38 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1882. 



there have been very varied anrl very puzzling ex- 

 periences al)Out cinchonas. Sometimes they will not 

 grow ill good-looking soil which has been dug over, 

 terraced and holed, and sometimes they vriW flourish 

 in indifferent looking soil, especially if it is gi-avelly, 

 although only dibbled in. Our ovm experience with 

 tea and cinchona at a liigh elevation on fairly good 

 soil, — pronounced indeed by an Assam planter of ex- 

 perience to be a perfect tea soil, — was as discouraging 

 in regard to cinchonas (mainly offic'walh, but some 

 fucch-ubra also) as it was encouraging in respect to 

 tea. Both plants were treated alike as regards lioles, 

 which were not so large as we could wish them to have 

 been, but the best possible was done : distance 3x3 

 all over. The higher kijolls were reserved for the cin- 

 chonas. The n-hotr of the tea gi-ew splendidly, send- 

 ing down its thick long taproots through the stiff 

 subsoil. Some of the cinchonas did not grow at all : 

 the plants perished as soon as put out, and replanting 

 was of no use. Others on slopes exposed to the violence 

 of the south-west monsoon were killed off as they 

 attempted to gi'ow. Exceptional patches, however, 

 flourished in the teeth of the rain-laden cold winds. 

 Our greatest success, undoubtedly, was on the face of 

 a hill with an eastei-n exposure, and up to the third 

 year a grove of officinalis was the afbnii-ation of all 

 beholders. But from the third year onward, the 

 fatal red of the foliage told of decay, and tens-of- 

 thousands of plants were gi-adually rooted up and 

 barked, the bark selling generally at good prices. In 

 nearly all cases of ujirooted trees it was found that 

 the taproot had not been able, like that of the tea, 

 to pierce the clayey subsoil, but had curled round 

 the sides of the hole as if seeking an outlet. In 

 many cases the roots were infested mth white-look- 

 ing fungi which Mr. Dixon pronounced to be liver- 

 worts. We suppose it is a fact in horticulture, that 

 if a plant cannot force its taproot doAvnwards. but 

 is compelled to tivist it round in the soil, healthy 

 growth is impossible ? We at any rate know liow 

 fatal, in the case of coffee plantmg, is the doubling 

 up of a taproot through careless planting. The fact, 

 if fact it be, that plants gro-n-n from cuttings have 

 no taproot, did not seem to help our plants in the 

 stiff soil. We are now planting the knolls, where 

 cinchona "went out," 'ivith tea, and we are encour- 

 aged to hope that in a few years hence when the 

 powerful tap-roots of the -tea plant have penetrated, 

 opened up and largely drained the soil, and when 

 that soil has been ameliorated by the cultivation 

 bestowed on the tea, it may be possible to gi-ow cin- 

 chonas with success where previously they had been 

 a comiilete or partial failure. Recent experiences of 

 planting cinchonas amongst coft'ee have been so en- 

 couraging that this hope is justified. Amongst the 

 anomalies of cinchona culture, planters will have 

 noticed that sometime the plants will refuse to grow 

 in heaped-up top soil by thfe sides of estate paths, 

 while succirtibi'ai at least invariably flourish in sub- 

 soil turned up from considerable depth by the sides 

 of high roads. What " Kdroly Fiirdo" says about 

 cinchonas on the upper and lower sides of drams is 

 curious, and very close draining would seem the 

 remedy, but even this has sometunea failed. 



CINCHONA CULTIVATION. 



May 26th, 1882. 



Dear Sir, — I noticed, in your last London letter^ 

 that your correspondent mentioned a report, as being 

 cur ent there, that cincliona ia Ceylon was a failure, 

 and that it was all dying out. Now I fear we will 

 hear a good de.al more ot this and see it too, if cin- 

 chona planting is carried on as it has, in many in- 

 stances, been hitherto. 



Many men, and myself among-st the number, have 

 beep rushing out cinchona by hundreds of thousands, 

 mer.ly loosening the ground with a fork, or making 

 such a h' lie as mvy be made by giving two or three 

 digs with a mamotie, the coustquence being that tbe 

 plant conies on very well for a year, or perhaps, two, 

 and then stops growing, getting gradually thinner 

 in its foliage until at last there is only a leaf or two 

 lit the tip of each bran' h. 



They are generally rooted out at this stage, but the 

 b.ark, half-dad, diy aud sticking to the stem, will 

 only come oflf in chips, and is not of mucli value. 

 A common way of accounting for this is that the 

 second and third generation of cinchona in Ceylon 

 is not nearly so rob ust as the first was, and, if this 

 is really the case, the prospect for this [product 

 is a very poor one ; hub I am inclined to think 

 the reason m.iy be found in auotlier direction, 

 aud that, if us much care were taken in the plant- 

 ing now as then, we would hear less about dying 

 out .1 consider that a hole should be cut for every 

 Plant BUth as would be a cut for cuffee, and, if any 

 one will try the experiment of holing; aud forking 

 an acre or twu in alterute lines, 1 am of opinion he 

 will not be long in comig over to my way of thit king. 

 I am not yet conviucd thiit loosening the soil 

 thoro'ighly with a long-prouged digging fork is not 

 the most suitalde way, if one could only get it done 

 hut any one who has seen coolies at this work can 

 imagine how they do it when not under the eye of their 

 master. 



Of course, there are places on every estate, aud almost 

 in every field, where no holing or anything else will 

 make cinchona grow past the first year or two, and 

 other choice spots where they will grow and flourish, if 

 merely stuck in the ground ; but I speak of soils and 

 aspects gtnei'ally. One very Suon knows the spots on 

 an estate where cinchona will not grow : — 

 " If it will, it will, you may depend on 't 

 And if it w>.n't, it won't, so there 's an end on 't," 

 and the best way is to leave that piece alone in future, 

 and not waste plants on it. But 1 have uuder my eye 

 here ii boundary of trees, th.it were planted in holes, 

 five years ago, tor tbe most part still healtiiy, except 

 in the unfavourable spots above referred to, while 

 plants, put; out with the digging fork, in the field 

 alongside, only two years ago, are in many cases dead 

 or in a very unhealthy condition. 



I think then that a good many cinchona planters 

 wUI, within the nexi year or two, see an illustra- 

 tion of tlie adage, " the more hurry the less speed," 

 that they will not like, and I would stake a good 

 deal on it, tluit the man who puts out this season 

 one hundred thousand in holes w ill harvest 

 more bark in five years off these trfes tliau 

 his n-ighljour will from three times the number put 

 out with tlie digging fork. 



This is the conviction I have arrived at from my 

 own observation, and I would like much to hear the 

 views of some of my fellow-planters on the sainesnbject. 



In these times a good deal of tea is being planted 

 iu unprofi able coffee, and, so far as I know, in much 

 the .-^ame manner (dibblmg iu either plants or seed) 

 aud the re&ult must necessarily be a poor, sickly and 

 stunted bush, except in placts where the soil is excep- 

 tionally good and free. 



