40 6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[December i, 1883. 



here described, and E. OWiqua, L'Her., have beeu almost 

 completely naturalised on the Nilgiris. The latter species 

 is known by the n-iuie of " Stringy bark," and in Victoria, 

 South Australia and Tasmania is an immense tree, reach- 

 ing occasionally to 300 feet in height, with a girth of 

 100 feet (Brandis, 231J. It has also been tried at Ohanga 

 Manga, but has failed at Lucknow. At Lucknow, however, 

 the cultivation of E. mliijiia, Smith, " The wliite or grey 

 gum" of Kew South Wales, has succeeded well in the 

 Wingfield I'ark, and that of E. rostritlii, Schlect in the 

 Horticultural Gardens. At Ohanga Manga plantation 

 si>veral species have been found to gTow well, and at 

 Ahbottabad E. Globulus, Lab. E. Stiiurtiiiiia, F. Miill., 

 E. fereticui'iiis, Sm., E. rimiiiiilis. Lab., and E. hucoxijhn, 

 V. Miill, have succeeded admirably. The seeds of numerous 

 other species have been sown at different places in the 

 plains and valleys of the Punjab, as well as at the Botanic 

 Gardens at Saharanpur, the Horticultural Gardens at 

 Lahore and Lucknow, and many places in the Central 

 Province.^, Berar and Central India ; and there is no doubt 

 that when it has been determined which species are 

 most suited to the very different climates and soils of 

 the various parts of India, the cultivation of the species 

 of Eucalyptus which possess so many valuable properties, 

 such as their quick growth, useful timber, and the numerous 

 products to be obtained fiom their leaves and bark, their 

 cultivation should be encoiu-aged and their growth fos- 

 tered. 



1. E. Globulus. LabiUardiere ; Brandis 231. The blue 

 gum. Vern. Kurpoora mayam, Madras. 



A lofty tree with fibrous deciduous outer bark. In 

 Austraha the wood is brown, hard, tough, durable. The 

 wood of a tree grown on the Nilgiris, 18 years old and 

 95 feet high, is grey, with darker streaks and mod- 

 erately hard, Pores moderate-sized, round, frequently 

 arranged in groups or in radial or oblique lines. 

 Medullary rays fine, very numerous, the intervals 

 between the rays smaller than the diameter of 

 the pores. Pores marked on a longitudinal section, and 

 medullary rays visible as narrow bands on a radial 

 section. 



Gregarious in Victoria and the south of Tasmania. In- 

 troduced on the Kilgiris, and now completely naturalised. 

 Of the Evcali/ptus Glohvl I'f severnl successful plantations 

 have been established on the Nilgiri Hills. There are 22 

 plantations in all, but some of them are exclusively of 

 " Wattles" or Austrahan Acacia; others contain only a 

 small proportion of Eitcnlyptus, while others have not been 

 successful owing to bad locality or others reasons. 



The growth of Eucalyptus is sometimes very fast. Capt- 

 ain Campbell Walker in his paper on the "Plantations and 

 Pirewood Reserves in the Mailras Presidency," read at the 

 Forest Conference of 1875, says that the growth is often 

 1 foot per month durmg the first few years ; and Colonel 

 Beddome in his Eeport of July 187s says that a Eit^ali/p- 

 tus tree 12 years old, recently felled at Ootacamund, gave 

 144 cubic feet, which amounts to 1 foot per month, 

 •which is the same as was stated by Captain Campbell 

 Walker. 



The seeds of Encalppins are usually very small, those of 

 E. Gtolmltf.^ being perhaps the largest of the species usually 

 tried in India; the seed, is good, germiuates well usually, 

 and the plants at once begin to grow fast, but they are very 

 tender of transplanting, so that tliat operation has to be 

 very carefully done. On the subject of the transplanting 

 of Eucalyptus, the following memorancumi was drawn up 

 hy Colonel H. R. Morgan, Deputy Conservator of Forests 

 Madras : — 



" The seed, which should be procured in January or 

 February, should be placed in beds in rows 6 inches apart. 

 When the phiuts are 6 inches high, they should be taken 

 up and placed G inches apart in beds ; the roots should 

 be shorttmed to 4 inches. When 3 feet in height, the 

 plants are taken up with a ball of earth round 

 their roots, moss is bound tightly round the ball 

 and the plants are left in beis well earthed up 

 about the roots, and watered till the young rootlets show 

 through. They may then be put out. April is the best 

 month for jjlanting, as the plants are then able to make 

 strong roots before the monsoon. When moss is not avail- 

 able, bamboo pots may be used, taking care to keep the 



large end of the joint for the top of the pot ; the hole 

 at the bottom to be plugged with grass. The^ plants should 

 be placed in the pots when 8 inches in height, and left 

 till they are 2 feet high and the roots show thr-ough ; then 

 thrust the roots through, and the plant comes out with 

 a ball of earth attached to the roots. Pits should be 18 

 inclies cube." 



Weight, Mr. Newbery's " Descriptive Catalogue of the 

 Specimens ui the Museum at Melbourne, illustrating the 

 economic woods of Victoria," gives 44 lb. on an average ; 

 our specimen gave 43 lb. The weight and value of P., 

 calculated from the aver.age of the six expei-iments given 

 at page 203 of Laslett's •' Timber and Timber Trees," 

 were W=64 and P=534. Wood strong and tenacious, 

 durable, extensively used iu Australia for beams, railway 

 sleepers, piers and bridges; also for ship building. The 

 wood from the Nilgiri plantations has scarcely been used 

 except for fh-ewood or charcoal. The leaves give an essen- 

 tial oil used iu medicine, and paper has been made of the 

 bark. 



The slow and poor growth of the blue gum at 

 Darjiling we should feel inclined to attribute as 

 much to latitude and winter cold as to damp. In 

 Dimbula and similar disti-ictf, the growth of the 

 blue gums is as rapid as could be wished for, per- 

 pendicularly and laterally ; but the disease which 

 has developed recently is probably the effect of 

 damp. Whether salt-storms had anything to do 

 with the " mortification" of the stems ia a question 

 on which more light is required. There are a few 

 well-grown blue gums in C.dombo, and some flour- 

 ishing young trees, brought as plants from the 

 Kalutara district, wb believe, in the garden of Mr. 

 F. Reid. Between these plants at sea-level and 

 some which are growing at 7,000 feet on llorton's 

 Plain, there is a wide range of climate. 



OFFCIAL REPORT ON PEEAK (PLANTING) 

 FOR 1882. 

 Planthni.—'Xhe experimental garden at the Govern- 

 ment Hill near Gapis , and that at Larue, were both 

 continued during the year, the former at a cost of 

 $10,723-G8 and the latter at §3,371 'O*. 



In these gardens Coffee, Tea, Cinchona, various kinds 

 of India lubber, many fruit trees and pl.-iuts of all de- 

 scriptions are cultivated with success. Those at Gapis 

 consist of three separate gardi-ns at various elevations 

 up to 3,500 feet, with a nursery at Kwala5*"g^*' '"><i 

 all the reports I received of them are favourable, but 

 I am rarely able to visit them. Great ineonveuieiice 

 and loss has been incurred by the inipo.?sifeility of pro- 

 curing Indian coolies or other la'jour at proper seasons, 

 so that it has happened that large portions containing 

 valuable plants have beeu destroyed by weeds. With 

 the exception of Iptcacuauha, everything which has 

 been planted was flonrishing, tea and Liberian coffee 

 promising to give most successful results. 



The Rinderpest destroyed thirty -six out of forty-two 

 cattle on the Government Farm at ICwala Kangsa in 

 about tendiiys, and it has been very fatal in many parts 

 of the State. 



A gie.t part of the land in Kitan is divided into 

 small hohiiugs and n^ed lor paddi planting by Malays. 

 Copies of th surveys as recorded in the olHce maps, 

 arc attached to the leases, but of those, 408 only bad 

 b.-en issued to the end of last year, of 88b which had 

 bein piepared in the Survey Office. 



In addition to the l>md cultivated for paddi about 

 11,059 acres, tor theniost part unserveyed at the date of 

 these re'urns, have beeu taken up by the enterprizing 

 Chinese merchants of Penang, on »hich 4,114 coolies 

 wore emi>loyed in sugar planting and th<' luterprize 

 having proved profitable, a Kuropean Comp.auy from 

 Shanghai is opening a large estate in the southern part 

 of the district. 



