864 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May 1, 1883. 



Perfection in tea manufacture will never be acquired 

 by sticking all the time on one exfatp., and, as tea planting 

 is a nf^.w tliintr here, lot us all help each other and let 

 none of us 1 liiuk that we know too much. I have seen 

 lads that had only been at tea-planting a few mouths, 

 strike out new ideas and t^ach men that had been aG 

 work for 20 years on certain points of tea manufacture. 

 Now I know a little about tea myself, having gone 

 through all the branches of the department, but on 

 rounds I often see plenty to learn from men who have 

 only started tea-planting. For instance the other day 

 while in M'lskeliya I saw a very simple dodge for sifting, 

 which in future should be called "Tom Gray's patent." 

 It was simply three sieves plnced above each other 

 slung by two wires and worked by one boy. doing as 

 much work as three men could have done. This saved 

 two-thirds of the labor usually required for this 

 work. Now such hints as this are well worth noting, 

 and the i'tventor deserves the thanks of all tea planters, 

 for although simple in itself the plan is most effectual. 

 —Yours, CHA. 



THE EPFECT OF ALTITUDE ON THE ALKAL- 

 OIDS OF RED BARK. 



Peradeniya, 5th April 1883. 



SiK, — Evorything that may throw any light upon 

 the relationships of the cinchona-alkaloids, or on the 

 causes which influence their production, is of much 

 interest ; it also has a practical value to ctdtivat- 

 ors. I therefore no longer delay in making public 

 the i-esults of two remarkable analyses of Ceylon C. 

 mcciriihra. 



With the object of ascertaining the efteots of alti- 

 tude on the alkaloid-produetion of this species, I, 

 towards the end of last year, barked two trees grow- 

 ing respectively at elevations of 5,500 (Hakg.ila) and 

 1,500 (Peradeniya), a difference of 4,000 ft. 1 he trees 

 were, I have every reason to believe, of cimuion origin : 

 both being, in all probability, raised from tlie original 

 see3 collected in South America by D:-. Spruce, and 

 planted out in the midst of other trees, in or about 

 186.3. They were therefore about 19 yeira old reck- 

 oned from the planting, and both had grown up under 

 fairly similar conditions excepting as regards cliiuate. 

 Their growth, however, had been very different. The 

 tree at Hakgala was one of the largest there, 37 ft. 

 high to the point where the stem was but oue inch 

 in diameter and 37 inches in girth at the base lessen- 

 ing to 24 inches at 5 ft. from the ground. It afforded 

 25 lb. of dry bark (77 lb. of wet), and the sample 

 sent home was large quill 18 inches long with a 

 " brown coit." On the other hand, the Peradeniya 

 tree though not far off the other in height, being 

 drawn up by the large trees around, girthed only 

 about 20 inches near the ground aud yielded about 

 7 lb. of dry bark (21 of wet). The sample of small 

 quill sent home was described as having a "gray coat." 



It is to my friend Mr. J. E. Howard, who is ever 

 most liberal in helping to advance our knowledge of 

 quinology, that I am indebted for the following com- 

 parative analysis of these two samples. He is himself 

 m.U'li interested iu the result, and we may, I believe, 

 e.'jpect some observations upon it from his pen : — 



a =4 

 .5 a. 



(3 ,; a 



■SI -Ss 



<JT3 



ax o- 3 



s a • 



A. Large quill grown ) .,.__ n n^ „ ,„ , „ „ 



at Hakgala 5,5nu ft. I 2^5 2-08 3-47 O-fil Trace 0-6C G'SO 

 li. Small quill grown J 



at Peradeniya, M>C2 047 0-05 1-67 0-30 1-06 355 

 1.500 ft. J 



A comparison of these very different analyses suc- 



geats many observations. And at first sight we cannot 



but be struck with the influence for good of elev- 

 ation iu the production of the alkaloids as a whole, 

 nearly double as much being produced in the higher 

 locality. Mr. Howard remarks that as tar as the 

 appearand of the bark is ooucerued the contrary was 

 the case, that from the low elevation being the "more 

 attractive to those who judge merely by the eye." 



The large amouut of quinine iu analysis A is also 

 noteworthy in red bark from a tree nearly 20 years 

 old, as showing that there is no necessary diminution 

 of that alkaloid after 8 or 9 years, as Mr. Broughtou 

 was led to believe. 



It is howver as regards the proportions of the al- 

 kaloids that the comparison will be found most in- 

 structive. In A we have of quinine over 2 per cent, 

 and of cinchonidine nearly 'SS per cent, whilst there is 

 butO'Glof cinchouiue and a mere trace of qiiinidine: 

 in B the change is very remarkable : quinine has sunk 

 to less than h per cent and cinchonidine to little 

 more than a trace (0'05 percent), whilst on the other 

 hand cinchonine has increased to 1'67 per cent— that 

 is, about 2J times as much as in A — and there is also 

 an appreciable amount (0'30 per cent) of quinidine. 

 It has been remarked* that the natural or physiologi- 

 cal relationship of the four principal alkaloids of 

 cinchona bark is nit e.^press^d by their chemical 

 constitution aud terminology. Quinine and quinidine 

 are, as is well-known, isomeric chemical bodies, l, e., 

 both have the same empiric formula of compos- 

 ition, Cjo H,^ N2 0, and cinchonine and cin- 

 chonidine are simdarly related, their common for- 

 inula beiug 0.j„ Hjj NoO. But in nature it would 

 appear th.at the pairs are differently composed, and 

 it is customary to find associated in the tissues 

 of quinine and cinchonidine and cinchonine and 

 quinidine and not the isomeric couples. It is in- 

 deed highly probible that, under conditions of oxid- 

 ation and deoxidiition at present not understood, the 

 units in each of these naturally associated pairs are 

 mutually convertible. The analyses before us bring 

 out this association in a very marked manner. 



The relationship of the alkaloids to which atten- 

 tion is here called is also indicated by the action 

 ot their solutions on a ray of polarizid light. Quin- 

 ine and cinchonidine deftect this to the left and 

 are liBVO-ro'atory, whilst cinchonine and quinidine 

 have a right hand or dextrorotatory action. 



As to the Closes which in f!he ca«e before us have 

 led to the dis.appearauce of the quinine aud cin- 

 chonidine in the low-grown bark, and their 

 partial substitution by cinchonine and quinidine we 

 have little to guide us, but the fact is a very im- 

 portant one as bearing on the cultivation of red bark 

 at low elevations. A similar substitution has been 

 recorded before in old trees, but age alone is seen by 

 analysis A to bo an insufficient cause. It is pro- 

 bable that temperature is the more important 

 factor, and support is given to this by the remarkable 

 case recorded by Broughtou f of the reversed action in 

 C periipuma. This species as grown at NedJivuttum 

 is remarkable for affording cinchonine in large quantity 

 — in the experiment recorded .'i'84 per cent — and absol- 

 utely no quinine ; when grown however at the higher 

 elevation of Dodabetta, the cinchonine was greatly 

 diminished, whilst quinine was present to the amouut 

 of 079 per cent. — lam, sir, yours faithfully, 



HENRY TKIMEN. 



WEEDING AND PRUNING OVERUuNE? 

 DE.iR Sir, — In my last I told you of an estate which 

 had increas d its crops through getting weedy. Now I 

 could tell you of many estates that gave reduced crops 



* Mr. Howard espeeially called attention to this so long 

 ago as 1SG6 (see Proc. J'.ot. Congress in London, jj. 19S). 



t Report to Government of Madras, 20th September 

 187L 



