670 
THE  TROPICAI.  AGRICULTURIST.  [April  i,  1897. 
THE  TALGASWELA  TEA  CO^IPANY 
OF  CEYLON. 
The  annual  general  meeting  of  shareholders  of 
this  Company  was  held  at  Colombo  on  the  27th 
Feb. 
The  Annual  Report  was  as  follows: — 
Teas  . . 703  acres 
Other  products  . . 35  ,, 
Forest  andchenas..  1,031  ,, 
Total  . . 2,039  acres. 
The  Directors  have  the  pleasure  to  present  to  the 
Shareholders  their  Annual  Ninth  Eeport  with  a duly 
audited  statement  of  the  Company’s  affairs  as  on  the 
31st  December,  1896. 
The  crop  for  the  year  turned  out  150,2001b.  of  tea 
against  an  estimate  of  160,000  lb.,  and  was  all  sold 
locally  at  an  average  of  cts.  42'70  per  lb.  against  an 
average  of  cts.  47'52  per  lb.  for  the  previous  year. 
After  payment  of  interest  on  preference  shares  and 
writing  off  the  usual  amounts  for  depreciation,  there 
remains  a balance  of  R6,209'78  for  disposal  and  the 
Directors  propose  the  payment  of  a dividend  on  the 
Ordinary  Shares  of  3 per  cent  carrying  forward  the 
balance. 
During  the  year,  the  planting  of  coconuts,  recom- 
mended in  the  last  report  was  proceeded  with,  and 
200  acres  have  been  lined  and  holed  of  which  75 
acres  have  been  planted.  The  Directors  intend  in- 
creasing the  acreage  under  this  product. 
The  estimate  for  1897,  is  170,000  lb.  tea.  Messrs. 
S.  .?gar  and  H.  VanCuylenburg  retire  from  the  board 
by  rotation  and  are  eligible  for  re-election. 
The  appointment  of  Auditor  also  rests  with  the 
meeting,  and  Mr.  Guthrie  offers  himself  for  re- 
election  — By  order  of  the  Board  of  Directors, 
Baker  & Hall,  Agents  and  Secretaries. 

TRAA^ANCORE  TEA  ESTATES  COMPANY, 
LIMITED. 
Registered  February  1,  by  Murray  Hutchins,  Stirl- 
ng  and  Murray,  11  Birchin-lane,  E.C.,  with  a espi- 
al of  FT50,000  in  £1  shares,  divided  into  75,000 
referred  and  75,000  ordinary.  Object,  to  adopt  and 
arry  into  effect  a certain  undetailed  agreement  for 
he  acquistion  by  purchase  or  otherwise  for  the  fol- 
lowing tea  estates  situated  at  the  Peermad  district, 
in  Travanoore,  in  Southern  India,  the  same  being 
known  respectively  as  Bon  Ami,  Mount  Nanja, 
Mully,  and  Kole  Kannam,  or  any  of  them,  or  any 
parts  thereof,  and  to  develop  and  turn  to  account 
the  same  in  such  manner  as  the  company  shall  see 
fit ; and,  generally,  to  carry  on  business  as  planters, 
growlers  and  producers  of  tea,  coffee,  cinchona, 
eoooa,  cardamoms,  and  other  plants,  trees,  and 
natural  products  of  any  kind  in  India  or  elsewhere; 
to  prepare  for  market  tea,  coffee,  rice,  and  other 
products  ; as  warehousemen  and  carriers  by  land  and 
water;  to  work  mines  and  quarries,  and  to  find, 
get  win,  work,  crush,  smelt,  manufacture,  or  other- 
wise deal  with  ores,  metals,  minerals,  oil,  precious 
and  other  stones,  or  deposits  or  products ; to  carry 
on  the  business  of  mining  in  all  its  branches ; to 
acquire  work,  and  turn  to  account  any  patents, 
patent  rights,  &c. ; to  build  and  work  tea  factories, 
coffee-curing  mills,  factories,  tram  roads,  &c.  The 
signatories  are  : — 
Shares. 
H.  K.  Rutherford,  21,  Mincing-lane,  E.C.  ..  1 
D.  Reid,  Shootfield,  Sevenoaks  . . • . 1 
H.  Tod,  21,  Mincing-lane,  E.C.  ..  ..  1 
W.  R.  Grant,  101,  Leadenhall-street,  E.C.  ,.  1 
\V.  H.  Anderson,  Rupert  Lodge,  Burnham,  Maiden- 
head . . . . . . . . 1 
\V.  Johnston,  Bart.,  21,  Mincing-lane,  C.E.  ..  1 
W.  Mackenzie,  39,  Netherhall-gardens,  Hampstead  1 
Registered  office : 21,  Mincing-lane,  E.C. — 11.  and 
0.  Mail,  Feb.  19. 
A LESSON  IN  GARDENING  IN  CEYLON. 
(By  a Planter  in  a Medium  District.) 
Nallamma,  my  principal  kangani's  wife,  had,  no 
doubt,  many  attractive  qualifioatious.  In  addition  to 
an  unusually  clear  complexion  and  features  that  any 
artist  would  have  been  delighted  to  transfer  to  canvas, 
her  charm  of  manner  was  irresistible : always 
apparently  happy,  in  spite  of  domestic  cares,  bright 
without  effort  and  jocular  without  freedom  on  the 
one  hand  or  loss  of  dignity  on  the  other.  But  her 
chief  attraction  in  my  eyes  was  her  constant  love 
of  gardening,  and  I determined  one  morning  to 
inspect  the  kangani’s  garden,  and  to  do  what  I could 
to  encourage  their  cultivation.  It  had  occurred  to 
me,  too,  that  it  would  be  a good  plan  to  give  the 
kangani  the  greater  part  of  my  newest  lot  of  English 
seeds  on  the  understanding  that  he  should  supply 
me,  at  moderate  prices,  with  any  surplus  vegetables 
he  produced.  Such  things  as  peas,  rhubarb  and 
celery,  of  which  the  average  Tamil  coaly  knows 
nothing,  I would  continue  to  cultivate  myself,  but 
it  seemed  probable  I should  get  better  results  from 
beans  and  cabbages,  if  grown  in  the  kangany’s 
arden  than  in  my  own.  This  ideal  should  ceHainly 
ave  carried  out,  but  for  the  fact  that  I was  then 
only  an  assistant  on  the  estate,  and  liable  like  junior 
officials  to  sudden  removal  by  ill-health  or  promotion. 
I had  finished  mv  morning’s  round  of  work  with 
unusual  celerity,  and  at  ten  o’clock  had  ample  time 
to  visit  the  garden  on  my  way  back  to  the  bungalow. 
I found  Nallamma  not  exactly  at  work,  but  reaping 
the  fruits  of  her  labours, or  rather  of  her  supervision; 
for,  of  course,  she  did  not  stoop  to  violent  manual’ 
effort  personally  : working  by  deputy,  to  those  who 
have  that  gift,  is  very  pleasant  and  less  conducive 
than  actual  physical  exertion  to  rheumatism  and 
back-ache. 
I suppose  she  must  have  noticed  an  avaricious 
look  in  my  eyes,  for,  she  asked  me,  as  soon  as  I 
approached  the  narrow  entraiica  in  the  fence,  what 
it  was  I wanted.  I told  her  I merely  wished  to 
have  a look  at  her  garden,  on  which  she  cast  .a 
somewhat  dubious  downward  glance  at  the  brinjals 
and  chillies  she  was  carrying  in  the  folds  of  her  cloth. 
I crawled  sideways  through  the  gap,  taking  off  my 
broad  pith  topee,  and  at  once  began  my  examination.  T 
found,  just  as  previous  hurried  inspections  had  led  me 
to  expect,  her  garden  iully  occupied  by  native  vege- 
tables of  all  sorts,  and  all  of  them  seemed  to  be 
in  much  better  condition  than  any  that  my  garden 
could  boast  of.  There  were  several  things  too  grow- 
ing in  it,  which  were  new  to  me. 
‘ What  is  this?’  I asked,  as  we  came  to  a bed  of 
tall  plants  with  showy  yellow  flowers,  apparently  * 
species  of  Hibiscus. 
‘ We  eat  the  leaves  in  curry’,  she  replied,  ‘ they  are 
very  good  but  acid.’  Nallama  had  very  fine  teeth 
and  I could  not  help  telling  her  so.  ‘ Ah,’  she 
said,  with  a pitying  air,  ‘ you  don’t  chew  betel.’ 
‘ You  eat  these  leaves  too,’  I asked,  looking  at 
some  slender  trees  with  large,  graceful,  cream- 
coloured  blossoms.  ‘ Yes,  of  course,’  she  replied, 
‘ and  the  Agati  flowers  too,  when  not  wanted  for  seed.’’ 
‘ And  these  two  are  edible  ?’  I enquired,  pointing 
to  a small  bed  of  foliage  plants  very  like  the  Uulem 
in  my  front  garden,  but  with  no  red  or  yellow  or 
purple  tints  in  the  leaves.  ‘ Yes,’  she  answered, 
* we  call  them  small  potatoes  : the  little  tubers  are 
very  good,  and  the  plants  bear  in  two  or  three 
months  ’ time.’  I began  to  feel  that  my  knowledge 
of  gardening  was  still  capable  of  expan.sion. 
‘ Why  don’t  you  grow  some  of  our  English  vege- 
tables,’ I suggested  rather  feebly.  ‘ I would  give 
you  seeds  or  plants.’  ‘ We  fiud  these  quite  enough’ 
she  said  : ‘ yours  would  take  up  loo  much  space  auii 
they  might  not  be  of  use  in  curries.’  * Jhit/  I 
observed,  you  could  make  a larger  garden  and  try 
some  of  them.  At  any  rate  you  might  cut  out  some 
of  these  useless  plantains  and  grow  better  things 
there.’ 
‘ The  plaintains,’  she  remarked,  with  a merry 
laugh,  ‘ are  not  useless.  We  get  m.x  or  eight  bnnohes 
a year  from  each  always,  and  the  best  kinds  aee 
