August i, 1890.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
8g 
THE CULTIVATION OE CINCHONA IN 
SOUTHERN INDIA. 
We oall attention to Baron von Eosenberg’s 
long racy and practically interesting letter 
addressed to the “ Editor of the Tropical Agri- 
culturist ” given in another column. We 
have not seen a copy of Mr. Lawson’s report, 
which our correspondent so trenchantly and so 
ablv criticizes; but before reading this letter we 
had written a note on the reference to Mr, Lawson’s 
starvation theory in the report of the Wynaad 
planters’ Association, to this effect : “ Surely stin, 
damp, clayey, soil is a largely operatively cause ?” 
In out own experience, which has been extensive, 
we have traced canker in cinchonas to soil 
mechanically hard more than to any other source. 
The taproot of cinchona cannot pierce soil in such a 
condition, but curls round in the pit, and such roots 
we have found covered with liverworts. Through 
similar soil the much hardier tea plant forces, 
its robust taproot, to a depth of many feet, and 
we have frequently mentioned that in land thus 
opened up and drained by tea we have thriving 
ffor the tea far too luxuriant) groves of cinchonas. 
If, therefore, it were commercially worth while to 
continue to cultivate cinchonas in Ceylon, we 
should advise putting the plants out amongst tea 
at least four years old. Even so, no doubt, many 
of the plants would gradually canker and die, 
as in the case of cacao, the zone for cinchonas 
seems limited, and amongst all that is worthy of 
attention in Baron von Eosenberg’s remarks, and 
that is the whole of his utterances, we attach 
special importance to his advice that cinchonas 
should not be planted under 5,000 feet elevation. 
But if any new plantations are to be formed in 
Ceylon at and above that elevation it must be 
on grass-land, for the Ceylon Government will not, 
now, sell forest land above 5,000 feet altitude, lest, 
forsooth, the rainfall (dependent upon monsoon 
winds and mountain masses) should be diminished 
by forest clearing 1 All the clearing as yet effected 
has not diminished the rainfall a thousandth of 
jn inch. 
« 
PLANTING IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC. 
We have a letter from a New Zealand mercantile 
house inquiring about planting requisites in various 
forms, and from their manager— an _ old Ceylon 
planter — resident on an out-of-the-way island of the 
Pacific, who writes:— “I have recently|arrived here on 
behalf of the firm of to look after their coffee 
plantations. The island is a very small one and 
grows coffee luxuriantly, but it is almost all old 
and, like the native coffee of Ceylon, never touched 
by pruning knife. The firm is about to put some 
land under coffee after the Ceylon method of 
cultivation. I think of introducing some other pro- 
ducts here which I think ought to succeed, — cacao, 
Liberian cofl'ee, cardamoms and pepper. I should 
like also to introduce the jak tree.” 
TIMBEE FOE MINE PEOPS. 
In view of the probability that large demands on 
our forest resources may ere long be made by gem- 
ming and plumbago companies in the shape of 
props for mines, the following details from the 
Indian. Engineer, of experience in coal pits at 
Warora, may be interesting and useful:— 
All the timber used is in the shape of props cut 
in llio Government preserved forests, near Chanda, 
atiout 30 miles south from Warora. Timber in India 
is very expensive ; trakwood costs .it rupees a cubic 
foot and is the ouly timber available for ordinary 
12 
work. Before 1883 very few props were used, and it 
was only on the introduction of a regular system of 
working and commencing the broken mine that the 
getting of timber on a large scale was gone into. Jn 
January 1884, the Government Forest Department sent 
six sorts of timber, in the shape of props, for trial, 
the principal variety being Garrari (Lepidopteris orbi. 
cularis), of which the props upto that time had 
been. The others were Thendu (Diospyros melanoxy- 
lon), Dhaora (Anogeissus latifolia), Mohka (Sohrebera 
Swietenoides), Aouli (.Phyllanthus emblica), and Seena 
(Lagerstroemia patiflora). Of these, Garrari was given 
up later, after trials with it in the pit; its wood is 
too fibrous, and it was found too flexible, and very 
often hollow. Thendu was hound to be the best ; it 
has as heart wood, ebony, and was fonnd to answer 
well as a prop in tbe broken. Dhaora was fonnd to 
be the next best, but its curious structure, in which 
the fibres looked like the twist of the strands in a 
hemp rope, made it less fit to stand pressure. Mohka 
was found to be a fair timber, while Aouli and Seena 
was pronounced bad. Unfortunately a largo number 
of Garrari props had already been ordered, and they 
became of use by being split and used as lagging; 
Garrari is also more plentiful than other timber, 
being a quick growing tree. After this, two sorts 
only were ordered— Thendu and Dhaora with a little 
Garrari. Then the Forest Department complained that 
at the rate of consumption, the timber preferred 
could not be supplied without endangering the exist- 
ence of the plantations, and asked that some other 
kinds of timber be tried for pit props and accord- 
ingly, a further assortment came and were tried. 
They were: — 1. — Eohan (Soy mid a febrifuge). 2. — Saj 
(Terminalia tomentosa) ; locally known as Ain or iron 
wood. 3. — Mohka (Schrebera swietenoides). 4. — Suria 
(Xyla dolahriformis). 5. — Bahera (Terminalia belle- 
rica), 6 — Kahu or Argun (Terminalia arjuna) ; rather 
rare. 7. — Kini (Albizzia procera). 8. — Bhirra (Swie- 
tenia ohloroxylon ) . 9. — Ohiohwa( Albizzia odoratiseima) ; 
not recommended by the Forest Department for pit work. 
10. — Mohwa (Bassia latifolia), not recommended by 
the Forest Department for pit work. Of all these 
specimens, Saj was the ouly additional timber recog- 
nized as good for mining, and accordingly from that 
date (1886), two sorts of props only were indented for 
Thendu and Saj. In 1888 the Forest Department com- 
plained again that if the colliery would still insist on 
being supplied only with two sorts of timber in such 
large quantities — about 5,000 props per annum, from 
8 feet to 14 feet long, by 8 inches to 12 inches in 
diameter — they would be unable to keep up the supply, 
and again asked that other timber should be tried, 
and in November, 1888, eight samples were sent, of 
which three had already been tried, the others being — 
Bhirra or satinwood (Ohloroxylon Swietnia), Kate or 
Kase i (Briedelis retusa), Hiwar or Kinj (Acacia eu- 
cophlea), Siras (Albizzia lebbak), Keni or Gorarh 
(Albizzia procera,) and here the question stands. 
There is no doubt that the panel system of working, 
and the careful seeing to that no more than 8 feet of 
coal is worked iu the whole mine, and the galleries 
kept their ordered width, and the narrowing of the 
boards of the headways, will still reduce the oost of 
timber per ton, especially when the broken is com- 
menced in the large 60 feet pillars. The cost could be 
brought down to IJas. or IJas. per ton. The timber for 
props should be cut in or before the rains, and after 
barking, allowed to lie two or three months in the 
jungle. 
THE CHINA TEA TKADE. 
The Shen Pao attributes the decline in the Tea Trade 
to the following causes. First foreign competition aud 
secondly, the machine-made tea of India and Ceylon 
besides being nearer to the tea-consuming countries, 
cost far less to produce than China tea. Several large 
hong.a engaged in the tea trade lost heavily on last 
year’s crop, but for all that there were in Kiukiang 
alone, something like 33 hongs eng.aged in the trade 
on the year’s first crop, no doubt with varied luok. 
