62 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July r, 1882. 



evidence is offered as to the good effect of slitting 

 open the bark on young trees, drawing the knife 

 right along the bark (without if possible touching 

 the cambium) from top to bottom. We understand 

 that Mr. Bluett of Kotmale has made a series of 

 experiments in this way, making as many as four and 

 6ve slits round the cireumfereuce of some trets, 

 and that the result is most salisfactc ry. Canker is 

 iu some casos due to the hi.lebuuud charaoter of the 

 bark, and relief is at once afforded by the s-litting open 

 referred t". But, even where not hidebounii, tlie cut- 

 ting benefits rather than injures Ihe growth ot the tree— 

 or at least of the bark- while a po^orition ot renewed 

 hark is at once beijuu to be formed, :.nd so little is 

 the risk of injury, that even where the cambium is 

 touched the tree has been found to prosper. Slitting 

 therefore seems likely to do no harm but much good 

 to trees from eighteen months and two years upwards. 

 When general reddening of foliage, however indicates 

 that the "dying out" process hae fully net in, slit- 

 ting the bark does not appear to arrest "the inevitable." 

 The variety of opinion as to the treatment of the 

 cinchona tree in other respects is still very great among 

 our planteis. Some there are who do not believe in 

 shaving and think coppicing more profitable in the 

 long run and more likely to secure sound vigorous 

 growth and prolonged life. There is the great fact 

 that on the Nilgheries, harvests have been taken from 

 trees seven and eight times barked ; while others have 

 been coppiced three times with fairly good results. 

 On the other hand a considerable proportion of trees 

 ■which are coppiced must be expected .to perish, a 

 larger proportion certainly than the fatality due 

 either to stripping or shaving. Colonel Beddome and 

 Mr. Cross thought it important that the part of the 

 tree left in coppicing should be pointed pyr.iinidal 

 ashion, but a slanting cut is thought to be as good in 

 Ceylon. Of a large clearing in a medinm district 

 ooppiced two y ars ago as many as 30 per cent 

 have been failures ; but the rest have made much 

 better growth than the plants now two years 

 old alongside.* Wherever the coppices spring up on 



following results : — A sample, which had been adulterated 

 with 10 per cent, of chicory, Mr. E. W. T. Jones, Wol- 

 verhampton, certified to contain 7 per cent. ; S.'r. Alfred 

 Sraetham, Liverpool, 7 per cent. ; Somerset-house author- 

 ities, 24 per cent.; not more, cliicory ; Dr. Dalies, Liver- 

 pool. 5 to 10 per cent. ; Dr. Carter Bell, JIanchester, 

 10 per cent, and upwards of chicory ; Dr. Dupre, London 

 16 per cent, and Dr. Vacher certified the .sample to be 

 genuine coffee. A sample, which had been mked with, 



30 per cent, of chicory was analyzed by these gentle- 

 men, with the following results : — Mr. E. W. T. Jones, 

 "Wolverhampton, 31 per cent. ; Mr. Alfred Smetham, Liver- 

 pool, 32 per cent ; Somerset-house authorities, 35 per cent, 

 not less, cliicory; Dr. Davies, Liverpool, 25 per cent.; 

 Dr. Carter Bell, Manchester, 30 per cent, upwards of 

 chicory; Dr. Dupre, London, 35 per cent.; and Dr. Vacher, 



31 per cent. A third sample, mixed with 37j per cent, 

 ot chicory, was certified by Mr. E. W. T. .Jones, Wolver- 

 hampton, to contain 38 per cent, of chicory ; Mr. Alfred 

 Smetham, Liverpool, 34 per cent. Somerset-house author- 

 ities, 48 per cent, not less, cliicory; Dr. Dalies, Liverpool, 

 50 per cent.; Di. Carter Bell, Manchester, 4i I per cent, 

 upwards of chicory ; Dr. Duprij, London, 47 per cent, and 

 Dr. Vacher, 50 per cent. — hondonThiies." 



* We may quote a few passages from Colonel Bed- 

 dome's last Report as a further illustration of the differ- 



the sheltered side of the root, they are apt to 

 break off in the monsoon ; not so if to the windward 



cut opinions held on points connected with practical 

 cultivation : — 



Coppinng. — Mr. Cross objects to such a large 

 area having been coppiced, and states that the trees 

 have been coppiced too low doi;Ti and that four to five 

 Inches of the trunk or collar should have been left. 

 There has always been a diflereuce in opinion as to the 

 height the collar should be, and I find in my letters 

 to Mr. Barlow, the Commissioner at the time (ride 

 also G.O., 1,161, of 27th Mav 1879), that I was anxious 

 to restrict the area to about 3 acres, and that I wished 

 three systems tried as experiments for data : first, to 

 adze the coUar flush with the gi-ound ; second, to leave 

 about six inches of collar ; third, not to coppice with- 

 out first estabhshing a shoot. The Commissioner was 

 in charge of the plantations at the time, and I had only 

 been ordered to select the area to be coppiced, and these 

 suggestions of mine do not seem to have canied weight, 

 as they were not acted up to and all the stools were 

 adzed nearly flush to the gi-ouud. I have no reason to 

 find faidt with the result as will he seen from my re- 

 port, and I think if coppicing were again ordered and 

 in the absence of actual data, which I was anxious to 

 obtain, I would rather give the preference to the flush 

 coUar than to a collar several inches high. 



I do not tliiuk we shall have more coppicing as a 

 system over given areas. I am much opposed to it for 

 many reasons, and I think my report -miX go to prove 

 that it is not deskahle ; hut it we did again coppice, I 

 should prefer the plan of lii'st establishing a shoot. It 

 will be seen by my report that when this plan is fol- 

 lowed there is not a single failure, and that this is 

 fully proved from several blocks of older expeiiments 

 wliich I was quite ignorant of at the time that I made 

 the proposition. Mr. Cross appears to think that the 

 young coppice gi-owth was thinned out prematiu-ely, but 

 I do not understand how he coidd give an opinion on 

 this point without having seen the growth at the timo 

 it was thinned. It is very easy to tell the proper time ; 

 it is of course allowed to gi-ow up tiU there are several 

 prominent leaders ; the gi'owth of these woidd then be 

 seriously retarded and. interfered mth unless the rest 

 were cut away, and it is then ajiparent whether it is 

 advisable to leave two, three, or foiu' shoots. Adzing off 

 with a rounded top is in my opinion preferable to a 

 sloping cut or wedge fomi of coppice. 



I cannot agi-ee with Mr. Cross in his suggestions 

 about forming a dense sort of underwood of Chinchona 

 in the plantations ; it would be opposed to every system 

 of arboricidtiu-e and woidd be simply ruin to the plant- 

 ations ; the trees that did not get theii' heads to the 

 light would come to nothing and interfere with the 

 root room of others, and the result woidd be little or 

 no bark of any value. We are not growing osiers or 

 scrub firewood. 



Regarding the remarks on " collection of seed " 

 by IVIr. Cross and the Collector, I cannot believe that 

 this has not received attention. " This selection of the 

 fittest " is the first aim of all florists and arboricidtur- 

 ists as well as breeders of animals, and was so long 

 before Mr. Darwin's voluminous wTtings on the subject ; 

 a practical man, ■with the training Mr. Mclvor had 

 before he came to tliis country, must have been fidly 

 alive to the importance of this. Diu'ing my inspection 

 I obseiTfed muslin bags tied round the panicles of seed 

 on some of the finest trees, which is proof that atten- 

 tion is paid to this subject. Regarding the cutting ofl' 

 of the piinicles of flowers which the young trees pro- 

 due; so prohtically, I would observe that I stronyly 

 recnmminded, many ye.'us ago, when the trees first 

 cmmeuced to flower so profusely, that this shonid be 

 clone as an experiment over about an acre, as I thought 

 it would favor the growth of the trees and perhaps 



