lOO 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
If the differences in the samples were clearly 
determined, it would be possible to supply in 
the form of manure the ingredients shown to be 
necessary. 
Now that so many of the private estates are 
incorporated into public companies it is more 
likely that chemical experts will be attached to 
the large Tea factories, and when satisfactory 
results are shown in higher prices for tlie tea 
prepared, we may expect a great improvement 
ill the whole system of manufacture as well as 
in the more scientific treatment of the growing 
shrub. 
In the hope of hastening this more systema- 
tic treatment of the leaf these lines have been 
written, and if careful inquiry into the subject 
be the practical result, they will not have been 
written in vain. 
JOHN HUGHES, F.i.c., Agricultural Analyst. 
London, E C., May 28th, 1897. 
BRAZIL COFFEE NOTES. 
The coffee production of the municipality of Ouro 
Pino, Minas Geraes, is said to be 307,000 arrobas. 
A telegram says that in S. Paulo the fall in coffee is 
attributed to exaggerated estimates of the crop of that 
state. 
The Cidade de Campinas says that it is informed 
by planters of western S. Paulo that the coffee crop 
has been very much injured by drouth. This will 
perhaps help to counteract the alleged exaggeration 
in estimates, 
We hear that negotiations are still going on for the 
purchase of coffee plantations in Sao Paulo. One 
prominent planter cordially welcomes the movement, 
He says the English will not only bring in improved 
methods of cultivation and preparation, but will 
secure better prices for the product. All this he 
considers will be of great benefit to the country. 
It is a noticeable circumstance that the coffee ex 
porters are obliged to maintain a special force of 
watchmen to protect their property at the D. Pedro 
II docks. The thefts were on such a scale and were 
committed so persistently that no other course was 
open to them. The police did nothing, and the admi- 
nistration of the docks also did nothing. Although 
the thefts have not been wholly suppressed, they 
have been largely checked, but at a very considerable 
expense. This is met by voluntary contributions by 
the coffee shipping firms with but two or three ex- 
ceptions. Until the authorities adopt some effective 
measure to protect the exporters, they must con- 
tinue to maintain their own watchmen, and in this 
every coffee shipper should cheerfully join, onerous 
as th e tax may be. 
— According to Alexander von Glehn’s coffee cir- 
cular for March, the reports of the new crop are 
decidedly conflicting. The circular says that on 
March 4th Messrs. Krische & Co., telegraphed that 
the next Bio crop would be 3 to 3J millions bags 
and the Santos crop 4 to 4J millions. On the fol- 
lowing day Messrs. Steinwender, Stoifregen & Co. 
telegraphed that the two crops would aggregate 6J 
millions, “under the most favourable circumstances.” 
On the same day Messrs. Goetz Hayn & Co., esti- 
mated the next Santos crop at 31 millions. 
— There is in course of formation at Hamburg a 
new Company under the name of Colonisation Com- 
pany for South Brazil, Limited, with a capital of 
1,500,000 marks. The operations of the Company will 
comprise the sending and settling of German emi- 
grants in Brazil and the supervision of the Colony. 
The new concern will also obtain the concession for 
a railway from the coast of Sao Francisco bay via 
the German Colonies Joinville and Blumeneau, to 
Desterro. The present juncture in Brazil does not 
appear wholly favorable for an operation of this kind. 
— Financial News, March 31. 
[Aug. 2 , 1897 . 
BRITISH INDIA RUBBER AND EX- 
PLORATION COMPANY, LIMITED. 
Share capital £2,00,000, in £200,000 shares of 
£1 each. There is also an issue of £100,000 
six per cent, first mortgage debentures of £50 
each. This company has been formed to acquire 
and develop 320,000 acres of rubber-growing ter- 
ritory, about thirty-five miles north of Cape Coast 
Castle. The vendor takes £250,000, payable in 
shares, debentures, or cash, or partly in either of 
them at the option of the directors, “but so that 
the vendor does not receive more shares than will 
enable the company to comply with the regula- 
tions of the Stock Exchange.” This is a some- 
what disingenuous manner of stating that, as a 
minimum, the vendor will receive £133,333 in 
cash. 
The prospectus is very unsatisfactory, and the 
public will be well advised not to apply for 
»ha,res on the very vague reports and still vaguer 
estimates of the company’s prospects and porlits. 
— Daily Chronicle, May 26, 
SCIENTIFIC GARDENING EXPERIMENTS. 
“Backwards and Forwards.” 
The Gardener's Chronicle has an article opening 
as follows: — 
We hear a good deal about progressive evolution 
now-a-days, aud it suits our complacency to dwell 
upon it. We look back to the days of our forefathers, 
and plume ourselves that we live in times when 
Palms and Pineapples are sold on costermongers’ 
barrows, and when many things once unheard of 
or only as the luxuries of the wealthy, are now in 
common use. So far good, there has been marked 
progress in gardening as in everything else. But 
it is as well to recollect that reversion may and 
does occur as well as progress, and, therefore, that 
it behoves us, whether “ practical ” men or students, 
to ascertain so far as we are able the influences at 
work which will result in improvement, and those 
which, if unchecked, will tend to deterioration. Two 
articles in our last and present numbers illustrate 
very aptly the state of affairs. On the one hand, we 
have the Director or Kew tracing, with the aid of 
specimens furnished by Messrs. Sutton, the progres- 
sive development of the Cyclamen ; and, on the other, 
we have Mr. Francis Galton asking, for scientific 
purposes, what plants it would be most suitable to 
observe, aud how to manage them, so as to bring 
about, in the shortest and most complete manner 
the reversion to the primitive condition ? We learn 
as much or more from our failures as from our suc- 
cesses, aud on this princinle we shall profit by the 
practical demonstration of" the causes which lead to 
degeneration. Thus, an investigation which seems at 
first to be of a purely abstract character, is soon 
seen to be eminently practical. 
Spring Valley Coffee Co., Ld.— This Com- 
pany has been less fortunate than its sister one 
of “Ouvah,” inasmuch as it did not start “tea” 
at so early a date ; and now the alternative is 
offered to the shareholders of going without 
dividends for 3 or 4 years or raising fresh capital 
thus : — ’ 
That the capital of the Company be increased 
to £100,000 by the creation of 2,000 new shares of 
.£10 each, to be called preference shares, aud to con- 
fer on the holders thereof the right to a fixed cumu- 
lative preferential dividend at the rate of £6 per cent 
per annum cn the amount for the time being paid 
up on such shares, and such preference shares to 
rank, both as regards capital and div dend in 
priority to the other shares.” ’ 
We have no doubt this resolution was adopted 
on 4th June. The dividend for last year was 
2 J per cent. 
