m 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, [NoraiB-EK i, 1883. 



at once thftt his oil ti-ee behaved exactly like the Copaiba 

 tree Jescribcil by Mr. Cross. He did not kunw what the 

 tree was like, nor where to look for it. Luckily, however, 

 he was making a clearing for a teak plantation at Kootam- 

 polle, at the bottom of the Perambadi Ghaut, so orders 

 were given to the fellers to report any tree wliich spouted 

 any liquid from its centre. It was not long before one 

 was found, and some of the liquid collected. It was a 

 thick oily substance of a claret red. On comparing it with 

 the medicinal Balsam of Copaiba, I find the latter is not 

 so thick and is a yellow colour, and also has a more pim- 

 gent odour, though there is no doubt that our liquid has 

 the characteristic smell in a less degree. 



I have just returned from an expedition to KootampoUe, 

 where Mr. Tod and I had a great search for the tree. 

 The clearing had in the meanwhile been burnt, and the 

 tree fhtn'ein charred, so that ive had little to go on, except 

 the leaves which had been gathered from it, and on cut- 

 ting into the trunk we saw the structiu'e of tho wood. We 

 also noticed that it was not a buttressed tree. These two 

 points were indeed all we had to go on for a long time, 

 for in these heavy evergeeu forests, it is very little that 

 can be seen of the leaves of a tree unltss of very pecu- 

 liar shape. The first day we were quite unsuccessful. The 

 second we began by searching this clearing, and soon found 

 several stumps which had the liquid still standing in them, 

 80 it was evi<lently a fairly common tree. We then looked 

 very carefully round the edge of the adjoming jungle, .and at 

 last found a tree. After that it was comparatively plain 

 sailing as we soon caught the chai'acteristics of th" bark 

 and habit of trunk, which is pretty nearly all that one 

 has to go on in these forests. 



Unfortunately the tree has neither flower nor fruit at 

 this time of year. But Mr. Tod is going to have one feUed 

 every now and then until he can get the flower. The 

 leaves are somewhat Hke the Fteromipiis maisiipiiiiii, but 

 very irregular in size, varying from 2 to 5 inches, also in 

 shape, being sometimes lanceolate, sometimes ovate. I enclose 

 a few specimens. 



I am sending the liquid home to be reported on. From 

 the second tree we operated upon, we obtauied two dif- 

 ferent licpnils. Tlie one, the tliick oily stuH: already de- 

 scribed, and th(^ other a yellow watery fluid with a very 

 disagreeable smell. I thought at the time, that this would 

 turn out to be the true balsam of copaiba, and so sent oft 

 some of it to England, as well as the the oily fluid. But 

 on further ixnniination I fear it is useless. 



I will send the Loudon report on the liquid to the 

 "Forester" as soon as I receive it. — F. B. D. — IiiiUan 

 Forester. 



OINCHONA CULTIVATION NOT A FAILEIl IN 

 CEYLON. 

 Sir, — In the jircsent flnanci.al depression of thi.s isLiud, 

 I think it iiuuimbent to enter a protest ag.ainst the w.ay 

 in which thin jiroduct, or rather its cultivation, has been 

 cried dowit. in tho local papers. Those who have been 

 successful remain silent, while those who have not have 

 been very busy throwing dirt on the cultivation of a pro- 

 duct which, with prices 20 jier cent below the present 

 low rates, still promises to yield a clear return of P,20ll 

 per .acre. This is more thau the best managed tea e.slate 

 could ever give. It is all very well to talk of what ti'a 

 is going to do, but in all probability, but for the return 

 cinchona has given m its early and infant stage of cultiv- 

 ation, by which mauy have tided over their difiiculties, 

 a serious crisis would have occurred, shutting out the 

 chance of even tea having a fair trial. When banks and 

 merchants ceased to render pecuniary aid, cinchona was 

 expected to do everything— even plauts of IS mouths' 

 growth — and because cinchona did not choose to grow 

 everywhere, and in whatever style each man chose to 

 plant it, therefore cinchona is a failure. The failure is 

 attributable to b.ad and unsuitable soil, however rich in 

 other respects, bad aspect, clayey subsoils, dibbling and 

 planting, .and too close planting. A soil found unsuitable 

 need never be replanted. 'W'iH any proprietor of a cinchona 

 estate in a good district, having, say, succirubras C feet 

 ajjart and ofinciualis 4 ft. apart.—the estate C years old, if 

 of succirubra or 4 years old of the latter,— show that his 

 return per acre of shavings at present prices gives him 



less than K150 profit? Though I know that my neighbour 

 l^lants succirubras 3 ft apart, I am certain, when he barks 

 his spindly walking-sticks, he will not get more in weight 

 than I do from my stout trees 6 ft. apart. As to rich- 

 ness of bark, it is not difficult to decide who will succeed 

 in the enrl. Yet he has set an example to others, and 

 this wretched close planting is still going on. Instead of 

 a forest of succirubras, we are to have sheets of some- 

 thing very like hemp fields. Had I the opportunity, my 

 next dealing of succirubras will be 8 ft. apart, interlined 

 with officinalis or calisayas to be rooted up in their 4th 

 year. To proprietors of genuine cinchona est.ates or clearings 

 allowed to grow to mature estates, it is a matter for con- 

 gratulation that the present low prices are the result of 

 over stocking the market with tivigs and .sha%Tngs of tender 

 trees. It has had the effect of completely shutting up 

 those who have not the suitable land or means to carry 

 on a cultivation similar to growing peas and bringing them 

 early to market. 



AVhatever may he said of coffee, cinchona has not turned 

 out a failure. The money it has brought to the i.sland and 

 the progressively increased export, gives the he to this 

 sweepuig assertion. No one has yet been mined by a cin- 

 chona estate, so long as he has had the means to main- 

 tain the estate till the trees, properly planted as to dis- 

 tance, &c., have attained 5 to 6 years' growth. Within 

 the last few years much has been learnt as regards choice 

 of land i all forest land not being found suitable) eleviitiou, 

 distance of plants, &c., and the cultivation is being now 

 properly conducted. I have no doubt that tea and cocoa 

 will yet come to this isl.and's aid, but the day is far 

 distant befope cinchona in .suitable locahties will cease to 

 yield their proprietors a clear profit of .anything under 

 K1.50 per acre, and no one can grumble at such a retiu-n. 

 I base my calculation of this return on the supposition 

 that the inferior red hark sells at 50 per cent less than 

 it does now. Every effort must be m.'ide to avoid shaving 

 trees, no matter of what kind, under 4 years' growth, 



T. S. S. 



[Note by Editor. — Wo think our correspondent is very 

 sanguine, and more, that he cannot have had much ex- 

 perience in districts other thau the one in which his own 

 estate is situate. To say: "Whatever maybe said of coffee, 

 cinchona has not turned out a f<ailuTe. No one has yet 

 been ruined by a cinchona estate," is not exactly consonant 

 with existing facts, though we quite admit that, when 

 cinchonas will grow, they are very remunerative, bvit— where 

 they will not? Though much dying-out might doubtless 

 h.avo been preveuted had more suitable soil .and better seed 

 been selected, many estates that had every caro in this 

 respect, added to wide planting, have died out by thou- 

 sands.] — Local "Times," 



TEA L^VND IN CEYLON. 



The (lueslion has been raised as to whether it is more 

 advisable to look to oiu- cotlee estates as an investment for 

 the intending tea planter, or whether it will be more 

 adv.antageoustoopon newland at lower altitudes. Mr. Owen, 

 both in his letters from the tea di.stricts of India, and 

 in his paper on tea cultivation in Ceylon, speaks of the 

 clayey soils of the hill districts as possessing speci.al ad- 

 vantages over lighter micaceous .soils, but whether he con- 

 sidered our clays as equalling those of Darjihug does not 

 appear very clear. There is no doubt that we have in 

 some districts the Ught yeUow friable clay, of which 

 Mr, Owen makes mention in his Indian letters, lint there 

 is also some of our clay soil of a very different character, 

 scarcely so suitable as the above — heavy sohd day that 

 would puzzle the roots of a tea plant to force their way 

 through. 



It need not, however, be a question of planting up coffee 

 land, though we believe that near upon a hundred thou.sand 

 acres of such could be had. The maritime prorinccs present 

 a far wider field for the tea planter of the, future: all 

 the land avail.able may not be of the quality described 

 by Mr. Owen as most suitable for this cultivation, hut the 

 extent is on the whole so large as to leave an ample 

 margin for poor soil. In the Western Province there are 

 fully one hundred and fifty-thousand acres of Crown jungle, 

 in the Southern Province ti hundred thousand; but none 

 of all this is de&iguated as forest iu Jlr. Vincent's report; 



