July i, 1889.J TH£ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
9 
NOTES ON CINCHONA. 
BY ANTON KESSLEIt. 
(Translated for the " Tropical Agriculturist " from 
a reprint of the Journal of Industry and Agricul- 
ture atBatama of September 1886., by J. Dent Young.) 
(Continued from page 147, September 1886.) 
As is well-known, a oallus forms over the edge 
of the cut where it intersects the layer of cambium, 
out of this callus roots subsequently spring. In 
the case of woody cuttings, a considerable time has 
to elapse before the heart of the sectional surface 
becomes thoroughly covered with well-formed bark, 
during which interval of time that part of the 
cutting is particularly liable to decay. I do not 
consider that it is advisable to plant cuttings on 
land where much canker has appeared. If the 
cuttings are the upper parts of very young grassy 
seedlings which have thrown out roots, then per- 
haps the case is different. 
These upper parts of the seedlings consist still 
entirely of strong vigorous cellules, the woody 
cellules not having yet appeared, the growth there- 
fore is more rapid and keeps pace with the 
general development of the plant. 
Still, however, seedlings are most to be recom- 
mended, as the least vulnerable in lands predisposed 
to canker. 
In hollows and on very steep land, situated 
under steep and long hillsides, the escape of 
the water is frequently very defective, which is 
destructive to cinchona planting. In such places 
the canker is always the most inveterate. Thorough 
draining is generally successful, and trees in the 
first stage of the disease recover after the soil has 
been well dried. 
Occasionally the canker is found on slopes of 
hills so steep, that we might well assume 
there could be nothing to fear from want of suffi- 
cient escape for the water, but estates are named, 
which though situated on very steep ground, 
nevertheless are more inflicted with canker than 
others. 
On plantations where the plants have not 
been put too deeply into the ground, the evil is 
probably caused by the shallowness of the soil, 
with an impenetrable substratum of rock or earth, 
or by radically bad cultivation. In the former ease 
there is little to be done ; similar circumstances 
are in all probability the reason of the less success 
of Ceylon in the cultivation of cinchona. 
In a new undertaking, the utmost attention is 
to be paid to the selection of a suitable site ; if 
this is not available, little good can be hoped for 
from the enterprize. 
At the same time the results of an injudicious 
system of cultivation must not be attributed to 
the quality of the soil. For the regular progress 
of the necessary chemical processes in the soil (I 
allude particularly to the nitrification) an easy ad- 
mission of oxygen into the ground is indispensa- 
ble. If this be excluded by insufficient tillage, 
a diminished luxuriance of growth in the plant 
is the penalty for the neglect. In consequence of 
the predisposition of the cinchona plant to decay, 
the growth of weeds under the trees forms another 
source of danger, by obstructing the evaporation 
of dew and rain, so that the collar of the root, 
even above the ground, is kept in an unhealthy 
state of moisture, which as has been already men- 
tioned tends greatly to superinduce canker. 
Still we frequently hear planters defend the as- 
sertion that clean weeding of cinchona plantations 
is not of much importance, and though we often 
see plantatiuns with a growth of tall weeds on 
them, whioh are seldom cleared away, and when 
weeding is done, it is only by hacking down the 
2 
weeds level with the ground. The temptation is 
great where capital is limited, to endeavour to keep 
down outlay by resorting to such unsatisfactory 
upkeep. But in the end the results will not be 
found to justify such a system, as the saving effected 
thereby will have to be repaid at an usurious rate, 
in reduced production, when the harvest cornea to be 
gathered. 
There are kinds of manure which by their 
hygroscopic effect keep the soil constantly c'amy 
an I damp, such as Ohile saltpetre (nitrate of soda) 
for instance. However usefully this fertilizer may 
therefore operate in some kinds of cultivation, I con- 
sider it unsuitable for cinchona, particularly in very 
wet districts, and should such experiments as these 
above described by me tend to show that fertilizers 
containing hydrogen and inorganic matter improve 
the growth and the proportion of alkaloids of the 
cinchona plant, then will the cultivator seek for help 
not from saltpetre but rather from sulphate of 
ammonia. 
Happily canker only appears here and there in 
the cinchona plantations of Java, and does not come 
in the form of a real pest, as appears to be the case 
in Ceylon, here it is only " one of the thousand 
natural shocks which vegetation is heir to." 
Nevertheless the disease is well worthy of public 
consideration. The fact of its being sporadic, calls for 
the most strenuous efforts to combat it, and there- 
fore a knowledge of its nature and origin is of the 
highest importance. The tendency to decay under 
the slightest provocation, which is found in the 
nacure of cineuona deserves to b6 kept in mind in 
extending its growth by artificial means. Whilst in 
planting cuttings of tea or other woody growths, 
incisions are made at the ends of such cuttings as are 
placed under ground, for the purpose of hastening 
the sprouting of roots, such a proceeding is not to 
be recommended in the ease of cinchona. These 
incisions generally cause decay, and under the most 
favorable circumstances they are perfectly useless. 
It is sufficient to give the twig or cutting a 
very sharp curve under ground and to peg 
it fast, so that it shall not be wounded in any 
part. The contraction of the flow of sap by the 
compression of the tissues and cells in the bend is 
sufficient to cause it to throw out roots. After a 
shorter or longer time which varies from 3 to 14 
mouths roots will be formed of sufficient strength 
to make the shoot or cutting self-supporting, and 
it can be severed from the mother tree and either 
transplanted, or it can be allowed to remain an- 
other month in the spot where it has struck 
root, before transplanting it to where it is intended 
to grow. 
Very young grassy suckers frequently strike root 
satisfactorily in three months. Other branches 
sometimes take over fourteen months before they 
become sufficiently rooted. 
In transplanting layers after separation from the 
parent tree, it is of great importance that they 
should be well pruned, by which term I mean 
that all side branches should be removed, and at 
the same time each leaf should be reduced to 
one-third of its size, for the purpose of diminish- 
ing the evaporation. This evaporation is not to 
be lightly regarded. To ascertain its influence on 
cinchona, I adopted the following means : — I 
planted a Ledgeriana seedling which had three 
pairs of leaves in a glass vessel. With a piece of 
flat glass having a hole bored in the middle, and 
cut in two through the centre hole, I covered the 
vessel in such a way as to allow the stem of the 
plant to go through the hole in the glas3 plate, 
whilst a second hole allowed the earth in the vessel 
to be sprinkled from time to time with distilled 
water. The joints between the rira of the glass 
