496 
f HE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [December i, x88i 
CINCHONA PUBESCENS IN CEYLON AND 
INDIA. 
Walaha Valley, Oct. 20. 
Dear Sir, — Enclosed is a copy of analysis of 6ome 
pubescens cinchona bark, sent from an estate in this 
valley, from about a dozen different trees, five years 
old. Do you think it good?— Yours truly, M. M. 
Colombo, Oct. 7th, 1881. 
Analysis of ■ ■ cinchona bark. 
Crystallized sulphate of quinine 4 - 90 per cent. 
Gross value in the London market 6/3 per lb., 
with Howard's sulphnte of quinine at 10s. per oz. 
[This reeult, equal to 3 '68 per cent of quinine, for 
five year old trees, is very favourable indeed. We 
see that a bale of natural pubescens bark from 
Dodabefcta sold in May last for 7s Id per lb., against 
4s 6d to 5s 9d, the price realized at the same time 
for natural officinalis bark. The Dodabetta trees 
must have been 12 years old, but those from which 
the bark was taken, were growing on poor soil and 
under unfavourable circumstances. No analysis of the 
bark is given in the papers before us. — Ed.] 
CINCHONA PLANTING ON THE "KANNAN- 
DEVAN" MOUNTAINS, S. INDIA. 
Oct. 1881. 
Sir, — In your reprint of my article in the Field, 
at page 282 of the Tropical Agriculturist, you pieface 
the extract by a remark concerning the planting 
advice therein given, which leaves me in doubt whether 
you consider my information reliable or not. 
I should consider it a kindness if you would point 
out where, in your opinion, exception may be taken. 
The figures are taken from actuals so far as the 
estimated cost of opening goes, and the price of land 
is also a known fact. The price of opened land — i. e. 
just planted up — is, I think, fairly estimated ; and as 
to the results, I bad no less an authority than that 
of Mr. Crosse. 
Please always remember that I wrote of condaminea 
bark grown from Dodabetta seed, and that I reckoned 
the prices to remain what they now are. 
No better counsel can be added than that given 
by you ; viz., to go to Kodakauel ; take a cottage there 
for six months ; and march across to Devikolum, and 
look well into matters before investing. 
STAPLEGROVE. 
[We certainly regarded the letter in the Field as 
presenting a too nattering account of the probable 
experience of a planter in the region referred to. 
Little was said of the difficulties of pioneering; nothing 
of the immense liability to failures in new clearings of 
cinchona. Does our correspondent know that cinchona' 
clearings in Ceylon have been almost completely re- 
planted three times over ? Our advice was that any 
one thinking of an investment should spend, not six 
mouths, but a year at least, on the spot, gathering 
experience. — Ed. ] 
SILK IN CEYLON. 
21st October 1881. 
Dear Sir, — Mr . A. T. Gedde? is quite right in his 
remarks as to the mulberry being the most suitable 
food for Bombyx mori : the plant is very easily grown, 
and its leaves keep fresh for a longer time than those 
of any other shrub. The sole aim of every sericult- 
urist a present should be to obtain a breed of worms 
of a far healthier standard than those now in the 
island. Even the eggs, so much recommeuded by 
your correspondent, seem to have been of small prac- 
tical value : either the stock from which they were 
I procured was greatly debilitated, or no care what- 
ever was taken of the moths when laying, for, in 
some cases at any rate, the eggs have been hatching 
out at odd times during the la-t three months. This, 
as another correspondent pointed out, is very objec- 
tionable, and leads to endless confusion. 
Mr. Geddes appears to think that the whole of the 
island is suited to the cultivation of Bombyx mori, 
but I think he is wrong. I do not know the average 
temperature of the hill ranges of China, whence the 
insect originally came, but I should suppose it to be 
much less than in our lowcountry. Father Palla's 
succi ss (?) seems to show that the climate near Galle 
is too forcing, for his single-brooded molhs have, in 
the first year, produced two broods. Next year may 
produce three, with still further decreased vitality. 
If the cultivation of the mulberry worm in this country 
is to be successful, it will not be with the single- 
brooded variety, but with multivoltine species. 
More attention might with advantage he paid to 
the indigenous races, the tussar, &c, some of which 
produce four or five broods in a year. The natural 
food of these seems to bu the common oak, found 
generally on the patanas. I first met with A. Pa- 
phia on this tree, but it feeds also on the wild 
sapota and on the Avocado pear. This is at an eleva- 
tion of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet. Of course, 
at lower elevations the food-plants will be different. 
Mr. Geddes seems to infer, from his finding the 
worms only in twos and threes, that the trees they 
were feeding on were not the most suitable, but it 
frequently happens that bad weather, birds, lizards, 
and other plagues will reduce a batch of 800 to a 
dozen or less. 
For indoor cultivation, the oak is objectionable : 
its stems are stringy and not, easily cut, and the 
leaves soon become crisp. 
The coppicing of the trees on which the worms 
are fed is not to be recommended. The mulberry 
worm, when young, prefers tender, succulent leaves, 
but the tussar. atl is, and other worms of allied 
species, refuse to eat immature leaves, so that suckers 
would be of no use, even were the coppicing system 
practicable on the trees the worms prefer. — Yours 
faithfully, B. 
COTTON CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE. 
Deyenewatte Estate, Passara, 18th October 18S1. 
Dear Sir,— In your issue of the 14th inst. you again 
urge capitalists in Colombo to start a cotton mill. 
Ceylon is certainly behind the aye, when Calcutta, 
Madras, and Bombay are manufacturing their own 
cloth from Indian (and Egyptian) cotton lint. 
Why should old King Cotton be left out ' of your 
list of new products ? It grows like a weed and bears 
well in hot, dry, weather, when coffee, cacao, and tea 
would be suffering from drought. Every cotton planter 
must make up his mind to lose lint during wet 
weather, though the seed would be still valuable as 
food for cattle or the engine. I wonder if the Ceylon 
Government, would give a bonus for the first ton cf 
cotton passed through the first Colombo mill? 
The seed arrived from Watson & Co. of Bombay 
and from the manager of the Tuticorin mills. The 
former was distributed by the undersigned to natives 
in the Dumbara Valley, and the latter case of seed 
rotted in the Batticaloa customhouse. 
Meanwhile, we find Bombay working 43 mill, driving 
1,184.136 stinnies, and 12,586 looms, and paying 20 to 
25 per cent on their paid-up capital. 
Now, Mr. Editor, that your breakwater is nearly 
ready for the reception of large vessels, there will be 
no fear of wetting your bales of cotton, if the mill 
is not ready in time and lowcountry planters are 
obliged to export to Bombay or Liverpool. 
