Feb. 1, 1902 ] THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
52l 
THE TEA ESTATE WITH THE 
PREMIER YIELD. 
MARIAWATTE'S CROP FOR 1901. 
"We are obliged to the Superintendent, 
Mr. D. M. Salmond, for the figures show- 
ing the yield of Mariawatte, the premier- 
yielding tea estate of the island. In the 
van of all output-restricting properties, 
— largely perhaps from necessity, as well 
ns to some extent from set purpose— 
Mariawatte shows a decrease of 26.5 11). per 
acre for 1901 on 1900, and of 16 1b. on 1899, 
though 1,092 lb. average is above those of 
1899 and 1898 :— 
MARIAWATTE ESTATE. 
YIELD OF OLD TEA 
lOlA. iR. OP. 
M'lde Tea 
Yield per acre 
Ypar. 
lb. 
lb. 
1884 
109,230 
1,078 
1885 
117,812 
1,163 
1886 
105,925 
1,046 
1887 
115,996 
1,145 
1888 
109,410 
1,050 
1889 
ll.%834 
1,124 
1890 
140,144 
1,384 
1891 
120,366 
1,188 
1892 
119,909 
11,84 
1893 
115,440 
1,140 
1894 
110,448 
1,090 
1895 
118,560 
1,170 
1896 
113,360 
1,119 
1897 
105,729 
1,044 
1898 
108,423 
1,073 
1899 
111,987 
1,108 
1900 
1,37,066 
1,357 
1901 
110,302 
1,092 
YIELD FOR THE 
458a. iR. 17p. rainfall. 
WHOLE ESTATE. 
lb. 
1892 
643 95-74 
1893 
817 86-22 
1894 
750 72-00 
1895 
.. 886 100-28 
1896 
896 115-41 
1897 
920 111-25 
1898 
738 79-90 
1899 
749 106-81 
1900 
996 114-63 
1901 
792 84-38 
We congratulate the management on the 
result achieved, satisfactory from the general 
point of view of tea production everywhere, 
and also from the particular standpoint of the 
estate, where a shortage of rainfall of over 
20 inches (17 per cent) has been experienced 
during the past year. 
TEA IN TASMANIA. 
The gro-wing of tea for home consumption 
is, we learn from a Launceston paper, at- 
tracting attention iu Tasmania. The writer 
on the subject while fully admitting !the 
/hopelessness' of producing tea in quantities 
'for competition with China, Japan, India or 
other places where there is a superabundance 
of cheap labour, suggests that the plant 
should be put down as hedges, the ciipping 
of which in the spring, ^about August and 
September, would furnish leaf enough to 
meet household requirements, and perhaps 
also the wants of the non agricultural popu- 
lation of the smaller townships.— Madras 
MaiZ.Jan. 1. 
66 
UP-TO-DxiTE NOTES EROM SUMATRA.. 
TYPICAL OF SUMATRA'S EAST COAST. 
Dec. 10, 1901. 
Racial, — Tlie cosmopolitan natiite of the 
population has often beea pointed out. Within 
a two-mile radius of where I am writing are re- 
presentatives of the following European nations; — 
Britisli, Swis5, Dmish, French, Dutch and 
Gerni.m ; Asir'tici i—Maliiy, Javanese, Battak, 
Chinese, Tamil, Bengalee, Sikh ; ard sub-divisions 
of Javanese race, eacli having a different 
lanauage, Sundanese, Barneanese, Madurese. 
Tiiere is a story of a mixed gathering of Euro- 
peans, where the Tower of Babel was so nearly 
approacheil, that recourse was had to Malay as 
a lingua Franca. Of course, all were united on 
one point, and that was abuse of England. One, 
more travelled thin the rest, was de-cribing a 
visit he had paid to what he called ' Kampong 
London.' Kampong is the Malay word for village ! 
There is one eminent personage that foreigners 
are never tired of discussing, especially delight- 
ing; to picture liim in an everlasting maelstrom 
of finan.;ial worries. After a very free criticism, 
so the story goes, one gentleman of liberal 
ten-lencies closed the discussion with ' Ya ! itu 
p — of VV — tidah dapat chukup blandja !' 
' Yes : that P — of VV — does not get enough 
allowance !' 
Post Office.— An Englishman, stamping his 
letters at the P O window with stamps he had 
just bought, muttered to himself : ' These d— d 
stimps won't stick.' The clerk, a Dutchman 
of course, at once politely replied : ' We have 
a t!um-bottle here. Sir !' 
Railways. — There is a narrow-gxuge railway 
connecting Lower Langket with the Deli 
S,)oor-eneg Moratschapj)!] which .serves the 
more central p irt of Deli. Two friends of 
mine recently missed the ' Sural-siioor ' (narrow- 
gauge) at the terminus. So, bag in hand, they 
started to run after it, and caught it up ac 
the next station ! I wonder it a Bank Manager 
and a well-known planter will ever emulate this 
feat on the Kelani Valley line? The following 
is a good story of the ' Deli Spoor ' broad-gauge. 
Tiie Station master, as usual, saw the train oflf 
the platform as it went out. At the next station 
the passengers were astonished to see the same 
official on the platform as the train glided in. 
' Hullo ! what are you doing here? ' ' I am in tem- 
porary charge here.' ' But we left you behind at 
the last station ! How on earth did you get here?' 
' Oh ! after you left, I went to the buffet, took a 
whisky and soda, and came along on my bicycle.* 
Poverty among Tobacco-Planters !— Some 
time ago I sent you an account of a stupendous 
comitri^sioQ said to have been earned by a Head 
Manager. But there is another siile. A moat, 
heart le.iding story was told me the othc-.r day 
about a Head Manager of an ai>parently success- 
ful Tobacco Company who could not afford to 
buy a new hat. The reason why ? His com- 
mission this year is only 30,009 guilders. 
Can't you feel pity for a man reduced to such 
extremities ? He cannot afford himself a new hat 
because his commissioa is only £'2,500 ! Poor 
miserable devil! This sort of thing draws a tear 
of compassion from his neighbtur, the coffee- 
planter, whose very vitals are being eaten out 
by caterpillars, W. T. M'K, 
