770 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
old country for a time, it is inevita’ole that 
sliares should frequemly fetch less than they 
are really worth, while the inice originally imid 
during the rush may have hseu too high.. We 
think it well, therefore, to caution outside 
reader.s against being led away by the notion th.at 
a fall ill the value of s'lares, must nece.ssarily, 
indicate a corre.'pondiiig fall in the value of tea 
property. It is signifi -ant that we have had to 
chronicle the sale of an estate within the past few 
week.s, at £120 an acre, — albeit an e.\ceptionally 
good estate in a very favourite district, — a price 
which if it has ever been exceeded, has been 
excelled only once and by a trifling sum. 
The other point, which it is important to keep 
in view, is that high exchange is but one 
of the causes which have affected the dimini- 
tion of profits from tea properties. We ha\'e 
already adverted to another— the high jirice of 
rice, diie to tlie Indian Famine, aggra- 
gravated temporarily by the Allagalla slip. 
Rut, on the other hand, as Mr. Renton rightly 
insisted at the meeting of the Chamber, greater 
economy and greater care in cultivation and 
manufacture are not only possible, but they 
must he enforced. Tlie way we have fallen 
behind India i.s not at all comforting to 
proprietors ; and although the increasing area 
in the low-country responsible for coarse teas, 
may, to some c.xtent, explain the lower 
average, it can furnish no answer to the 
specific comp’aint that, in roll and apper.rauoe, 
our teas compare unfavourably with Indian 
makes of the same sort. We are aware that some 
of our planters consider the leaf crop from Ceylon 
soils can never be so good. But there is room 
for improvement in local arrangements and it is 
also a ([uestion how far judicions manuring may 
give a better leaf. Many thoughtful jilanters, 
among those who answered our circulars last year 
and tiiose who did not, were strongly of opinion 
that more direct supervision was necessary, both 
in the held and the factory ; and now that we 
are drifting into liard times, we are hopeful that 
every effort will he mode to ensure improved 
teas with the utmost economy po.s.sible. IMen 
who so exert themselves will have no cause 
for self-reproach should they, for any reason, be 
unable to show a prolitable result, hecahse this 
will be due to causes beyond their control. 

“Tea Pests and Beights.’’— For sometime, 
we have lieard very little of pests troubling the 
tea-planters in Ceylon and indeed with the pros- 
pect of over-production and tlie existence of low 
price.s, there is not so much dread of the loss 
of a certain proportion of leaf. Still, no doubt 
there are field, s and ifiantations still widely 
troubled by pests; and there has just appeared 
what must be regarded as tlie permanent stand- 
ard volume on the subject. A copy has reached 
us from Calcutta today and it i.s entitled : — “ The 
Pests and Bliglits of the I’ea Plant being a Report 
of Investigations conducted in .■Assam and to some 
extent also in Kangra” by Cco. Watt, M.B., C.M., 
E.L.S., C.I K., &c., issued by the Covernnieiit of 
India. This is a bulky volume of -Iff? pages with 
a full index and table of contents. Theeiglit chap- 
ters on tea ]iesls are inefixed by an equal number 
on Indications of deterioration, ‘ Weed 
gardens and inqirovenient of seed,’ Hoing and 
Weeding, Drainage, Pruning, Planting, Tea FertL 
Users, i’he volume is therefore a Manual for Plan- 
ters. and it is one wc shall doubtless have fre« 
quent occasion to refer to and quote alter wo have 
givett Dr. Watt’s pages a careful perusal . 
[May 2, 189S. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Demand fok Raw Cotton.— The Kobe 
Chronicle trau'h’.tes tlr.^ following Tokyo jiress 
despatch, dated 2i):h .March, from a vernacular 
paper Owing to the ■■scarcity of the stock of raw 
Cotton, the cotton s[)inning companies at Osaka 
and other places have ap])lied to the Nippon A'nsen 
Kai^lia that an extra boat be despatched to Bombay. 
Negoti'itiors are going on as regards freight. The 
Nippon A'n.sen Kaisha will charter a foreign 
steamer for the extra trip. — Honghong WccJdij. 
Loan.s to Pe.v.sants. — Cannot something be 
done for onr )ieasants, to inotect them from the 
usurer. We read in an Indian paper that taking 
ailvantage of the Agricultural Loans Act, the 
Chief Commissioner of Assam publishes in his 
provincial Gazette a code of rules under which 
any proprietor, landholder, or other occupier of 
arable land may borrow from the Government 
for agricultural pur]) 0 ses a loan not exceeding 
R300 at 6J; per cent per annum. The period of 
repayment varies with Uie purpose to which 
the loan is applied hut is always easj'. Loans 
made for Uic luirchase of seed are to be 
repaid from the profits obtained from the crops 
so produced ; loans for the purchase of plough 
cattle are rejiayahle in three years ; the maximum 
in any case is ten years. 
The Sugar Crisis in Mauritius — is de- 
scribed as follows in the Cummzrcial Gazette to hand 
today and has some points parallel to the case 
o£ Ceylon : — 
There are some persons in Mauritius — among -whom 
must be included our correspondent whose remarks on 
the subject appeared in our issue of the 4th instant — 
who take a pessimistic view of the planters’ chance of 
obtaining the loan of £400, 000 which has been applied 
for. For our part we see no reason for supposing that 
Mr. Chamberlain will be less content to treat the posi- 
tion of the sugar industry in Mauritius with liberality 
h-an he is the West Incli.vu pi'anter. The conditions 
are analogous in many respects — the analogy is one 
instance being a depleted exchequer. As most people 
know, this state of affairs, iii Mauritius, has been 
brought about, principally, by a short crop and the 
high price of the food which the country imports from 
India. Were the planters to obtain the loan of 
£400,000 it would not cover the deficit of 1897 crop. 
The real fact of the matter is, that the loan must be 
granted or great discomfort will prevail, Planters 
must have money to carry on their estates until the new 
crop comes in, and the money to enable them to do 
this is not in the country. This does not apply only 
to the estate proprietors who have liabilities to meet 
in the shape of interest and sinking fund, but also to 
those whose estates are unencumbered. It is only the 
interested, directly or indirectly, in Sugar Estates, 
who have any idea of the amount of money that is re- 
quired “ in advance ” against a crop. Superinten- 
dence, cooly food and l:ibour machinery, artificial 
manure, etc., have all to be taken into account. The 
loan of £400,000 has been applied for principally to 
improve the Sugar factories, but if its application be 
entirely restricted to this, other means will have to be 
found to provide monies for the upkeep af Estates 
uutil the crops come in. The yield for 1898 promises 
to be a very large one, and there is no reason why prices 
should go lower ; so that making the necessary ad- 
vances would uot be hazardous. The question is ; — 
where to find the spring to tap for the money to 
Sow ? So long as there are men like the Honourable 
Leclezio and Sir Virgile Naz at the helm of the planter’s 
bark there will be confidence and hope — it is to them 
that all eyes are turned to find means to relieve the 
existing difficulties. Before long we shall know Mr. 
Chamberlain’s decision as to the loan and we repeat, 
there is no reason to suppose it will be ae adverse one 
— on the contrary he has said British Colonies, when 
in distress, must be assisted, and he is uot likely to leave 
Mauritins ovit in the cold, 
