to 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July i, 1889. 
vessel and the plate of glass, the two halves of 
latter and round the stem were made air tight by 
means of melted wax, whilst the preforation made 
to admit of watering, was hermetically closed by 
means of a separate piece of glass coated with 
grease. The whole was then weighed, and the 
weighing was repeated from time to time, whilst 
weighed quantities of distilled water were employed 
as required to moisten the earth through the opening 
provided for that purpose. 
The loss in weight of the plant must of necessity 
be the consequence of evaporation, and must thus 
indicate the quantity by weight of the water car- 
ried off by evaporation.* 
The plant continued fresh, and in the shade 
out of rain and wind, lost in 52 days 172,545 
grams of water. In the Bun the loss of weight 
was nearly doubled. 
The weight of the plant itself dried in the air 
was 3,850 grams (after drying in a temperature 
of 100° to its fixed weight, it was only 1,430 grams), 
so that in the course of 52 days it gave out in 
evaporation 44-81 times its own weight. 
The calculation is as follows: — 
Loss of weight in grams 172,545 
=44 81 
Its own weight .. .. 3,850 times its 
own weight. 
Every tree in healthy condition forms as many 
leaves as are necessary, so that these proportions 
may be assumed to hold good, practically for 
larger or smaller plants. As layers have not only 
their own roots to supply them with sap, but those 
of the parent tree as well, so long as they hold 
their existence in common with the parent tree, 
they form a mass of leaves proportionate to the 
plentiful supply of sap with which they are fed. 
After separation it consequently becomes necessary 
to remove the greater part of the leaves from 
the layer, as the roots it has formed cannot be 
sufficient to supply sufficient moisture from the 
soil to make up for the quantity evaporated by 
a large expansion of leaves, and withering and decay 
would be the consequences. Since such is the 
case when the layer is only severed from the parent 
tree, the danger is much increased, when, besides, 
being severed from the parent tree, it has to be 
transplanted, the power of the roots being still 
more reduced. 
What has above been said regarding suckers 
holds good quite as much with reference to layers. 
The trees generally grow with less vigor than 
seedlings and grafts, and the latter are greatly 
to be preferred. If we had seed at our command 
of such a high order as to leave no room to fear 
defeneration, then no planter would think of 
prefering trees artificially propagated. So long 
however as such seed is not to be had, the 
artificial propagation is the most certain means 
of improving the plantations. Grafts stand in 
the first order ; after them come cuttings and 
layers. Analysis by the Government chemists 
has fully proved that the proportion of cinchoni- 
dine in the bark ie somewhat increased by graft- 
ing on Succirubra stems ; there is, however, a 
simple means for avoiding the unfavourable in- 
fluence of the Sucoirubra, namely, by grafting on 
Ledgerianas. 
Ledgeriana seed of plantations yielding 6 or 7 
per cent of quinine without much cinchonidine is 
easily obtained, whilst the raising of Ledgeriana 
from seed 'is not more expensive than it is from 
* In consequence of the small development of the 
plant,, it was not necessary to take into consideration 
the increase of weight caused by the absorption of 
oarbon from the atmosphere, 
cinchona seed. Since general opinion has decided 
that Ledgeriana seedlings grow as fast as Ledge- 
riana grafts on Succirubra stems, there can be 
no fear of a less robust development of a graft 
plantation on Ledgeriana stems, as compared with 
another in which Ledgeriana is grafted on Suc- 
cirubra stems ; whilst on the eventual entire up- 
rooting there is an advantage which is by no 
means to be despised, to be derived from the greater 
value of root bark of Ledgeriana compared to that 
of Succirubra, Repeated experiments with trees of 
three, four or five years old on plantations under 
my management prove that the bark of the root, 
the collar of the root and the portion of the stem 
below the graft of Ledgeriana seedlings constituted 
about five-twelvths of the bark produced by the en- 
tire tree, so that when the whole harvest amounted 
to 1,200 grams, 500 grams may be reckoned as 
derived from the portion of the tree below the 
graft. In harvesting by uprooting it makes a con- 
siderable difference, whether the bark yields lj per 
cent or 6 per cent.* 
It is well to attend to these and similar matters, 
for although it may not be every planter's inten- 
tion to harvest by uprooting his grafted trees, yet 
in the end uprooting has to be carried out on every 
cinchona plantation, and it must always be a great 
advantage to obtain root bark of superior proportions 
of quinine, an advantage which is eventually un- 
failing, although it may be deferred. 
Tjikoraia, 27th June 1886. 
A CEYLON PLANTER'S VISIT TO THE 
NILGIRIS. 
Mr. Thos. Farr of Bogawantalawa returned yesterday 
via Tuticorin from what was evidently a very pleasant 
visit to the Nilgiris and the Wynaad, where he has 
seen much that was new and interesting to him. 
Mr. Farr seems to have been very much impressed 
with the magnificient fields of cinchona to be seen 
growing vigorously in the Nilgiris, and the still 
vigorous coffee which is to be met with in South-East 
Wynaad. To a Ceylon planter whose experiences of 
cinchona, though extensive, are not usually very favor- 
able, it is certainly enviable to hear of the large 
sheets of Officinalis which Mr. Farr saw in and around 
Neddivattum, the Government cinchona garden. Stay- 
ing on an estate situated alongside this Government 
gar den, Mr. Farr was able to look over an expanse 
of upwards of six hundred acres of Officinal is seven 
years old, in which there literally was not a vacancy — 
a dark even sheet in which canker was absolutely 
unknown, and in which the trees were really magni- 
ficent. Instead of finding everyone ready to throw 
a stone at cinchona cultivation and to regard it as 
useless labor, the planters in the Nilgiris appear 
quite content to wait until Ceylon shipments of bark 
shall have fallen to smaller limits, as the bark from 
their own trees is generally of high analysis, and, 
even at present prices, such loppings as are from 
time to time necessary, are amply sufficient for current 
expenditure. 
Neddivattum and the gardens which surround it 
are at an altitude of over 6,000 feet, and few suc- 
cirubras are cultivated ; but tnat which astonished 
the Ceylon planter mor» than anything else was the 
evenness of the fields of cinchona, for, although the 
actual growth at the same age was generally not 
much, if any, better than what we are accustomed 
* This proportion is what holds good, as I have 
already said on plantations under my management 
where the soil is loose and soft. In stiff loam and claey, 
soil it will be more to the disadvantage of the rootbark. 
Most of the cinchona enterprizes in West Java have 
however loose soil, and every planter can satisfy himself 
by experiments of the relative proportions that may 
rule on his own pltantation, which will show him the 
importance of the above remarks. The weight of the 
bark below the graft is always considerable. 
