December i, 1891 .] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
409 
UJiMilLNCi AND MINING COMl’ANV 
OF CEVI.ON. 
London, Nov. 
Thera ie no doubt that the result to the last 
year’s working of the Gemming and MiningCompany 
of Ceylon has been anything but eutislaotory. The 
extract from the Investori' Guardian given below 
reveals this very fully, though the paragraph is 
written in a tone which ehowa but little acquain- 
tance by its author of the real facts with regard 
to the prospeots with which the company was 
started ; for wc all know that the precious stones 
are there, even if the steps taken by the directors 
havo failed to secure them for their shareholders. 
The current talk here is that gems of a line 
quality and size were never so abundant in Colombo 
as they are at the present time ; and it is the 
generally expressed opinion that the operations of 
the company account for this, that these stones 
have been obtained by its working, but that, as 
Mr. Streeter predicted to mo would bo the case, 
they do not get beyond the native labourers who 
havo found them while employed in the company’s 
pita. Unless some means can be taken to guard 
against such thefts, it is much to be feared gem- 
ming on a large scale will never prove remunerative 
in Ceylon. Wo hope, however, that the sliairs 
of the company may be retrieved during the 
current year by its output of plumbago. 
Thk Gemmino and Mining Company of Ckylon. — 
This Company oanuot be congratulated at the result of 
its operaiiona during the past year. Tlio Kimberley 
compound system is evidently cot in vogue in Ceylon, 
for the good stones found by its uative employes were 
retained by them for their private nses. and they simply 
bauded to the company those which possessed no mer- 
cantile value. The coDsequence is that the Company 
has lost during the year £3,453 IBs Id by its operations, 
this including the cost of the London offices and 
directors’ fees amounting to some £860. The main hope 
of the ubsirmau now seems to post, not on the prccions 
stones, but on the deposits of plumbago, which they 
havo discovered on thoic property, AVe arc told by 
chemists that the diamond and plnmbsgo have an 
identical chemical composition, and this knowledge may 
somewhat console the sbaroboldcrs for its substiiution, 
although they may fairly argue that they subscribed on 
the testimony of the experts that the carbon on their 
property was in the form of preoious stones, and not 
in that of blacklead . — Loiidvii Cor. 
THE ADVANCE OF BRITISH-GROWN 
tea. 
From the monthly circular ou the tea market, i.‘’sued 
by Messrs. Gow, Wilson, and Stanton we observe that 
the appreciation of the Coylon leaf by British con. 
sumers is increasing ns fast as the production. For 
the period from the beginning of Junetotbe end of 
September — the four heaviest months of (bo yesr — the 
imports have amounted to twenty.thrco million pounds, 
against fifteen and a-balf niilliou pounds in the cor- 
rospoudiug months of 1800, and eleven million pounds 
in 1889. The figure is a heavy one, being greater than 
the imports of tba Indian product in the same period 
only two yosrs ago. but. Instead el creating a plethora, 
it has been taken almost entirely off the market, the 
deliveries ueming to twenty-one aed a-tbird million 
pounds. The sddition to stools is, therefore, small, 
and there is the less danger of a glut from the fact 
that dnriog the ensuing two months there is a proba- 
bility of a dofioiency in the supply, as the shipments 
ate estimated at only four million pounds per month. 
This doas not, however, imply any falling off in the 
production of Ceylon. From what we can Icaru with 
reference to the future yield, we think it likely the 
total will go 00 moauting for jeats to come in thf 
ratio of the past — that is to say, an iucreaae of from 
eight to ten million pounds per annum may be looked 
forward to os practically assured. But if we judge 
the future consumption also by past experience, there 
should be no canse to apprehood that over-supply 
which Ceylon’s legions of enemies predict. 
A.s the importation of Indian and Ceylon teas increases 
involnmo, the Gbiuoso leaf is being displaced to make 
roam for the Briti«h-grown produce, and from present 
appearances it would appear that the Flowery Land will 
be elbowed oat of the way altogether in the course of 
another teu or fifteen years. In 1879 the Celestials sent 
us DO less than one hundred and twonty-six million 
pounds. Ceylon had not been heard of as a tea produaer, 
and the Indian contribution was only tbirty--foni million 
ponuds, having grown in the preceding fiftcon years 
from hardly three millions. Since then both Ceylon 
and ludia have been forging ahead, and China boa 
beou on the down grade, the complete reversal of tba 
market being one of the wonders of modern commoroo. 
A giauce at tho statistics of the past six years 
will surprise many of our readers, we imagine, for 
tho trausformation is quite seosational in character. 
The Uomo consumption in these years was as follows, 
tho figures representing thousands of pounda* • 
ISaS. ISBS. 1887. 1888. 1889. 1890. 
luilia .. IS5,G78 (l8,lilU 88,119 86,910 06,000 101,969 
Ccvloll .. ;t,217 0,216 ll,9tl 18,6*3 28,800 ,31,817 
Obinu, ,!kC..U3,.M4 101,990 90,608 80,053 61,100 67,530 
(1,000 lb.).. 182,100 178,891 183,561 185,116 18.\0O0 191,009 
ft will be seen that the Chinese loaf has not fallen 
away btctufc of any redaction in the coasamplion 
of tea, which has materially increased within that 
period, but has doolinel inversely with the develop- 
ment of the East ledian industry. 
But although there is no doubt as to the headway 
being made in Great Britain by the British-grown 
leaf, the apostles of ladian and Ceylon are not 
satisfiod. It IB true that daring the five years 1885. 
1889 the United Kingdom consumed one hundred 
and cighty-tbree million pounds of tea, hat in the 
eomo period the United States drank seventy-nine 
millious, Ku-sia seventy millions and a-balf, tho 
Australian Oulouies twenty-one millions and a-balf 
and Canada nearly nineteen millions, There is, 
tberefure, a much larger world jet to oonquer, and 
one reraatkabie and satisfactory feature in the position 
of Ceylon tea is the very kindly manner in wbioh 
otboc enuntries are taking to its use, the British 
colonics being ospeoially prominent in this respeot. 
AVe have before us rclurus of the exports from Ceylon 
to other countries for the dcst eight mouths of the 
current year, and comparing these with the returns 
for the corresponding peried of last year, we find an 
increase of seventy-two per cent. As these returns are 
of considerable interest, we give them in full. The 
respective sbipmenta were as follows : — 
1891 
1800 
lb. 
lb. 
Auslrlft sa. 
50,160 
1,270 
France 
... 9,300 
612 
Germany ,. 
69,300 
14,200 
Russia 
11,250 
15 
India 
... 270,6.50 
87,600 
Anstraliu ... 
... 2,211,500 
1,418,000 
America ... 
... 139,000 
119,300 
Africa 
66,650 
35,100 
China 
87,900 
33,200 
Mauritius ... 
34,300 
140 
2,940,400 
1,70-1,437 
It is disappointing that the Yankees took only 
139,000 pounds, though a large public corapapy was 
formed in the States with a great flonrish of 
trumpets to promote the consumption of Ceylon tea. 
It will bo noticed, however, that even tho Chinese 
themselves have begun to sip the rival ueotar.— 
Financial Times. 
» More simply stated, tho figures or eiobera for 
millioua are omitted,— El). T, 4, 
