46 
THE  TROPICA! 
agriculturist. 
[July  i,  1896. 
sions  to  be  carried  out.  The  Coini)any  lia« 
now  acres  under  tea,  and  538  acres  still 
under  collee,  besides  354  under  fuel,  forest 
liatana,  and  waste.  Mr.  Alfred  Ibown  has  suc- 
ceeded bis  father  as  the  etlicieut  INlaiui^ing 
Director,  Mr.  Nonuan  Stewart  (one  of  Mr.  .Jolm 
Brown’s  original  partners  in  Glenalpine)  being 
still  on  the  board;  and  besides  Mr  Leon  rannii, 
we  ha\xj  now  .Mr.  B.  C.  Uswahl,  so  well-known 
and  esteemed  in  Ceylon  as  Banker,  but  now  of 
Messrs.  Oswald  and  ^^evett,  London,  luerchants. 
Mr.  J.  Alec  Roberts  has  long  been  the  trusteil 
Secretary  of  this  Company  and  that  of  U\a 
and  both  have  entered  on  a new  era  of  prosperity 
—long  may  it  continue. 
THE  OUVAII  COFFEE  COMPANY. 
We  also  publish  today  the  report  of  the 
directors  of  this  Company  which  shows  an 
e.xcess  of  collee  secured  over  tlie  estiiuati*,  and 
an  average  sale  of  93/5  jier  cwt.  against  99/8. 
The  tea  yield  was  slightly  below  the  estiiuate, 
but  it  fetched  9-08d  per  lb.  against  8 t)(id  in 
1894.  Cocoa,  however,  sold  at  48/9  against  60/4 
for  the  preceding  year.  Net  profits  arc  returned 
as  £11,068.  A final  dividend  of  5 per  cent  is 
reconiniended,  making  8 per  cent  foi  the  yeai. 
Two  sums  of  £1,000  each  are  to  be  written  otl 
cost  of  estate  purchased  and  of  the  Badulla  lea 
Factory, 
VARIOUS  PLANTING  NOTES. 
The  CiTitoNELL.v  Case. — We  understand  that  the 
citronella-oil  arbitration-case,  which  has  been  referred 
back  by  the  Queen’s  Bench  division  to  the  too  drug- 
brokers  under,  circumstances  already  reported,  will 
be  reconsidered  by  those  gentlemen  on  Tuesday  morn- 
ing next. — L'Uemist  and  I>rti<j<jint,  May  1). 
The  Cultivation  of  Cotton  in  Egypt. — M.  de 
Vilmorin,  the  well-known  French  seedsman,  who  has 
been  travelling  in  Egypt  the  last  two  winters,  has 
submitted  a very  interesting  report  on  the  cultivation 
of  cotton  in  that  country  to  the  French  Society 
Nationale  d’Agriculture.  The  regular  cultivation  of 
it  does  not  date  beyond  the  first  half  of  this  cen- 
tury, and  a great  impulse  was  given  to  it  by  Mehe- 
met  'aU  when  the  various  inland  canals  were  cut 
to  regulate  and  equalise  the  annual  overflow  of  the 
Nile.” in  order  to  show  his  colleagues  how  rapidly 
the  growth  of  cotton  had  increased,  M.  de  Vilmorin 
included  in  his  report  a table  showing  that  the 
quantities  exported  to  Liverpool  had  risen  from 
15  000  bales  (of  about  64  cwt  each)  to  79,(H)0  bales 
in'  1850,  to  109,000  in  1860,  to  220,000  in  1870,  and 
to  210,000  in  1880.  The  cotton  crop  is,  M.  de  Vil- 
morin adds,  of  an  average  annual  value  of  about 
It)  000  OOoi,  and  it  extends  over  an  area  of  more 
than  1,000,000  acres,  with  a tendency  to  extend 
each  year.  Nearly  all  the  cotton  grown  in  Egypt  is 
cultivated  as  an  annual  plant,  being  sown  in  Slarch 
and  gathered  in  from  September  to  December.  M. 
de  Vilmorin  goes  on  to  point  out  that  careful  stud- 
ies as  to  the  best  methods  of  cultivation,  the  most 
desirable  varieties  to  grow,  and  the  most  effectual 
means  of  destroying  the  enemies  of  the  cotton  plant 
are  being  conducted,  aud  that  the  more  enlightened 
growers  are  beginning  to  use  plenty  of  artificial 
manure.  The  Egyptian  cottons  are,  in  M.  de  Vil- 
moriu’s  opinion,  merchandise  sxii  (jenvrin,  without  any 
precise  equivalent  in  the  world,  aud  likely  to  be  in 
great  request  among  the  manul.icturcrs  of  e tton 
goods.  He  points  out,  by  way  of  conclusion,  that 
although  the  development  of  cotton  cultivation  in 
Central  Asia  may  deprive  Egypt  of  a poi  tion  of  its 
trade  with  Russia,  there  is  little  chance  of  the 
Turkestan  cotton  competing  with  that  of  Egypt  in  the 
markets  of  Western  Europe.— 0.  J/VuV. 
Dr.  Tri.mkn’.s  RkC'KNt  Rkport.— A Bombay 
contem|)oraiy  .speaks  in  terms  of  j)raise  of  the 
annual  report  of  the  “ Botanical  Gaidens 
under  the  Govcjnment  of  Ceylon”  as  dealing 
with  que,stions  of  inime  importance  to  the  nier- 
eantile  community  of  the  island.  Reference  is  then 
made  to  the  figures  dealing  with  the  tea  and 
collee  cro))S  for  the  year. 
Cinnamon. — The  demand  for  cinnamon,  says 
i\\Q  Home  amt  Colonial  Mail,  has  ontstrii>i>ed  the 
supply  within  the  last  four  mounths,  and  the 
])jsition  of  the  article  is  a healthy  one  with 
price  111  to  2d  per  lb.  higher  than  they  were 
in  May,  1895.  Cinnamon  chips  are  likewise  pro- 
portionately dearer,  in  spite  of  enlarged  receipts 
and  accumulating  stocks. 
Lightnino  and  Treic.s.— Investigations  made  by 
Dr.  Carl  Muller,  and  reported  in  Himmel  und 
Erdc,  show  that  lightning  jnefers  to  strike  cer- 
tain kinds  of  trees.  Under  the  direction  of  the 
I/ippe-Detmold  Department  of  Forestry,  statistics 
were  gathered  showing  that  in  eleven  years 
lightning  struck  fifty-six  oaks,  three  or  four  pine.s, 
twenty  firs,  but  not  a single  beech  tree,  although 
seven-tenths  of  the  trees  were  beech.  It  would 
seem,  thou,  th.at  one  is  .safer  in  a storm  under 
a beech  tree  than  under  any  other  kind. 
“ Banana  Flouh  has  been  lately  adopted  in 
the  manufacture  of  yeast.  From  its  richness  in 
starch  and  good  fl.avour  it  is  to  be  particularly 
suitable  for  such  a purpose.  The  yeast  is  of  a 
good  colour,  and  has  the  requisite  properties  for 
keeping  well.”  So  writes  a trade  paper  on  this 
wholesome  product.  With  regard  to  the  banana 
being  rich  in  starch,  this  is  an  error.  As  a matter 
of  fact  its  freedom  from  starch  renders  it  the 
most  wholesome,  easily  digested,  and  nutritious  fruit 
grown.  Banana  flour  forms  a splendid  food  pro- 
duct, and  cannot  be  praised  too  highly. — The  Fruit 
tlroirer.  May  18. 
Nii.giri  Planters  and  the  Laoyiurd  Beetle.' 
—At  a meeting  of  the  Nilgiri  Planters’  As- 
.sociation  held  on  the  16th  inst.,  at  Ootacamund, 
it  was  decided  to  ask  Government  for  a.s.si.stance 
in  procuring  the  lady-bird  beetle  from  Australi.a 
())•  the  Samlwich  Islands,  in  which  latter  place 
it  has  been  found  very  effective  in  destroying  the 
scale  bug  on  jilantations.  Mr.  H.  O.  I^ewport, 
a member  of  the  Lower  Pulneys  Association, 
laid  a paper  on  the  subject  before  the  Nilgiri 
Planters’  iVssociation,  and  Mr.  Stanes  gave  a 
very  interesting  account  from  per.sonal  experience 
of  the  good  elfected  by  these  beetles  in  the  fsaiul- 
wich  Islands. 
Swamp  Land  pou  Likeuian. — The,  to  outsiders 
apparently  inevitable  collapse  of  the  Klang  boom 
in  Selangor  has  brought  some  curious  facts  to  notice 
in  the  local  papers.  One  is,  as  far  as  we  can  under- 
stand, that  even  20  or  80  feet  bogs  will  in  time  fo  in 
excellent  plantations  for  Liberian  coffee.  Messrs. 
Christie  and  Forsythe  are  bitterly  bl.amed  by  the 
local  planters  for  throwing  up  their  land  when  they 
learned  it  was  practically  useless  to  think  of  plant- 
ing it  up  until  the  place  had  been  thoroughly  drained, 
but  how'  many  years  this  latter  operation  would  take 
no  one  could  tell  them.  Mr.  Carey,  one  of  the 
Selangor  spokesmen  and  Honorary  Secretary  to  the 
local  P.A.,  says,  in  other  words,  the  whole  fiasco  is 
due  to  the  wretched  conceit  of  Ceylon  planters  pre- 
tending to  know  the  true  value  of  Klang  land  better 
than  even  the  resident  planters.  It  may  be  also 
deplorable  ignorance  on  our  part,  but  we  cannot  for 
the  life  of  us  understand  what  else  Messrs.  Christie 
and  Forsythe  could  well  have  done.  'The  usual 
custom  for  planters  in  districts  outside  Selangor  is, 
we  understand,  to  avoid  wasting  even  ten  years,  if 
possible,  before  beginning  to  plant  out  in  frc.sh  forest 
fR’.'/-’'.  attires  varurs, — I'lantintj  Uninion, 
May  28. 
