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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May I, 1883. 



Bun-heat. But here, as in Britain, the longest lane 

 will have a turning : the darkest cloud will shew 

 a silver lining, and the depressed agricultural enter- 

 prize will revive and prosper. There is the promise 

 that to the effects of flood a limit will be placed, 

 while summer and winter, seedtime and harvest shall 

 not finally fail. It is true we cannot understand the 

 meteorological aberrations from which we suffer. 

 But we know that even these are portions of great 

 cosmic laws, just as hurricanes and cyclones are, 

 and that they subserve beneficent purposes on a 

 grand scale. If, therefore, tillers of the earth will 

 but persevere and patiently wait for results, the re- 

 ward will be as certain as disappointment and trial 

 have been. 



CINCHONA CULTURE. 



Prize Essay onCinchona Cultivation. Written for the Dikoya 

 Planters' Association by Thomas ^orth Cliristie. (A. M. & J. 

 Ferguson : Colombo, 1883.) 



( Gommunicated. ) 

 This is a " record of practical personal experience," 

 and gives us the results gained during nine years 

 of cinchona planting. It will be useful as a plain 

 and short manual, which describes the exact position 

 attained on the cinchona question. The author is 

 not one of those .stiff-necked persons, who lay down 

 hard and fast rules, which, because they suit them, 

 must, they say, be universally applicable. He leaves 

 us a choice of several methods, letting us know 

 which one he has found most successful, but allowing 

 a margin where each individual must use bis own 

 discretion, and be guided by the conditions of soil 

 and climate. 



Within the limits at our disposal it is impossible 

 to go at length into all the questions raised and 

 answered by Mr. Christie, He discusses seed, cuttings, 

 grafting and budding — in fact all the modes of propag- 

 ating the plant. He lays stress on the necessity for care- 

 ful draining : — "With cinchona the chief object is to get 

 rid of excessive moisture, while with coffee the object 

 has been almost entirely to stop 'wash.' This difference 

 should always be kept in view, and close, short, 

 steep drains made the rule." 



He then describes the four varieties of cinchona 

 treated of, namely suecirubra, officinalis, robusta 

 (hybrid), and ledgeriana. He confines himself to 

 these, as being the kinds in which the planter is 

 at present most interested. Officinalis he considers 

 unsuitable to our land, tliough he thinks that its 

 failure has been aggravated by want of care. 



^"Ledgeriana is the most paying variety, and, as Mr. 

 Christie says, " there are thousands of acres of patana 



■ and forest belt land, not only in Uva, but also 



'between Nuwara Eliya and Kaudy, admirably adapted 

 for its cultivation." 



When we add another quotatinn, it will be seen 

 that Mr. Christie is sanguine as to the future chances 

 of planters in Ceylon, for he ends bis.essay with these 



' words : — " Those who are now only opening cinchona 

 estates have, I think, as good a prospect before them as 

 the earlier cultivators had. They will have the benefit 

 of the experience of others, and any fall in the price 

 of bark will be counterbalanced by cultivating the 

 choicest varieties. It must also be remembered that 

 a dozen years hence there will be very few of the 

 cinchonas which now exist in the country alive, and 

 that, unless fresh clearings are opened, the Ceylon 

 production of bark, having reached the maximum, say 

 .3 years hence, will begin to fall." 



Of the dififerent methods of harvesting bark, 

 Mr. Christie prefers shaving, and for obvinus reasons 

 most planters will agree with him. He does not 

 think that it should be att. mpted, if trees are 

 expected to be permanent, before the end of their 

 fourth year. 



The book as a whole is worthy of recommendation. 

 The author lapses occasionally into some rather un- 

 couth "planterisms," but hia work does not profess 

 to be a model of style, and he will probably de- 

 fend himself as being only anxious to point out the 

 best methods of cinchona cultivation. It is a relief 

 to turn to it from much of the unfounded assertion 

 whico has been prominent lately on the subject of 

 coffee weeding, and leaf-disease, and it is amusing to 

 find among the writers on practical subjects in Cey- 

 lon one who is content with a plain statement of 

 facts as the result of his experience. Such a man 

 is far more likely to carry conviction with him than 

 he who, devoid of scientific education, and prone to 

 jump at rash conclusions, gives us as incontrovertible 

 the theories which he derives by reasoning from isol- 

 ated instances. 



CACAO CULTURE. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE [DEMERARA] ROYAL GAZETTE. 



Dear Sir, — I have been told by a gentleman from 

 "Trinidad" that the Cacao tree in that Island are 

 much damaged by the ravages of the " Macoosie " 

 or Umbrella Ants. I had nome fifteen settlements 

 of these ants on one estate, and I took in hand to 

 destroy them. I tried many things most of them 

 poisonous, and some very expensive. At last I tried 

 "Gas refuse," (Ammoniaoal liquid). I simply dug a 

 small drill all round the settlement. (One was 62 x 37 

 feet), I then threw buckets full of liquid on the nents 

 and dug up them with a shovel, and the story was dose. 



This is cheap and safe. Let our Trinidad fellow 

 planters try it. — Yours very truly, — T. F. Mokdle. 



The Endeavour, Canal No. 1, 7th February, 1883. 



E.^TRAORMNART UsE OF Paper. — Under this head- 

 ing the British and Colonial Printer and Stationer gives 

 an account of the Willesden Waterproof Paper Company. 

 We quote as follows: — "The properties this paper 

 becomes possessed of after being treated in the way 

 we have mentioned, are very extraordinary. It be- 

 comes absolutely impervious to moisture, weather, and 

 rot proof. The Willesden Company, who have evidently 

 the most implicit faith in the reliability of their 

 manufactures, have covered a large portion of their 

 buildings with this material, as well as applying it 

 to a number of other uses. Fancy a system exhaust 

 pipe made of paper ! The steam, puffing away merrily 

 while we were there, and had been in the habit of so 

 doing, as Mr. Hall proudly informs us, more than two 

 years. They make troughs for hot water of it ; drain 

 pipes ; they dug up the earth and showed us one about 

 a foot in diametet which had been going on for three 

 years, buried in the wet soil, and is now without deteri- 

 oration. A punt made of paper was floating on the 

 canal. After this we went upstairs, which by the way, 

 covered with this ubiquitous material, and saw work- 

 men cutting it into shapes, for buckets, tents, gulley 

 ranches, houses, drinking troughs, church doors, etc., 

 etc., etc. After having inspected all this to our mutual 

 satisfaction, we deeended and went into the yard, 

 where our attention was distracted from some inter- 

 esting point which Mr. Hall was calling our attention 

 to, by the sight of the yard dogs' kennel, which wai 

 made of the waterproof paper ; chicken coops, and 

 rain water barrels, all of the same material. We 

 were hauled off into houses made of paper, inspected 

 wheelbarrows and portmanteaux made of paper, de- 

 corations, aesthetic designs, and 4-ply roofing. Their 

 paper makes strong, serviceable, and if coated with 

 asbestos paint,^reproo/ roofing, besides being peculiarly 

 suitable for an infinitude of other purposes, very 

 foreign and remote indeed from those with which 

 paper-makers have associated their productions, but 

 none the less tobe admired and encouraged." 



