gi4 



THE fROPiCAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Jtf.VE t, 1885 



planter notices. My friertd had never been in Ceylon 

 before, ami was, he tells me, agreeably surprized with 

 much of the soil he saw after what he had heard of its 

 comparative poverty. 



Of course, much of the land now being planted with 

 tea would hardly be opened if in India ; but, in view of 

 the very much higher cultivation evidently undertaken 

 here, he says he should have little fear of the ultimate 

 result. One thing struck him very forcibly, and I think 

 it an important point : he was of opinion that so far we 

 had obtained a very excellent jat of tea, evidently well- 

 suited to the country. I was told of many estates in 

 India, one of which had been under my friend's supervision, 

 which, though excellent in soil and situation, refused to 

 give paying flushes owing to the low-class of hybrid 

 planted on it. The Calcutta agents reluctautly gave 

 their sanction to a gradual re-planting of the whole on 

 this account. He was struck with the uniformity of our 

 ja-, considering the wide range open to us to choose 

 from. . ... 



According to my friend, tea planting in India is 111 

 a terrible bad way. Proprietors of most gardens are at 

 their wits' ends for money to carry on, and agents in 

 Calcutta were foreclosing right and left. If half I was 

 told was true, more profits have been made by the 

 Calcutta men than ever have accrued to the planter. 

 This is a state of things there which cannot last, how- 

 ever. There appears to be any amount more land fit to 

 he planted with tea in India, but farther and farther 

 away from roads ; and to open much of such land in 

 face of present low prices and cost of transport in India 

 is looked upon as madness by many. 



One remark made by my Assam friend is in reference 



to the cleanliness of our estates as compared with the 



comparative jungle with which most gardens in India 



clothe themselves at various seasons of the year. He 



said he thought in this at least we were wrong, for 



inasmuch as however closely we planted, the soil must 



be exposed to the burning suu for a very considerable 



portion of the year, which could not be a good thing. 



If we allowed a certain amount of undergrowth to spring 



up, paiticularly before pruning, it would shield the 



' ground from this awful scorching. As I remember 



seeing something in your paper on this suhject on 



tho occasion of your last visit to the Kelani Valley, 



I thought I would let you have a line.— W. H.— Local 



" Times." 



-o. — 



CINCHONA CULTIVATION AND THE AUCKLAND 

 DOMAIN- 

 The following is the copy of a letter sent to the City 

 Council upon the above subject by Mr. W. Goldie, Dom- 

 ain Kanger;— "To P. A. Philips, Esq., Town Clerk, for 

 the information of His Worship the Mayor and City 

 Council. Sir, — Some correspondence having recently ap- 

 peared in the public Press regarding the cultivation of 

 cinchona, in which reference has been made to those 

 plants under my care, I have thought it necessary to 

 bring the matter before you, and have the honour to 

 report as follows : — During the 6pring of 18S3 and autumn 

 of 1834 there were 2,000 plants raided and dealt with 

 in tho following manner: The first lot, consisting of 50 

 of the best plants, was taken from the pots in the middle 

 of December, 1883, and planted out in a specially pre- 

 pared bed, shaded and watered until thoroughly established. 

 In the curl of January, 1m84, all shading and watering 

 was discontinued. The plants, when first placed outside, 

 were 2i inches in height, and by the beginning of May, 

 1884-, thev had attained a height of about 8 inches, and 

 were fine* vigorous plants. About the end of May, 1884, 

 severe frost made its appearance, and destroyed every 

 plant. The second lot, which consisted of about 1,(100 

 plants, was potted olf during the spring of 188:!, and 

 plunged in sand in the greenhouse, where they were 

 allowed I" remain all the season, by which time they 

 had attained n height of from four to five inches. Early 

 in April, 1884, they were removed from the greenhouse 

 and placed in the open, so that they might get thoroughly 

 hardened ard fit for distribution amongst our settlers. 

 From II" lime they were placed out until the end of 

 May. !S8l, they kept in good condition, but immediately 



after that date, they were badly injured with the frost. 

 Some of those were distributed, and the balance which 

 was retained on hand all died. The third lot of plants, 

 the balauce of the 2,000, which numbered about 300, 

 was potted off during the spring of 1»S3, and kept in 

 the greenhouse till about the first of August, 1884 ; then 

 taken out to be hardened off. About the end of August 

 they were planted out in the ordinary nursery rows. 

 Of the number so dealt with there are now only 45 

 plants alive, the largest of which has attained a height 

 of about seven iuches. Those plants are now about 

 eight.'-n months old, and I am reliably informed t' ■ ;t +. 

 p'ants of this age, grown 'in Ceylon, would hive retched 

 a height of about two feet. The varieties dealt with 

 above were principally ('. succimbra, C. ledysriana, and 

 C. officinalis. Last winter, a short time ' before the 

 Domain was taken over by your Council, the late Domain 

 Board purchased some seed of C. hybrid, and instructed 

 me to grow it. At the present time thero are from 

 5,000 to 6,000 plants in stock, and they will be further 

 experimented with this autumn as you may direct. Ill 

 giving the above details, I cannot forbear from making 

 a few remarks regarding a letter from Mr. W. L. Mal- 

 colmson, which appeared in the Herald of the 15th Dec- 

 ember, in which he states that the cinchona plants in 

 the Domain were planted out at what he considered 

 too early a stage. Some time early in the spring of 1883, 

 Mr. Malcolmson paid a visit to the Domain after the 

 seed was raised, and a number picked out. He was then 

 told by me of the course I intended to take in experi- 

 menting with the cinchona plants, and with my sugges- 

 tions he. entirely agreed. Not only so, but a few weeks 

 later, in answering a letter from Mr. Duncan, of Weir 

 lington, he distinctly forecast the experiment tried by lot 

 second. His letter of the 15th inst. was the first intim- 

 ation I had that he dissented from the course pursued." 

 — Auckland Weekly News. 



UNFRUITFUL TREES. 



How often one sees and hears of trees that are un- 

 fruitful, and Apples and Pears especially so. Now this 

 should not and need not be if proper means were em- 

 ployed to remedy it. Nothing is more disappointing than 

 year after year to expect fruit and get none, or of such 

 poor quality as hardly to be fit for use. Some trees 

 are no doubt too old, and would be better replaced by 

 young ones, but others, both standard and trained, can 

 be bropght into a fruitful state, and the treatment will 

 often entirely cure canker, which no doubt is caused by 

 poverty in a great many instances. Very generally this 

 uufruitfulness is caused by the roots getting down into 

 the subsoil for moisture in dry seasons, and when there, 

 as they do not find any of the elements that are necess- 

 ary for building healthy growths, the tree gets into an 

 unhealthy or an unfruitful state, often making wood at 

 the expense of the fruit-buds. This must not be taken 

 to be always the case because some trees seem to run 

 all to fruit-buds and yet do not ripen their fruit. 



Young trees can be lifted ard brought into a fruit- 

 ful state by bringing the roots nearer the surface, but 

 trees that have stood in one position, for twenty years 

 or more, cannot be lifted entirely, or if they were lifted 

 they would hardly recover from such severe treatment. 

 What is necessary to do iu such cases is this. Out 

 away the roots that have a tendency downwards. The 

 way to proceed with this operation (and I have practised 

 it myself on a great number of trees and found it bring 

 about the desired result) is to open a trench on both 

 sides of the tree (if a standard), 6 feet from the stem, 

 3 feet wide and about feet long, parallel to each 

 other, removing the soil from the trenches to the depth 

 of 3 feet, taking care not to injure the loots that lie 

 horizontally ; then work towards the stein with steel 

 forks and remove the soil as the work proceeds until 

 within 18 inches of the stem, tunnel the remainder, and 

 Sever the tap or perpendicular roots about 2 feet from 

 the surface, cutting the upper portion of the roots 

 smoothly with a knife and removing as much of the 

 remaining part as possible: then proceed to fill in the 

 trench, making it firm beneath the ball of earth. If 

 some manure can be worked into the upper Is inches 



