192 



THE TKOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1887. 



forest education in some convenient place, where there 

 should be a museum supplied, with an insM-uctor iu 

 forestry, who might give lectures on the subject, and 

 conduct the pupils from time to time into difficult forests 

 with the view of enforci?ig the instruction of the lecture- 

 room. A forest school might be set up in this country 

 for an expenditure of £G00, per annum in salaries. 

 He did not know one mature forest in England or 

 Scotland at present, and, therefore, for an important 

 part of the instruction relating to the removal of the 

 crop, the students would have to go abroad. It would 

 be desirable to interest in this subject persons con- 

 cerned in the education of land agents. We should 

 suffer in the future if this matter were not taken up 

 now. He would give three courses — elementary, for 

 the wood manager ; more advanced for the land agent ; 

 and a higher course for the mau who wanted a 

 thorough education but for the complete course men 

 ought to go to the Continent. There was one spot 

 iu the Forest of Dean especially suitable for instruction; 

 but neither there nor in the New Forest could any- 

 thing be shown regarding the management of conifers. 



Mr W. T. Thiselton Dyer, Assistant Director of 

 the Royal Gardens, Kew, said Kew performed, to a 

 large extent, the part of a botanical authority to the 

 Government, and when the Colonies applied for in- 

 formation, the Government sent to Kew for as«;ist- 

 ance. It had been found impossible to recommend 

 to 'the Colonial-office properly qualified persons either 

 to report upon or to manage colonial woods. Apart 

 from the trained officials of the Indian Forest De- 

 partment, it was practically impossible to meet the 

 requirements of the Colonies; and that department 

 had only spared men temporarily, which had caused 

 great inconvenience. A good many of our Colonies 

 had now come to that state of things that there 

 will probably be a demand for persons who under- 

 stood the management of forests. He would make 

 the demand for India a kind of nucleus of a school 

 which should be utilised for the education of such 

 gentlemen as wished to undertake colonial service, 

 and for the instruction of land agents and persons 

 competent to give advice as to our own woods. 



Mr. Julian 0. Kogers, secretary to the Surveyors' 

 Institute, said he agreed with the previous witnesses 

 as to the general advisableness of instituting a Forest 

 School, both for this country and for the Colonies. 



The report of M. Boppe on a visit to the English 

 and Scotch Forest's, by the professors and students 

 from Nancy Forest School (see Journal, vol. xxx. 

 p. 772) is printed as an appendix to the report of 

 the committee. — Journal of the Society of Arts. 



CINCHONA STATISTICS. 



From the following documents it would appear 

 that the number of cinchona trees of all ages 

 planted on 21,000 acres of private land in Java, 

 is thirty millions, or close on 2J:,000 per acre. It 

 will be a good many years yet before the bark 

 from these will closely affect the markets. 

 Colonial Becretray'g Office, Colombo, 12th Feb. 1887. 



The Honorary Secretary, Planters' Association, 

 Dimbula, 



Sir,— With reference to your letter of the 7th 

 July last, I am directed to transmit to you the 

 enclosed copy of a letter from the British Consul 

 at Batavia,— I am, sir, your obdt, servant. 



H. C. P. BELL, 

 for Colonial Secretary. 



No. 18. British Consulate, Batavia 18th Jan. 1887. 



yir, — I beg to acknowledge receipt of your despatch 

 of the 34th August last handing me copy of a letter 

 received by you from the Secretary of the Dimbula 

 Planters' Association, asking for information regard- 

 ing the cinchona cultivation of Java, on receipt of 

 which I addressed the Planters Association here on the 

 subject and have only just now received its reply, 

 which accounts for the delay which has occurred 

 in my forwarding you the information. According 

 to the estimate of the Association, the area privately 

 plauted is 21,000 acres ; the uambpr of trees plantecl | 



30,000,000, (of which 14.000,009 C. succirubra ;) and the 



crop for 1887 l,43:-!.250 lb.; and I believe these 



figures may be taken as practically correct, or ass 



nearly so, as it is possible to come. The average 



proportion of sulphate extracted from the bark is 



estimated by the Association to be about 3 percent. 



At the end of September 188(5, the statistics of the 



Government estates were as follows. — 



Plai-ifc, ,-,, fi,« „„,.o„,.;„c 1 1-249,000 Ledgeriana 

 i^iants in tne nurseries i ^r-nr.nn o • u 



( obO.OOO Succirubra 



755,700 Ledgeriana 

 74,000 Calisaya & Hasska.li- 

 ana 



Plants iu open ground ■{ 556,000 Succirubra and Cal- 



optera 

 234,000 Officinalis 

 8,000 Lancifolia 

 In 1883, the last year for which returns are avail- 

 able of the area of land planted by the GoTcrn- 

 ment it was 1,778 acres. 



CINCHONA STATISTICS. 



Trusting the above information may prove of use 

 to the planters of your island. — I am, etc., 



(Signed) N. W. Neill, 



H. B. M.'s Consul. 



♦ 



Manubes and Manuring. — It is well to bear in 

 mind that no cast iron rule can be laid down on the 

 subject, different factors having to be considered be- 

 fore it can be settled what manure is best. It has 

 been truly said that " the essential ingredients that 

 must come from the soil are potash, lime, magnesia, 

 iron, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, a small amount 

 of chlorine, perhaps a minute quantity of silica, and, 

 finally, considerable nitrogen. Consequently, in order 

 that plants may grow and thrive, they must have at 

 the disposal of their roots in the soil a sufficient 

 quantity of each of these ingredients of their food. 

 If any oue of the more important constituents — potash, 

 lime, phosphoric acid, or nitrogen — be deficient, the 

 whole plant suffers." — Planter and. Farmer. 



We note in the Batavia Handelshlacl of the 11th 

 January that a concession, formerly held by the Kali 

 Anam Company at Langkat on the East coast of 

 Sumatra, comprising about 26,600 acres of jungle laud, 

 has been taken over by Mr. O. Ecsels, owner of the 

 Mabar tobacco estate in Deli, and Baron P. de Lapeyrie 

 agent for the firm of Dpcauville in Netherlands India 

 and the Straits Settlements. These gentlemen intend 

 to start a company with a capital of $00,000 or so, 

 half of which has already .been taken up, in order, 

 on a large scale, to set about growing pepper, cubebs, 

 nipnh, and India Rubber, The market value of these 

 products has risen high enough of late to warrant con- 

 fidence in this first experimental venture in that line 

 set on foot by a European settled in Sumatra. The 

 land formerly owned by the Kali Anam Company, 

 is especially suitable for pepper growing. At the 

 head of this enterprise, which will bear the name of 

 the "Sumatra Pepper Company,'' Baron P. de Lapeyrie 

 will be put in the capacity of manager. The head 

 quarters of the company will be at Taiijoiig Kobia 

 between Sunghy Tuugkan and Sunghy H^tlaban. The 

 promoters of this novel enterprise deserve every success. 

 They intend to turn Siamese laborers to account, 

 above all, for pepper cultivation. Siam is certainly a 

 new quarter upon which to indent for plantation 

 coolies in this part of the world. We are informed 

 that the conces,sionaries will begia work in IMay next, 

 and as this will be the first European enterprise of 

 the kind in Sumatra, we wish the Baron aud bis 

 partnw every bwcws^.-'Straits Timet!. 



