THE TROPICAL 
AGKICULTURIST. [May % 1904. 
NEW PLANTING COMPANY. 
Central America Coffee Importers Ld. (80,842 
—Registered Mar. 15, with capital £1,000, in £1 
sharei to acquire and turn to account land in 
any part of tlie world, to plant, cultivate and deal, 
in coffee, tea, cocoa and other crops and food 
products, etc., No initial public issue. The first 
Directors are H 0 Emery (Managing Director) and 
A E Etzensberger, Registered ofiice. 407. Moor- 
gate Station Chambers, E 0.— Investors' Guar- 
dian, 
PLANTING AND OIHER NOTES. 
To Owners of Plantations— who are troubled 
with white ants I commend an interesting article 
in the February number of the "Tropical Agri- 
culturist " which deals exhaustively with the 
subject and throws out three methods of coping 
with them.— Cor. in Penang Gazette, 
Indigo-growing in Java— is steadily on the 
down grade. Prices have dropped to a serious ex- 
tent and planters find it hard to sell at any profit. 
The growing crops have been stricken with disease 
and the worst is feared. Planters are now so hard 
pushed that they are almost driven to despair. 
—Straits Times, 
A London Broker on Okylon Tea .— 
Mr. Oscar Thompson of the well-known London 
tea firm has completed a long round of visits to 
Ceylon Estates. He predicts a period of 4 or 5 
years' great prosperity for Ceylon tea, as the 
consumption is steadily increasing, and there 
is practically no more land in Ceylon and 
very little in India to come into bearing 
in tea. The quality of Ceylon tea for the 
last two or three years has not been very 
satisfactory, but that is not due to faulty manu- 
facture. The impression he carries away is that 
the whole of the island is looking uncommonly well. 
Mr. Thompson thinks highly of the manner 
in which Ceylon tea is prepared, but thinks 
that there might be an improvement with 
regard to the firing of teas, it being a 
question of whether perfection has been reached 
in this matter. With great stress of work 
machines have to be made to treat a larger 
quantity of leaf. A radical change must therefore 
take place before the improvement can be effected; 
the old fashioned Chuta method used in firing 
China teas by which more fragrance is retained in 
the tea was preferable. There is not the same 
stage of perfection in Ceylon as compared with the 
slower method in China. 
The Indian Silk Industry .—Endeavours con- 
tinue to be made to stimulate and revive the 
tassar silk industry in the Central Provinces, by 
devoting suitable areas of Government forest to 
the production of the cocoons, the shortage of which 
is hampering the industry. The native methods 
of reeling in the Central Provinces are extremely 
primitive. So far the introduction of improved 
French and Italian methods of reeling in other 
parts of India is believed not to have been atten 
ded with success, but Mr Hewett says he has in 
formation that attempts have recently been made 
elsewhere to introduce Japanese artificers and 
methods. The matter is to be inquired into. — 
Pioneevt 
Thorium in Ceylon.— An important an- 
nouncement, from the Imperial Institute, of 
one result of our Mineralogist's work appears 
elsewhere, and deserves attention* 
A New Manufacture of the Government 
Cinchona Plantations —at Daij^eling, says a 
contemporary is that of sulphate of cincbonidine, 
which ought perhaps to find a ready market in 
India. 
Qualities of Copra.— Writing toWork, (Feb,) 
a correspondent asks how to distinguish good 
quality copra from inferior quality, The answer 
given is :— The quality of copra depends on 
the amount of oil tbat it contains, and also on 
its freshness. The more oil copra yields, and 
the whiter and fresher the oil, the better the 
quality of the copra. The determination of the 
oil is made by weighing off a sample of the pow- 
dered material and treating with ether in a Sosch- 
lett tube, then distilling off the ether, drying the 
fat, and weighing. On the large scale, a ton or 
less would be put through the press, and the oil 
obtained weighed, ■ 
The Drayton (Ceylon) Estates Company, 
Ltd.— At the annual meeting of this Com- 
pany a dividend of 8 per cent for the 
year— the same amount as has been distri- 
buted for the last three years— was declared. 
Provision was made for depreciation, &c., 
while R11,413 was carried forward. The crop 
was short of estimate by 17.793 lb. as was 
the case on almost every estate at the same 
elevation. Manuring has not been neglected 
and last year R12,372 19 was expended in this 
way the benefits of which should be soon 
apparent. The Directors and Manager are to 
be congratulated on the continued prosperity 
of the Company. 
British Tea in Russia.— It is specially a 
interesting to note, in connection with 
the war and the fiscal question, that Sir 
Edward Sassoon was to ask in the House] 
the quantity and value of British tea 
sent to Russia in 1901 3 ; but it is sur- 
prising that Renter has telegraphed 
nothing about the matter. In regard to 
Ceylon tea for Russia M. Ishgarisheii (of 
the local Russian firm, Messrs Steherbatchoff, 
Tchokoff & Co.) said to a contemporary :— 
It ja cheaper to send tea tbroagh St. Feterabnrg 
to Moskow. From Odessa to Moskow it coats one 
rouble and 23 kopecs as against 53 kopecs frem St. 
Petersburg to Moskow, per ponnd. We prefpr China 
teas, of coarse ; but since the amount of China tea 
has fallen off of late, we take in tea from India and 
Ceylon. I must say Ceylon tea is not so good now 
in fermentation as it used to be. It is very much 
poorer and that is the reason why Bussian ^rms are 
beginning to look to India rather than to Ceylon, 
We never see that nice copper colour in the infnsed 
leaf we used to get from Ceylon ; it is always poor 
end green. Consequsntly, the Bnssians are turning to 
the stronger tea from India. The last year's figures 
are significant, showing the increase of the Indian 
export to Bassia — a rise from 4 millions to II 
millions. The poor fermentation does a lot of barm 
to Ceylon and the outlook for Ceylon planters is 
serious as far as the Bussian market is concerned. 
It is also worth notice, in a Java tea trade 
report that Java planters are increasing their 
care in tea production and that they are 
Id per lb. better off as regards tea duty in 
J^ussia, 
