THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
”3 
Aug, 2, i8|^7.] 
OUVAH COFFEE COMPANY, LIMITED. 
CAAPTAL £100,000 IN 10,000 SHARES OF £10 EACH, 
Dii-ectors Alfi'ed Brown, Managing Director. L. 
Famin, Korman Stewart, P. U. Oswald. 
Report to be presented to the second Ordinary 
General Meeting of the Company, to be held at No. 
5, Dowgate Hiil, London, on Friday, the 4th day of 
June, 1897, at 12 o’clock noon. 
The Company, as Shareholders were informed at 
the Statutory Meeting held on 17th November, 1896, 
has been satisfactorily reconstructed, with a new 
Memorandum and Articles of Association, containing 
the additional powers required for the conduct of the 
Company’s business. 
The following Annual Accounts are now presented 
to Shareholders, viz.: — Profit and Loss Account for 
Crop 1895-6, Balance-sheet made up to 3lst March 1897. 
citop 1895-6 
In last year’s Report it was stated that the Coffee 
Crop of the above season would be small, and it will 
be seen that the actual weight sold in London 
amounted to 376 cwt. 3 qrs. 13 lbs. 
The proceeds amounted to £1,736 13s 3d, giving an 
average of 92s 2d per cwt., a,gainst an average of 
93s 5d, obtained for the previous crop. Coffee sold 
in Ceylon realized £22 I8s lid. 
The crop of I ea was estimated at 606,000 lbs., and 
the actual weight sold from the Company’s own 
estates was 570,360 lb. Besides this 135,608 lb. of Tea 
manufactured from leaf bought from neighbouring 
estates were sold. 
The value of all Tea sold was £23,907 5s lid, at 
an average of 9T5d per lb., as compared with 9'08d. 
for the previous season. 
Coco.i, weighing 141 cwt. 0 qrs. 3 lb. realized £330 
16s 7d, the average selling price being 46s lid per 
cwt. against 48s 9d for the former year's crop. 
It will thus be seen that the total value of all 
produce sold amounted to £28,997 14s. 8d. 
The total Expenditure for the year in Ceylon and 
Loudon amounted to £23,982 10s. 8d., and deducting 
this from the value of the Produce, a profit is shewn 
on the season’s working of £5,015 4s. Od. 'To this 
has to be added the sum of £1,151 Is. 9d., being the 
undivided profii, transferred from the old Company, 
giving a total of £6,166 5s. 9d. at the credit of Profit 
and Loss Account. 
An Interim dividend of 3 per cent, on the capital 
of the Company was iiaid on the 7th November last, 
which absorbed £3,000 of the above-named sum, and 
the Directors now recommend that £3,000 be applied 
to the payment of a further dividend of 3 per cent., 
making 6 per cent, for the year, and that the balance 
of £166 5. 9d. be carried forward to next Account, 
The smaller profit secured as compared with last 
year is entirely due to the shrinkage in the Coffee 
crop, the proceeds from the sale of this product 
having amounted to only £1,759 12s. 2d., against 
£5,796 6,3. lid. for the preceding year. 
The Coffee crop for 1896-97 will again be a very 
small one. Reports on the present condition of the 
Coffee bushes are at the moment more favourable, 
but no reliance can be placed on this crop as a 
source of revenue. 
The estimated Tea crop was not fully secured, but 
the satisfactory yield of 400 lbs. per acre from the 
whole area plucked, inclusive of that only in partial 
bearing, was obtained. 
The Tea sold well at a small advance on the price 
obtained for the previous year’s crop, notwithstanding 
that tho average for all Ceylon Tea on the London 
market declined gd. per lb- during 1896. 
Since the date of last Report a further 150 acres of 
Tea have been planted, bringing the total area under 
that cultivation up to 2,007 acres as detailed below. 
Further plantings will bo limited to replacing Coffee 
with Tea, as the former has to be abandoned. 
The Tea crop for 1893-97 is estimated at 660 000 lb. 
of made Tea. So far pluckiugs have been heavy and 
crop prospects are good. 
TEA. 
Acres. 
Over 5 years old 
1,375 
Planted Kovember/Oecember 
1892 
45 
93 
125 
»? • • • • 
94 
153 
,, 
95 
159 
}j • • • • 
96 
1.50 
Ai’ea under Tea 
2,007 
Area under Coffee 
565 
Area under Fuel 
346 
Forest Patana and Waste 
501 
Total Area 
3,419 
Mr. P. C. Osw'ald, a Member of the Board, 
retires 
on this occasion, and, being eligible, offers himself for 
re-election. 
Messrs. Deloitte, Dever, Griffiths & Co., the Audi- 
tors, also offer themselves for re-election.' 
By order, J. Alec Robehts, Secretary. 
May 26th, 1897. 
SPUING VALLEY COFFEE COMPANY, 
LIMITED. 
Report to be presented to the Thirty-second 
Ordinary General Meeting of the Company to be 
held at No. 5, Dowgate Eill, London, on Friday, the 
4lh day of June, 1897, at 12 45 o’clock p.m. 
The following annual accounts are now presented 
to Shareholders, viz. : — 
Profit and loss accounts for crop 1895-6. 
Balance Sheet made up to 31st Earch, 1897. 
citop 1895-6. 
lu last year’s Report Shareholders were informed 
that the ooifee crop of tlie above season would be 
very small, and it will be seen that the actual weight 
sold in London amounted to 298 cwts. 1 qr. 12 lb. 
This crop, inclusive of clean and refuse coffee sold 
in Ceylon, realised £1,353 4s. Id., the average selling 
price being 90s. 2d., as compared vvith 91s. 10a. 
per cwt. obtained for crop 1894-5. 
The yield of Tea amounted to 250,171 lbs., the 
estimate in last Report being 280,000 lbs., and this, 
together with 74,350 lbs., brought from neighbouring 
estates and maiiufactured at Spring Valley, soid for 
£12,284 10s, 6cl., or an average of 9'08d. per lb., the 
average selling price last year being 9'34d. per lb. 
The total proceeds from the s.de of produce 
amounted to £13,637 14s. 7d. The totai expenditure 
in Ceylon and London, including outlay on planting 
145 acres tea and maintaining a large area of young 
tea not yet yielding crop, amounted to £14,077 
12s. 4d. Profit and Loss Account has therefore to 
be debited with a sum of £439 I7s. 9d., being ex- 
penditure in excess of the yrar’s revenue. 
The sum of £2,594 17s 2d was brought forward 
from last year, so that after making provision for 
the above amount the balance at the oredid of 
profit and loss is £2,154 19s 5d, and provided that 
Shareholders elect to adopt the proposals to be sub- 
mitted to them at the Extraordinary General Meet- 
ing to bo held inamediately before the Auuu,al Meet- 
ing, the Directors recommend that a dividend ol 2^ 
per cent, be now declared for the year, leaving 
£154 19s 5d to be carried forward to next account. 
The revenue from coffee, as stated above, only 
amounted to £1,353 43 Id., against £7,616 3s. lid. 
for the previous year. The estimate for tho cur- 
rent season is 200 cwts., and it is feared that all 
hope.s of profit from this cultivation must be finally 
abandoned. 
The Tea Crop did not come up to expectations, 
230,171 lbs. having been secured, against an esti- 
mated crop of 280,000 lb. Prospects from this cultiva- 
tion, however, remain good, and this year’s crop, 
estimated at 311,0001b. is likely to be considerably 
exceeded. 
