40 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
IJULY I, 1897. 
scheduled properties, with an approximate acreage of 
148 acres tea planted 1888-1896. 96 acres coffee, 174 
acres jungle and grass. Total 418 acres, for the sum 
of T8,000, payable half in cash and half in shares. 
Negotiations are in progress for the acquisition of 
other lands, and about 700 acres are being cleared 
for planting up with tsa daring the current year. 
There are factories on Bon Ami and Woolbedin® 
estates, tlie former of which it is proposed to con- 
siderably improve, and another factory will at once 
be begun on the Mount estate. The tea-making 
machinery is sufficient for present requirements, but 
will be added to as the newly-planted lands come 
into hearing. — Local “Times.” 
■ 
TEA AND TEA COMPANIES. 
{From a London Correspondent..) 
London, May 7 - 
CEYLON TEA COMMITTEE. 
A meeting of this Committee was held on Monday 
to consider several questions of importance, including 
the appointment of a chemist, for which there were ap- 
plioalions, in view of the recent Committee in the 
Observer in respect to the alleged falling off in the 
quality of the tea grown. Nothing dcfiu.te was however 
decided upon. 
The question of garden bulked tea, and the cor- 
respondence that has taken place in reference there- 
to was also under consideration, the Committee having 
been asked by the London Wholesale Tea Dealers to 
invite discussion, but the Committee decided that 
they could do nothing more and must leave the 
matter in the hands of the tea planters themselves to 
deal with and to guard against the objeotious raised. 
The following is the resolution come to by the Indian 
Association of which Mr. Ernest Tye is Secretay 
“The Committee have assured the trade that importers 
will do all in their power to meet the reasonable 
requirements of buyers in this matter but must 
leave the question of printing words in the catalogues 
to those concerned.” The resolution virtually re- 
presents the at'itude of both the Ceylon and the 
Indian Associations. 
The Anglo Ceylon an 1 General Estates Company 
Limited, have changed their address from South Sea 
Chambers, Bishopgate St. to 20 East Chap. 
TEA TBUST COMPANY . 
It is understood in well informed circles in London 
at an early date a very influential Trust Com- 
pany will be formed for the purpose of dealing in tea 
shares and other securities in connection with Cey- 
lon and Indian properties. It is probable that the 
prospectus will be issued very shortly and that the 
capital will be T250,000. The names of Messrs. 
Taylor and Ogle are associated with the Secretary- 
ship, and this gives a sufficient guarantee of the 
Btahility and genuineness of the concern. 
CEYLON TEA IN AMEBIOA. 
The circulars issued by Messrs. Gow, Wilson and 
Stanton show the very great and encouraging increase 
of shipments to America. Those for the quarter of 
the year just ended are practically double of those 
that took place iu the same quarter of 1896. 
LONDON TEA SALES. 
It was decided to divide the large auction sales 
Catalogued for Tuesday and to sell half tire quantity 
then and half on Thursday. The market still showed 
an upward teiidenc}', though the quality of the tea 
was not so good, taking it all round. There were 
21,330 packages offered on tea. _ 
The Share Market is a little more active. People 
are beginning ta take a more hopeful view of things 
both in South Africa and iu the East. And there is 
an increased demand for shares. Fair amount 
of business has been done in Eastern Produce, 
the recent annual report of which was regai^ded 
as very satisfactory. The report of the Scottish 
Ceylon Tea Company has also created a favour- 
able impression, 
The shares of the Travancore Tea Company, issued 
at the instance of the Ceylon tea plantation share- 
holders were over applied for. It is regarded as likely 
to turn out a very g jod thing. Mr. W. Mackenzie 
who was one of the vendors was very much pleased 
with the result. 
NaW ISSUES. 
The Acme Tea Chest Company, Limited with a 
capital of £150,000 in 75,000 six per cent, .cumulative 
preference shares and 75,000 ordinary shares of £T 
each, has been formed to acquire the basiness of 
maunfacturing and selling steel tea chests, hitherto 
carried on by the Acme Package Company, Limited, 
together with the works, plant, machinery, patent 
rights, contracts, and other assets of that company, 
which recently acquired works at Polmadie, Glasgow, 
and equipped them with special machinery equal to an 
output of 20,000 to 24,000 chests per week. The 
formation of a new company, with larger capital, has 
been resolved upon, the prospectus states, mainly with 
the object of putting the company in a position to 
manufacture its own steel sheets. The purchase price 
has been fixed at the sum of £112,500, payable as to 
£25,000 in ordinary fully-paid shares, as to' t‘ 25, 000 in 
six per cent, cumulative preference fully-paid shares, 
and the balance of .£62,500 iu cash. There are now 
offered for subscription 50,000 preference and 50,000 
ordinary shares. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
A Brazilian Proverb says “ Coffee to be 
good must be as black as night, bitter as death, 
and hot as sheol .” — American Grocer. 
New Corn Product.— The discovery that the 
pith of the corn stalK can he used iii the con- 
struction of war vessels is likely to be of benefit 
to agriculture in more than one way. The chief 
use of this pith is for a packing between the 
inner and outer shells of the vessel, so that when 
pierced by a projectile it will absorb water and 
swell so rapidly as to close the opening before the 
vessel leaks to a dangerous e.xtent. E.xperiments 
with this pith have been so satisfactory that it 
has been adopted in the construction of all our 
new vessels ot war, and European nations have 
commissions for investigating the same material, 
so that the use ot corn pith will make a market 
for what was once a waste product. In the process 
of extracting this pith the blades and husks are 
removed, and the stalks are cut into .small pieces. 
When the pith is taken out frorn this stalk, the 
remainder is ground up into a flour-like substance 
which resembles bran. Some experiments with 
this “ new corn product,” as it is called, have 
been made at the Maryland Station with the 
remarkable result that it is found to contain 
eleven per cent, more ot digestible matter and 
two per cent, more of digestible j)rotein than tlie 
whole fodder does when shredded. It contains as 
much digestible matter as the corn blades, and 
more total digestible matter and half-of-one per 
cent, more protein than Timothy hay. It does 
not contain as much digestible albuminoids as 
Wiieat-bran, butitequals thatfood in tlie total 
amount of digestible matter. It keeps as well as 
bran or Cotton-seed meal. It is in such condition 
that it can be uniformly mixed with any ground 
grain, and when used as a base it is po.=sible to 
make a complete and normal ration for stock 
in one bulk without the necessity of feedino- 
grain and hay separately. Animals fed upon such 
a ration eat it with relish, and keep in normal 
condition. Since there is only one pound of pith 
to fourteen pounds of blades, husk, and stalk, 
this new material amounts to a very considerable 
portion of the fodder . — Garden and Forest. 
