82 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1884. 



old Ledger seedling plants at Nagrak. The trees 

 were on thia occasion also shaved on only half of 

 their circumference, while covering of the wounded 

 parts was entirely neglected. If some trees showed 

 signB of a temporary drooping, that must be referred 

 to the less favorable season at which the operation 

 took place. In future this method of harvesting will 

 be carried out only at the end of tbe dry season — 

 the period of comparative rest. At Nagrak experi- 

 ments were made with the topping of the officinalis and 

 Ledgeriaua trees chosen for practising the scraping sys- 

 tem upon. These experiments were undertaken, as ex- 

 perience had proved that the scraping of trees, especially 

 on sloping ground, to a greater height than 12 feet 

 above the ground, was attended with great difficulties. 

 The attempt is now to form a straight upright stem 

 to about 12 feet and above that a thick crown mass. 

 To get that, an officinalis tree was cut off at 12 feet 

 above the ground. It appeared, however, that many 

 plants which had already got a stem of considerable 

 height lost too many leaves by the operation to 

 continue growing vigorously immediately. In carrying 

 out the experiments on fields of Ledgerianas the high- 

 stemmed trees were topped at 15 to 18 feet, while 

 the younger plants, which had scarcely yet a stem 

 of 6 tu 9 feet, were cut off at 12 feet. The intention 

 is, to keep the former at a height of 15 to 18 feet 

 by repeated lopping, and to bring the latter to that 

 height by regular pruning of the lowest branches. 

 The experiment appears, so far as a judgment 

 can be as yet pronounced, to promise good results. 

 It is not improbable that the trees, after having been 

 shaved in two successive years, in the third year, 

 when they will be allowed to rest, that they may 

 renew their bark fully, will yet give a valuable yield 

 in brauch and twig bark. Of the ravages caused by 

 Helopeltia Antoniiia not a trace now to be found 

 However, in the Southern Mountains, where the in- 

 sect in former years committed such ravages, several 

 women and children continue to be set apart for search- 

 ing after the insect. Since the trouble has been 

 taken everywhere to collect the leaves affected by the 

 insects, the disease has come to a stand as it 

 were suddenly. The gathering of the affected 

 leaves had for its object the removal of the eggs 

 found in the petioles. The sales of cinchona seed 

 from the Government gardens held on 4th February 

 and 5th March at Bandoeng brought respectively 

 /2,010 and / 1,520. At the auction the minimum 

 prices fixed by the Government were in no case ex- 

 ceeded. In the report for the 4th quarter of 1883 

 the expectation was expressed that the original 

 Ledgerianas and the graft plants would in the course 

 of 1884 yield an abundant supply of seed. The re- 

 sult has disappointed expectations : the old Ledger- 

 ianas and the graft plants will yield during 18S4 only 

 a limited quantity of seed. It is accepted as a rule 

 that for tire Goverument enttrpriz- only Ledgeriauas 

 from seed of trees whose bark on analysis yields more 

 thnn 9 per cent of quinine should be planted. 

 The comparatively small yield of seed from such 

 trees makes it impossible to offer a portion of it for 

 public sale. There are certainly how- ver to be found 

 among the unexamined trees, of the greater number 

 of which seed is procurable, many with a very high 

 yeld of quinine. The plantation at Tirtasari has de- 

 veloped so vigorously during the last few months, 

 that apparently in the course of the second quarter 

 a commencement will have to be made with the 

 thinning out of the now four year old grafts planted 

 on stocks at an average distance of 6 feet. 



Van Eomunde, 



Directory oj the Government Cinchona Enterprise, 



BandoeuLr, 5th April 1S84. 



THK GOVERNMENT CINCHONA PLANTATIONS. 

 IN BRITISH SIKKIM. 



Having dealt with the cinchona enterprize 

 in Java, we publish the main portions of 

 the reports for the year ended March 31st, 1884, on 

 the similar Government enterprize in Northern India. 

 What will strike readers familiar with previous re- 

 ports is the great revolution which has commenced 

 and is destined to go on in British Sikkim. Cin- 

 chona officinalis has never; in that region, been a suc- 

 cess, and it is now finally condemned. The red 

 barks, too, have begun to give way to the yellow 

 barks ; and it seems quite on the cards, that, within 

 half-a-dozen to ten years, the only kinds cultivated 

 in the Darjiling Gardens (and in other places also) 

 will be the best forms of Ledgeriana and those 

 robust hybrids which yield in two instances from 

 nearly 4 to over 6 per cent of sulphate of quinine. 

 Where the Ledgerianas will not flourish, the robust 

 hybrids, originally received in Sikkim from Ceylon, 

 may do well, and the true wisdom will be to cultivate 

 only the best and richest kinds. Carthagena bark 

 is not one of these, and as for the cuprea bark, 

 which is not a true cinchona at all, it is not likely 

 that such an impostor will ever repay cultivation. Mr. 

 Gammie continues to manufacture the febrifuge which 

 has been so useful to the people and so profitable 

 to the Government, and latterly he has turned out 

 a superior crystallized substance, destitute of the 

 amorphous alkaloid to which symptoms of nausea 

 experienced by some patients to whom the febrifuge 

 was administered. It appears, however, that 

 the locally-manufactured substances are likely 

 speedily to be superseded by cheap alkaloids 

 obtained at home from a consignment of bark sent 

 for the purpose. Altogether those Sikkim Cinchona 

 Gardens, originated by Dr. Anderson, have, under the 

 superintendence of Dr. King and the management of 

 Mr. Gammie, been a great success, and have been 

 the means of diffusing very valuable information, by 

 which private planters have largely benefitted. 



On cinchona planting geuerally and the value of 

 quiuine in the market and as a medicine, the fol- 

 lowing flippant deliverance appears in an Indian 

 journal : — 



Cinchona planting in Southern India looks as if it 

 was being overdone. Every disconsolate coffee or tea 

 planter who has a few acres of land to spare hastens 

 to plant them with cinchona, forgetful, it would seem, 

 of the enormous acreage in India, Ceylon and elsewhere, 

 that is under cinchona already. Moreover the faculty, 

 once its best frieuds, are beginning to turn their backs 

 on Peruvian bark. Quinine is on the high road to 

 being played out. So long as the drug was a guinea 

 an ounce it was of course prescribed freely, but now 

 that it can be bought for a few shillings, and soon 

 perhaps will be purchaseable for a few pence, it is 

 not astonishing to bear that it is of no greater efficacy 

 than simple "bitters." Certainly cinchona promised 

 well a few years ago, but it is not to be expected 

 tint when every one — man, woman and child — plants 

 cinchona, cinchona will pay. It is the desperate re- 

 source rather of persons who have been nauseated by 

 their experiences of tea and coffee. A new product is 

 a desideratum in the eyes of all planters of the South, 

 and why not " bitters ?" Tea and cofl'ee laud will 

 always grow oranges, citrons, and limes in profusion, 

 and, strange to say, these are things that are not played 

 out, and probably never will be so long as the world's 

 thirst for " cocktails" continues. It is hard to resign the 

 exaggerated hopes that cinchona once held out, but the 

 prudent planter will have as many strings to his bow 



