75* 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1882. 
Nanuoya valley so elevated, th'it the rainbow seemed 
to be lying horizontally over the vulley. One limb 
seemed to touch Langdale bungalow, while the other 
rested on the base of Great Western, and the centre 
of the arch was in Gongala Gap. The width of the 
bow seemed equal to many times that of the ordinary 
phenomenon, when produced by a sun just on the 
horizon, and the prismatic colours glorified the scenery 
of mountain, river, valley and cultured fields beheld 
through their medium. The rain will be beneficial in 
many respects. Amongst the rest it will fill out 
and ripen the "palam" which still hangs on the 
coffee bushes, while warm sun following it will prob- 
ably develop into blossom the buds which are now 
so plentifully "in spike." It is only rain too heavy 
and too long continued which would now do harm. 
THE MADRAS GOVERNMENT'S CINCHONA 
ENTERPRIZE. 
The result of commuQications which have passed 
between the local and the Madras Chambers of 
Commerce is likely to alter the prevalent opinion in 
reference to the Government of India continuing to 
hold their Nilgiris plantations. We suspect few of 
our readers will have been prepared for the smallness 
of the figures representing the total shipments of 
bark from Madras to London from th.9 commencement 
of the cinchona enterprize to the end of 1881. The 
table begins with a shipment of 21 bales weighing 
3,188| lb. in 1871, and closes with seven consignments 
during last year amuonting to 340,0001b., while the 
aggregate of the exports for the ten years is no more 
than 976,103 lb., or less than half the present annual 
export from Ceylon. An annual export of from three 
to four hundred thousand pounds of bark from Madras 
cannot be of much significance, considering that it 
is not the intention of the Government to increase 
the area uuder cultivation in their plantations. Still 
it would be much better for the private planter if 
the bark were locally utilized for the manufacture 
of sulphate of quinine and other alkaloids, as at 
Sikhim. When we recall the very valuable scientific 
and practical information obtaiued through the operation 
of the Government enterprise on the Nilgiris, and 
the great room there still is, under the intelligent 
management of Mr. Rowson and his colleagues and 
superiors, for further experiment and the settlement 
of many moot points, we quite agree with Mr. Grant- 
Duff, that the period when the Government should 
transfer their few thousands of acres into private 
hands should be carefully considered. But that is no 
reason why the natural complement of the present 
cultivation in the establishment of a local manufactory 
should not be forced on Governor Grant-Duff's attention. 
There is room for a vastly increased consumption of 
cinchona alkaloids among the millions of Southern 
India, and with a manufactory on the spot, the 
Government would undoubtedly be much more liberal 
in the distribution of the product. Let the practice 
of liberal distribution to dispensaries and a taste for 
the febrifuge once be established in India and China, 
and we have no doubt of a rapidly progressive con- 
sumption which would specially benefit the producers 
of bark. 
We annex the return received by the local 
Chamber through the Madras Chamber of Commerce. 
Statement showing the quantity of bark shipped for the 
London Market from the beginning of the Cinchona Enter- 
prise. 
Date of Government Orders. 
No. of 
Bales. 
Quantity- 
lb. 
4th August 
1871, No. 1,339 
21 
3 188J 
7th March 
1872, 
,, 404 
12 
5th September 1873, 
„ 952 
9QA4A 
24th March 
1875, 
,, 480 
97S 
Oo'c-Ol 
z8,6o9^ 
21st March 
1876, 
„ 399 
636 
aq Arw* 
oo,oUU 
9 th February 
1877, 
„ 580 
261 
27th 
„ 844 . . \ 
358 
35800 
11th June 
1877, 
„ 1,941 
21st January 
1878, 
98 
577 
59 658 
21st February 
1878, 
„ 276 
165 
10,iOU£ 
18th March 
1878, 
„ 413 
23rd December 
1878, 
„ 2,060 
304 
16th January 
1879, 
„ 112 
215 
21 500 
28th February 
1879, 
„ 506 
486 
50^596 
19th September 1879, 
„ 1,902 
440 
44,313 
17 th January 
1880, 
.,66 
728 
73,424 
10th March 
1880, 
„ 309 
536 
.54,190 
7th April 
1880, 
„ 422 
16 
1,612 
26th January 
1881, 
„ 185 
1,465 
152,044 
8th March 
1881, 
„ 416 
305 
31,337 
16th May 
1881, 
„ 771 
488 
51,355 
15th July 
1881, 
„ 1,079 
56 
5,697 
Despatched recently (ir 
3 consignments).. 
960 
100,134 
Total.. 
9,428 
976,108| 
(Signed) R. S. Jago, Lieut-Col. 
Dy. Conservator of Forests in charge. 
Ootacamund, 24th November 1881. 
NEW PRODUCTS. 
To Mr. A. Scott Blacklaw will belong the credit 
of sending the first supply of seed to Ceylon of the 
latest "Mew Product," the "Carnauba or Wax-palm 
of Brazil." Messrs. Auwardt & Co. of Colombo have 
got the seed for sale. Of this tree we read in 
" Maunder's Treasury": — 
Oopeenicia. A genus of palms named in honour of the 
celebrated Copernicus. It comprizes sis species', inhabiting 
tropical America, but three of them are almost unknown. 
They grow twenty, thirty, rarely forty feet high, their 
trunks being covered by the remains of leaf-stalks, and 
surmounted by tufts of fan-shaped leaves, from amongst 
which the branching spikes of small greenish flowers are pro- 
duced, each spike having several sheathing bracts scattered 
along its stalk. The flowers are either perfect or imperfect, 
and have a cup-shaped calyx with three small teeth, a bell- 
shaped corolla with the upper part cut into three divisions 
six stamens fixed to the inside of the corolla, and three 
ovaries more or less cohering together. The fruit is yellowish, 
of an elliptical form, and contains a single seed. 
The Carnauba or Wax-Palm of Brazil, C. cerifera, grows 
about forty feet high, and has a trunk six or eight inches 
thick, composed of very hard wood, which is commonly em- 
ployed in Brazil for building and other purposes, and is 
sometimes sent to this country and used for veneering. The 
upper part of the young stems, however, is soft, and yields 
a kind of sago ; and the bitter fruits are eaten by the Indians. 
The young leaves are coated with wax, called carnauba I 
wax, which is detached by shaking them, and then melted 
and run into cakes. It is harder than bees' wax, and has 
been used by Price & Co. for making candles, but as no 
process of bleaching has been discovered, they retain the 
lemon-coloured tint of the raw wax. The leaves are also 
used for thatching, making hats, &c, and, while young, as 
fodder for horses. [A. S.] 
