556 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Janiuary 1, 1883. 



The profit showa in the above statement is eijua! to a 

 dividend on the capital of the concern of 13 per cent, 

 and is by far the best flnaueial result that has yet been 

 obtained. But this actual profit on the business of the 

 plantation does not represent the entire pecuniary benefit 

 that Government has derived during the year from these 

 plantations, for the saving effected by substituting in 

 Government dispensaries and hospitals of e,196 pounds of 

 febrifuge for an equal quantity of quinine is very con- 

 siderable. Quinine ruled much lower in price during the 

 year under review than during 1880-.S1. But taking it 

 at the low average of eight shillings per ounce in Loudon, 

 and calculating the exchange at Is. SJd. per rupee, it 

 could not have been laid down in India under E74 per 

 pound, while the cinchona febrifuge cost only Rlil-8 

 per pound. Accepting these figures, the saving f jr the 

 year amounts to three and a half lakhs of rupees. This 

 being added to the sixteen and a half lakhs saved in a 

 similar way in former years, brings the total amount saved 

 to C4overnmeut to ticenti/ lakhs of rupees, which is exactly 

 twice the amount of the capital expended on the plantation 

 since its commencement. 



9. Owing to unavoidable delays in its transit and erection, 

 the small steam-boiling apparatus sanctioned last year for 

 the experimental manufacture of crystalline febrifuge and 

 quinine was not got into working onler until December. 

 Owing to the pressure for the production of ordinary febrifuge 

 during the concluding months of the financial year, and 

 owing also to unexpected difliculties which have arisen in 

 working on a large scale the processes which Jlr. Garamie 

 had conducted so successfully on a small one, I am still 

 unable to give a final report on the results of Mr. Gammie's 

 steam process for manufacturing the crystalline products. 

 Mr. Gammie asks for a few months' more delay in order 

 that further experiments may be tried, and this I trust 

 Government may be pleased to allow. The factory has 

 during the year been under Jlr. Gammie's charge, and 

 I beg again to bring to the notice of Government the 

 excellent manner in which he has conducted the duties 

 connected with it. Mr. Gammie's son was appointed an 

 as.sistant in the factory in the beginning of the year, and 

 he has worked diligently and well. Baboo Gopal Chundra 

 Dutta, the head of my cinchona office, has also done good 

 work during the year. 



10. As an appendix to this report, I annex a tabular 

 statement showing the details of the cash receipts for 

 febrifuge, bark, &c., during the year. Full credit is therein 

 taken for all the febrifuge supplied to the Surgeon-General 

 of Bengal, although as a matter of fact the whole of the 

 febrifuge supplied to him has not actually been credited 

 to the factory account in the Accountant-General's books, 

 the necessary statements for the last few mouths of the 

 year not yet having been received in the Accountant- 

 General's oflice. 



Cash Income for ISSl-SS. 



B. A. p. 



Oash received from sale of febrifuge and 



paid into the Bank of Bengal and other 



Government treasuries 

 Oash paid into Bank of Bengal, Calcutta, 



and into Darjeeliug treasury, on account 



of sales of seeds, plants, and 804 pounds 



of bark 



Credit for febrifuge supplied to medical 



depots, viz : — 



78,3-.;7 



3,285 12 2 



Oalcutta 

 Bombay 

 Madras 



55,918 

 16,500 

 13,200 



85,618 



Credit for febrifuge supplied to Surgeon- 

 General, Bengal, for district medical 

 officers of Bengal 16,330 8 



Credit for febrifuge supplied to Inspector- 

 General of Jails, Bengal, for jails and 

 lock-ups in Bengal 244 



Total credits in India ... 1,83,805 4 2 

 Net proceeds of sale of bark in London 



(credited in London) 88,<I08 10 C 



Grand Total ...2,72,213 14 8 



The "Teopical Agricultueist" for June, published at 

 Colombo, is crammed full of original and selected matter 

 relating to Cinchona, Coffee, Tea, Tobacco, and other 

 products of Ceylon. Doubts which had ari.sen as to the 

 identity of Cinchona suocirubra, and hybrid, so largely 

 planted in Ceylon, and a most valuable species, are set at 

 rest. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Cocoa. — A sample shewn in Colombo from a 

 native garden near Kandy, grown and prep.ired 

 by a Siuhale.se, is reported to be one of the finest 

 yet produced in Ceylon. There is no reason why 

 both, as cocoa and tea growers, the Sinhalese and 

 Tamils of Ceylon, should not add greatly to the 

 wealth of the country and to their own benefit. 



Take Care of the Tomato Vines. — If there is any one 

 subject that would seem to be exhausted, it is the Tomato 

 TrelHses. During the pasty twenty years we have described 

 probably twenty different trellises, and the story of the 

 whole is : keep your Tomato vines from resting upon the 

 ground. One of the simplest methods is to drive in 

 stakes at an angle of 45 ° , and nail or lash to these light 

 poles of any kind ; in the absence of poles use wire. 

 The whole object is to .so place the vines that they can 

 be reached on all sides, not only that we may free them 

 from " the worm, " but also save the fruit from decay. 

 If the fruit is left in direct contact with the soil, decay 

 sets in soon after ripening begins ; supporting the clusters 

 of fruit, where all can be seen, will allow of the removal 

 of the poorly shapen, and when they are too much crowded, 

 they may be thinned. — American Agriculturist. 



Gumming in Stone Fruits. — All acquainted with stone- 

 fruit cultm-e, and especially peach culture, will admit, 

 I daresay, that this is one of the worst diseases that can 

 attack the trees, ^^hen it affects the tree seriously, 

 there is indeed no cure for it, and the best thing one 

 can do in such a case is to destory the affected trees 

 altogether. What the specific cause of gumming may be, 

 seems to be uncertain ; but one thing is pretty siu-e, it 

 seldom or never attacks trees in which the wood is well 

 ripened year after year, unless it is produced by accidental 

 bark wounds. In the cherry and plum, gumming most 

 frequently takes the form of well-extravasateil sap, and does 

 little or no harm, but we never knew it affect a peach 

 tree without injuring it locally or generally. Whenever 

 it is found on the peach, it is always accompanied by 

 decay of the wood at the diseased spot, and the branch 

 generally dies off at that place. Strong-growing trees that 

 are not well ripened, and often primed, are most subject 

 to gumming, which will often be found to have begun just 

 below the last cut. How inveterably it sticks to a branch 

 may be gathered from the following example, which also 

 shows the disease may be arrested in its progress to a 

 certain extent, but not quite beaten when fairly established 

 even on a single branch. Sixteen years ago I planted a 

 Eoyal George peach with four good long .and strong shoots, 

 but not very well matured. I cut them back at pruning 

 time as far as I thought they were ripe, liut one of them 

 I had not cut back far enough, for the following j-ear 

 it decayed in the wood where the shoot had been cut, and 

 did not heal over as a young shoot shoulil do, though it 

 produced a good young leader from the sider above the cut. 

 The second year gumming set in at the same place, and 

 the wound continued open while all the other branches 

 had healed over. The branches beyond the gnmming point 

 continued to grow, however, but more weakly than the 

 others, as their only connection with the main trunk was 

 by means of the layers of bark on the topside of the 

 branch where the gumming commenced. Either in the 

 third or fourth year after planting, seeing the branch was 

 likely to die off, I scooped the whole of the decayed portion 

 of the wooil out from the top by means of a small chisel, 

 going several inches down the branch, till I thought I 

 had got it all out, filled the hole up with putty and 

 painted it over with white lead. This arrested decay, but 

 the bark never grew over the place, and in 1878, or about 

 twelve years after gumming began, the branch died. When 

 sawn through, it was about as thick as one's wrist, and 

 was found to be dead quite through at the gummed place. 

 The tree is still growing, anil a fuie specimen, and has 

 never shown any signs of gumming elsewhere. — Field. 



