CHINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA. 43 
cessfully propagated by leaves with the buds attached ; and as this 
method offered very considerable advantages in producing a large num- 
ber of plants from a limited supply of wood, we resolved to attempt 
the experiment, which has been carried out most successfully. The 
whole secret of success depends entirely on the amount of moisture 
given: if this is supplied in excess, they rot immediately, even ina 
day; but if sufficient care is exercised, the losses will not exceed three 
or four per cent., and this percentage has not been exceeded by many 
_ thousands we have propagated in this way + by this method fine plants 
are obtained in every respect resembling strong, healthy seedlings. 
The period required to form roots is nearly the same in all the species, 
varying from three to six weeks. The usual way in which we pre- 
pare the buds is to remove the point of the shoots for a cutting ; 
the stem is then divided near the middle of each internode, split down 
the centre, and immediately placed upon the brick in the pot; the bud 
itself being covered with about a quarter of an inch of soil, while the 
leaf of ‘course’ projects above the surface. The pots are then plunged 
in damp sand, and treated in every respect the same as cuttings. 
“The entire adoption of the system of cultivation under the shade 
of living trees, has been endeavoured to be forced on Government by 
the scientific men who have visited, and who conduct the Java planta- 
tions. It is, however, a question of very doubtful utility, as it has 
been in operation in Java for many years withont producing the de- 
sited results; it moreover seems to have been adopted from a want 
of confidence in discriminating between the conditions which are bene- 
ficial, and those that are injurious, in a state of nature ; hence a slavish 
imitation of what has been described as the natural conditions of the 
plant in their indigenous localities on the Andes. Im cultivation, this 
implicit imitation of all the natural conditions under which the plants: 
must of necessity grow in a wild state has invariably led to bad results, 
a5 it indeed must of necessity do; because the whole art of culture is) 
vested in the very simple art of ministering to the plants such condi- 
tions only as are conducive to their perfect development, and of re- 
moving and mitigating to the greatest extent possible those that injure. 
To give a new example. When coffee cultivation was attempted in 
Ceylon and: the Wynaad, numerous enterprising and intelligent men 
imitated nature in this respect, and planted their coffee under shade; 
after eight or ten years it was discovered that no return whatever 
