May I, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



911 



horses may be alow to take to it, but they soon get 

 to like the leaves, aud my cousin, who is a farmer, 

 informs me that his animals eat it most greedily, 

 leaving nothing on the ground — heads and all disappear 

 aa if by masjic in a few minuteas. 



As for human food, I recommend the general cult- 

 ivation of the most suitable varieties of haricot 

 beans. The dry beaas, boiled and prepared with a 

 little suet and Chile pepper, iorm the staple food of 

 our working classeB, ami a hardier or more enduring 

 set of men cannot I think be found anywhere. Tlie 

 first water in which they are boiled must be poured 

 off : this is the only only hint necessary as to cooking 

 them. My family constantly use them, and I hold 

 them to bo far better food than rice. 



T. J. W. Millie. 



[There is no fodder likely to rival the "Guinea" aud 

 "Mauritius" grass which grow so well when at- 

 tended to in Ceylon. — Ed.] 



MR, MOENS' WORK ON CINCHONA. 



When we had the pleasure aud advantage of meet- 

 ing Mr. Moens in .lava, he allowed ns look at the 

 advance sheets of a book which was in course of 

 being printed, and which, besides a history of the 

 Introduction of the fever trees into Asia, was in- 

 tended specially to embody the result of the experi 

 ence obtained by himself in the culture of all the 

 species, and particularly the most valuable of all, 

 Ledgeriana. We also had a sight of the series of 

 photographs which were prepared to illustrate the 

 book, and which, being reproduced by the Woodbury 

 process, were perfect portraits of the plants and their 

 parts. We understood that the Dutch Government 

 of Java were to publish the book, and we have long 

 looked for the announcement that it was ready, and 

 for an early copy. We are taken by suprize, there 

 fore, by the receipt of the following letter :— 



We beg to draw your attention to a standard 

 work on cinchona, by Mr. J. 0. B. Moens, Director 

 of the Government Cinchona Plantations in Java, 

 entitled 'Do Kina Cultuur in Azie' )8ol-1882 (The 

 Cinoliona Cultivation in Asia from 1854 until 1882), 

 which Ins been published today, by the vSooiety for 

 the promotion of Medical Science in j!<etheriauds 

 India. It is a large quarto book, containing 400 

 pages of letterpress (in the Dutch language) and 3.3 

 full-paged photographic plates and one map, and is 

 strongly bound in linen. The 33 chapters in which 

 the book is divided, contain the following matter : — 

 The discovery of thi» medical properties of the 

 bark and its introduction in Europe. The cinchona 

 tree in America. Tho transportation to Europe. 

 Geographical divulgation of the trees. Climate find soil. 

 Choice of sites and of land for making plantations. 

 The different kinds of cinchonas found in Asia. 

 The cultivation in Asia. The soil. The shading. 

 The clearing and felliug. The terracing. Planting. 

 Planting distance. Seed and cuttings. Nurseriei. 

 Pruning Transplanting. Manuring. The growth. 

 Diseases and enemies. Harvesting. Drying and pack- 

 ing. The trade in cinchona bark. The market. Pro- 

 duction. Consumption. Chemicil analyses and con- 

 sumption of the cinchona bark, etc., etc. 



The plates show typical trees of different kinds 

 of cinchona as grown in Java, types of bark of 

 diffdront kiml-', leaves, flowers and seed, nur.series, 

 graftintr, eto. ,etc. 



Tiic price of the book is here f3*) {£3) and can 

 be obtainel irom, yom- correspondents, G. KoLFF & 

 Co., Booksellers and Publishers. 

 Wc giv8 gratuitous insertion aud prominence to the 



above letter (which is really an advertisement), as a 

 proof of the value we attach to the benefits which 

 Mr. Moens has conferred on cinchona planters in 

 Ceylon as well as in other parts of the world, and 

 also as a small return for much courtesy received at 

 the hands of the able Director of " de Kiiifi Cultuur" 

 in Java. We can only regret that in these hard 

 times the price, £3, will place the work beyond the 

 reach of so large a portion of our friends, the planters. 

 When it is considered, however, tliat, besides 400 

 pages of letterpress and a map, there are no fewer 

 than thirty-three plates, the price charged is really 

 moderate. Even those who can make out but 

 little of the Dutch text will have tlieir money's worth 

 in the plates. The Woodbury process either originated 

 in Batavia or was at an early period introduced, and 

 the name of " Woodlniry " is prominent amongst the 

 photographers of the chief city of Java. The pi-o- 

 cess has been most successfully used to reproduce 

 photographs for this work. 



PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN INDIA. 

 In 18S1 tho number of tea plantations in India was 3,368 

 comprising an area under cultivation of nearly a quarter of a 

 million acres, and yielding about 50,000,000 lb. of tea. In 

 addition to the lanil under actual cultivation, nearly 600,000 

 acres have been taken up for tea cultivation. This means 

 that, given favourable conditions to the planters, the yield of 

 Indian tea may be quadrupled in less than ten years. The 

 areas under cultivation, or taken up for planting, in the differ- 

 ent Provinces, are as foUows ; — 



Actual cultivation. 



Assam 



Bengal 



N. W. Provinces ... 



Punjab 



Madras (including 



Travancore) 

 Burmah 



Taken up. 

 158,427 acres. 548,222 acres. 



42,217 

 8,445 

 7,973 



36,319 

 3,197 

 2,115 



4,447 „ 4,898 „ 



160 „ 30 „ 



Those are the figures for tea only. The cultivation of coffee 

 is confined almost exclusively to Southern India. The areas 

 under cultivation, or taken up for planting, in 18S1 were as 

 follows : 



Actual cultivation. Taken up. 



Bengal ... ... 8 acres. ... acres 



Madras ... ... 74,236 „ 59,355 



Mysore ... ... 84,383 „ 81,936 '' 



Ooorg ... ... 47,750 „ 29,724 „ 



Travancore and Cochin 9,920 „ 12,427 , 



Roughly, therefore, there are 400,000 acres under coffee and 

 taken up for coffee cultivation, the approximate yield of 

 coffee in 1881 having been about 40,000,000 lb., aud the ap- 

 Ijroximate value— at a low price — 15 millions .sterling. As 

 regards the statistics of cinchona cultivation, we find that 

 Government had 2,328 acres under cultivation in Sikkim 

 with over 5,000,000 trees and plants; 83 acres at Than- 

 douugyee, Burmah, with over 60,000 trees and plants; 41 

 acres in Mysore, with about 35,000 trees aud plants • 

 847 acres on the Nilgiris, with about 3,000,000* 

 trees and plants. The Sikkim plantations yield 

 about 600,000 ll>. of bark a year, aud the Nilgiri plant- 

 ations about 25O,O0O lb., the yield of the Madras plant- 

 ations having douted siuce 1878. The price yielded by 

 Sikkim bark during five years has rauged from R2-5 to 

 E2-10 per lb. ; that for Nilgiri bark from K2-8 to K3-13-D 

 per lb. The total expenditure aud receipts on the Nilgiri 

 plantations in four recent years were as follows : — 

 Ex-peniiture. Receipts. 

 1877-73 ... K69,771 K35S,751 



1878-79 ... 73,632 400,.333 



1879-SO ... 79,724 314,815 



1880-81 ... 96,104 4.^2,200 



No wonder that, with such profits, private planters have 

 rushed 'in to compete with Government in cinchona cult- 

 ivation. The report before us gives but meagre inform- 

 ' ation as to the extent of tho private plantations of cinchona. 

 A footnote informs us that " no iuformation is available 

 in regard to private plantations in the Nilgiris and British 

 Burmah," a rather serious omission, so far as the Nilgir j. 



