121 



years, exhibiting the most marked extremes of seasons to which troijical countries are 

 liable. 



The forty acres of forest land alluded to in my report for 1869 as having then been 

 prepared for the extension of the plantations, -^ere pLanted out, except ten acres in 

 December, 1869, in the months of February, March, and April. The plants were placed 

 six and seven feet feet apart, which gives approximately one thousand plants per acre — 

 forty thousand plants. The average height of these plants is now two to three feet, 

 in a healthy and promising condition. The principle of planting six and seven feet 

 apart (the previous year's planting being ten feet apart) has occurred to me from a 

 similar system of close planting recently adopted in the Cinchona plantations of India — 

 there, indeed, planted four and five feet apart. The prospective result of this close 

 jilanting is the securing of rapid returns, a few years sufficing to cover the intervening 

 spaces. Each alternate tree is theu cut down and the bark sent to market. The opera- 

 tion of cutting down creates room for the spread of the surviving trees, which, in a 

 few more years, again approach and impede each other, and in like manner have to be 

 thinned as before. This extremely thick planting of trees is objectionable, inasmuch 

 as the trees possess a spreading habit. For example, those planted at five feet or at 

 seven feet apart occupy the interspaces in three or four years. At this stage of growth 

 the plant Avould hardly, I conceive, be worth stripping, as the yield per plant probably 

 could not exceed one pound of dried bark, (value say 2s.) Whereas trees sis or seven 

 years old, under favorable circumstances, must each yield five or six pounds of dry 

 bark. On the other hand, however, this system of thick planting has its advantages. 

 The close planting costs but little additional, and the plants are readily pi-opagated. 

 When found too close, they are easily cut down to allow for the expansion of the re- 

 maining trees. When thus jilanted close they keep down the weeds, and hence their 

 culture expenses are lessened. 



The entire area of ground planted with Cinchonas is nearly ninety acres. The 

 severe rainy weather of the past year prevented the enlargement of this area by at 

 least twenty acres, for which plants were in readiness. Including these twenty acres, 

 about eighty acres of the forest were felled and partly cleared for the extension of the 

 plantations. This land will be completely prepared for the reception of the plants in 

 a few mouths. 



In May 1 hope to have forty acres planted (about one thousand plants per acre) with 

 C.sucdruhra, and near the end of the year the other forty acres, together with fifty 

 additional acres proposed to be cleared, planted with C.calisaya — the two most precious 

 species. The number of plants permanently planted out is sixty thousand, the num- 

 ber of seedlings in ijots forty thousand, and of seedlings in nursery beds ten thousand ; 

 total, one hundred and ten thousand. I had intended that the plants required for the 

 extension of the plantations, to the extent of one hundred and thirty acres above 

 alluded to as under preparation for being planted out in the year 1871, should be propa- 

 gated chiefly from cuttings. But most fortunately two fine trees, at Cold Spring, of 

 C. sitccirubra (one of which is a magnificent tree nine years old and thirty feet high) 

 yielded seeds for the first time in Jamaica, from which, through the generosity of John 

 McLean, esq., I procured in the beginning of September nearly fifty thousand excel- 

 lent seeds, the result now being forty thousand healthy seedlings. Better plants are 

 produced by seeds than from cuttings. It is also gratifying to state that several young 

 trees in the government plantations have a good crop of seeds ripening and others are 

 coming into flower. The number of seeds likely to be obtained from these young trees 

 in a few months can hardly be under one hundred thousand. Thus the fifty thousand 

 seedlings in course of treatment, and those novr ripening on the trees, will suffice to 

 plant all the land proposed to be prepared to the end of 1871, making a total of two 

 hundred and twenty acres, containing about two hundred thousand plants. 



I expect shortly to have the honor of submitting samples of Cinchona bark, of the 

 different kinds, to the island chemist for aualj'sis, m order to ascertain the percentage 

 of alkaloids. This operation is more accurately performed when the bark is in a 

 fresh state. It has been recently discovered that the eftects of the sun's rays falling on 

 the bark while in a green state is prejudicial to the alkaloids. 



In view of the interest felt in this subject by the United States Gov- 

 ernment, as evidenced in various reports of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, the writer availed himself of an opportunity, while connected 

 with the recent explorations of the San Domingo commission, to visit 

 the plantations above referred to, located in the Blue Mountain range, 

 twenty-three miles northeast from Kingston, leaving the latter place on 

 the morning of March 13. The route to the base of the mountains, 

 about seven miles distant, is over an excellent macadamized road, trav- 

 ersing an arid, barren district. The sparsely cultivated iield.s on either 

 side of the road, occupied by occasional spacious country residences, 



