THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July s, 1S83. 



occupies a long period. All that is necessary to 

 hasten this is, says Major Wimberley, to assist the 

 seed-coat in splitting. This is effected by holding 

 the seed tiriuly and rasping off with a file botli 

 edges at the root end. It is best not to file off 

 the actual end, as it may thus easily happen that 

 the rootlet of the embryo may be injured. After 

 this tna'mcnt it is said that the young plants 

 should appear above ground in two or three weeks. 

 The seedlings do not, it appears, require auy part- 

 icular attention : they grow rapidly, and may be 

 planted out at 20' x 20-". Cuttings will take root as 

 early as willow, and should be takpn from the 

 points of strong shoots, and may be a foot in length. 

 In planting, Xlnjor Wimberley explains that each 

 cutting may be put into the soil to a depth of 

 six inchee. If scarce, tlie entire shoot shoidd be 

 cut into pieces, each possessing a bud, all of which 

 will grow if covered with half an incli or so of 

 soil. Loose sandy soils and liard dry gravelly wastes 

 are also suitable sites. It is added that "holes 

 might be made in strong land with an iron jumper 

 and a stout cutting put into each and filled with 

 pebbles. On bare or thinly-covered portions of rock, 

 the cuttings might be laid down flat and a little 

 heap of stones or any kind of debris about the size 

 of a niole-hdi, piled over each, care being taken 

 that the extreme point of each cutting with a bud is 

 left uncovered." 



COCA. 



The medicinal properties of this remarkable 

 plant have lately attracted considerable attention. Its 

 well-known property of stimulating the actiou of the 

 heart and digestive organs has recently been turned 

 to account in the United States in the treatment of 

 dipsomania, and of the habit of opium eating, laudanum 

 drinking, or sub-cutaneous injection of morphia. 

 There seems no reason, also, why it ehould not be 

 used to cure the habit of taking chloral. In all 

 these cases it is a stunulaut action which is required, 

 and this coca possesses, while it does not produce 

 any deleterious after-effect?. Some remarkable results 

 have been obtained by its use, more especially cases 

 of indigestion, which are entirely cured by this drug, 

 and which lead to the hope that the leaves may 

 soon be in extensive demand. — Planters' Gazette. 



CINCHONA CULTUEE. 



As mauy of our readers are already awai'C, the planters 

 of (_'eylon aud other portions of India who have been 

 driven from cotfee-growing by the ravages of leaf disease 

 {Bemileia vastatrtx) sought refuge from the calamity in the 

 cultivation of Cinchona. This new industry , has now 

 flourished for the greater part of a decade, and contiuues. 

 with few exceptions, to be as promising as ever. Different 

 vari(4ies liud favour in different localities, owing to vari- 

 ations iu soil, amount of rainfall, aud height of temperature ; 

 but, on the whole, the plant seems to require a tropical 

 heat, or nearly so, to thrive, and a moderate amount of 

 rain — considerably less of the latter than the tea jilant — 

 to ilo its best. Several months ago we were favoured with 

 a parcel of Cinchona ojjirinulis seed for distribution. This 

 kind is in favour with Ceylon planters for its quality, but 

 si hardly as successful in Ceylou as C. sncciridna, C. Ifty- 

 eriana, and some other varieties, because the rainfall 

 appears to be iu excess of its requirements. It was on account 

 of the climate of Queensland being known to be drier than 

 that of -Ceylon that the " crown bark " variety was selected 

 for a trial here. Up to the present time, however, we 

 have heard nothing from those who had seed from this 

 office with reference to then success with it or other\yise ; 

 but they have only had sufficieut time to raise a few seedlings, 

 so cannot have much to report 



It is gratifying to note that the Government have an eye 

 oil the probable requirements of the colony in the matter of 

 ciuchona cultui'e, aud ai'c intending to take the initiative on 



the experimental farms now starting. The idea itself is 

 good, though whether the sites selected for the experi- 

 meuts are at all suitable remains to be seen. Perhaps no 

 one can say emphatically that cinchona trees will not thrive 

 in the locaUties of Yeidba aud Withersfield, but, so far as 

 can be judged from experience elsewhere, they can hardly 

 be expected to do well in either place. "Will it be wise, then, 

 to make much stir in the matter when failure would prob- 

 ably deter persons from giving it a trial in other parts of the 

 colony ? This is a question deserving of consideration. His- 

 tory aboimds in illustrations of the mischief which has 

 resulted from badly designed or indifferently executed ex- 

 periments. Some years ago, before the sugar industry had 

 taken good hold auywhere in Queensland, the owners of a 

 selection on the Agricultm'al Reserve, eleven miles from 

 Eockhanipton, planted something like 40 acres of cane, \vliich 

 grew magnificently, and, sanguine of success, one of the firm 

 started for Sydney to make arrangements for the necessary 

 machinery. "VVhile away south, and before anything had been 

 done, a telegram reached him sayuig that a heavy frost had 

 destroyed the cane, and the consequence was that no machin- 

 ery was procured, and the verdict was made pubhc that sugar 

 could not be grown successfully iu the district, while, in fact, 

 the cane was only slightly frosted. This hasty conclusion 

 regarding a partially successful experiment was the immedi- 

 ate cause of preventing the industry being tried there again 

 until recently, and a large amount of capital which was to 

 have beeu expended upon it then m that neighbourhood was 

 taken elsewhere. So far as possible, it is well to prevent 

 history repeating itself after this fashion. A partial success 

 is often more damaging than a complete failui-e, because it 

 will first excite hope, to be even^paUy rudely dispelled. 

 We write this not so much with the- intention of pre- 

 venting cinchona being tried on these experimental farms 

 (for it would be well to try it everywhere) as of gtfard- 

 ing against too much stress being laid upon trials in 

 such locaUties. But the plant should certainly have a 

 thorough trial somewhere north of Eockhamptou or of 

 Mackay, in ridgy coast coimtiy. Cii'cumstances favour- 

 able for its perfect development wUi probably be found 

 near Cardwell, or on the Herbert Kiver ; most pi'obably 

 not m any of om- western country. 



Cinchona trees of several varieties are on trial at the 

 present time m the Brisbane Botanic Gardens and else- 

 where. Ci)ichona auccirithra so far looks evceeilingly well 

 in the Botanic Gardens, and in its fohage and general 

 appearance wears so close a resemblance to the Leich- 

 hardt tree of the Xortli (Huz-coccp/mlm cordaliis) that it 

 miglit ea.sily be mistaken for it. The bark and wood of 

 the Leichhardt tree are also bitter — another remarkable 

 point of resemblance between the two : aud on account 

 of these resemblances a strong suspicion lurks in the minds 

 of some that an affinity will eventually be ti-aced between 

 them — a matter for oiu" colonial botanists to determine. 

 Mr. Brady, of sUkwonn notoriety, on the north branch 

 of the Tweed Eiver, has a thrifty plant of cinchona near 

 his house, not making very rapid growth certainly, but 

 apparently healthy. Bananas thrive in the same locality, 

 and are never injured by fi-ost, and it will probably be 

 found that one essential condition for success with cin- 

 chona is the absence of any considerable degi-ee of frost. 

 Then, again, as jn'otit will be resultant from a good yield 

 of bark, it follows that only in locahties where the maxiiuum 

 of gi'owth can he seciu-ed will its cultivation prove reliable 

 and satisfactory. It is not reasonable to expect .strong 

 growth with a iniuimum and precarious rainfall, and yet this 

 condition, together with c rtaiiity of plenty of frost, is 

 what the cinchona will have to contend with in both the 

 localities selected for tlie experimental farms. To make 

 the trial complete, a thnd experiment should be con- 

 ducted simultaneously with the others somewhere in the 

 northern coast districts, aud a comparison of results could 

 then be made after a certain time between the different 

 localities. It would thus be <lefinitely .shown where it 

 could aud where it could uot be grown profltably; and 

 also w^hat might reasonably be expected from it. In 

 Ceylon at the present time the question is often put — "What 

 ails our cinchona trees ?'" Anew trouble in the form of 

 canker is dangerously affecting the trees and tlampiug the 

 jjlanters' ardour in its cultivation. Those on the spot who 

 have experience of tiie coffee-leaf disease and also of this 

 new trouble say — " A\ hat disease or what insect is so fatal 

 to coffee as canker is to cinchona f" So far as ex- 



