OcT.'l, 19G1-] The tropical AGRrCULTURISr. 
2^1 
eases of malaria per thousand men. But the state 
of things gradually improved, and malaria has con- 
siderably diminished since then. In the last few 
years the number of malaria cases in the same part 
of the garrison has been only about 30 per thousand 
that is only one-thiitieth of what it used to be. In 
this case also people were disposed to ascribe the 
improvement to the drying up of two swampy 
meadows near the town, which was effected in the 
years 1868 to 1870. But apart from the fact that 
the decre.ase of the malaria was not simultaneous 
with the draining of the swampy meadows, but took 
place quite graudally and equably in the course of 
the last thirty years, at about the same rate as in 
the German army, there is another circumstance 
wliicli speaks very decidedly against the causal con- 
nection between the decrease of the malaria and 
the draining of the meadows, namely the fol- 
lowing : while malaria has been diminishing 
in the garrison it has been increasing 
among the civil population, which is no 
more and no less exposed to the influ- 
ences of the climate and the soil, including the 
swamps near the town, than the garrison. In 1890 
the number of malaria cases in Pola and its 
suburbs was 24*8 per thousand ; since then it 
has risen to 132*5 in the year 1900, that is more 
than five-fold, and thit noD suddenly, but quite 
gradually. In the same period the number of 
cases in the garrison has gone down to one third. 
So here we have the striking phenomenon of an 
increase of the number of cases in one part of 
the population and a decrease in another in one 
arid the same place. This can be due only to some 
difference in the circumstances of these two parts 
of the population, and the difi'erence is that the 
garrison is under continual medical supervision, 
so that every case of malaria is at once properly 
treated, whereas among the civil population, for 
which medical assistance and quinine are too ex- 
pensive, this is not the case. 
" Of reasons, then that speak for the practica" 
bility of the measure proposed by me in different 
climates under different social circumstances, and 
(iti whatever scale one likes, there is certainly no 
lack. Nevertheless I do not ask you to come to 
al decision on this question just at this moment, 
when, as already stated, experiments testing the 
Value of the various methods proposed are every- 
where being riiade. In a few years the practical 
results of these experiments will be known to us, 
and then you may act on the good old saying 
" Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." 
— Pioneer. 
^ _ 
STRANGE CIRCULAR TO THE " MUIR " 
SHAREHOLDERS. 
iNAbEQUATE REASONS GIVEN FOR DELAYING 
REPORTS AND ACCOUNTS. 
On the top of the discussions that have re- 
cently taken place as to the position of Indian 
Tea Companies, the circular just issued by the 
Muir concerns comes with peculiar force and 
serves to illustrate in a sufficiently startling way 
the critical state of the industry. We believe this 
is the second communication ot the kind the 
shareholders of these companies have received this 
summer, and therefore more interest attaches to 
the present document than at first sight appears. 
SYe reproduce the circular practically at length in 
order that our readers may fully appreciate the 
arguments set foi th :— 
Registered OtHces— 22, West Nile-street, Glas- 
gow, 7th August, 1901. 
Dear Sir,— 
The Consolidated Tea and Lands Company, Ltd, 
The Amalgamated Tea Estates Company, Ltd. 
The Kanan Devan Hill Produce Company, Ltd. 
The Anglo-American Direct Tea Trading Com- 
pany, Ltd. 
We are requested by the Directors Of the 
above companies to inform you that the issue 
of the reports and accounts for year ending 30th 
November last has been unavoidably delaiyed 
by tiie absence in India of Mr P R Buchanan, 
the practical tea planting member of the 
Board, with whom the Directors have always 
hitherto consulted in the preparation of these 
documents, and with whom they are at present in 
communication in regard to same. As some share- 
holders are desirous to obtain information at this 
juncture, we think it right, meantime, to give the 
following particulars ; — 
The Consolidated Company has 52 estates in 
the Dooars, Assam, Sylhet, Uarjeeling and Cey- 
lon, with 28,806 acres under cultivation. The 
Amalgamated Company have 22 estates in Ass^tii, 
Sylhet, Darjeeling and Ceylon, with 13,355 acres 
under cultivation. The Kanan Devan Compatiy 
have 26 estates in Assam and Travancore, with 
16,019 acres under cultivation. The Anglo-Ame- 
rican Company have 27 estates in Assam, Cachttr, 
Southern India and Ceylon, with 15,221 acres 
under cultivation. 
Mr P R Buchanan, on whose advice these estates 
were originally purchased and planted, has already 
visited India four times with the view of promoting 
the interests of these Companies. Towards the 
end of last year Mr Buchanan, on account of the de- 
pressed state of the tea market, and tlie unfavour- 
able prospects then prevailing, considered that it 
would be in the interests of the Companies that he 
should visit India and Ceylon that he might, from 
his practical experience, extending overraany years, 
be able to advise and assist the managing agents, 
superintendents and managers on the spot in their 
services on behalf of the Companies. This offer 
the directors gladly accepted, and he left London 
for Ceylon by mail of 4th January. 
"While in India at this time Mr Buchanan's head- 
quarters have been principally at Munar in Tra- 
vancore, but he has been in close touch with the 
managers of the various estates in Northiern 
India and Ceylon, and has had several iniportant 
interviews with some of the Companies' superin- 
tendents and principal managers and has thus 
been enabled to suggest certain alterations and 
economies in the working of the estates by means 
of which improved qualities ot tea are being pto- 
duced at the lowest possible cost, and without im- 
pairing the efficient upkeep of the estates. 
There can be no doubt that the present crisis is 
very acute, and that the tea industry has seen 
nothing like it since the year 1860, when a con- 
siderable number of planters in India snfiefed 
very severely. 
Your directors, along with the directors ot other 
companies, were prepared to support a schteme 
which was formulated about five months ago, to 
restrict production, but unfortunately through the 
apathy of the Ceylon planters, the scheme had' to 
be abandoned. 
The directors do not anticipate any immediate 
relief from the depregsion which is now existioj;, 
