33^ 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1883. 



FoTtSter is not often overburdened with that always much- 

 coveted, h urly-eighed-for commodity — leisure. To review 

 this book adequately would requii-e several long consecutive 

 notices, and many entire days passed among the several 

 thousand specimens forming the unique collection of woods 

 at the Furest School. We had vainly hoped to have been 

 able to m;;ke for ourselves this leisure, but kismat has been too 

 strong ftr us hitherto, and rather than delay any longer, 

 we will at once attempt to give some idea of the book to 

 those of our readers, who are so unfortunate as still to be 

 without a copy of it. 



The idea of writing such a work arose dm'ing the pre- 

 paration of wood specimens for the great Paris Exhibition 

 of 1878. Such a large number of specimens of undoubted 

 botanical determination was collected, that the opportunity 

 was seized of supplying a "good stock to the Royal Gard- 

 ens at Kew and to other museums both in Europe and 

 America;" as well as type cullectione. for reference and 

 study by Indian Forest Officers, to the various Conservators' 

 offices in this country. The next and almost simultaneous 

 step was to prepare a work embodying a correct descrip- 

 tion of the structure, properties and uses of these various 

 woods. 



Every circumstance was favorable for the preparation of 

 such a book. The number of species represented in the 

 collections was large, and included very nearly all the more 

 important ligneous ])lauts growing within the territories 

 ruled over by the Viceroy of India. Moreover, nearly every 

 species was represented by several specimens grown in 

 various portions of those territories under various conditions 

 of t^oil, climate and locality. A well-organized workshop 

 was at hand, superintended directly by iSIr. Gamble, assisted 

 by Mr. Smythies, and during part of the time, also, by Dr. 

 Warth, both of whom were specially deputed to aid Mr. 

 Gamble. And last but not least, Dr. Brandis, the Father 

 OF Indian Forestoy, was there present with his great 

 knowledge and vast experience to start the work and direct 

 its progi-ess. 



The chief points of information recorded under each species 

 are, to us, as nearly as possible, the author's own words — 



1. The scientific name, with synonyms. 



2. Selected vernacular names. 



3. Description of the wood. 



4. Geographical distribution, briefly. 



5. Kecord of all available information regarding rate of 



growth. 



6. Results of all experiments on weight and strength 



that it was possible to quote. 



7. General uses of the wood and of other products of 



the tree. 



8. List of specimens used in identification and description. 

 Besides this, "some attempt has been made to notice 



even the species which have not been described. In some 

 > mportaut genera, a hst of known species and their geo- 

 graphical habitat has been given, in other genera other species 

 of note have been mentioned, aud, whenever possible, notes 

 regarding the uses and qualities of the wood and the other 

 products of the trees so referred to have been added. 



The most important, as it is the truly original, portion 

 of the Manual is the description of the wood and bark of 

 the trees and shrubs noticed. These descriptions were 

 usually dictated by Dr. Brandis, after full discussion with 

 Messrs. Gamble and Smythies. The generic and family 

 characters were not discussed and established until constant 

 practice had given facility in seizing at once essential dif- 

 ference of structure. For the descriptions of the later re- 

 ceived wood specimens, as well as of those given i-n X\\e addenda 

 Mr. Gamble alone is responsible, although he adhered through- 

 out to the original plan adopted. 



The main object of these descrptions is confessedly to 

 enable the reader to dentify by their means the species 

 of any wood of which he is ignorant ; but Mr. Gamble very 

 rightly warns him, *'that there is no regular rule for de- 

 termining orders and genera by means of the wood, for in 

 some cases the structure of the different component genera 

 or species present characters of a very dissimilar tj-pe." 

 But the same absence of a rcfjylar ride as regards the 

 structure of flowers and fruits is the great stumbling-block 

 over which 99 out of 100 students of systematic botany 

 come to grief. "Would it be then rash, to suggest that we 

 have perhaps not yet hit on the right method of examin- 

 ation and deecriptiou of wood structure, aud that we are 



still m what may be called the Liun;ean stage of our sub- 

 ject? And may it not be that the systems of classification 

 now adopted by botanists will at some future time have to 

 be modified by their successors being compelled to admit 

 among essential characters differences of structure of the 

 wood. 



But without making any heretical suggestions, we more 

 than hope that, "with a rather wider acquaintance with 

 the woods of India, we may be in a position to draw up an 

 analytical table for the woods which are most chiefly in 

 use in India, similar to that given at the end of the French 

 Forest Flora." And we hope that Mr. Gamble himself will 

 forge for us this analytical key. 



No Indian ForfSter, Engineer, Planter, Agriculturist or 

 Merchant should be without a copy of this Manual of 

 Indian Timbers. We are proud that tlie Indian Forest 

 Department has Avithiu it the brains and industry to pro- 

 duce such work. To Dr. Brandis (who will never cease to 

 have claim to the gi-atitude of Indian Foresters), to Mr, 

 Smythies, and last, but not least, to Mr. Gamble, who has 

 to his sole count written half the book, and eclited with 

 conspicuous success the whole of it, we owe a world of 

 thanks. In the words of the old Roman Commonwealth, 

 Bene vieruere de repuUicd. — Indian Forester. 



OINOHONA CULTURE. 



Cinchona plantmg, looked at in a " will it pay ?" 



light, 



is a most enticing form of tropical agriculture. The writer 

 of this has had over eight years of practical experience in 

 its cultivation in the island of Ceylon; aud a few words 

 with regard to that island, aud the introduction of cinchona 

 there, ^^•ill not be out of place just now in your columns. 



Ceylon, as most people know, is a great coffee country; 

 one of its districts alone contains nearly 45,000 acres, and, 

 when one comes to consider that coffee is usually planted 

 6ft. by 5^ft, one can grasp what 45,000 acres of coffee 

 shrubs means. Many handsome fortunes have there been 

 made ami marred ; the writer in one year took off a pro- 

 perty of some 500 acres £21,000 worth of a crop; but 

 from the year 1878 till now Ceylon has been suffering 

 more or less from a complete change of seasons. I do 

 not attribute the falling-off of crops .so much to leaf dis- 

 ease, from which the coffee has been suffering, as to this 

 change. 



For some years prior to the advent of these bad times 

 the fortimes to be made in the planting of cinchona had 

 been the theme of planting conversation, but no one, all 

 being so wedded to King Coffee, would think of giving 

 such a new-fangled idea a trial, and one case is quoted in 

 which an old and experienced planter, still in Ceylon, 

 wrote to the agents of the property under his care advis- 

 ing them to give cinchona a trial. They thought him mad, 

 and. had he not been a man who was much respected, he 

 would have stood a chance of losing his situation. The 

 last time I saw this self-same property it was one, so to 

 speak, field of cinchona ; and its old manager has, on his 

 own property, some of the richest quinine-yielding cinchona 

 trees of the Ledger variety that there are to be found in 

 Ceylon. 



Gradually the giving of cinchona a trial crept in. First 

 of all it w'as used to line the road sides, then to define 

 the various weeding contract boundaries, all the weeding 

 being given out in contracts at rates varying from 2s. to 

 3s. 6d., and even much more, per acre. Soon all the bad 

 patches of coffee came to be used up for cinchona, then 

 here and there amongst all the coffee, and finally land has 

 been felled and cleared for the growth of cinchona alone. 



For the better quaUties of cinchona bark there is a steady 

 value and growing demand, as the following statistics will 

 show (from '* Notes and Statistics of Cinchona Bark," by 

 John Hamilton) : — In the year 1870, the amount of bark 

 importrd into Great Britain was 2,535.568 lb., and value 

 £21^,5^5 ; whilst in the year 1881 the qiiautitv was 

 14,040,096 lb., of a value of £1,814,501. This bark did not 

 come from any one country, but from all parts of the 

 world, and principally from the United States of Columbia. 

 From Mr. T. C. Owen's book (a valuable one) on cinchona, 

 we find that whilst in 1S70 the value of Ceylon total ex- 

 ports of cinchona only reached £5, in the year I860 it 

 was £120,000, thus showing the opinion Ceylon planters 

 held of it. 



