48 
THE TF?OPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [July i, 1891. 
Estimates of 1891. — I have gone into these with 
Mr. Kerr, and on the aggregate see no . eason to alter 
total es:iinati>d profits, but much depends on the prices 
respeoiively of tea and silver. I think we may be a 
little too fanguiue on the prospects of the little ciiffee 
we have reraaiuinii; ou Invery Estate, but this I consider 
will be niado up, by what to uie appfars to he moderate 
estimatea of our aggregate returns from Tea. 
Ttie Quality of our Teaa for S'jme months to come, 
cxoeptii g perhaps Invery, I do not anticipate to be 
80 I'lCh as 1 hupa it will provo towards the end of our 
present yesir, and this must be attributed to the large 
amount of lesf, which tor a time will como in from 
what may be called " First Flushes." We have a larfje 
area pruned down on sll our Estates at present, 
which has decreased our yield, and will tell on the 
quality for a f w months to come, but will be ail in 
our favour a little later on. 
Manuritjg. — So far as can be judged, out experiments 
intbis iine have been a mcoe-s, and in s -me iuftances a 
great snecesB.for one,a manured field on Stratiid n estate 
has averaged for the last three months consnlerably over 
100 lb of made tea per acre per monih. So long oa tea 
keeps about presaut prices, exchange about Is 6J to Is 
6Jd, and labour as plentiful as at this daiejifhoud 
rt. commend tlie judicious application of manure to 
most ut the Company's estates, especially Abergeldie 
and portions of Stralhdon. 
Furiuugh Uirculars, as is.sued by several Companies 
in the Island, I do not propose to issup, but would 
wish that all rervauts of our t.'ompany ue always libe- 
rally treated with, and on their mi-rits. 
Cart Roads to those Estates which <1o not adjoin such. 
— I have ad led my sn-oug desire to Mr. Kerr's approvHl, 
that every effort should be made to ihus increase the 
value of our properties. I trust before long we may be 
able to say all our estates are "on" Oait Roai!s, all 
are perfectly feasible, and the outlay, in comparison 
with ihe advantages, ia as nothing. 
Govemmt-nt Keserve Forest adjoining Mincing Lane 
E-itate. — Tbis, though only a very small acreage , will, 
I hope, through the relax»tioa of Governmeuc rules, 
shortly be added, under cirtain couditious, to the 
Estate, and will be of much valuo. 
The B )ol£8 and Accounts of the Company in 
Cevlon aptiear to be kept in a proper and busiue.ss-like 
form. 
The Relationship between Mr. Kerr and his various 
Superioteudeuls. — This, a mo^t impurtant feature in 
the succehsful working of any group of Estate^, seems 
to be on a veiy sausfeciory footing. Al ipull well 
together. 
Labour Force appeits sofiicient for present re- 
quiremt-nts on all i he Estates. 
Adelaide Estate. — Thi* prt pTty, consisting of some 
230 acre?, of which 103 ate Tea ia full bearing, 50 
partial, a^ out 47 torcat, and ftbout 25 ohena, adjoins 
the Comijauy's property of Benachic, and is *bout to 
be added to the capital of tbe Company, un 'er the 
name of Loaach," and at the price of only R30,000. 
The properly was in;-pec!ed and valued by Mr. Ktrr, 
Mr. B!a.ckla\v, and mjself, and we were all of c.ne 
opinion, that toe price was extremely low, th:^t ih 're 
was much development, that it was of great vblue, 
aa adjoining one of not the least of our holdings, 
probably supplied a want to Benaehie, viz., water 
power, gave us an outlet to Watawala Stzilion, and 
so on. I determined to possess it for the Company, 
and I have every rtasou (o believe the investment 
will prove a very rtmuoeraiive one to the Company. 
The Eatati! gave about 27,UliO lb. of made Tei last 
year, and is cstimixted at. 30,000 this. The 60-acre 
field has not yet been plucked, which is greatly in 
its favour. 
Timber Trees.— Mr. Kerr and I are both quite 
agreed that tuch should be extensively planted— 
Chi. fly along road sides — not only on our Company's 
l,inds, but gonoruUy throughout tbo length and breadth 
of Ceylon's Tea dis rict«, nor, only tor iho purpose of 
gUi<p'ying a want, alrendy too keenly frlb (inuugh 
ha|)pily not iiy usj, viz,, tue', but for the brcaUiog 
up oi ( xiensivo area-) of one product, and ho in a 
f{reat measure scattering disease, llie usual result of 
over-proUuctiou of one product. 
The Scottif-h Oeylon Tea Company, Limited, are to 
be congratulated ou holding about 10 per cent, of 
standing; forest to their acreage in tea. and over and 
above, possess largo supidies of sound fuel, and a fair 
qtaantity of " sawable" timber on the ground. This, 
with water powi r ou all our Estates, cannot ba too 
highly appreciated. 
1 consider a cordial vote of thanks to Mr. Kerr and 
his Superintendents will again be due by the General 
Meeting in May. 
* • 
Cinchona Prospects. — A planter of "Ledger" 
weary of waiting for a market for his bark, writes 
from upcountry as follows : — 
"It's a weary business this Ledger, if we had put 
it all in tea at firKt we wculd have been earuiag 21 
per cent before this. When will the Ledger do that? 
Not, I fancy, until half the world's inhabitants is down 
with ii fluenza, and it wouid ba a dear dividend at 
that price. Btill we will see. The ops and downs 
i'l Oejlon are such that no he nest induitry should 
ever say die. Wo are still in the horrori of the 
wet senson." 
Agkicultokal Proddce — Under the auspices of the 
Boaid oi Agriculture, has been issued a statistical report 
showing the estimated total produce and ave' a^je yield 
per acre o£ th.^ principal crops of Great Britain for 
tbe year 1890. A general incrrase as compared with 
the preceding year is noted for ali grsin crops, but 
a deficiency is rec rded iu all root cropp, Potato* be- 
ing as much as 14 per cent below tbe m an of 1889. 
The average yii-ld of Wheat seems to be between 27 
and 28 bushels per acre. Hay was also defiuitnt, aud 
Hops 1 kewise. As there wai not alreary sufficient 
confusion iu our sy.-tem of weigbts and me:isurf it 
now appears that tber•^ are " acres" and "Hop aorea" 
— a circum t ince which bas l^d to some slight error, 
now corrected. — Oardeners' t'lironicle. 
A Narcotic Gras*. — St'pa viii lula of Trii iu=, var. 
robusta, is a variety co nm n in New Mex co, and 
which has a most injurious ttfeot upon boises aud ,-heep 
who Sire so unfortunate as to fe^d upon it. Cattle 
who have once ta-ted it, never again do so; but upon 
strange animals who do not avoid it, it acts as a 
strong narcotic or sedative. It is as poi on to th^m, 
especially iu the spring, when tbe blades fir t appear, 
causing a " ptofouu i tleep or stupor, la^tiug twenty- 
four to fortv -eight hnur?, when the animals rally and 
give no evidence of bad effec?." It is widely .known, 
ami avoided, ly the nati' es us "Sletpy Grass." We 
read (also in Gwdcn and Forest) that the species Stipa 
viriduJa is much esteemed as a pus ure or hay-grass, 
and tiiat it p"S-essts none of the injurious qualities 
of the variety robuata. — Ihid. 
The Pkkei'b Project. — bir Moutitstuart Grant 
Duff presided yesterday at a meeting of ihe Indian 
seeiiou of the Society of Arts, when Colonel Halted, 
K. B,, of the Local Government Board, and formerly 
Public Works Secretary (o ihe Govercmeat of 
Madras, read an interesting paper on what is known 
in India as the Perriar project. By the construction 
of a dam 155 feet high across the valley of the 
Perriar a lake will be formed, from which water 
will be taken by means of a tunnel 6,650 feet long 
through the mountain top and dropped down the 
eastern face of tbe Ghauts into the Vyravanaur, 
Ihe latter falls into a tributary of the Vigay, and 
these rivers will carry the water about sixi,y miles 
to a point west of Madura, when it will be dis- 
tributed by artificial channels over the country. 
Colonel Hasted claimed that the situation and 
oircum&tancas of the locality make the operatioua 
more sorioua than would be the construction of a 
large resc rvoir in the Welsh mountains. The work 
was oomm need in 1887, and it is expected that it 
Will be complet'jd v/ithin eight years. The total 
estimated co^^i, tnkir g the rupee as Equivalent to 
a florin, is G18,b00/. A tiisouesion foUowtd the 
reading of the paper, aud the vniue of the eoheme 
wi^B fully recognised. — 0. Mail, May Jst. 
