Mjgust i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
3. Probable yield of harvest bark (bark from up- 
rooted trees not included) per tree per annum old j 
and young, barked or not barked, takirjg average for 1 
all the trees growing in Ceylon. 
People talk about decreased shipments in future, 
but if much coppicing and uprooting is done during 
the next two years, are not the shipments likely to 
be large ? I shall be very much obliged if you will 
give me your opinion. I have a good deal of cinchona 
now and must be guided in cropping by the prospects 
of Oeylon shipments. 
4. People again talk of the great mortality among 
cinchona trees after they reach five years old ; what 
do you imagine to be the percentage of mortality 
among trees over five years on estates where cinchonas 
do not grow very well ? 
5. What might it be on estates where they do grow 
well ? 
6. Supposing the acreage planted with cinchona in 
Orylon to be 50,000 acres, what would be the propor- 
tions where cinchona grows well, and where hadly V 
Question 3. The average yield of bark (dry) per tree 
(succirubra and officinalis) uprooted 011 all the Nilgiri 
Government estates in 1885 was 3.80. 
Increasing Cpnsumpbion of BarJs. — Dr. Cornish of 
Madras says the consumption might be largely in- 
creased in India. 
In Burma, fever paust be the prevalent disease 
owing to the extent of swamps and rice cultivation 
also of jungle. Quinetura made from branch bark 
which is now flooding and depressing the market in 
Europe and put up in small bottles might be distri- 
buted throughout India and Burma by the Govern- 
ment servants. In China the consumption might be 
enormous. Small bottles of quinetura might be distri- 
buted there through the Missionaries ; also in Africa. 
It would have to be given gratis at first until the people 
appreciated it. 
If any scheme could be formed for this I would 
join it. Of the bark sold iu London in March J 
yielded under lj percent of quinine. All the buyers 
say that if | of the bark could be taken off the 
market prices would rise at once. In December the 
market was rising. I sold then at 4d the unit. I 
attended the sale, the competition was brisk and prices 
would have gone on rising, but for the enormous imports 
from Ceylon during the first 4 months of this year. 
For your own information make a little calculation of 
the profit you would" make if you threw away all your 
bark under IS per cent and sold the remainder at 4i<\ 
the unit. 
The unit at present through the enormous receipts 
from Ceylon has been knocked down to 2j to 3d. 
We and other Ceylon residents would be as much 
pleased as this Indian Cinchona proprietor to have 
reliable answers to the very practical questions he 
puts; but we fear it is impossible to look for them. 
The area of. the cinchona region in Ceylon is so 
wide and the circumstances of cinchona fields and 
of soil and climate are so varied that 
it is impossible to say from the experience 
gained in one locality what the average for 
outturn or mortality throughout the country 
may be. All that we can do is to show some of 
the good results gained in the cultivation of cin- 
chona and leave inferences to be drawn as to what the 
averages may be. Coppiced succirubra trees in 
Ceylon at a medium elevation have given 8 lb. 
per tree of dry bark (quill, branch, and shavings). 
Ollieinalis trees, 0 years old, rooted up in Dim- 
bula, averaged 1} lb. thy bark. Seven years old 
trees are considered to be equal each to one lb. 
of dry bark per tree per annum ; indeed if only 
planted 300 trees to the acre, some planters count on 
this quantity twice a year. Now the great fact shewn 
by Messrs. WoodhoiWs figures is that the up- 
rooting process has not been going on to the 
extent somo people imagine. On the con- 
trary in a large number of districts, cinchona 
seems to bo established it not as a perennial 
tr«e, at lca-jt with a certain lca^e ol life, even although. 
liable to be shaved annually or biennially. Of 
course there has been a considerable proportion of up- 
rooting and dying out ; and 50,000 acres is now 
far too high an estimate for the extent under 
cinchona. But a great deal remains ; and under the 
influence of the fear that Java is going to fill 
the market erelong, we suspect Ceylon planters are 
bound to keep up heavy cinchona exports until 
that evil day for them, set in. 
♦ 
LETTERS FROM JAMAICA :— NO XVIII. 
WHATHEH AND CROt>S — BLUE MOUNTAIN COFFEE — ADULT- 
ERATION — COFFEE IN CF.YLON, INDIA AND BRAZIL — 
PROSPECTS FOR INVESTORS IN JAMAICA. 
Blue Mountain District, Jamaica, 14th May, 1887. 
The weather for some weeks has been cool and 
pleasant, and lately a forecast of the " May sea- 
sons," equivalent to our Ceylon " little monsoon," 
was heralded in very nice showers, just the weather 
for planting. Truly April and May would seem, 
from my present experiences, to be the best months 
for planting in Jamaica. Indeed there are not many 
months in the High Blue Mountain District during 
which good stumps might not be safely put in, 
as the soil is always moist and cool, and mist and 
light showers frequent. As regards crops the pro- 
mises for 1887-88 are so far above the average, 
especially in the lower districts which have now 
blossomed, I scarcely remember to have seen a finer 
or more perfect blossom; and the weather has since 
been suitable to set it, if we but have an average 
season, and fine weather for the bona fide Blue 
Mountain estates at a high elevation, crops will be 
as large as they are small this year ; most estates 
will not yield half as much as they did last crop. 
I have heard that one property, which gave 10 tierces 
last year, is not expected to give more than two 
or three, and another which gave 25 tierces is only 
to yield some 8 or 10 this season, so very dread- 
fully did most of the high properties suffer from the 
awful cyclones of June and August Lssii. As but 
about 10,000 cwt. of genuine Blue Mountain coffee 
are calculated to be shipped during a good average 
year, the supply is likely to be very short in the 
Liverpool market, and prices should consequently 
rise though they have not yet done so in pro- 
portion to the medium qualities in London, because 
of the short supplies from Brazil. It would be very 
satisfactory to planters on this side of the water, to 
get some really authenticated information as to the 
cause of the smallnessof the Brazil crop, and to learn 
if it is true, that that immense coffee-producing 
country is never likely again to ship such enormous 
crops as six million bags, as has been on some 
occasions accomplished. I suppose the Tropical 
Agriculturist is sure to give its readers the most 
valuable information, to all interested in coffee 
whether as growers, buyers, or sellers. If our 
Home Government would but do coffee planters 
justice, and stop roguery by preventing coffee being 
sold in an adulterated state, and let people mix 
their own chicory or what other abomination which 
they seem to Jeeni palatable for themselves, it 
would help much to sustain British coffee planters 
in these days of leaf disease and small crop-;, to 
compete more successfully against those more 
favoured countries yielding heavier crops; for no 
doubt in the long run, " quantity pays belter than 
quality. 
I have read in the local Glean, ■ aa ex- 
tract from a report of Mr. Pasteur, the wall-known 
and experienced Mincing Lane broker, on the 
coffees exhibited at the " Coliuderies " who gives 
his opinion that India now stands first and fore- 
most among British pcasoasions both for the 
quantity and quality of its productiou, but I doubt 
