]A^. I, 2 887. J 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



4Si 



being uncovered had lost its bright green color, owing 

 to the partial decomposition of its chlorophyl, but 

 with this exception it differed little in texture and 

 appearance to what it had presented when first put 

 in. On weighing a portion of it each cubic foot was 

 found to contain a little over forty-seven pounds. 

 The smell was exceedingly oflfensive, especially the 

 upper layer of about half an inch in thickness. His 

 Excellency the Oommander-in-Chief, Brigadier-General 

 Elles and Dr. Shaw pronounced it to be good, and 

 on its being given to some of the bullocks it was at 

 once greedily eaten by them, and since that time 

 they have been fed upon nothing else, and they are 

 said by Mr. T. Narrainasawmi Nayudu, the Assistant 

 Superintendent, and Mr. McDonald, the Sub-overseer, 

 to be generally in better condition than they have 

 ever known them to be before at this time of the 

 year and this in spite of their having done, at least, 

 double the usual amount of work. Besides this silo 

 which was both costly in its construction and in its 

 filling, I made five others of a much cheaper des- 

 cription and which turned out ensilage, every bit as 

 good as that from the big pit. These consisted of 

 pits six feet cube dug in the earth in a place where 

 there was no fear or springs or stagnant water. The 

 fodder was put into them as it came from the field, 

 that is without being cut up, and after it had been 

 well trodden down mats were placed on the surface, 

 and on the top of these two or three feet of earth, 

 which was heaped up and slope like a grave, and 

 OYer these mats, thatch or plates of galvanized iron 

 were placed to shoot off the rain. The ensilage in 

 these pits shrank more or less, according to the 

 particular plants which composed it. In one instance 

 the earth sank as much as three-and-a-half feet, and 

 it was necessary, during the first few days, to fill 

 up the cracks which were made in the soil by -this 

 shrinking. In one of these pits I stored up Jacob's 

 tears separately, in a second Spanish needle, in a 

 third Polygonum nepolcnse, and in the two others a 

 mixture of plants. The fodder, which was turned out 

 from all of them, proved, on experiment, to be 

 everything that could be desired, although during the 

 time that they were being filled, it was raining 

 hard and the stuff saturated with moisture. I shall 

 in the future make no more costly silos, but use 

 these earth-pits, only making them of larger dimen- 

 sious, and covering them with a roof of thatch. The 

 estates, hills and sholas of the Nilgiris and the Wynaad 

 must possess an enormous amount of nutritious fodders 

 which grow rradily in the wet season, but which 

 cannot be preserved for future use except by means 

 of silos, and I look forward to the time when knife- 

 weeding upon a cinchona or coffee estate will be 

 regarded no longer as a di:;igreeable necessity. 



VIII. Nurseries. — The demand for seed is still 

 decreasing and that for plants and seedling also. 

 Most of the applications which I received during the 

 year were from the planters in Ceylon. ■ 



IX. Crop. — The total amount of dry bark pro- 

 duced by the estates during the past year was 113,36(3 lb. 

 In addition to this, there remained on the 31st 

 March 1885, 125,603 lb., making a total of 2.39,029 

 of all sorts. Of this quantity, 113,940 lb. were dis- 

 poiiied of during the year, so that the balance in 

 stock at the end of March last was 123,089 lb. 



XIII. Copi'it'iNG — Several questions having been ad- 

 dressed to me during the year relating to coppicing, 

 I have carefully attended to this matter, and, so far as 

 my experience goes, I believe (1) that it is immate- 

 rial at what time of the year the trees are cut down ; 

 (2) that tliey should be cut quite close to the ground 

 for then the shoots have a better chance of making 

 roots for themselves, ani so becoming independent 

 trees, than if they are allowed to spring from a 

 point at a distance from the ground ; shoots springing 

 immediately from the ground are much less liable to 

 be blown down by the winds ; (3) the number of 

 flhoots which should be allowed permanently to re- 

 main will depend entirely on local circumstances. 

 If the shoots are far apart, then two or even three 

 may be allowed to grow, but if the shoots are close 



tlieu &fie will, ae d lult^; be suffickut, No ^^d ruk; 



however, as to the number which should be left can 

 be given ; but if it is borne in mind that wood and 

 bark are the result of the activities of the leaves, 

 it will be readily understood that those trees which 

 have the most leaves exposed to the light will pro- 

 duce the thickest stems and the largest amount of 

 bark. The planter should therefore see that his cop- 

 pice is not so thick as to prevent each individual 

 shoot having its fair share of light. 



XIV. Gr.u^ting. — The nearly allied species of cin- 

 chona seem to lend themselves, rather readily, to being 

 grafted ; but the labour entailed in grafting is so 

 great that I do not believe it will ever pay to do 

 this on a large scale. 



XV. Quinot.ogist's Department. — Mr. Hooper in 

 accordance with the instructions issued in fi-.O., No. 

 650, of 12th May 1885, Revenue, went down to Mad- 

 ras to start the manufacture of 1,000 1b. of Be I'rij'g 

 Cinchona LiquiJa. Of this amount, however, 500 lb. 

 only were made and for some reason or other tho 

 manufacture of the febrifuge did not turn out quite 

 satisfactory. So I asked Government that Mr. Hooper 

 Eoight be allowed to make the remaining .'lOO lb. in 

 Ootacamund. Government accorded their sanction to 

 my proposal, and Mr. Hooper has just completed 

 his task. The febrifuge which he has turned out 

 seems to be in every respect excellent, and will, I 

 hope, prove a cheaper and at the same time as effica- 

 cious a drug as any that has as yet been made. 

 Should the febrifuge prove acceptable to the poorer 

 classes of natives, not only will all the bark which 

 can be raised on the Government estates be required 

 to meet the demand, but a very great deal more. 



XVI. Other matters connected with the chemical 

 aspect of quinology, I leave Mr. Hooper to speak 

 for himself, whose very interesting report I enclose. 



XVfl. Ukgext need for a cheap febrifuge. — I 

 am indebted to Surgeon-General G. Bidie for the 

 following statistics. The population of the Madras 

 Presidency was 29,000,000 at the last census. The 

 total number of deaths during the last year from all 

 causes was 615,449 as detailed below: — 



Deaths from undescribed causes ,.. 260,960 



Fever 218,786 



Cholera 53,109 



Small-pox 34,726 



liowel complaint 31,209 



Injury 11,6-59 



Total 015,449 



From these figures it will l)e seen that nearly one- 

 third of the total number of deaths are due to 

 malarious fever. A proportion which must be regarded 

 as too high when it is considered that we have a 

 specific medicine for this fatal disease. 



XVni. Prospects of the Cinchona Markkt. — So 

 long as the cinchona alkaloids are produced chiefly 

 for the European and North American consumption 

 (non-fever stricken countries) the supply will always be 

 in excess of the demand and the present low prices will 

 contiuue to exist ; but if a market can be found for 

 the alkaloids in the malarious tracts of the tropics, 

 this state of things would be reversed and the price 

 of bark would go up. 



Dr. Bidie tells me that he believes every one in 

 the Presi lency would be benefited by taking quinine 

 in more or less quantities during certain seasons of 

 the year, and he does not think that forty grains 

 per head would be a high figure at which to place 

 the yearly re(iuirements of the country, If this be 

 correct then close upon 2,000,000 pounds of bark 

 averaging 6^ per cent, of total alkaloids will be re-' 

 quired for consumption in this Presidency alone. 

 Enclosures. 



Letter from D. Hooper, Esq., F,c.s.. Go^■ercnleIlfc 

 Quinologist, Ootacamund, to M. A. Lawsoii, Esq., 

 Goveriinient Botanist and Director of Cinchona Piant« 

 ations, Nilgiris, dated Ootacamund, Gth July ISSG: — 



I have the honor to present tho following report oii 

 the analytical work conducted in the Government 

 Laboratory for the year endiug March 31st, 1886' 



2. The report includes a valuation of the cinchona 



bark soUl by auction i« JXadrtvs liuriug the year, aati 



