and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



391 



steady supply of the article. In addition to 

 this,, spontaneous requests have been made by 

 these merchants for full information as to the 

 cultivation of Cassava and for a supply of cutt- 

 ings, with the assurance that a considerable 

 amount of land will be planted with it during 

 the present season. Being anxious to spread 



THE EXPERIMENTAL OPERATIONS 



over as wide an area as possible, we have tried 

 the Cassava in our Salvation Army Boarding 

 Schools for boys and girls not only in Travan- 

 core, where it is already known and liked, but in 

 the Deccan and the Punjab, with the result that 

 the children have taken readily to it, and have 

 asked for it to be made a permanent part of their 

 bill of fare. Arrangements have also been made 

 for planting Cassava on our Farm Colony in Guja- 

 rat near Ah medabad, and also at Ahuednagar, 

 Bareilly, and other places where we have land, 

 with a view to exploiting it in the various 

 neighbourhoods. One hundred ruaunds of the 

 Cassava have been ordered by the Famine Com- 

 missioner of the U P for experimental use at the 

 poor houses in Gonda and Baaraich, the labour 

 of the women being utilised to reduce it to 

 flour by means of the ordinary chakki. The 

 district officers report that there has been no 

 difficulty in getting the people to adopt it as 

 part of their diet 



It may, therefore, be fairly assumed that 

 Cassava in its sun-dried and flour form has now 



MADE A SUCCESSFUL DEBUT 



both as a Famine fighter and as a permanent 

 and popular article of diet in India. The impor- 

 tance of this it seems difficult to exaggerate: — 



1. Cassava will grow in almost any part of 

 India, and is already to be found in districts so 

 widely separated and differing in climate as 

 Nepal, Darjeeling, Assam, Bengal, Madras and 

 Travancore. 



2. The root will resist drought and can be 

 left in the ground a considerable period after 

 maturing, without requiring to be rapidly and 

 simultaneously harvested, and is immune from 

 the attacks of white ants. 



3. ' In its sun-dried form it will keep for a 

 year and is very convenient for transportation 

 and cannot be mixed with deleterious articles. • ' 



4. It is easily cultivated and is a very pro- 

 fitable crop. 



5. Countries where it is well known and 

 largely grown, such as South America, East and 

 West Africa, Madagascar, etc., while liable to 

 droughts and scarcities, are said to bo absolutely 

 immune from the ghastly death-roll and depo- 

 pulation, which so frequently accompany Indian 

 families. 



6. In its flour form the universal prejudice 

 against the use of tubers is dealt with and over- 

 come. — Agricultural Journal of India, July. 



PLANTING IN JAVA AND SUMATRA. 



TEA— COFFEE- 



-CINCHONA— RUBBER— CAMPHOR 

 -TOBACCO— SUGAR. 



It may come as a surprise to our readers, as it 

 did to us, to learn that in the opinion of a plant- 

 ing authority well acquainted with Java, there 

 are no great areas of forest land suited for tea, 

 coffee or cinchona now available in that island, 



for tho capitalist or would-be planter. One rea 

 son for this is that the Dutch Government, in 

 carrying out their admirable surveys, have made 

 considerable reservations on official account 

 which they rigidly maintain. In some cases this 

 is in consequence of a policy of Forest conser- 

 vation ; in others, to have land for future coffee 

 gardens under official control ; and in still others 

 with reforence to possible requirements of 

 native cultivation to which, with so large a 

 population, the Java authorities very properly 

 give their constant and serious consideration. 

 But it must not be inforred from a limit being 

 placed to possible " concessions ; ' of land for 

 the different objects of the planter, that the out- 

 turn of produce in any one case has reached its 

 maximum. There are large forest reserves in 

 private hands which could be transformed into 

 tea, cinchona or coffee fields in the Lillcountry 

 according as encouragement offers from the 

 maiKtits of the world. For the present, prob- 

 ably, Java has reached a limit in the produc- 

 tion of cinchona, simply because with an 

 outturn of 17 to 18 millions lb. of rich bark, it 

 not only rules the world's cinchona and quinine 

 market, but fully supplies the demand. All 

 the bark coming from South America, or 

 produced in British India now, is of compara- 

 tive insignificance. It is a positive delight to 

 any one who recalls (as we do) the days of 

 cinchona in Ceylon, to watch the luxuriant 

 growth of Calisaya-Ledgeriana trees in the rich 

 soil of Java on hillsides at 3,000 feet above 

 sea-level ; and to learn the high percentage of 

 quinine got from the bark, which in the case 

 of carefully selected and grafted trees — of which 

 there are many bordering the tea-fields, —may 

 go up to 8 or 10 per cent. In this culture there 

 can be no question of the immense debt which 

 the Java cinchona planter owes to Dr. Treub 

 and the great Scientific Department over which 

 he presides. It was by continuous analysis of 

 bark and selection of seed at the Buitenzorg 

 Gardens, that the planters were enabled even- 

 tually to secure cinchona trees vastly superior 

 to the best ever grown by the Ceylon or Indian 

 planter. Further, the establishment of quinine 

 manufactories in Java greatly strengthened 

 ; the position of the local planters and prevented 

 any monopoly being organised in Europe or 

 the United States. Nevertheless, at the present 

 time, the margin of profit to the Java cinchona 

 planter is low — very low in his estimation. So 

 much so that in the case of his older trees, he 

 is often inclined to cut down, root out, harvest 

 all the bark and, after digging up the land, to 

 plant it with tea. Where the work is carefuly 

 done, tea grows well under such circumstances. 

 Still there are extensive and very flourishing 

 clearings of young Ledgers and high-class 

 Hybrid cinchona to be seen on hill plantations 

 in Java even at the present time, and the 

 planters, of course, live in hope of the market 

 taking a turn and giving them a higher quota- 

 tion per unit of their product. The freer distribu- 

 tion by all civilised Governments of the great 

 prophylactic among their tropical subjects must 

 lead to an increased consumption of quinine; 

 and if opium should be gradually given up 

 in Southern China and other divisions of the 

 Far East, there can be no doubt that much 

 quinine would be required to take its place 



