20 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1897, 
The Chairman proposed the re-election as a 
director of Mr. David Keid. This was seconded 
l\V Mr. W. Herbert Anderson and carried. 
, On the motion of the Chairman, seconded by 
Mr. D. Reid, Mr. G. A. Talbot was also elected 
a director. 
The Auditors were re-elected on the motion 
of Capt. Fuller, seconded by Mr. W. M. Leake. 
A vote of tlianks to the Chairman closed the pro- 
ceedings ; the vote being marie to include tlie 
staff in Ceylon, on the suggestion of Mz. 
Dangerfield. 
[It is certainly no wonder that this premier 
Ceylon Tea Company should be considered to 
occupy a position of unequalled stability when, 
as its Chairman shows, the capital outlay only 
represents £22 per acre of tea ! Recalling 
besides the profitable use made of the reserve 
in coconut plantations, the growing income 
therefrom and the extension of business towards 
desiccating mills as well as general Agency 
for small Companies and business concerns, — it 
is a question whether, even now, the shares 
are up to their real value. The high average 
yield per acre of tea is, as might be expected 
from the splendid condition of the estates 
as reported on by Mr. Talbot. This is still 
further shoivn, as well as the good manage- 
ment in field and factory, by the fact that the 
Company’s teas realized rather better prices last year 
than in 1895, notwithstanding adverse exchange. 
We suppose of no other Company connected 
with Ceylon can this be said ? Finally, tlie 
Chairman and Mr. Talbot made reference to 
labour difficulties and spoke out plainly about 
the upsetting of old arrangements by newcomeis 
to the island anxious to net through a great 
deal of work and to gather together as much 
labour as possible on the spot. But w’e are not 
sure of this story and the inferences therefrom 
being altogether correct. At any rate, we have 
heard another Tersion with quite a different ap- 
pearance from the Vi.siting Agent of the new 
enterprise, who plezuled that the average of ad- 
vances was, considering all things, fairly moderate. 
The Ceylon Tea Plantations Company, with its 
army of 9,000 coolies, has certainly a vital in- 
terest in maintaining the regularity and suffi- 
ciency of the labour supply on which the pros- 
perity of Ceylon so greatly depends.— Ed. T.A.] 
THE COCONUT MARKET. 
The tone of the market shews a tendency to weak- 
ness, but high prices are still demanded for properties- 
and there is an increasing domarid for laud for culti- 
vation. lu the Kurunegala District, the price per 
acre has run up to three or, four times what it was 
about three years ago. The European market is flat 
for this line, and the bulk of our shipments find an 
outlet ill America. It is said though, that there will 
be a less demand there for dessioated coconut from 
Ceylon before very long. 
The market in copperah is also flat, and there is 
just enough produced for local consumption by the 
millers, while a few hundred candies are purchased 
now for direct exportation by Messrs. Volkart Brothers. 
Prices in this line range from R32 to RI3. Jaffna and 
Batticaloa copperah fetches the biggest figures. Oil 
is selling at ltl3 per cwt. (naked), and sellers are not 
very keen. The heavy drop in oil is attributed to 
the fact that a large quantity of tallow in Europe 
is admirably replacing our produce. In poonac 
(mill) the market is steady. Latest quotation is R65. 
Nuts are selling at R35 to RIO, with very little 
demand for them. 
In the fibre business, the market is practically 
lifeless. A couple of years ago, there was a rush at 
fibre and yam making, and everybody who could 
command a little capital went headlong to manu- 
facture. Many were the little stations along the 
Negombo and Kandy roads where fibre was turned 
out. The stocks, were, of course, of all qualities, and 
in Colombo found many a purchaser who consigned 
the stuff to both the European and Australian markets. 
Most of the shippers were from the Pettah, and 
their stocks glutted the maiket in London so much 
that a heavy drop in price was inevitable. How the 
transactions turned out, the Pettah shippers will best 
be able to tell I Most of the “fibre mills’’ have 
stopped work, after teaching a capital lesson at 
some expense. 
The immediate prospects of the market are poor, 
but there is sure to be a “ turn in the tide ’’ before 
very long. — Cor. Local “ Times.’’ 
— — ♦ 
INDIAN PATENTS. 
Applications in respect of the undermentioned in 
ventions have been filed, under the provisions of the 
Inventions and Designs Act of 1888, during the week 
ending 2Ith April 1897 
improvements in tea dryers. — No. 157 of 1897. — 
Frank Edmund Winsland, tea planter, Joyhing, 
North Lakhimpur, Assam, for improvements in tea 
dryers. 
The fees prescribed have been paid for the continu- 
ance of exclusive privilege in respect of the undermen- 
tioned inventions for the periods showm against 
each : — 
Improvements in the method of an apparatus 
for drying tea leaf.— No. 80 of 1888.— Henry 
Thompson, engineer of Trinity Street, Gainsborough, 
in the cozmty of Lincoln, for improvements in the 
method of and apparatus for drying tea leaf. (From 
17th Ajiril 1897 to 17th April 1898 .) — Indian and East- 
ern Engineer, May 8. 
COCONUT PRODUCTS. 
The announcement made of the probability of 
another establishment for desiccating coconuts 
being pre.seutly started in the Chilaw district, has 
some bearing on the position and prospects of the 
great coconut industry. Its development ai.d 
extension within the last 15 or 20 years has been 
remarkable, if not phenomenal. Until 1890, alter 
wliich year it was that desiccated coconuts began 
to have a place in the Chamber of Commerce Tables 
of Export, coconut oil was the chief, if not 
only, considerable product of the palm which 
, was booked for export. To be sure, coir in its 
various forms of rope, fi.bre and bristles, and 
poonac, formed part of our exports for con- 
siderable periods ; but even then aggregate 
value did not count for much. In later 
years, coconuts themselves, husked and unhusked, 
came to be exported to the Continent and the 
United Kingdom, but the highest, record has, 
we believe, been during last year, when close 
on 14,000,000 nuts were exported. But even 
that represents but a fraction of our total 
produce of seveial hundred million nuts. As 
we have said, it, is only during the present de- 
cade that desiccated nuts entered into our 
, Export Tables : and yet from before that period the 
extension of pi.uitations had grown to be con- 
siderable for several years. There can be no 
doubt that the desiccating business gave an im- 
petus to the industi-y ; but, as w'e saw in an 
article last January, the falling-off in the ex- 
portation of oil has znore than counterbalanced the 
advantage gained through the new manufacture. 
