April i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULT URIST. 



741 



lysed trees (by whicli system, steadily preserved in, the 

 Dutch in Java have so largely increased the value of their 

 bark) has not been practised, nor is propagatiou of the 

 delicate sorts by grafting on more hardy varieties carried 

 on." The necessity of adding a skilful propagator to the 

 staff is suggested, and it is insisted upon that for any 

 satisfactory progress to be made, the chemist as well_ as 

 the experimental physiologist and botanist is a necessity. 

 The appointment of a quiuologist is therefore recommend- 

 ed ; a man who would be on the spot always, constantly 

 among the trees, and working in unison with Mr. Lawson. 

 It will be remembered that Mr. Broughton did, some years 

 ago, do much service in this direction, and his mysterious 

 departure from the scene of his labours has always been 

 regretted by tliose persons interested in the cultivation of 

 cinchona. There is, as we said above, much to be done in 

 the way of research, and Dr. Trimen contends that the 

 Government of Madras is best able to carry on the in- 

 quiries. He says: — " All such researches, however, can only 

 be properly carried on in a Government establishment, 

 where the officers can devote themselves in a spirit of 

 pure research to a work which must, of n'lcessity, be spread 

 over many years. And I will add that it is to the Govern- 

 ment of Madras that all who are interested in cinchona 

 in any of its various aspects necessarily' look to take the 

 lead. No other Government, in fact, will be likely to 

 undertake it." The reasons are then given, and Dr. Trimen 

 adds : — " It was Madras that was formerly in the front 

 position. As the pioneer of cinchona-growing in India it 

 proved that the best barks could bo grown there, and 

 initiated a great industry .... The excellent system 

 followed has, from fortuitous circumstances, come to an 

 end ; under the very favorable present conditions, one 

 cannot but expect to see it revived." 



There is a recommendation at the end of the report 

 which the Government should not forget; it is that all 

 results in such matters as those dealt with above should 

 be made promptly available to the public in annual reports, 

 which ought also to be easily obtainable. Not only m 

 annual reports should they be available, but also when- 

 ever papers of importance are printed for Government use. 

 Such papers as Dr. Trimen's report ought to be made 

 available to all who are willing to pay for the cost of 

 printing. In affording publicity to such papers, much benefit 

 may accrue to the planting community, and also, if only 

 indirectly, to the Government. "We regard Dr. Trimen's 

 report as a very able and valuable one, and the Presidency 

 is indebted to that gentleman for the trouble he has 

 taken in writing it. — Madras Mail. 



THE CARDAMOM FORESTS OF TUAVANCORE. 



A correspondent who several years ago visited the card- 

 amom forests of Travancore and made copious notes of 

 everything he saw and heard writes : — Taking advantage of 

 a long-standing invitation from a friend who was then 

 Superintendent of the Cardamom forests, I found myself 

 one December morning at a village called Oombey at the 

 foot of the Cardamom Hills, after a wearisome joarney of 

 40 hours by transit and bandy from the station of Caroor. 

 At Combey I received hospitality and assistance from the 

 Travancore Agent stationed there (as he told me to watch 

 cardamom thefts and see to prosecutions in the British 

 (.lourts). After a short rest I mounted a pony and rode 

 to the foot of the gh;\t. As the ascent was only 2,000 

 feet above the plains, I soon scrambled to the toj), where 

 I was glad to rest at the Travancore frontier watch-house. 

 A guard of Nayer sepoys and peons were located here, 

 and I was received with all honour by the native officer. 

 Tlui officer was in full war paint, but some of the men 

 seemed to have been hurried in their toilette. They in- 

 formed me they were stationed here to watch the pass 

 and to make rounds north and south of it to other watch 

 stations, the object being to intercept those who might 

 be mo^nng into the Hills for stealing cardamoms. Con- 

 sidering that a pound of the, spice was worth from two 

 to three rupees in the plains, these precautions were necess- 

 ary, though not altogether successful, as the frontier was 

 too extensive for the few sepoys and peons to guard. 

 From the watch station I was able to ride to a camp at 

 Othemenshola, distant about six miles. Tho first mile was 



over open grass land which took me up to a woody pla" 

 teau, the view from which was very fine, comprising the 

 finest stretches of forest and hill for thirty miles on the 

 Travancore side to the Peermaad plateau, while to the 

 right was a still more extensive view of the Madura plains, 

 looking like a chess board with its squares of green and 

 brown fields. From the top of the grass hill I soon en- 

 tered the forest, and the remainder of my ride was through 

 a long stretch of cardamoms under the forest shade. All 

 or nearly all the undergrowth was removed and cardamoms 

 substituted, and the contrast between the light foliage of 

 the cardamoms with the varied foliage of the trees above 

 was very pleasing. The busy part of the cardamom sea- 

 son was well on, and I was continually coming on gangs 

 of coolies weeding, pruning, and collecting the spice, while 

 ponies and donkeys kept passing me on their way lack 

 to the plains after dropping their loads at the vai ious 

 cardamom collecting stations. Altogether it was a new 

 experience of forest life and different to the usually gloomy 

 feehng that one experiences in passing through an Indian 

 forest. I examined the clusters of cardamom fruit that 

 had been collected in the gardens 1 passeil through, and 

 was struck with the careless way in which the clusters 

 were gathered ; while some of the capsules were ripe the 

 greater part were green and immature. A native owner 

 with whom I conversed explained that unless the carda- 

 moms were gathered iu this way, the polecats, monkeys, 

 and rats would destroy the crop, and in proof he pointed 

 out (juantities of capsule shells under a neighbouring clump 

 of plants, the result of their depredations. A friend to 

 whom I mentioned the circumstance explained tliat it 

 would not pay the growers to gather the crop as it ripened, 

 and that the consequence was that a large amount of 

 every crop was of an inferior description. Could the grow- 

 ers be induced to pick the crop as it ripened, a much 

 finer sample could be produced, but he despaired of this 

 while the Travancore Government paid the growers, as they 

 did, without reference to quality. 



The marks of wild elephants were plentiful everywhere, 

 and at a hollow in the roads their foot-marks had left 

 holes so de<-'p as to make it necessary for me to get off 

 my pony and walk. About a mile from Camp I found 

 my friend superintending some road repairs, and very glad 

 I was after my long jom-ney to get into shelter in his 

 little bungalow at Othemenshola. The Camp was sur- 

 rounded by a deep tr<;nch for protection from elephants, 

 and consisted of a mud and rubble bungalow and offices, 

 and an iron-covered store for forest produce. The view 

 was splendid, and comprised a mixture of grass hills and 

 forest to the foot of the high hills to the north aiul to 

 the south and west of a deep forest partially cultivated 

 with cardamoms. A. had got some good bison and sani- 

 bur heads, which looked like a promise of sport, but owing 

 to the presence of large gangs of coolies in the neigh- 

 bouring jungles for collecting the cardamom crop, game 

 had been scared away, but elephants were, he said, plenti- 

 ful, and to prove his words shortly after reaching Camp 

 their near presence was announced by shrill trumpetting 

 and screaming in a clump of reeds not five hundred yards 

 from the Camp; late in the afternoon a herd of fifteen 

 walked out into the grass lands, and A. and I were able 

 to get within a few yards of them and for nearly an 

 hour watch them. There was only one small male among 

 them, with tusks as big as tent pegs, and the rest were 

 females and calves. One of the latter was no bigger than 

 a buffalo calf, and evidently caused its mother .some anxi- 

 ety by its helplessness. Two calves were pugnaciously 

 inclined, and shoved and battled at each other with a good 

 will till the mother of one walked up and separated them 

 with what sounded to us a good scolding. Feeding up 

 rather close to us A. and I showed ourselves, and the 

 herd, after scanning us for a few seconds, moved away 

 at a slow pace and re-entered tht- reed clump they had 

 come from. A. said that tliougli the elephants were very 

 numerous about the cardamom forest, that they were 

 seldom troublesome. They were strictly prcscived by the 

 Travancore Government and were increasing in numbers. 

 Nothing was done to catch or trap them except by pits. 

 About a dozen a year were caught, of which about nue- 

 fiixth wore saved. Many died in the fall and others sub- 

 se((ueTitly, and except young animals few were of any use 

 when caught iu this way. A. had tried to get Oeylou 



