August i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



151 



CINCHONA GROWING AND HARVESTING. 

 (From the Planters' GazaUe, Juiio 1st.) 



Mr. Teare, manager of the Neilghcrry Tea aud 

 CiuchouH Compan.v, has recently been employed to 

 inspect the several estates owued by the Wentworth 

 Company, and from what he says it is quite evident 

 that the soil and climate of the Wynaad are most 

 favourable to the growth of C Succini/ira and C. 

 Condaitiinea at all events, whilst the more valualile 

 Ledgeriana has only been less successful apparently 

 because the particular locality on which it was plant- 

 ed had not been well chosen. Writing of the Kau- 

 ambyle estate, Mr. Teare says ;— " The four to eix 

 year old trees are chiefly Sv.ccirubra, but there are 

 large numbers of hybrids varying in almost every 

 gradation aud degj-ee between C. Condam'mea and 

 C. Succirubra. Experience will probably prove that 

 most of these hybrids are superior in quality of bark 

 to the pure C. Succirubra. There is one tree on 

 Kauambyle of wonderful growih, which approaches 

 very closely in appearance the valuable C. Conda- 

 minea. The growch of the cinchona trees now under 

 report is most highly satisfactory ; many of these 

 are over twenty feet high, and I have not seen in 

 other parts of South India any which, taken as a 

 whole, aud allowing for difference of age, can compare 

 with these beautiful forests at Kanambyle. It is not 

 that individual trees have attained, in solitary instances, 

 an abnormal size, but that all the trees are well dev- 

 eloped. Most, of the trees on this group are now ready 

 to yield a crop of bark ; each tree is estimated to 

 give an average of four ounces of dry scraped or 

 shaved bark. The scraping or shaving process will 

 be the most advantageous for the following reasons : 



1. A larger amount of bark per tree will he obtained. 



2. Bark harvested on this system is of higher value 

 than if taken in .strips. 3. If operated on with care, 

 and protected with grass, the trees suffer little de- 

 terioration in growth. 4. The bark will renew over 

 the entire stem surface within one year, and will 

 consequently give a larger and more valuable sub- 

 sequent return than can be procured by any other 

 process at present known." 



Mr. Teare is very decided as to the desirability of 

 commencing to bark C. Succirubi-a and its varieties 

 while the trees are young. The best authorities are, 

 he declares, of opinion that as the bark grows older 

 and woody fibre replaces cellular tissue, the alkaloids 

 already in the bark appear to turn into resin aud 

 gum, or colouring matter, and the bark secretes in 

 that part of it no fresh alkaloids ; the result is the 

 bark (of C. Succirubra) deteriorates with age.* 

 This last remark refers only to trees that have 

 never been barked. He is also in favour of thinniug 

 out the young plantations in order to allow space for 

 the (growth of foliage necessary lor the nourishment 

 of the stems. "Leaves," he says, "perform a much 

 larger share in the economic development of veget- 

 able life than is generally supposed. They contrib- 

 ute more lo the organic bulk of trees than the 

 roots do ; one hundred pounds of dry wood give 

 only from half to one pound of ash or inorganic matter 

 when burned. The ash represents the proportion of 

 material absorbed by a tree through its roots; the 

 remaining ninety-nine pounds of dry wood have there- 

 fore been nbtamed thruuyh the leaves, chiefly in the 

 form of carbon. For these reasons I advise that in 

 Bome places every alternate row of trees should be 

 coppiced." 



With reference to the preparation of bark for .-hip- 

 uient, the following remarks contain a hint wliich 

 may prove useful to any experienced managers :— 



* Certainly not until after the 10th year, if then 

 — Ep, 



'The most favourable S' ason for taking crop from 

 cineliona being durm:; the monsoon, when the atmo- 

 sphere IS saturated with moisture, and rain is con- 

 stantly tailing, it is ueces8:.ry thab nreans should be 

 devised for drying the bark by heated air. Solar heat 

 cannot be relied on during the monsoon. 1 therefore 

 advise that a building should be erected for this 

 purpose in readiness to receive the wet bark (from 

 which from 55 to 65 per cent, of moisture must be 

 driven off.) Machinery can probably be used for this 

 purpose with great advantage, iu regard to saving 

 of time, space, labour, fuel, and money." We may 

 add that so far as can be ascertained here no ap- 

 pliances specially designed for artificially drying bark 

 have yet been invented, but that apparatus manu- 

 factured by Messrs. J. Gordon & Co. for drying 

 cocoa and coffee seeius likely to* answer the purpose 

 admirably. It consists of a store having an upper 

 floor, on which strong galvanized wire netting is spread 

 over the joists. On the ground-door there is a furnace 

 fitted with a hot-air chamber, and au iron pipe runs 

 from it under the wire netting, aud by this means 

 hot air is^ rapidly diffused through whatever is laid 

 thereon. There is also a fan, by 'means of which the 

 moisture is carried off, and a regular draft main- 

 tained. The cost of the whole appar-tus for a floor 

 30 feet by 15 feet (exclasive, of course, of the build- 

 ing itself), does not exceed £50. This system has 

 proved very successful in practice with cocoa aud 

 cott'ee, and we would think it still easier to extract 

 the moisture from cinchona bark shavings. 



[The Clerihew system is the one referred to, but 

 query whether cinchona bark, shavings at any rate, 

 could not be prepared in the "Sirocco" tea-drying 

 machine ? — Ed.] 



MR. D. MORRIS ON CACAO (OR' COCOA). 

 On Tuesday evening (9th May) Mr. D. Morris, M.A., 

 F.G.S.. the Director of Public Gardens and Plantations, 

 delivered at the townhall tlie fifth of the present series 

 of lectures under the auspices of the Jamaica In- 

 stitute. His subject was : "Cacao; how to grow and 

 how to cure it." The Hon. Alan Ker was called to 

 the chair, aud introduced the lecturer to a very larfe 

 audience. The ladies were not numerous on this oc- 

 casion, but there were in the Hall plenty of agricult- 

 urists who were anxious to be informed authoritatively 

 whether money could be made in cacao. 



Mr. Morris, who was surrounded by the illustra- 

 tions which we enumerate below, said that by its 

 soil, climate and varying altitudes Jamaica was naturtlly 

 the home of a varied culture, and that it was necess- 

 ary, in order to secure a permanent prosperity, to 

 plant many thing,«, and not "to carry all the eggs 

 in one basket." .'Vlthough sugar-cane cultivation 

 would, he believed, always be extensive here, on account 

 of the good opportunities presented for it, that cultiv- 

 ation had by means of the old conditions of the island 

 been carried into localities whose elevation, &e., rend- 

 ered it impossible that it could be profitable under 

 existing conditions ; and it was therefore expedient to 

 look around for new industries. The island with a 

 varied agriculture would be safer against fluctuating 

 m.irkets, depression i.f certain industries, and visit- 

 ations which so often afflict economic plants coffee, 



cane, cotton, tobacco, wheat, &c. There was in his 

 opinion, no reason why the cultivation of cacao in Jam- 

 aica, should not become as great as that of cinchona, 

 now so full ot promise, and so energetically pushed. 



The cultivation of cacao here was increasing mpidly. 

 The present export was valued at £I0,91S tor ISSOJ 

 the qui;nt,ty bein^ .3,304 cw^t. as cnmp.iied with an 

 export only 14 years before if but I3.T cwt. Mr. Morris 

 quoted extensively from old historical writers, Edwards 



