatipanwa, fine 
thin biscuits at 4s Q^d, darkish scrap at 3s 6d. 8 
packattes Straits ISeDtleraents, fine thm dark 
biscuits (grown Jrom Para seed) at 4-j 9Jd, scrap at 
33 3d per lb, ; 5 cases Assam, 167 Feuttog, and 12 
Borneo were boughc in, — Wilson, Smithett cfc Co.'s 
Circular, October 9, 
" Science AND Agriculture: What Ceylon 
IS Doing" — is tbe subject contribution to the 
Times of India, of October 19.— "It'Baitenzorg" 
— it begins— " may be regarded as a finished 
model of what scientific investigation as 
applied to agriculture should be, Ceylon may 
be looked upon as an example of how such 
an institution should be commenced by a 
country which cannot launch out upon a 
heavy expenditure. The Shining Island of the 
Hindus is half the size of Java and only 
one fifth the area of Bombay, and contrasted 
with either it is but sparsely peopled. Yet 
the inquirer into the subject of the develop- 
ment of economic products will find in the 
history of Ceylon in recent years valuable 
evidence of the influence of scientific research 
and experiment. Excellent as was the work 
done a generation or more ago upon certain 
lines, the effort to place the Ceylon Depart- 
ment upon a modern scientific basis only 
began with the opening of the present cen- 
tury ; and with all the extensions the cost 
today is less than a lakh of rupees a year. 
One can only judge the beginnings of the 
luodern system by the promise shown. Ceylon 
is even now "a child in these matters " and 
it will be years before anything like the per- 
fection of Buitenzorg is attained, Still what 
Ceylon has done, and is doing, may contain 
a lesson or two for Bombay. Its complete 
establishment, it is important to remember, 
deals only with an island 2o,U0u miles in ex- 
tent, , . . May not one ask the^e questions : If 
such an establishment is needed as the begin- 
ning of scientific investig ition of economic 
produces for an area of 25,000 square miles, 
and if the Dutch consider that Java with its 
50,000 square miles needs such an elaborated 
scientific organisation as exists at Buitenzorg, 
what are the reasonable requirements of the 
Bombay Presidency's 123,000 square miles t 
And what is its present establishment com- 
pared with what it should be upon such a 
basis ? , , . Last year, too, Ceylon began an ex- 
periment wh;ch will be watched by all the 
leading agricultural scientists in the world. 
It opened the first British Tropical Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station on any scale,,, . Upon 
the protective value of the scientific research 
now carried on one cannot of course quote 
figures. But special attention is paid to dis- 
eases which attack tea — the exports of which 
were last year valued at torty-eight lakhs of 
rupees— and already in the new experiment 
station twenty-five separate one-acre plots 
have been arranged for experiments with the 
light-and-dark-leaved indigenous jats, the 
China jat, and an Assam hybrid. The volume 
of literature now issued on the subject of 
diseases and giving information regarding the 
establishment of new industries bears ample 
testimony to the usefulness of the Ceylon 
De{)artmeDt upon its new and more scientific 
basis, \ 
