Nov. i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



341 



2s. OJ. an ounce in bulk. With quinine at this low 

 price, the consumption should increase enormously 

 with the population. Eastern nations have vet to 

 be educated to its use, and that the Hindoo is 

 beginning to appreciate cheap quinine, is clearly 

 proved by the fact, that enterprizing natives are 

 selling quarter ounce bottles in the Wynaad bazaars 

 at Kl a piece. So far as one can see at present. 

 Southern India promises to be the great cinchona 

 producing country of the world, for 5d per unit 

 drives America out of the market. Cinchona \vill 

 not thrive in the stitY, clayey soil of Jamaica. In 

 Daijeeling the land placed under this cultiv- 

 ation by private enterprize is only about '2,000 

 acres : so that we are thus left face to face 

 with Ceylon and Java as the two rivals we 

 have to fear. Ceylon planters seem to think that 

 Cinchona leaves them too small a margin for 

 profit to make its cultivation worth their while, 

 and at the last Annual Meeting of the Ceylon 

 Chamber of Commerce, the Chairman, referring 

 to the large exports of cuichoua, remarked that 

 this result had only been achieved at the ex- 

 pense of the tutuve, and that tliey could not, 

 therefore, expect to see exports on a correspond- 

 ing scale in future years. And it is probable that 

 the exports of bark from Ceylon wiil never again 

 reach the figure they did this season. Ceylon 

 cannot grow cinchona so cheaply as Wynaad, and 

 the Ceylon planters are now turning their atten- 

 tion more exclusively to tea cultivation. Java is 

 a rival much to be feared, but the long wet 

 season there with its intermittent rain from Uctober 

 to March, and the ravages of Helupeltis Antoiiii 

 may serve as some check on its exports of bark, 

 but it must not be forgotton that Java, with 

 its rich volcanic soil, ought to produce a splen- 

 did sample of bark, and the Javanese 

 are the best agriculturists in Asia. The Madras Gov- 

 ernment, with its 3,000 odd acres of cinchona, 

 stands forth as a formidable rival to private enter- 

 prize, and now that the plantations have served 

 their object in encouraging and stimulating the 

 cultivation of cinchona by private individuals, the 

 (government, by putting their estates up for sale, 

 would not only benetit the planting co mm unity 

 by retiring from the held, and ceasing to compete 

 with private industry, but if it at the same time 

 threw open the Government Keserve r'orests, they 

 would Snd themselves in possession of some ready 

 cash which might help to make up the Budget 

 deficit. \Ve thus rind that, looking at things from 

 an unprejudiced and dispassionate point ofjview, 

 boutheru India bids fair to be the great quinine- 

 producing country of the future, and that prob- 

 ably the part of Southern India where cin- 

 chona can be most successfully grown is 

 Wynaad. There is still a large acreage 

 suitable there for cinchona, though not 

 quite adapted for coffee cultivation. When planted 

 with the coffee cinchona costs the planter, if we 

 except a small yearly sum spent in lopping, 

 little or nothing in cultivation, and the idea that 

 cinchona does any barm to the coffee under it, 

 has this year been abundantly proved to be errone- 

 ous by the fact that notwithstanding that there 

 is now so much coffee imder cinchona, it is being 

 remarked by all old planters that never since 

 the uays of leaf-disease has coliee lii \V'ynaad 

 lookeu ^o green, so fresh, ana so vigorous as now. 

 Wynaad may now be saw to nave turned 

 the comer, and in the course of a year or so, we 

 shall probably see a great ru=h of capital into the 

 district ; the last four or live years have been trying 

 and anxious ones to all iilanters, but by their energy 

 pin lanting cinchona, and the economy practised 



in their estate expenditure, they have again proved 

 the truth of the proverb that " Fortune waits for 

 those who have I'atience and riinsiiVER.\xcii." 



THE HAKGALA EXPEKIMENTAL 

 GARDENS : CEVLON. 

 In turning the sharp corner just before coming 



111 sight of the Garden gates the extensive stretcfi 

 of patua lands of tlie Uva liistrict suddenly comes 

 in view, and the whole of the di.stiict Ironi Idul- 

 gashena (iap and Haputale Gap to ivamunakuli and 

 beyond to the Madulsima Hills is seen from this 

 point. One hundred yards or so farther on you 

 enter the garden gates, aqd after passing through 

 the Casuarina and Acacia avenue and turning to 

 the right, leaving the outlet of the new drive to the 

 left, a very fine peep is got of the west peak of 

 the grand Hakgala rock with its almost perpendi- 

 cular face. The large Wanduru Monkeys are fre- 

 quently to be seen jumping fioin tree to tree in 

 the jungle on the top of, and around the rocks, their 

 locahty being made known by iheir peculiar shout- 

 ing or barking noise. Passing on up the drive 

 and looking to the left a new ornamental piece 

 of water is to be seen, the shrubberies on each 

 side being planted with ornamental trees, shrubs 

 and garden plants. Good specimens of t upressiis 

 tonihim are to be seen on the upper side of the 

 drive, and when passing the sharp bend, and look- 

 ing to the left down the gully, a pretty peep is 

 gained of the water trickling down between banks 

 of native ferns into the sheet ol water below. 



Hounding the next corner a good specimen of 

 the Flame tree, Stenitlia uceri/ulia, is seen, 

 its trunk being covered with a cream-flowered 

 creeper — t'vbau scaiuh'iis, in/'. <(lba. Close by this are 

 also two good specimens of the Japan Cedar — 

 C'ryptomeriii jtipoiiiia, and a very tine specimen of 

 t iipressiii iiKicrocarpu, under which is a branching 

 tree fern, HeiiUulia ]i'alkei\e. This is a well- 

 balanced specimen, with a trunk 5 to G feet high 

 and at about 3 feet from the top spring three 

 branches, the largest being about 18 inches long and 

 the smallest fully a foot long, each branch carrying 

 a head of from 4 to 7 fronds. This branching of 

 tree ferns is rather uncommon in Ceylon and very 

 rare in the West Indies. 



About 50 yards farther on is the new, or lower, 

 entrance to the Fernery. In the gully to the left 

 there is a very line clump of young tree ferns 

 the Alsophila criiiita. Turning to the right 

 into the fernery, and passing a large Fuelisia oed 

 on the left, you come on a piece of rocK-work, 

 some 23 yards long, planted entirely with foreign 

 ferns and" Begonias, the fern plants being nearly 

 all raised from spores received from England, and 

 among them are to be found some good specimens 

 of the line-leaved Adiaiitttnis, or maiden hairs, 

 and one very rare and beautiful Gymnograniina, 

 iiijmnng!-amma schizophijlla. At the top corner 

 of this rock-work is a healthy young jjlaut of the 

 Nilgiri tree fern, AUophila latebrosa. Crossing a 

 path here and going into the body of the fernery 

 a very line group of the native tree fern, Ahiyphila 

 crinitu, is to be seen, with trunks 18 to 20 feet 

 High, and one specially fine one in the centre has 

 a large graceful head of fronds of fully 16 feet iu 

 diameter. About 1.0 feet from this on the upper 

 side is a healthy j-oung specimen of the .New 

 Zealand silver tree fern, ' i/«//i< ./ deatbata. The 

 under i;ide of the fronds are of a very Ught 

 glaucoui colour which is in striking contrast ^vlth 

 the dark green above. The fernery contains about 

 8,000 lilants of ferns, the greater jiart of these being 

 native, planted among them and beside the nu- 



