42 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. July a, 1888. 
ing into the soil of primings and other substances, 
not excluding succulent stems of nilu from the 
jungle. The forked-in substances may not, as in 
the case of nilu, have any high manurial value, 
but they keep the ground open to the ameliorating 
and decomposing action of the atmosphere on the 
constituents of the soil. If tillage is necessary 
and has such rapid and beneficial effects on 
vegetation in the rich volcanic soils of Java, 
how much moro should the process receive 
attention where the soil in its fertile components 
and their mechanical condition is so much less 
favoured, as is the casein many parts of Ceylon? 
As a rule, however, our Ceylon soils are fertile 
enough : what they need is tillage to convert latent 
fertility into soluble substances, available for the 
feeding rootlets to convey into the circulating and 
building-up juices of the plants. If suitable fer- 
tilizing matter can be applied, even fresh soil from 
neighbouring forests, so much the better. Our 
planter readers know all this, but it is well that 
lessons even from the cinchona culture of Java 
should be enforced as of local application. It 
will be seen that a Davidson's Sirocco had 
been ordered for use in drying cinchona 
bark in Java.* As a general rule, artifi- 
cial heat does not seem to have been much 
Utilized in the curing of Ceylon bark. Drying 
the bark in the shade has been the prevalent 
practice here, but it does not seem that sun or 
furnace heat leads to deterioration of the bark. 
What is mainly wanted in connection with cinchona 
cultivation is the restoration of remunerative 
prices, now that larger consumption of quinine 
and the other alkaloids has been secured, mainly by 
the operations of Ceylon planters (for Java is as 
yet more noted for quality than quantity of pro- 
duce), and many of us will heartily join in the 
hope that Mr. van Eomunde's sanguine vaticina- 
tions as to the return of paying prices, may 
be fulfilled. It will be observed that in the case 
of the Java Government plantations, as in that 
of the similar' establishments on the Nilgiris, 
estimates of plants growing, founded on the 
numbers " planted out " require periodical revi- 
sion in the direction of abatement. If any of 
our friends in Ceylon, with faith in better times 
for cinchona bark, and looking at the fall which 
has already taken place in tea, are inclined to 
try an experiment in the culture of the fever 
plants, we would advise special if not exclusive 
attention to the rich, and we doubt not robust, 
hybrid produced in Java by the existence in close 
contiguity of succirubra and ledgeriana. It will 
probably be found superior even to the fine 
hybrids we already possess, resulting in Ceylon 
from the union in fructification of the repro- 
ductive principles of succirubra and officinalis. 
The latter species has succeeded better on private 
plantations in the eastern parts of Java than it 
has done in the Government gardens in the west- 
ern division of the island. We were interested to 
learn recently too, from a planter who is the owner 
of coffee property near Surabaya, that Hemileia 
vastatrix has not as yet injuriously affected coffee 
in eastern Java. 
The report for 1887, if we only had it for reference, 
might throw valuable additional light on the ques- 
tion of the influence of the succirubra stocks on the 
ledgeriana grafts and on other points in this inter- 
esting and valuable, if, for purposes of profit to the 
planter, overdone culture. 
* In the report of the first quarter of 1888, which 
we puplished recently, it was stated that builditig 
were being erected for half-a-dozen more of these 
machines, which were expected. 
BEPOKT ON THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT 
CINCHONA ENTERPRISE IN THE PRE- 
ANGER REGENCIES, JAVA, FOR THE 
YEAR 1886. 
By R. van Romonde, Dikectob. 
(Translated for the "Tropical Ayriculturist") 
1. Weather. — In the month of January an 1 in the 
first half of February remarkably little rain f<-ll 
Prom the middle of February to the middle of the 
month of May the weather continued very wet The 
drought that followed, which lasted till about the end 
of September, was not continuous for any length of 
time, but was intermitted frequently by gentle showers 
of rain. At the beginning of October the west mon- 
soon set in in full force, and during the last three 
months of the year scarcely a single dry day was re- 
gistered. On the whole the weather was very favorable 
for the growth of the plants. Storms, which at the 
commencement of the year, especially on the Tankoe- 
banprahoe mountains, cause much damage to the 
plantations, were as pood as unnoticed, and night frosts 
which in the third quarter of the year, when severe 
drought and strong east wind prevail, do much mis- 
chief to the young plants especially, were also not ex- 
perienced. The severe and prolonged drought during 
the east monsoon of 1885 had a powerful effect on the 
weatherbeaten tree-tops, and made its genial influence 
felt during the past year, when during the whole of 
the east monsoon also frequent gentle showers fell 
whereby the plants were able to develop undisturbed' 
The continuous rains during the last quarter of 1886 
although favorable for the young plauts, in the end' 
caused a check in the growth of the old plants. 
2. Increase.— The number of plants in the open at 
the end of the year was 1,686,200. While this figure 
shows a notable increase in the past year, that in- 
crease is actually very much greater, as the figure for 
the old C. succirubra, C. joscphiana and C. officinalis 
in the previous year appears to have been too high. 
In the nurseries there wereundar shade 2,108,000 plants 
of which 1,433,000 were ledgerianas and 675,000 suc- 
cirubras. These figures are to a great extent ' round ' 
ones, especially as in them are counted the sti'l 
youog plants in beds, the number of which, even 
under shade, it is difficult to ascertain. Among the 
ledgerianas are included 53,000 grafts, all iutended 
for the extension of the plantation at Tirtasari 
The graft-plants will for the most part have been 
put out in the open during the first quarter of 1887 
Beside the already thriving 53,000 grafts, there are in 
the nurseries at Tjiojiroean also some 50,000 well- 
grown graft-plants in various stages of development 
which will probably be fit to put out in the open at the 
end of 1887 and beginning of 1888. For grafts, almost 
without exception twigs of the richest descendants of 
the mother-trees Nos. 23 and 38 have been used which 
showed at least 11 per cent of quinine in the bark 
of the 6 to 7 year old plants. These plants are not 
only richer in alkaloid than their mother trees but 
for artificial propagation they have the advantage of 
not blossoming so early— a blossoming that causes 
such distnrbince in growth in the case of young trees. 
The artificial propagation of a rich hybrid of C. 
ledgeriana and G. succirubra was continued actively 
throughout the year under notice, and by this means 
a large extent of uprooted land at TjiDjiroean was 
planted up, and the area is still being continually 
extended. Beside the hybrids spoken of in former 
reports, some graft plants of the hybrid Letter P, 
analysed in 1885, which must be reckoned as one of 
the richest in quinine and quiokest growing cin- 
chonas, were obtained. Of the five propagatisg-houses 
at Tjinjiroean one had to be entirely dismantled in 
18S6 on account of the rotting of the woodwork. 
In its place a new building was erected, that like the 
others was partly built of masonry. Much care and 
expense were spent upon the propagation of ledgeriana 
and succirubra seedlings, and the nurseries were con- 
