iSgS. ! 
THE TROPICAL ACRlCUL'ITJRIST 
Regarding the question of Exchange, as long as the 
Indian Coinage Act remains as at piesent, Exchanp 
cannot- rise much over Is 4d, while many people who 
are intimately connected with the subject believe 
that the rate will be lower during the coming year ; 
the average in 1897 was Is 3 1.5 32d against Is _ 13-o- 
in 1896. , ,. 11 , 1 
Although the strong demand which has taken 
place in the last few j ears for Tea Shares caused a 
considerable rise in their market value, the prospects 
of a somewhat poor year have lately caused a re- 
duction in quotations of many securities, and the 
market for the year closes lower. Several Companies 
were brought out during the year, the general tend- 
ency being for private owners to amalgamate dinerent 
gardens together, and then form the groups into 
Limited Liability Companies. ^ 
Ceylon Dividend?. — Ceylon L. & P., a final per 
cent Old., 3 per cent Pref. and a Bonus of 5 per cent 
on Ord.; Dimbiila Valley, 2nd Int., 2J per cent Ord.; 
Mayfield, Int. of 3 percent Pref. 
THE DIMBETLA TEA ESTIMATE. 
, The following- is a copy of t!ie full return 
Kd on the table at the recent annual meeting ot the 
itnbula Planters’ Association : 
1897 — Tea estimate 19,323,510 lb. 
Acres. 
Tea in bearing . . • • 41,232J 
Native •• •• 
Total 
Cultivated, but not tea 
Total cultivated 
Uncultivated 
2,826J 
45,059 
416 
45,475 
9,522 
Total acreage . . 52,997 
Average yield per net acreage 457 lb, 
„ gross „ 437 
TEA AND COFFEE TRUST. 
Anv one who looks into the dates and periods of the 
formation of the various financial trust companies 
cannot but cbserve how invariably they have been 
Momoted iust when prices are at the top of the wave. 
It may be true to say that this must necessar, y 
be the case inasmuch as investor are forced into 
Bubscribing for their Preferred or Deferred Stocks by 
chean money. As cheap money also means high 
crice^, the natural consequence is i hat the directors 
of the Tiust Company either bny .n at about the 
highest average of the year or they unconsciously be- 
come the recipients of unmarketable and had 
\®ast boom in Financial Trust Companies cor- 
responded roughly with the last boom in Argentines. 
We should like to see, just as a matter of curiosity, 
how many purchases of Buenos Ayres Great Southern 
or of Central Argentine Railway Ordinary Stocks 
were made at prices of 190 and over, and how tnany 
were made a few years later, when these quotations 
had sunk to 96 and 50 respectively. When these 
railways were up at the former level 
Trust Companies were coming out week aftei week, 
and had hundreds of thousands of pounds to lay out. 
When the same Railway Stocks were in the mud 
the same Trust Companies had neither the iunds 
nor the faith to buy a single thousand btcek. 
At the present time a great boon would be be- 
stowed upon investors if a highly reputed Financial 
Trust Company could be formed for the purchase oi 
tea and coffee shares, thus spreading a millioir or to 
of money among the shares both of weli*kiu \mi 
I ndian and Ceylon tea gardens, and also amoi g 
home trading concerns whnh sill tea lelail ar:d 
which pay handsome dividem^s. k^ooner cr later the 
far-off cry for a free breaktust-thble will make itseli 
heard iu Parliament, and the consumption of tea 
will be increased by 50 per cent within, the following 
three years. 
There are many Indian and Ceylon tea shares as 
well as tea shares in the industrial market over bcie 
which can be bought to yield from 5 to 7 per cent 
upon money invested. If a sum of AT0,000 we o 
divided among a score of such companies, no one oiui 
say that it would not be fa'c more safely invested th.-ii 
if sunk in any one company. Instead of TIO.OOO a 
sum of T3,0C 0,000 could easily be outliid, and a new 
company with a capital of £1.000,000 iu Three-aud-a 
Half per cent Debentures, £1,000,000 in Four per cent 
PreferiLce, and £1,000,000 iu Deferred, would receive 
immediate support. — Echo, Dec. 28. 
IIAPUTALE DISTRICT IN 1897. 
WEATHEn.^ — Rainfall about 45 to 50 inches above 
the usual average ! 
Crop. — Latter half of the year, bad flushing weather, 
most estates short of estimates. Coffee crop little 
or nothing. 
Labour. — Fairly plentiful. 
Roars. — As there is a great saving of upkeep on 
the road all below Haldummulla, Government might 
allow the four miles, say from Kalupahana estate 
turn-off, to Haputale, to be repaired twice in the 
year. Once is not sufficient with all the heavy up. 
traffic it get.s now, which it never did before the 
railway was opened. 
Grievances. — No Telegraph station yet at Haldum- 
mulla, no siding at Idulgashena gap, where there should 
have been a Railway Station, according to original 
estimates. The line was made level on this spot for 
a station, and everything is ready for it. Natives 
would buy up the Government land on both sides the 
line very readily for boutiques. But nothing is done 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Avoiding a Thunderstorm.— O n the approach 
of a thunderstorm French peasants often make 
up a very smoky fire, says Industries and Iron, 
in the belief that safety from lightning is thus 
assured. By some tliis is deemed a superstition, 
but Schuster shows that the custom is based on 
reason, inasmuch as the smoke acts as a good 
conductor for carrying away the electricity 
slowly and safely. He points out tliat in 1,000 
cases of damage by lightning 6 3 churches and 
8'5 mills have been struck, wliile tlie number of 
factory chimneys has only been 0'3. 
Prices of Plumbago.— A merchant calls at- 
tention to a remark in our review of the year’s 
e.xports which ran as follows ; — 
The exports of Plumbago have been fairly satis- 
factory and so have prices ; but higher prices have 
ruled before now, and if there be a reversion to 
them, there is no reason to suppose that we shall 
not be able to send away more than the 357,257 
cwt. we did last year. 
Our correspondent adds: — “I don’t think jiicrs 
ever came within 25 per cent of these ruling a.s 
last year closed and this year opened.” Me 
stand corrected : we certainly thought that in 
the “ sixties ” or “ seventies ” prices were higher 
than in 1897 ; but ,ve had not time to refer. M^e 
are glad to note maximum prices for our one 
mineral of commercial importance, and feel sure 
th.at they must lead to a development of the 
mining imlustry. Indeed Capf. Tregay’s “ mis- 
sion ” is primarily connected wdl, idtinihago. 
M^ould that the Government Geologi.^t from 
India made his ajipearame and began the Sur- 
vey. Al hough no one has snggesied it that we 
h.ave seen, it is just possible, we su]i)Hise, that 
jilumhago veins may run through the couni ry 
North of Kurnnegala, about which we can get 
no encouragement from a jilanting or agricul- 
tural point of view. 
