738 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[May  I,  1897. 
The  time  had  now  come,  indeed,  for  the  young 
Engineer-planter,  to  begin  planting  on  his  own  ac- 
count, and  accordingly  Mr.  Brown,  who  had  now 
seen  a good  deal  of  the  country,  took  up  land  for 
coffee  planting  in  partnershij)  and  conjunction  with 
Messrs.  Norman  Stewart  and  J.  B.  MacIntyre. 
Stewart,  Brown  and  MacIntyre — as  the  partner- 
ship ran — opened  and  planted  a group  of  estates 
in  the  Badulla  district,  the  iirincipal  of  which 
was  known  as  Glen  Alpine,  and  which,  afteryielding 
rich  crops  for  several  years,  were  sold  in  1864 
to  a London  Limited  Company,  entitled  the  Ouvah 
Coffee  Company.  Tliis  Company  proved  successful, 
and  Mr.  Brown  was  induced  to  join  the  Board  as 
Managing  Director.  Under  his  care  the  Ouvah 
Coffee  Company,  as  also  the  Spring  Valley  Coffee 
Company — in  wlio.se  foimation  by  the  purchase 
of  the  famous  Spring  Valley  Coffee  plantation  from 
Mr.  Bannatyne,  Mr.  Brown  had  assisted — became 
very  prosperous  and  paid  large  dividends  for  many 
years.  To  these  vvas  afterwards  added  the  Hunas- 
geriya  Estate  Company ; and  in  the  year  1877, 
-Mr.  Brown  and  some  friends  started  the  Colombo 
Commercial  Company,  Ltd.,  which  though  in- 
tended mainly  at  first  to  act  as  Colombo  Agents 
for  the  Coffee-growing  Conijianies,  has  developed 
into  an  engineei’ing  and  contracting  as  well  as 
mercantile  and  planting  concern  of  an  importance 
far  beyond  Mr.  Brown’s  original  conception, 
thanks  very  much  to  the  judicious  management 
of  this  Colombo  Company  and  to  the  impetus 
given  by  the  prosperity  of  "tea”! 
The  latter  jiortion  of  Mr.  Brown’s  life  was 
almost  entirely  devoted  to  the  management  of 
the  several  Companies,  wdth  which  his  name  was 
identified,  and  the  fact  of  his  having  successfully 
piloted  them  through  the  difficult  times  that  fol- 
lowed the  collapse  of  the  coffee  enterprise  in  the 
“ eighties,”  and  restored  them  to  prosperity  in 
tea,  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the  care  and  enter- 
prise of  his  management.  Ve  believe  that  only 
•ne  other  Coffee  Company  succeeded  in  passing 
through  the  crisis  brought  about  by  the  coffee 
fungus,  Hcmilcia  vastatrix,  which  practically  ruined 
a great  planting  enterprise  in  Ceylon. 
Mr.  Brown  had  a decided  faculty  for  invention, 
and,  as  a practical  Engineer,  he  early  found  room 
for  its  application  in  a young  planting  colony 
just  developing  a new  enterprise.  He  was  res- 
ponsible for  many  of  the  improvements 
made  in  Coffee-pulping  machinery,  his  own  Coffee 
Crusher  and  Puipcr  not  being  the  least  noticeable 
—and  when  .attention  jiassed  from  coffee  to  tea 
he  introduced  two  more  well-known  machines  in 
"the  De.siccator” — a splendid  tea-drying  machine 
also  used  to  prepare  desiccated  coconuts — and 
his  "Tri])lc  Action  Tea  Boiler.”  Both  these 
machines  have  been  warmly  commended  and 
have  proved  most  successful,  and  considerably  over 
600  Desiccators  were  in  use  in  Ceylon  alone  at  the 
date  of  ^Ir.  Brown’s  death.  The  Triple  Action 
Tea  Roller — highly  praised  for  its  work  by 
planters  best  acquainted  with  it, — was  unfortunate 
in  being  the  cause  of  an  action  at  law  for  infringe- 
ment of  patent  taken  by  Mr.  Wm.  Jackson  against 
Mr.  Alfred  Brown  and  the  Colombo  Commercial 
Company,  the  Agents  for  the  machine.  The 
case  was  carried  to  the  Privy  Council,  when 
Mr.  Jackson  was  unable  to  sustain  his 
charge  of  infringement  ; but  it  must  always  be 
regretted  that  the  Privy  Council  judgment  was  not 
pronounced  until  after  Mr.  John  Brown’s  death. 
Mr.  Brown  died  from  the  result  of  an  illness 
contracted  in  Ceylon  in  the  early  part  of  1894. 
He  left  Colombo  for  England  in  poor  health, 
accompanied  by  his  eldest  son,  and  contrary 
to  all  e.'cpectations  he  did  not  get  benefit  from 
the  sea  air,  but  gradually  lost  strength  and  died 
after  reaching  Alexandria,  where  he  was  landed 
from  the  steamer  in  order  to  secure  experienced 
medical  advice.  He  died  at  the  Deaconesses’ 
Hospital,  and  lies  buried  under  an  Aberdeen 
granite  tomb  in  the  Alexandria  Cemetery : — 
“ Mr.  J.  Brown  was  born  on  17th  October  1826, 
married  for  the  first  time  to  Elizabeth  Hall,  7th 
September  1858  and  again  to  Elizabeth  Wylie  Aber- 
nethy  on  18th  June  1892.  Died  I8th  March  1894.  He 
left  seven  children,  all  by  his  first  wife.” 
The  subject  of  our  Memoir  cannot  be  described 
as  having  been  a brilliant  man  ; but  the  quality  of 
his  mind  was  solid  and  thoroughly  practical.  His 
success  in  life  was  mainly  due  to  hard  work, 
thoroughne.ss  and  sincerity  of  purpose.  Once 
having  made  up  his  mind  as  to  the  proper  course 
to  pursue— that  so-and-so  was  the  right  thing  to 
do  or  the  right  \vay  to  do  it, — no  one  could  turn 
him  fiom  his  purpose,  or  persuade  him  to  the 
contrary.  In  private  life,  Mr.  Erowm  was  most 
w'orthy.  In  i-espect  of  both  the  Coffee  and  Tea 
Planting  Enterprises  of  Ceylon— in  a connection 
extending  over  some  45  years — few  men  have 
left  more  practical  or  useful  evidence  of  their 
presence  than  Mr.  Brown.  As  an  Engineer,  an 
Inventor,  a Proprietary  Plantei',  a Managing 
Director,  and  Chairman  of  Companies,  Mr. 
Brown  took  a prominent  and  .successful  position, 
and  his  name  ought  long  to  be  remembered  in 
the  annals  of  the  Planting,  Engineering  and 
Commercial  development  of  Ceylon. 
^ 
Coffer  in  Pouto  Rico.— A New  York  exchange 
atithority  s.ays  “ The  Porto  Rico  coffee  croj) 
will,  this  season,  according  to  advices  received 
by  le.ading  merchants  doing  business  with  that 
island,  fall  short  all  of  66  2-3  per  cent  over  the 
amount  exported  last  season.  This  shortage  will 
not  in  any  way  he  felt  in  this  market,  as  the  ini- 
]iortations  are  comparatively  light  from  Porto 
Rico,  their  markets  being  those  of  France,  Italy 
and  England.” 
