October i, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



341 



CINNAMON CULTIVATION AND CHIPS. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE " CEYLON TISIES." 



Sib, — You have fallen into the error of considering " the 

 greater or less abundance of chips to be the result of 

 neglected cultivation," and that in a highly cultivated 

 estate there ought to be but a trilling quantity of chips. 

 Now the only cultivation that a cinnamon estate receives 

 is weeding and pruning. These works generally follow a . 

 cutting; a peeler to get at a "peelable" stick in the 

 middle of a cinnamon bush, has to press down the obstruct- 

 ing branches, aud these, if they do not right themselves 

 and assume an upright position, will be out down by the 

 pruner. Besides these bent down branches, the pruner, 

 in trimming a bush, removes all old wood that is not 

 likely to ever peel again. The pruuings are scraped into 

 chips. If your idea is that the production of chips is 

 confined almost entirely to lauds in the hands of natives, 

 you are wrong. For natives, or at least the poorer class, 

 resort to what is kno\vn as forced cuttings, to get as 

 much crop as possible diu"iug each season, thereby leaving 

 no old wood damaging the bushes. Besides forced cuttings, 

 natives peel almost all the year through, and whenever 

 by the help of a few showers of rain, sap flows freely 

 between the bark and the stick ; so that you see, sir, very 

 little or no old wood is left on their lands, and consequently 

 their lands produce a minimum of chips. 



According to the style of cultivation carried on a properly 

 managed estate, peehng takes place only twice a year. 

 During a cutting there are many sticks that from no apparent 

 cause, or from the apparent cause of their carrying a 

 tree, do not peel. These are reserved for the next cutting, 

 that is six months hence. During the interval, if the growth 

 of cinnamon be fast, many of these sticks will have 

 passed the age for peeling, and will be fit only for the 

 pruner's catty, or in other words for chips. Thus you 

 will see that the production of more or less chips is no 

 guage as to the proper cultii'ation or want of cultivation 

 of a property ; if anything the converse of what you held 

 is true. I shall be very glad if any planter of experience 

 correct the views of a young yet 



Obseevant Planter. 



CINN.1M0N CULTIVATION. 



Sir, — I fail to be convinced by the repetition of your 

 assertion that an estate well cultivated must produce but 

 a small quality of chips. If by proper cultivation you 

 mean harvesting the bark at the proper seasons, I am 

 one with you ; as the missing of a season must necess- 

 arily harden the " peelable " sticks and make them fit 

 only for chips. That in good cultivation you include the 

 seasonable harvesting of the bark, is apparent from the 

 concluding portion of yoin paragraph, where you say '■ that 

 the quantity of chips need not be of any serious extent 

 unless from neglect " (in harvesting bark?). Besides mis.s- 

 ing the season, unseasonable weather has a great deal to 

 do with the production of a large quantity of chips. That 

 you write from personal experience, I am aware, but am 

 I wrong in belieWng that yoin- experience has been cou- 

 fined to only visiting cinnamon estates ; aud miglit I re- 

 spectfully urge, that when anybody takes to visiting an 

 estate, cultivating products of which he has no personal 

 experience as planter, he is likely to hold some views 

 on the results of cultivation wliich will be erroneous? 



Observant PljVnter. 



CINCHONA UNDER SHADE. 



Sir, — Some two years or so ago, I tried the experiment 

 of clearing away all the imderwood from a small plot of 

 forest land, removing anything that was under six inches 

 in diameter. This I planted with succirubra. The plants 

 never came on well except at the edge of the plot, where 

 there was much light. The reason so far as I can make 

 out, being drip. I know of two other cases, exactly the 

 same, showing that the tree requires to be free from tlrip, 

 at least. This is one side of the question, and now for 

 the other. On one estate I know of, where there are 

 jak trees growing in the coffee, all the cinchona trees 

 ou the west side of the jaks, and within a radius of, say 



ten feet, are taller and bettor looking than those that 

 are not ia any w.iy pi-otooted from the sun. This leaves 

 the impression that shade, not too groat, without drip, is 

 of advauti-;e, and it might be as well to plant piirallel 

 rows of some fast-gro .ving trees to afford shade, without 

 at the same time holding a shower-bath over the plant. 

 Again, I have remarked the suparior vigour of some cinchona 

 trees adjoining forest, compared to that of the same age 

 out in the open, a fact which confirms the shade theory. 

 ^Vhen cinchona has been planted, and the land been left 

 to grow anything from weeds to jungle trees, there not 

 the slightest bad effect can bo noticed, except perhaps 

 in the shape of the tree wliich is pressed by its surroundings. 

 It is therefore interesting to learn if cinchona would stand 

 an equal cultivation with forest plants, that is, simultaneously 

 and side by side. Probably this idea may be scorned, but 

 it must be remembered that cinchoua in its natural state, 

 is found, to use Humboldt's words, " growing in thick woods." 



K. S. 



FLOWEBING OF THE AUSTRALLIN WATTLE ON 

 THE NILGIEIS. 



BT D. BRANDIS. 



At this season the Australian wattle on the Nilgiris is 

 covered with flower buds, which are arranged in large 

 panicles at the ends of the branches. These buds take 

 a long time before they open, and only a few trees here 

 and there, or rows of trees, are now in full flower. Most 

 of the trees in flower are small, and all the rest are, 

 and have, since last month, been in bud. When talking 

 over this remarkably slow development of these flowers 

 with Major-Gcneral Morgan, he gave me an account of 

 the introduction of this tree on the Nilgiris. General 

 Morgan was for many years in charge of the forests and 

 plantations on these hills, and his remarks on this sub- 

 ject, which I give, as he kindly sent them to me, will, 

 I feel sure, interest the readers of this Journal. Gener- 

 ally, it may be said that many shrubs and trees have a 

 remarkably long flowering season on the Nilgiris, and I 

 beheve that this has long ere this attracted the notice of 

 botanists. A beautiful Myrtaceous shrub, (R/iodomi/rtus 

 toiitentosa) which is common all over the plateau, at elev- 

 ations above 0,000 feet, has now been in flower ever 

 since March, and on the same shrub will be found the ripe 

 berries (which are eaten) as well as buds and flowers. 

 Regarding the wattle General Morgan writes as follows : — 

 " .Votes on Acacia dealbata." — " This tree was introduced 

 ou the Nilgiris before the year 1845. Colouel Dun, the 

 owner of many houses in Ootacamund, had planted several 

 trees in his compounds probably several years before 1345, 

 but the tree was by no means common, and as late as 

 1855 was sold at the Government Gardens at two annas 

 a plant. A curious fact reganling the flowering of this 

 tree has been observed: — In 1845, and up to about 1850, 

 the trees flowered in October wliich corresponded with 

 the Australian flowering time, but about 18{)0 they were 

 observed to flower iu Septemlier ; in 1870 they flowered 

 in August ; iu 1878 in July ; aud here, this year 1882, they 

 have begun to flower in June, this being the spring month 

 here corresponding with October in Au.stralia. All the 

 trees do not flower so early, because at variou.s times seeds 

 have been imported from Australia, ami the produce of 

 these would of course flower at the same time as the 

 parent trees in Australia, until acclimatised here. Having 

 watche 1 the flowering of these trees for nearly forty 

 years, there cannot be any doubt iu the matter; and it 

 is a curious fact that it should have taken the tree nearly 

 forty years to regain its habit of flowering in the spring. 

 Conmieucing in October, our autumn, it has gradually 

 worked its way back to summer, and finallj' to spring; 

 probably it will remaiu at this point. On arriWug in 

 Ootacamund in the flowering time, the stranger cannot 

 fail to be struck mth the golden appeiuance of the trees, 

 clothed with blossoms of the purest yellow. Indeed it 

 may be .saiil to be our only conspi -uous tree flower; for, 

 though the Eucu/i/ptus has its prit.y white blo.ssoni, the 

 amount of flower is small iu coinpii- 'sou with the foliage." 

 — Indian Journal of Forestry. 



