102 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ounce of seeds may produce from twenty to twenty-five thousand 

 plants. When thoroughly dried they are sown in beds, and when 

 well started the young plants are transferred to nursery -beds protected 

 from sun and rain by light thatched roofs. When from eight months 

 to a year old, or about twelve inches high, they are ready to be planted 

 out, the thatch-covering having been removed for a fortnight or so to 

 harden them. Propagation by cuttings is practiced to some extent, 

 and succeeds well. The plants are about six feet apart, and an acre of 

 ground may produce a thousand or more trees. 



Where vegetation is so rapid and profuse as in India, constant 

 weeding is necessary, and, until the trees are sufficiently large to shade 

 the ground, one or two hoeings a year are highly beneficial. The 

 following may be considered as a fair representation of the rapidity 

 of growth : 



At four years of age, 9 inches girth, 9 feet height. 

 " six " " 13 " " 17 " " 



" ten " " 21 " " 30 " " 



" twelve " " 28 " " 39 " " 



At first, a very successful method was introduced for securing the 

 bark without injury to the tree. Commencing with trees about eight 

 years old, a strip of bark an inch and a half wide was taken from the 

 trunk, extending from the lower limbs to the roots. Leaving a strip 

 of equal width, an inch and a half, another was taken, and so on quite 

 round the tree, thus removing one half and leaving one half intact. 

 The whole trunk was then covered with moss, carefully bound on, so 

 as to exclude the light and air. In from ten to eighteen months the 

 bark would be found to be completely renewed without detriment to 

 the growth of the tree. The new bark thus formed was found to be 

 thicker and richer in quinine than the natural growth. This process 

 could be repeated at intervals of from a year to a year and a half for 

 an indefinite period. This method is still followed in the Nilgiris, 

 while in the Himalayas it has failed on account of the ants, which 

 penetrate the moss and destroy the exposed wood. In the Himalayas 

 two methods are now practiced. By the first the trees are felled and 

 the bark carefully peeled from the trunk and branches. The stumps 

 are allowed to remain, and from the sprouts that spring up two of the 

 most thrifty are preserved for future trees, while the rest are cut away. 

 This is called coppicing. By the second method the tree is uprooted, 

 and the bark removed from the trunk, branches, and roots. The 

 ground is then replanted with seedlings. Time must show which of 

 these methods will prove the most profitable. 



The bark, on being removed from the trees, is placed in open sheds 

 near at hand to dry, that the first process of drying may be in the 

 open air and in the shade. When dried as much as possible without 

 artificial heat it is carried to the dry-house, a close brick building, 

 where the process is completed with the aid of slow charcoal-fires. 



