June i, 1892.I rHF TROPICAL 
AQRIOULTUmST. 
CEYLON AND ORIENTAL ESTATES COMPANV. 
With regard to our criticism of the Ceylon and 
Orient Estate Company, formed to purchase various 
tea properties belonging to Messrs. Baring Brothers 
and Mr. Thring in Ceylon, Mr. Ferguson calls atten- 
tion to the fact that " the price of tea was abnormally 
high in March, 1891, and that the comparison made with 
the question of March, 1892, is therefore hardly a fair 
one." As we have not the least wish to be unfair in the 
matter, we are pleased to give prominence to this 
opinion. 
Although we have no doubt as to the correctness of 
Mr. Ferguson's remark, the fact does not remove the 
great objection we take to the prospectus on behalf of 
the public. Why was not the price of tea given ? If 
abnormally high in March, 1891, why could not this fact 
have been st'ated ? In dealing with the price of tea, 
we naturally made a comparison between quotations 
now ruling and those of twelve months ago. The fall- 
ing off in value is more than abnormal, it is startling. 
In his excellent paper on Ceylon, read before the 
Royal Colonial Institute, Mr. Ferguson detailed how 
the annual export of tea had risen within 15 years from 
1,000 LB. TO 68,000,000 LB, 
" while there is the probability of the Colony 
attaining to an export of 100,000,0001b. in the 
course of the next few years." The author of the 
paper touched very lightly, indeed, upon the decline 
of the London market. "But on the other hand, 
the falling prices of recent years for tea generally, 
and the fear of over-production — of supply out-run 
ning a demand profitable to the planter — forbids me 
to say that there is scope in Ceylon for more tea- 
planters, unless they be young men with capital." 
To show what an important part the market price 
of a product plays in the finances of those who grow 
it we have only to recall the collapse of cinchona, or 
Peruvian bark, which at one time was being planted 
all over semi-abandoned coffee estates. " Over the 
hill country generally " — we again quote Mr. Fer- 
guson's words — "this culture has had to be given 
up, since the price of quinine fell (mainly through 
large crops of bark from Ceylon) from 
12s TO Is AN OUNCE 
and even to 9d an ounce— between the years 1877-79 
and 1891." Against the tea enterprise, as a whole, 
we have not a word to say. No doubt means will 
always be found, by cheapening of labour and 
economy of management, to keep a fair margin of 
profit in all the best districts ; but with regard to 
the company formed for the purchase of Messrs. 
Baring's estates, we cannot advise our readers to 
entrust any single one of their financial eggs to so 
doubtful a basket. 
In connection with Tea Companies, I cannot 
help referring to the sudden death of Mr, David 
Reid, Chairman of the Ceylon Plantations Com- 
pany, and whose name has been so fully in your 
ookimna of late, the contractor for the Nawalapitiya 
and Mlatale Railways, and the Unionist oandidate 
for Caokmannan and Kinross ehires. A career 
which sef-med only to be opening at home, has 
beon thus unexpectedly closed to the groat regret of 
a wide circle of friends. Muoh sympathy will be 
felt for Mrs. Reid and family. 
I was pleased to bp e Mr. Geo. Hedges lookinR so 
well on meeting him in the City the other day, 
and to learn of his hopefulness about the steady 
development of the Ceylon tea trade with Austra- 
lasia which he did so much to fostar and develope, 
by his visits to Melbourne, in the early days. 
As regards the future and improved preparation 
of Ceylon tea, I feel sure lliore is much yet to be 
heard. Several experiments in this direction have 
oome under my notice of late ; in one case the 
process of fermentation and drying is the subj"ct 
of close, detnilod and soientitio observation under 
the dreotion of an experienced planter, who, how- 
ever, does not wish nam. a or opoiations mentioned 
further in tlie rauantimo. Tho respective merits 
of high and low tomporaturo drying will also bo 
further tested. I have seen a report by a member 
of Messrs. W. J. & H. Thompson's firm, of_ a 
most favourable character on samples of Indian 
teas, dried at a low temperature. But more light 
and experience generally are required. 
As to the Mandeinq of Tea and an improved 
Aqbicultdeb generally, you are likely to hear 
from Mr. John Hughes by this, if not indeed, by 
last mail ; for Mr. Hughes has been good enough 
to write the following to me worthy of quotation 
even at the risk of repetition, especially what is 
said of tea :— 
By last Friday's mail I forwarded to your office, 
Colombo, a copy of Dr. Voelcker's lecture ou Thurs- 
day, April 7th, at the Indian section of the Society of 
Arts on the Agricultural Needs of India. I also 
enclosed some remarks of mine upon one of the 
points raised in reference to the present practice of 
Ijurning cow-dung cakes or sun-dried bratties as 
they are called. 
I pointed out that the practice was no doubt a waste 
of valuable manure, but being the result of neces- 
sity and not of choice the natives could not be blamed, 
and that the Government should rather endeavour 
to provide other fuel such as the supply of forest 
reserves. But after all that in as much as the whole 
of the mineral salts such as the potash, lime and 
phosphates remaned in the ashes which under proper 
sanitary arrangements should be restored to he land ; 
the actual loss was confined to the nirogen com- 
poimds, which however being resolved on burning ino 
gaseous products were either absorbed by the grow- 
ing plant or crops or were brought down again in 
the rain and to a great extent retained by the soil 
for subsequent plant food. 
As regards the absorption of nitrogen from the air 
it is important to remember chat in round numbers 
80 per cent of the atmosphere really consists of ni- 
trogen in a free form. Further recent scientific re- 
search has proved that leguminous plants such as 
vetoh, clover, peas, beans, lupines, &c. have the 
power in a very special degree of absorbing this ni- 
trogen and yielding large crops of valuable food and 
also by virtue of increased root extension leaving 
the soil also richer in plant food for the future crop. 
What leguminous plants therefore can do in a special 
degree other plants may be able to do in a smaller 
degree so that we may find by an bye that nitrogen 
especially in tropical climates is largely supplied to 
plants and trees by natural means and doea not re- 
quire to be supplied directly by ftrtificial means as we 
find necessary in our temperate climes. How comes 
it that India has for centuries produced crops of 
corn, rice, gram, &c., without practically any nitro- 
genous manure being supplied, and yet the soil ap- 
pears no more exhausted now then at the commence 
ment ? 
It would be a most interesting experiment if a Cey- 
lon planter would select a good average tea bush just- 
ready for pruning and pick off all the leaves, weigh 
them at once and then dry them gradually in the 
sun like grass is made into hay, then again weigh the 
dried leaves and forward a sample here for analysis. 
We should then know the actual weight of the green 
leaf per acre and with the weight of the dried leaf 
could make a calculation of the water lost. I beUeve 
vpe should find thg quantity of nitrogen very large 
and much in excess of ihe supply of the soil itself. 
THE KELANI VALLEY TEA ASSOCIA- 
TION, LIMITED. 
REPORT OP THE BOARD OP DIBECT0E8. 
To be prciented to the Shareholders at their Sixth 
Annual Ordinary Meeting, to be held at the Offices of 
the Company, on the 27th April, 1892, at 2-30 p.m. 
The Directors beg herewith to submit to the Share- 
holders the Keport and Accounts of the Oompanv 
for 1891. ^ ' 
I'ho results of tho year have br on somewliat atfeoted 
by the low priced of tea obtained, giviuK for the 
Compiny's produce a less average than (or previoua 
