i86 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [August i, i88r. 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION. 
Mr. Cross's Report on the Nilgiri Plantations will 
he read with interest by Ceylon planters. Mr. Cross 
is a trained horticulturist, and he has now, perhaps, 
seen more of the different species of cinchona in their 
native habitat than any other authority connected 
with the great experiment of Eastern cultivation ini- 
tiated by Mr. Markham. It is an interesting coin- 
cidence that just as the merits of Yarrow Ledgeriana 
bark grown at 3,000 feet above sea-level are published, 
we should receive Mr. Cross's emphatic condemnation 
of the attempt to grow Calisaya on the Nilgiris at 
f ora 5,000 to 6,000 feet, or in Northern India at all. 
Mr. Cross thinks the Wynaad more suitable at ele- 
vations under 4,000 feet, and no doubt in Ceylon 
this most valuable species will do best under that 
limit. Mr. Cross's condemnation of grafts, save for 
seed-hearing purposes, is both new and startling to 
those who expected so much from Mr. Moens' sys- 
tem of grafting Calisaya on Succirubra stocks ; but 
there is much in the reasons adduced in the present 
Report, and we commend its careful consideration to 
our planters. No very high opinion is entertained 
of the stripping process, while shaving receives only 
a l apsing notice. We should be glad to learn from 
those who have bad three to six months', or more, 
experience of the shaving process in Ceylon, how the 
trees operated on have borne the infliction, and whe- 
ther the growth of bark is satisfactory. 
MR. CROSS'S RISPORT OJf THE MADRAS 
GOVERNMENT CINCHONA PLANTATIONS. 
(From the South of India Observer.) 
Mr. Cross's report on the appearance and condition 
of the Cinchona Plantation, on the Nilgiris, prepared 
and submitted by desire of the Madras Government, 
is one of the most important papers which has of 
late been placed at the disposal of the Press. Major 
Campbell Walker had previously entered exhaustively 
upon the subject but for some reason which has not 
transpired, his report in its original form was sup- 
pressed and an authorised version was issued, which 
that officer declined to have his name associated with. 
It must be from the latter that Mr. Cross occasionally 
quotes, but bey< nd' an acquaintance which such a 
mutdated report afforded him, Mr. Cross's knowledge 
of the past history of the plantations is somewhat 
defective, and vitiates the conclusions at which he 
arrives. From time to time, attention had been called 
to the mismanagement of these va'uable properties. 
Those who possessed a professional acquaintance with 
the subject were fettered with non-professional con- 
trol, which destroyed all sense of responsibility, and 
hence arose that condition of things to which Mr. 
•Cross calls attention, namely, that whatever the' 
urgency or necessity, a single tree could not be cut 
down without the express orders of Government. I 
The time and procedure which every such reference 
involved was too much for a man, who had quite 
enough to do with an overgrown and increasing 
charge, and hence neglect developed into in- 
jury till matters had arrived at the stage 
which Mr. Cross has so unreservedly condemned. 
Those esponsible to Government for the condition 
of the plantations are of couise anxious to exonerate 
themselves, and we expect the report will form the 
subject of numerous rejoinders, calculated to shew 
that Mr Cross has mis-judged appearances or drawn 
erroneous inferences. His report, however, has one 
salient feature which must commend it to the public 
and that is, its thorough disinterestedness. It is now 
abundantly demonstrated than the main and almost the 
only object which the Madras Government and its local 
representative, the Commission, had in view in work- 
ing the plantations since 1876, was to show a satis- 
factory balance sheet. How successfully this object 
has been achieved, the bark sales of the past few 
years prove, at what sacrifice and permanent injury 
the result has been obtained Mr. Cross's report is 
the best evidence. 
The drift of Mr. Cross's remarks in reference to 
harvesting is manifestly to establish the superiority 
of natural to renewed bark, but he states this con- 
clusion too widely when he says, "But of the re- 
newing system, one thing appears to me certain, which 
is that when once a tree has been operated on, it is 
placed for the future on crutches and must always re- 
main so ; and will require to be wrought after the same 
manner as long as it live-*." We must ask Mr. Cross to 
compare these remarks with those recorded by him in the 
opening paragraph on the Dodabetta plantation, in which 
he says "at the bottom of the ravine there were some 
very tine well developed trees, presenting the most 
perfect form and appearance of the best specimens of 
this bark tree I saw in the Loxa Forest " The por- 
tion of the plantation to which the quotation applies 
has, to our knowledge, been harked for the past six 
or seven years, and if its condition compares favorably 
with that of the natural Cinchona forest trees of 
South America, we are hardly prepared to accrpt the 
crutch theory. S )il and cultivation have every thing 
to do with the condition of a plantation, and these 
given, the system of renewal is not so injurious to 
the tree as would at first sight appear. The present 
condition of the Dodabetta Plantation is evidently that 
which will be benefitted by a complete uprootal, and 
we hope this process will commend itself to Govern- 
ment. We quite approve of what Mr. Cross says re- 
garding undergrowth of Cinchona in a plantation. That 
condition of soil which the exotic loves can most 
efficiently, and profitably be supplied by the method 
advocated. Our planting friends will read. Mr. Cross's 
remarks upon Calisaya with particular interest. This 
variety is riot suited to high elevations where it re- 
mains ii sickly bush. Wynaad is adapted to the species, 
and there it will thrive and prove profitable. There 
is another part of Mr. Cross's report about which we 
feel diffident. We refer to the assurance held out 
that Indian Bark is not likely to glut the market. 
On this subject Mr. Cross says that the present bark 
supplies from India average 2 per cent of the entire 
supply. That a partial glut has already been experi- 
enced we gather from the fact that at the late Minc- 
ing Lane sales, some of the lots had to be held over 
for want of bidders If this occurs in the case of a 
bark, which has established a reputation such as Go- 
vernment Bark, the private capitalist may well enter- 
tain doubts of the future. Millions of Cinchonas have 
been put down within the past few years both in 
India and in Ceylon which in a short time will supply 
the Englifh Market with bark, sufficient for the con- 
sumption of the whole world. A prospective increase 
of consumption will in a measure, restore the equi- 
librium, but beyond this we have no well grounded 
hope in the brightness of the prospects of cinchona 
planting. 
Report on the Nilgiris Plantations. 
Letter from Robert Cross, Esq , to N. A. Roupell, 
Esq., Commissioner of the Nilgiris, dated Government 
Gardens, loth January 1881. 
In accordance with the desire expressed in the 
Government Order, with the date of 25th October 1880, 
I beg to state that I have examiued the cinchona 
plantations and now take the liberty to submit a few 
remarks on the general appearance and condition of the 
principal sorts cultivated therein 
The Dodabetta Plantation. — The first plantation 
visited by me was Dodabetta This, according to Capt. 
Walker, contains 226,936 trees, being mostly of the 
Crown Condaminea or Loxa bark. There is in addition 
