m THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Feb. 1, 1904. 
2 The development of green tea manufacture both 
in Ceylon and in India, to suit the American market. 
3 The continuous and satisfactory progress made in 
feeding new countries (eapeeially Russia) with both 
Ceylon and Indian tea. 
4 The knowledge that there are many countries like 
Germany, Prance and other leading European States 
which are potential tea-drinkers, and where tea- 
diinking has already made a beginning 
5. The greater solidarity of the representatives of 
the planting interests in London. 
No fresh flotations have been made during the 
year. The only additions to capital are calls of 
£1 a share on their ordinary capital by the Amal- 
gamated Tea Estates Company aad the Consoli- 
dated Tea and Land Companies aggregating about 
£100,000. The volume of dealings in the shares of 
tea companies has been on a very much larger 
scale than prevailed during the four preceding 
years, and, in some cases, at values considerably 
higher than prevailed during 1901-1902, during 
which years the lowest point was reached. We 
append our usual abstract, showing the range of 
values during the year for representaiive shares. 
Year 1903. 
Jan. Hot. Top. Dec Else. 
Ceylon Ordinary 
Shares. 
Alliance 
Anglo-Ceylon 
Ceylon Tea Plant.. 
Dimbula Vally . . 
Eaetern Produce .. 
New Dimbnla 
Nuwara Eliya 
Rtandard(£6 paidj 
Yatiyantota 
and C Mail 
8 
8 
9§ 
1 
52 
52 
24 
24 
25i 
25f 
5i 
54 
H 
41 
5* 
li 
o> 
3 
4i 
i 
2i 
2i 
3i 
3i 
2 
91 
9 
loi 
n 
lli 
lli 
hi 
13i 
13 
11 
51 
9i 
9 
H 
IMPERIAL SAND GROUSE SHOOTING 
IN BIKANIR. 
Bikanir is already renowned for its Imperial 
sand grouse shooting, for packs of grouse are to be 
seen by the thousands and the bags amount to 
hundreds of head. After, however, the famine of 
1899-1900 the grouse at first decreased in numbers. 
The shooting, however, has gradually improved, 
and absolute record bags, both individually 
and collectively, have been made this season. 
We have just returned from a very pleasant 
and enjoyable Xmas camp given by H. H. the Maha- 
raja at bis charming shooting box, Gujner— a 
beautiful place with a lake, situated some twenty 
miles from Bikanir. Before proceeding to give you 
details of the shooting I think it would be in- 
teresting to mention the mode of shooting and 
the record bags made in previous years. The 
Imperial sand grouse — a very handsome bird and 
very strong on the wing — is much larger than 
the common sand grouse and.has a most annoying 
habit of carrying away a charge of No 4 shot 
unless hit well forward. These birds come wherever 
there is water— and it is too plentiful in these 
parts— to drink once in twenty-four hours, and 
at their favourite tanks or lakes shortly after 
eight o'clock in the morning it is a wonderful 
and pleasing sight to sec pack after pack coming 
to have their drink and continue to arrive till 
10 or 10-30 a m. The sportsman has only to find 
their favourite resorts and to take up his position 
in an ' odi ' or 'butt,' which is surrounded by greec 
leaves and bushes, when without the aid of the 
beaters or any special bundobust good sport can 
be ensued. But let it not be imagined that it is 
tapie sport or mere slaughter, for the birds are 
very shy, and when on the wing are quite as 
hard to hit as driven grouse on a Highland or 
Yorkshire moor. 
THE RECORD TOTAL BAG HITHERTO 
was made in lb96, during Lord Elgin's visit to 
Bikanir, when four hundred Imperial sand grouse 
were picked up before breakfast, while the in- 
dividual record bag of 145 Imperial sand grouse 
and three duck was got by H. if. the Maharaja in 
January 1903, when H. R. H. the Grand Duke of 
Hesse was shooting here — the Grand Duke himself 
bagging 120 Imperial grouse. Between 1895 and 
now only three other bags of over a hundred for 
one gun have been made i.e , 103 and 105 in 1895 
and 102 in 1897. It will be observed from the 
following figures that this season H. H, the Maha- 
I'aja, shooting with two guns, has made a record of 
225 birds — all Imperials — in a morning, which will 
be hard to beat, when it is considered that the 
shooting lasts for barely three hours, and that 
before breakfast, and it will be admitted that for 
this particular kind of shooting Bikanir occupies a 
unique position in all India' ; — 
Dec. 26th.- Eight guns. 1st gun (H. H. the 
Maharaja) 225 Imperial sand grouse ; 2iid gun 91 
ditto ; 3rd gun 75 ditto ; 4lh gun 60 ditto ; 
fifth gun 62 ditto ; 6th gun 24 ditto ; 7th guu 
15 ditto ; 8th gun 17 ditto, total 569. The average 
of Imperial sand grouse per gun was 71 :— Dec. 
27th— nine gnns. 1st gun 64 ; 2nd 101 ; 3rd 40 ; 
4th 103 ; 5th 37 ; 6lh 89 ; 7th 101 ; 8th 19 ; 
and 9th 18, total 572, total for both days 1,141. 
The average of Imperial sand grouse per gun 
was 64. Forty-eight birds and one hare were 
also bagged. 
i might, before concluding, mention that billiards 
and boating (including an electric launch) were also 
provided and that as a wind up there was some 
pleasant little pigsticking, resulting in three tine 
boars being killed, the camp then breaking up to 
the great regret of the Maharaja's guests. — Cor. 
Pioneer, Jan. 8. 
TEA NOTES. 
Tea Shares in 1903.— The article quoted on 
the previous page will be read with interest. 
It is worth noting that fine teas are expected to 
benefit.by the recent full supply of the market 
with common qualities. The stoppage of 
extensions is not wholly due, in the case 
of Ceylon, to " inability to find new land" : 
it is largely due to unwillingness to specu- 
late, when the demand, as it is, is constantly 
more than met by the world's outturn. 
The planting interests' greater influence in 
London is a marked feature in the situation 
today ; the outlook altogether is hopeful. 
Buttered Tea.— The buttered tea so popular 
in Tibet is not exactly a delicacy from a Western 
point of view. The Tibetans put the tea hot into 
a large churn, to which are added salt and butter ; 
the result tastes very much like indiflferent and 
greasy cocoa. A small amount of buttered tea 
and tsampa mixed goes a very long way in satisfy- 
ing the hunger. When they can get it the shep- 
herd class eat large quantities of tsampa, or satu, 
which is prepared in the following manner : Grain 
is partly boiled and then parched and grounJinto 
flour. It has one great advantage, especially 
when travelling that no fire is needed to cook it, 
for it is good to eat when mixed with cold water 
into a dry paste.— C Mail, Jan, I, 
