402 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883. 



glim tree at Gayton-park which, till the bead was broken 

 oif by the wind, was one of the fiig}its of Ootacamund ; it 

 has now a girtb of 14 feet and a boie 100 feet high. Gen- 

 eral Morgan has some Bhie-gams near his house. *' The 

 Retreat," now twenty-three years old, with a height of 140 

 feet and a girth of 7i feet. lu 18G8, General Morgan cut 

 down a tree at Tudor Hall which at eight years gave a yearly 

 increment of 8 cubic feet of wood. General IMorgau can 

 speak from experience of the powerful draining action of 

 the Blue-gum tree. He has seen ponds and streams on 

 the- Nilgiris dried up locally, after tlie plautmg of this 

 ti-ee near them. There are no trees on the Iiill.s sufEcieutly 

 old to thoroughly test the value of Bhu--gum wood for build- 

 ing purposes. In 1862, Genei'al Morgan tried several 

 varieties of Eucalypts ; the valuable Jarrah failed as it 

 has failed uniformly in Southern India. Euculi/jdu.s rostrata, 

 the Ked-gum of Sydney, succeedid, as did also Ei'calypltts 

 ami/gdaliiw, which in Australia grow.s to such a gigantic size. 

 General Morgan recommends planting 6' m 0', and thinning 

 at eight years or before ; he considers that the growth of 

 Eucalyptus {/lohiilns is about twice that of teak, and teak 

 about twice that of the European oak. Arucia melanoxyloa 

 and Acacia deiilhata were introduced on the Nilgiris a few 

 years before 1845, coming probably at first from the Oape. 

 General Morgan remembers Acacia melanoxylon as a rare 

 plant in 1851 from tlie circumstance that in that year some 

 plants were stolen from General AVatson's grouuds, and 

 found afterwards in a priest's garden. Last year General 

 Morgan felled an Acacia melano.vylon that had been planted 

 before 1845, and was therefore about thirty-eight years of 

 age. It f urni.shed sufficient planks to board a room 34' m l.i'. 

 Some other trees forty years of age have each produced 50 

 cubic feet of timber. 



General Morgan's account of the cubic contents of 

 both the blue gum and the black wattle is certainly 

 favourable. Hiicaly/jliis amyf/dalintc is the tree which 

 surpasses all others in height, although the great 

 Californian trees excel it in girth. Altliougli General 

 Morgan speaks of the red gum as a success, no 

 measurements of any trees of this speoies are given. 

 We have stated those of Eucidyptiis (jlobuhia or blue 

 gum, and Acacia mclanoxyloii or Australian black-wood 

 The only otlier tree mentioned is Eucalypttis ohUc^ua, 

 or stringy-bark gum. Iron-bark is not mentioned 

 any more than the tree which promises so well in 

 Ceylon, GreviUea rohusta. Mr. Hutchins states : — 



A small clump of 11 stringy-bark trees growing outside 

 the sample area gave, as will be seen from a table appended 

 and individual-increment of I'Si cubic feet. These ligrues 

 show a growth rather better than that of the blue-gum, but 

 were a large uumber of stringy-barks available for measure- 

 ment, it is certain that the difference would be iu favour 

 of the blue-gum, though probably not so much as it is 

 usually surjposed to be, 

 Tlie oldest plantation of blue gums is at Arambi 



At an elevation of 7,460 feet ; 1 j miles from Ootacamund; 

 area 58 acres : planted in 1863-64 and 1865 by the Jungle 

 Conservancy Department, at 6' k 6' from basket-pots ; the 

 oldest portion where the sample are.i was taken is on shola 

 land. Arambi is the oldest of the Eucalypt plantations, leav! 

 ing out of consideration tliose where tliey arc a few Eucalyp- 

 stanilards over Acacia coppice. Originally planted 6' M 6' - 

 it coutains now (iu the sample area) 498 trees per acre. 

 This plautation was thinned once, and is stated to 

 have required further thinning for some years back. 

 The tliinnings are sold iu Ootacamund for firewood. 

 Mr. Hutchins belii ves in thinning dott'u to 200 trees 

 per acre, in order to secure the best possible annual 

 increment per tree and per acre : — 



Aramhi plantation is of beautifully regular growth, with 

 clean stems 110 and 120 feet up to the first branches. Many 

 of these tall trees however have a head of foliage repre- 

 sented by i ov^ of a head-load of green twigs and 30 or 40 

 lb. of branch-wood. Tree No. 10 of the Factor trees, for in- 

 stance, had only 15 lb, of branch-wood and one-tenth of a 

 head-load of t» igs, and this tree was 63 feet in height. The 

 yearly Individual-increnient at Avmhiis only about half that 

 of iVofMiOTdwheu itmighf be expected to be double; thus 

 the Individual-increment of iVoi-fcood or of A'ff/iVi (aged 10), 



s double that of Bathri (aged 5 years), the trees in these 

 three plantations being well spaced and showing a progress- 

 ive development. The mean Individual-increment at Aramhi, 

 ■953 cubic foot, is not J that of the Maiiimund standards 

 which have 4-187 cubic feet. A severe but gradual thinning 

 down to about 200 to the acre seems advisable. The sam- 

 ple area, has an ele%'ation of 7,400 feet, a westerly aspect, 

 and a garadient of about 1 iu 6 : it is at the bottom of the 

 oldest portion of the plantation. 



Premising that Acacia dealbatn is the wattle which 

 grows into such dense groves by sending up plants 

 from the roots, that it is deemed a nuisance in Nuwara 

 Eliya, but especially in Ootacamund, Ijiit wliicli ought 

 to be valuable for fuel for tea plantations, if confined 

 to oon\'enient limits. We quote what Mr. Hutchins 

 says of the Brook]^nd plautation where the two oca- 

 ciui and the blue gum were grown together : — 



About 10 acres, situated near the head of the Si'gur ghat, 

 in an exposed locality : ascertained by Colonel Beddome to 

 have been planted about 1862. It consisted originally of 

 Acacia deallata (Wattli?), Acacia melaiicixylon and a few 

 Eucalyptus ylohdus. The origin.al owner, a missionary, sold 

 it to some natives who cut over the Acacia, leaving the 

 Eucalypts as standards. The assessment being iu arrears 

 the plautation was put up to auction and bought iu by the 

 Forest Department in 1S75 or 1876. Since then tlieAVattle 

 coppice has been cut twice. The rapid giowth of the "Wat- 

 tle after being out is noticed iu the Ni'lgiri Forest Adminis- 

 tration Keport for 1876. The Acacia iiielano.n/loii was cut, 

 and tailed to coppice. The Eucalypt standards, fully ex- 

 posed to the south-west monsoon, have assumed a sturdy, 

 branching and gnarled form, different to the usual appear- 

 ance of a Eucalypt iu this country. Of unusually large 

 girth at the base, they taper rapidly to a point. For the 

 trunks alone the " Beducing-factor"' (the fraction which 

 expresses the form of the tree) would be about '30, but the 

 low spreading heads give a very large weight of branch- 

 wood, which raises the factor to '39, thus approaching what 

 it would be in High-timber plantation trees. Turning to 

 the table of Individual-increments, it will be seen that the 

 ludividual-incremeut from these Eucalyjit standards is as 

 niuch as 4'32 cubic feet per annum. As has been noticed, 

 in the closely-grown plantation trees at Aramhi, at about 

 the same age, this figure is barely 1 cubic foot ('9534 cubic 

 fO'it). An attempt was made to get an increment per acre 

 from Brool^lands plantation by raeaaui'ing tlie spread of the 

 branches. This gave 100 trees, or 8,636 cubic feet per acre, 

 or an increment per acre per annum of 4318 cubic feet = 

 (at 40 lb. per cubic footj 7'7I tons. Now this figure cor- 

 responds, within a fraction of a ton, with the acre-iocre- 

 ment, (without allomng for thinnings, i,i both cases) ob- 

 laiued from trees grown under exactly opposite conditions 

 ^t Arambi. Turning to the table of Individual-increments 

 (page 23), we see that a Broolclands tree is making wood 

 at a rate nearly five times as fast as a tree of the same age 

 iu Arambi. Looking agaiu at the measurements of the 

 branch spread of the Brooldaiuls trees we have the result, 

 that 100 trees at Brookfands give nearly thn same acre-in- 

 crement as 500 trees ^tArambi. It would be assumed theor- 

 eticallj' that 2 acres of ground completely covered with 

 foliage of the same species would have the same incre- 

 ment, although the number of trees per acre varied. This 

 appears to be true for Ei'calyptus ylobidiis within the wide 

 limits of 100 trees per acre and 500 trees per acre. But 

 apart from figures an examination of the two plantations 

 would indicate the same deduction. A tree makes wood 

 other conditions being equal, in proportion to the leafy 

 surface. The Brooklands Eucalypt standards have large 

 hady heads : the Arambi trees have deplorably scanty heads. 

 The Arambi trees have beautifully symmetrical growths, 

 but are deficient in he,ad and leafy surface. The Brookhnds 

 trees have comparatively shapeless trunks, but five times 

 the leafy surface and five times the individual growth of 

 the Arajuhi trees. 



Intermediate iu form bettveen these two extremes are 

 the Eucalypt standards at .Unrlimiind plantation. With 

 shapely trunks and ample heads, these trees le^ivc nothing 

 to be desired in their appearance, and though older than 

 either Brooklands or Arambi, the Mariimuiid Eucalypts 

 must have a high acro-increment. Nine and a half tuns 

 have been obtained from the standing stocking now on the 



