542 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. I, 1898 , 
Deposits are much the same. Sundry creditors, con- 
sisting for the most part of advances against produce, 
indicates a reduction of £536. Q he large increase in 
bills payable is due to a larger expenditure and also to 
the fact that an acceptance for a substantial figure 
matured in the early days of July. On the other side 
of the account our estates show a book value of 
£103,032, or an increase of £4,095. This represents 
the sum spent upon purchase of land, opening, and 
plantin,g, plus up-keep of our new clearings during the 
year. The three following items need no comment. 
Coast advances are an increasing item, due princi- 
pally to two causes : ( 1 ) the rate of advances has a 
tendency to grow ; ( 2 ; we need a larger number of 
coolies in connection with the new clearing. It 
will be of inter-est to point out that we have 1,374 
acres of cacao and 2,232 acres of tea, and that, 
allowing £5 per acre for forest, chena, &c. (say 
1,550 acres), adding .£2,000 as capital expenditure 
from July 1st to date, and deducting the reserve 
fund, the planted area of tea and cacao stands in the 
company's book at £24 12s. 5d. per acre. 
The report and accounts having been adopted, and 
the dividend and bonus declared, BIr. William Keiller 
was re-elected a director and Mr. James B. Laurie 
an auditor. 
The usual vote of thanks to the chair was carried 
unanimously. 
« 
NORTHERN QUEENSLAND AND THE 
“• TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST.” 
A Queensland idanter, ordering the 'I'. A., 
writes from Geraldton, John-stone River, Noi th- 
em Queensland, on 10th Dec. and -says : — 
“ I have read the numbers received with great in- 
terest. Such a paper is just what we require in 
Northern Queensland, and more particularly the 
articles relating to coffee and rubber growing. The 
first-mentioned is likely to be largely planted both 
in this district and Cairns, the climate and soil being 
w'ell adapted for its growth. It may interest you to 
know that the price received by the Cairns growers 
this season was 9d per lb.” 
Ninepence a 11). equals S4s a cwt. ; a very good 
price for coll’ee not very well-prepai ed pioliahly, 
in view of the absence of pulpersand proper factory 
arrangements? These will come in time. Climate 
and soil are evidently well adapted for coffee in 
Northern Queensland. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Matale as a Tea District.— Matale 
lias — says a contemporary, — not genet ally 
been considered a. leading tea di.strict, nor 
has it attracted much attention by its big 
yields or high price.s. Probably its iailuie as a 
coffee district towards the end of the coffee era, 
and the disappointment experienced with cacao by 
many pro[)rietor.s, prejudiced planters again.st it, 
but Mr. Storey ( see our 6th ] age) 
again shows that Blariawatle is not the 
only estate that can boast of continous 
big yields. It is true that the record for BVaraka- 
mura does not cover such a series of years as 
that of Mariawatte, and the total acreage is not 
so large, but on the other hand the outturn of 
the 204 acres, which was 093 lb. in 1896 and 1,066 
lb. of made tea in 1897, i.s higher than the yield 
of the 458 acres of Rlariawatte, but does not 
beat the old 100 acres field of the Gampola estate, 
tiiough Mr. Storey says his yield has been obtained 
without the aid of manure. If the yield goes on 
increasing, we may so»m exijcct BVarakamura to 
equal the record yield of the Mariawatte old 
field, and over twice as large an acreage. We 
shall look for future lelurns with intcrc-.st, and 
we are glad to hear that there are other estgte.? 
iu Matale doing nearly as well. 
Coffee.- — At a meeting of the Coffee Trade one 
Wednesday lo consider the advisability of alteriiii; 
the conditions of public sale with regard to simill 
lots, it was decided that no alteration from existing 
rules should be made. — Grocers’ Journal, Dec. 2.5. 
‘‘ Hand-Books of Commercial Products.” — We have 
to acknowledge receipt of No. 10, on Adhatoda 
Vasica. Revised by David Hooper, f. i. c., f. c. s.. 
Assistant Curator, Economic and Art Section, Indian 
Museum. 
Fruit and the \txe. — There are now in Vic- 
toria 36,023 acres under fruit — an Austra- 
lian exchange tells us. 'Ihe wine-giower.s aie 
becoming fewer, and have fallen off to the 
number of 372 during the last year. The area 
under vines is 28,000 acres. Tobacco-growing is 
another industry which shows a great falling-off 
from former efforts in that direction. 
A Fireproof Tree. — A Government report 
from Colombia describes a tree, known as the 
Chaparro, which is said to be fireproof. It grows 
on the immense plains of Colombia and th<> 
north of South America, and when the enormous 
fires set going to clear off rank vegetation after 
the rainy season strip the surface, the bark of 
the Chaparro protects it, and it grows on un- 
scathed. — Sj/dney Mail. 
Cinchona-bark. — Louis XIV. for his “ great Encour- 
agement for Useful Discoveries of all kinds and parti- 
cularly in Physick. ’Tis well kuow'ii that he bought 
the secret of the Jesuits' Powder and made it pulilick.” 
It would seem that towards 1679 an Englishman 
named Robert Talbot cured Louis XIV. of intermit- 
tent fever by a secret remedvq which the con- 
valescent monarch gave him 48£00 livres (with a 
life pension and a title) to disclose. It was cinchona- 
bark, and afterwards describe! in a book as the ” Eng- 
lish Remedy for the Cure of Fever, published by 
the King’s Command 1682.” — Chemist and Druggist, 
Dec. 25. 
A Peculiar Fabric, which may find a u.se for 
many purposes, is made iu Biussels. It is flex- 
ible, trans]jarent, ami impervious to water. This 
textile material can be washed off with cold 
water, like a glass pane, by means of a sponge, 
and is mainly to be used for portieres, window 
shades, umbrellas, &c. The patented process for 
the production of this tissue consists in filling 
the meshes of a wide-meshed fabric, such as 
muslin, with chrome gelatine or with a similar 
material, and then rendering the chrome gelatine 
insoluble by exposure to light. The fabric is then 
coated on both sides with boiled linseed oil or 
fat varni.sh : the treatment w'ith chrome gelatine 
and linseed oil is repeated several times, and the 
fabric is ornamented by printing. 
Pearl Fishery in Wale.s.— Sir Walter 
Besant (in the Queen) is responsible for the fol- 
lowing : — 
Are there any people in these modern times who 
carry on the old Pearl fishery of the River Conway ? 
I have come across a few notes on the subject. 
There was an extremely ancient Fishery here, dating 
certainly far back before the Roman conquest. It is 
said that Julius Cajsar obtained while he was in the 
country a breastplate set with pearls from the Con- 
way, and offered it to the temple of Venus in Rome. It 
is also said that a fine pearl from the Conway was pre- 
sented to Queen Catherine of Braganza by Sir Richard 
Wynne, of Gwydir, and that this same pearl is now 
in the Regalia. Lady Newborough, in the last cen- 
tury, possessed a good collection of Conway pearls, 
and in 1780 'Sir Robert Vaughan appea- ed at Court, 
bis hat adorned with a loop formed of Conway pearls. 
It might be worth while to collect a few mussels — 
it was iu the mussel, and not the oyster, that they 
were found — and ascertain whether these interesting 
ci’eatures have lost the art of making pearls. 
