8o8 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1882. 
held regarding Ceylon tea, and ' find that those who 
have used it object to its peculiar herby flavour. 
Some of it, which I procured in Glasgow, had that 
flavour very strongly, and was not nearly equal in 
quality to that which I used in Ceylon. For some little 
time past I have been attending at the Customs here 
and have had an opportunity of learning the opinions 
held about it by practical men. While all speak 
highly of its purity and strength, they seem all to 
be of opinion that it is not nearly so well cured 
and prepared as China tea. 
" xMr. Exall, the tea analyst at the Customs, is 
of opinion that, in curing Ceylon tea, the process 
of fermentation is not properly and sufficiently 
carried out, the leaf not being sufficiently 
exhausted and the essential oils, which he 
considers unpleasant to the taste and unwholesome, 
not being sufficiently destroyed and removed. The 
official tea examiner at the St. Catherine Dock Ware- 
houses holds very much the same opinion, but attri- 
butes the objectionable flavour partly to a supposed 
difference between the variety of tea grown in Ceylon 
and that grown in China, or to a difference in climate 
and soil. So far as I can ascertain, Ceylon teas seem 
to realize in the market here a considerably higher 
average price than China teas, but they are hardly 
known under their own name, and appear to be used 
almost entirely for mixing with and bringing up the 
strength of weaker China teas. Would it not be to 
the advantage of Ceylon, if its tea took a higher 
place in the market and became known under its 
own name. It is quite evident that it is not liked 
by consumers, because of its herby flavour, but it is 
equally evident that it ia valued by dealers for- its 
strength and purity. If the opinions I have quoted 
are correct— and they are, I think, those of men 
thoroughly well able to judge— the Ceylon planters 
can work out the matter for themselves by making 
careful experiments in fermenting, noting the time 
occupied in the process, the temperature in which it 
is carried on, and the colour of the leaves. My own 
knowledge of the subject is imperfect, but, perhaps, the 
suggestions I make may be of some use." 
Recalling the process through which the "curing" 
of coffee iD Ceylon was brought— in the course of a 
score of years, by the combined application of planters 
and engineers— to a pitch as near prefection as is 
possible, we feel confident that in a much shorter time 
the same experience will be realized in the case of 
the sister staple, and that, as far as "preparation" 
is concerned, Ceylon tea will yet be at the top of 
the market. 
THE CINCHONA PLANTATIONS OF SIKKIM. 
Colonel R. H. Beddome, late Conservator of Fores' s, 
Madras, has reported to the Madras Government, that 
be has paid a visit to the JDarjeeling Cinchona Plant-, 
ations. He met Dv. King, the Superintendent, at 
Sureil, on a spur of Senchal, about 14 miles from 
Darjeeling, and about 1,200 feet above the plant- 
ations, where the Doctor resides whilst on duty in 
Sikkim, and he spent six days in going over all the 
different plantings and the factory with the Doctor 
and Mr. Gammie, the officer in charge. The Colonel 
states': — 
'I be planting hitherto has all been carried on in 
tbe valleys 61 the Rungjo and Ryaug river?, tribut- 
aries ot the Tec-sta, at elevations between 2,000 and 
3,800 feet. All virgin forest at these elevations had 
been cleared for hill cultivation (called here joom-chena) 
pi or 1-, the commencement of the cinchona plant- 
ati ae, so they have all been opened out on what we 
call secondary forest, or kumeri land ; and I was 
rather disappointed to find that there had nowhere 
been any attempt at the high cultivation pursued on 
the Nilgiris, and that weeding was only attended 
to for the first two or three years. The planting, 
with the exception of some 200 acres of young 
" Ledgeriana " lately put down, is in patches over a 
considerable area (about 2,400 acres); the number of 
trees is as follows : — 
Succirubra ... ... ... 4,320,000 
Officinalis .. 25,000 
Magnifolia (of Naduvatam) ... 200.000 
Calisaya and Ledgeriana .. 400,000 
Carthagena ... ... ... 150 
Micrantha ... ... ... 500 
The soil where planted is in all cases a friable surface 
soil with a gritty subsoil of either gneiss or mica- 
schist, and the planting is in patches, because clay like 
subsoils have been avoided ; also localities where the 
mica- schist crops up to the surface, and places where 
a certain rank grass (Saccharum cylindricum) grows 
which have by experience been found quite unadapted 
to cinchonas. 
The growth of the succirubra is certainly more rapid 
than with us at Naduvatam on the Nilgiris, and is 
quite similar to that on the Tinnevelly hills at 3,000 
feet elevation. In one portion of the planted area — 
the slopes below Rungbee bungalow — I saw many trees 
about 50 feet in height, and one was measured 
55 feet high and 29 inches in circumference breast 
high. They, however, are deficient in leaf aod branches 
and want the fine heads that our Nilgiri trees possess, 
besides being of less girth and will probably be short- 
lived in comparison. The system of harvesting the 
bark is almost entirely that of uprooting ; and, as this 
is generally carried out by thinnings in the different 
areas, not a clean sweep; most of the older plantations 
have a thin bare appearance which would be ruination 
in our wind-blown localities, but in these pro- 
tected valleys in Sikkim there is little or no wind. 
Coppicing has been carried out over some 50 acres, and 
the trees in all cases seem to have reproduced 
splendidly. Mr. Mclvor's system of stripping has, 
however, been a complete failure, not, Dr. King 
informs me, from the trees not being able to renew 
their bark, but owing to the ravages of ants, who 
eat off all the young growth directly it begins to 
renew ; this system is therefore never now attempted. 
The Java scraping method has been tried on a few 
succirubra trees and with success. 
The most interesting feature of my visit was the 
discovery that Dr. King's " Sp. ignota," called 
" hybrid " in some of the reports and generally known 
by this latter appellation to the subordinates, is ex- 
actly the same as the Magnifolia of Naduvatam (Mr. 
Cross's pata de gallinazo). It grows here with a 
strong healthy habit and its value has been* fully 
recognized, and it is now intended to discontinue 
growing ''Succirubra," and plant only this "Pata "and 
"Ledgeriana," the former at the higher elevations, 
the latter at the lower. This Pata is being grown 
almost entirely from cuttings, as it not supposed to 
come true from seed. I saw many seed-beds of 
it in which about half the plants appeared to be this 
broad-leaved form and the other half were said 
to be " Officinalis " ; the typical " Officinalis," 
however, in these Sikhim plantations is of very 
poor growth and very spindly in habit and it 
has been acknowledged that the climate does 
not suit it and it is scarcely at all pro- 
pagated now, whereas the narrow-leaved forms 
like " Officinalis " from " Pata " seed appear 
to be of much stronger and better growth as they 
*Dr. King and Mr. Gammie recognizing it as a 
very distinct form some 8 years ago, and it has 
been largely propagated since. 
