June x, 1889.] THP" TROPICAL 
itinerant vendors, water melons and cucumbers, milk, 
sherbc t, cakes and sweetmeats, cigars an inch thick 
or m"re, and all the extraordinary compounds one 
sees hawked about — than somebody says the train 
might be moving, and a cooly seizes a hammer or 
piece of iron and strikes three times three on a bit 
of broken rail suspended by a wire, the engine gives 
a whistle, and off they go again. This scene is re- 
peated at each of the 59 stations on the line. No 
wonder we are an hour aud a half behind time when 
we reach Mandalay, and we have to pick up and 
pack up some hundreds of armed police who have 
been guarding the line during the construction of the 
last 200 miles or so during the past two or three 
years since the occupation of the country, The look 
of the country improves as the traveller reaches the 
neighborhood of Mandalay, but, as the last two or 
three hours are run in lhe dark, it is not possible 
to say much about it. The KareDnee hills seen from 
the line are very bare and burnt, looking similar in 
contour to those of Uvh near Fort Macdonald, and 
apparently rising up to 3,000 or 4,000 feet. — Oevlon 
" Times." 
— ♦ 
TO THE NILGIKIS AND BACK. 
[By Mb. T. Fare.] 
THE NADUVATAM CINCHONA GARDENS — A FOREST OP 
CINCHONA — SAMBUR GALORE — PRIVATE ESTATES— ENTIRE 
ABSENCE OF CANKER — FUTURE PROSPECTS OF NILGIKI 
CINCHONA — TEA IN COONOOR. 
The Nilgiri planters are sanguine about the pros- 
pects of cinchona, but its position commercially 
appears to me unsatisfactory, in view of the quantity 
ol bark now being, and likely to be, produced in other 
countries. "With regard to its growth and perman- 
ency, the Ceylon grower can form no idea, from the 
parti, 1 failure which has attended its cultivation here. 
How striking is the contrast with the cinchona es- 
tates in India! At Naduvatam the Government 
gardens are a great and palpable proof of the per- 
manency of the tree on the Nilgiris, at an elevation 
of some 6,500 feet above sea-level. These gardens 
are, at the present tiuae, forests of all varieties of 
cinchona. My road from Ootacamund to the Wynaad 
piateau led me through them, and I was able to 
appreciate in some measure their extent and age. 
Well-kept paths, bordered in some instances with 
thick hedges of " box," led in all directions, under 
the dense shade of succirubras and hybirds, whose 
thick foliage excluded almost every ray of sunlght. 
Birds flitted about in this forest gloom, feeling 
security in the dense cover around them, and were 
it not for the strong wire-netting with which the 
gardens are protected, I can well imagine that sam- 
bur aud red deer would seek the leafy shade in 
herds in the hot noontide hours. Gnarled and bent 
stems of officinalis, clotln d with lichens aud moss, 
indicated the age of this valuable forest, and conti- 
nuous rows of succirubras, with but few vacancies, 
were a proof of the absence of root canker, I noted 
a few cases of stem canker, but this was not more 
common than obtains in any primeval forest. 
Along the Government road running through the 
gardens tracks of sumbur, where they had left the 
thick ''nilloo" of the jungles to roam around this 
forbidden shelter, were abundant, aud of a size to 
stir the heart of the Ceylon " elk " hunter. M iuy 
a grand old stsg nightly rubs his thirty-six inch 
antleis against the posts to which the wire is at- 
tached, and in places one could see the netting bent 
and bulging, where probably some impatient stag 
had tried t. remove the hated obstacle to his noctur- 
nal roaming*. Tue e cinchona gardens lie on the 
very verge of the mountain range, which descends 
in bold, rocky precip ces to the Wynaad and Mysore 
plateaux below. Later extensions, leaving the shelter 
of adjacent hills, have crept over towards the plains, 
braving the fh rce winds which rage e,t .'■oiue seasons 
amongst these rugged spins. High above the culti- 
vated lauds are grassy led fa cs and pi aks, the home 
of the Nilgiri ibex, and many an old p.tiiarch 
"saddleback" makes his home in tui'91 inaccessible 
retreats. 
AGRICULTURIST. 859 
There is a large acreage of cinchona in private 
hands in Naduvatam, of all ages, and the propri- 
etors are to be congratulated on tbe agricultural 
success that has attended their enterprize. Through 
the courtesy and hospitality of the Manager of 
Liddelsdale, I was fortunate enough to be able to 
walk over a considerable portion of that magnificent 
property. Liddelsdale consists of some 800 acres, most 
of which is under cinchona cultivation, and a more 
perfectly even cover of any cultivated product it 
would be bard, if not impossible, to find Planted 
4ft. x4ft. some seven to nine years ago, the estate 
presents a rich dark-green appearance from end to 
end ; and, although rain had not fallen tor some 
weeks, not a red leaf was visible. Here and there 
the somewhat sombre coloring of the foliage was 
relieved by the brilliant red blooms of rhododen- 
dr'»ns, which, in sympathy with the beauties of nature, 
the ruthless hand of man had spared. 
In the dense shade of these cinchona groves, weeds 
struggle for existence, but it is considered necessary 
to hoe occasionally. The cost per annum is trifling ; 
indeed, expenditure generally, on the Naduvatam es- 
tates, is of the most moderate description. Har- 
vesting operations are constantly going on in some 
form or another. Branch bark is taken from "lop- 
pings," and, as it is fairly rich in quinine, the annual 
revenue from this source probably covers the total 
expenditure of the year. I was much impressed 
with tbe great care bestowed by the Manager of 
the property upon shaving his trees. Of the many 
thousands I passed, I did not detect a single case 
of injury to the cambium, and the renewal of bark 
seemed perfect aod healthy. Owing to the apparently 
entire absence of canker, the Naduvatam planters are 
enabled to confine their harvesting to " shaving " and 
"lopping," and in this they have a tremendous "'pull" 
over us. Tbey can afford to wait until the market 
may improve sufficient to make coppicing a really 
remunerative operation, when they will piobably thin 
out their trees judiciously. 
The remainiiig trees will quickly and gratefully 
respond to this in growth and vigor, and, so far as 
I can judge, there is a fairly substantial revenue de- 
rivable from shavings for ytars and years to come. 
The soil varies in quality as in Ceylon, but is all 
free from clay. In the sholas the growth of the 
trees is excellent, but on the slopes aud ridges, 
which were orgioally patana land, it hardly reaches 
our standard here, even at the highest elevations. 
The absence of springs and running water generally 
was a very noticeable feature, and to this, coupled 
with a light rainfall, is probably due the immunity 
from canker which the trees enjoy. 
It is estimated — by, I believe, competent authori- 
ties — that tbe annual yield from all India in the feture 
is unlikely to exceed five millions of pounds of bark 
from shaving alone ; but, in the event of a substan- 
tial rise in the value of quinine, there would doutless 
be a great increase. Coppicing would be resorted 
to at once, which would again depress the market. 
The only natural enemies the cinchona planters have 
to contend against are "sambur" and frost. The 
former do incalculable harm to young clearings, and 
are, in fact, as destructive to young fields bordering 
forests as hares used to be to the corn-fields in 
England. Once the tree has reached the height of 
five feet or so, the damage by these nocturnal visi- 
tors is confined to barking the trees with their 
horus. 
Young plants are sheltered from forest with ferns, 
but one, and even two-year-old trees suffer severely 
at times, and in hue places are killed outright. 
On Liddesdo'e estai'- . the bark is pressed, or baled, 
or in tea parlance, is " tactory bulke and as much 
as 400 lb. is put into a bale, 
From what I observed, it appeared to me that 
far more attention is paid to cinchona cultivotion on 
the Ndghis than in Ceylon. The planters 1 here make 
a studv of it, as we in the old days made a study 
of coffee, and as it is their staple product this ia 
only natural, 'the distinction between different va- 
rieties, as laid down by the late Mr. Maclvor, is 
