THE TROPICAL AORIOULTURIST. INovemrer 2, 1891. 
358 
iheir requiremeats at » profitable margio. However’ 
taking tbe coltou trade of India all round, it is in 
a distinctly nourishing oouditioa, and the enormous 
strides it has made in the past decade boar cvidouoo 
to the energy and enterprise of the numerous oapi- 
talifts who have been engaged upon its dovelopment. 
— M, Mail, Oct 3rd. 
llAND-WKliDlXG I’EUHUa CUI/l'IVATlON 
0.\ TEA ESTATES. 
The subject of hand-weeding versus cultivation * does 
not receive the attention which it deserves. The for. 
mer praclico has now for years beeii obsoryed on 
nianjT Ceylon Katates, aufi it would be interesting and 
instructive to know Iho comparative rosnlts. _ Planters 
generally in India, have all along believed implicitly 
in cultivation, and when, now and again, reference has 
been made in public papers to the advantages of hand- 
weeding, as practised in Ooylou, it has been lightly 
passed over, and has perhaps nut received the atten- 
tion which the subject merits. Now that there are 
BO many gardens in the little sister Oolony which have 
come to full bearing, and may well be supposed to 
have reached their full limit of production in quality 
as well as quantity, there must be sulTicient data to 
enable us to get at a oomplele and reliable oempari- 
son ei resulls. Ti e most satiafaetory comparison must, 
of course, be in Ceylon itrolf, if tiure be a snffioient 
number of gardens which have persistently carried out 
a system of thorough cultivation to set against the 
great number which nave prac’ised haud-weediug from 
the first ; failing this wo must fall back (or the one 
aide upon the experience gained in Assam, Darjeeling, 
UooarB, etc., and if it can be shown that our trieuds 
who labour iu the ycnnge.t Colony ban, as has been 
o fn staled, produce belter reanlts with a smaller 
expenditure of labour, it is high timo that planters 
iu India should “ take a leaf out of their book.” 
There are several points which are patent to all who 
have had ai’y considerable experience of planting and 
cultivating tea, aud which may bo briefly summarized 
as follows : — 
1. A plot which has been kept well dug will invari- 
ably yield a much lorger quantity ol loaf, and better 
leaf thau a plot wbioh has been kept tree of weeds 
by being sickled only. 
2. It is exceedingly difficult to make tea grow upon 
an old road, or a piece of ground which has, for many 
years, been the site of houses, or otherwiso been 
continually beaten down, aud tea grown upon such 
places will for many years, produce next to nothing. 
3. Land which has, by moans of cattle passing over 
it, or otherwiso, become trodden down, in course of 
time becomes (1) less productive of juugle^; (2) tbe class 
of jungle becomes dilleront, and (3) finally as the 
prooess goes on junglo disappears altogether. There 
are some other ttiinga aiioh as the following which 
may have escaped the observation of some planters. 
Yeiing tea which has been only band-weeded, .and 
which has had no proper slirciug np of the aoil 
from the time of planting till, eay, three years old, 
throws its lateral roots much nearer tho surface tt.au 
tea, which haa had a periodical digging suitable 
to its aye, it may bo tho mere breaking of the s il 
round the plant with the fingers the first year, and 
digging more or less deeply with an implenieiit after- 
wards ' again on alopiug land where the snrfaco soil 
has been from tush of water, or a bad system of 
cnitivatiou, carried away from the roots of the plants 
to a depth of eight inches or more, the lateral roots, 
of oonrs^e, become exposed, and on poor soil it nsually 
happens that the plaiils become sickly, or are killed 
outright; but it is invariably the case m snob m- 
Btanoca that if the sub soil (or the remaining aoil) la 
• Cultivation ” in India means a periodical turn- 
ing down of the weeds into the ground by means 
ot tho hoe, — our Ceylon “niainoty.’' — v .. 
f For “ many,” “ all ** might bo read. The loiuing 
Ceylon planters are opposed to “cultivation wbioh 
involves cutting masses of Ion rootlets.— K d, T, A, 
good and fertile tho plants will (with cultivation) 
continue to Hush vigorously, and, in oourao of time, 
look as healthy aud well ns similar plants which 
hwo not lo^t any soil. On most of tho old 
gurdoos in tho Da'-jeeling district there are plots 
wlioro such plantn are to be soon ; th« original collar 
of the p'aut staudiug twelve inches or more above 
the Kurfare of the ground with tho stumps of the 
old lateral roots sticking out, like tho knots on the 
club of “ Giaut Despair,” ami, at the same time, tho 
bush itself is iu a high state of efficiency, flushing 
quito na well as any plants iu tho particular plot; 
thus showing time the plant has estnblishod iitw 
lateral roots as required by tho allerel oouditiuus. 
Now it remains to be stated what hearing ail these 
facts have ufion Iho question of hatid-weeding veraug 
ciiUivAtiou. With the former treatment, it seems 
rcRfi-inable to expect that before very long tbe weeding 
evil bo done very cheaply, because tho soil must 
bt'come caked and hard from coolies’ treading upon 
it for tho purposes of plucking leaf, pruning, eto., 
but it is reasonable to suppose that tiio sjme causes, 
which result in the killing oat of wotds, will aUo 
operate towards weakening toa p'aiits and reducing 
their cfficicucy. On tbe other hand, it is a well- 
established fact that deep caltivAtiun stimulatea tbe 
growth of the plants, and oven if such cultivation is 
done iu such a rough aud iiucouth way as to cut away 
many of tho lateral roots, the plaut does not receive 
any permanent injury, but soon repairs iho damage 
done. Iland-wOLding on old tea has been dune on fomo 
gardoDB in Darjeeling district, and with great success 
but only daring a month or two of very wet weather, 
and only when the soil has previouUy been dug very 
deep aud thoroughly pulverized. — Indian Flanters* 
Gazette, 
A RF^VIKW OF THE PHICES OF 
QUININE IN THE U. S. MAKKKT. 
The conditious of demand and supply in medicinal 
ar;icha vary to an extent almost unheard of in many 
cth<r artich'S of commerce, andthesu yariatious have 
nowhere been moroiuarked than in quinine. Werepriut, 
on another page, a tabular statement of some interest- 
ing facts oonoerning the range of prices of quinine 
daring a very considerable period. A thoughtful peru- 
sal of these tables will servo to bring to tho mind of 
the observer nut merely the tluotualions m tho price 
of this valuable oommodity, but might furnish a thread 
on which to bang the history of modern pharmaceuti- 
cal chemistry. 
After passing out of tho category of a mcro cariosity 
tho alkaloid gradually seillei down toward a price 
which admitted of its general use. ImprovemeDt in 
manipulation and possibly ali<o inoreasod competitioa 
sufficed to maintain tho general downward tendency 
for some time until iu a prioo of 40 per ounce 
was reached. An upward movement then Bi t iu which, 
with an occasional relapso, as in 1842, carried tho 
prioo to S3 and upwards. Tho marked decline ob- 
servable iu 1857 was largely attributable to the aboli- 
tion of tho tifleeu pur cent, duty on ciuchoua barks, 
Tho rise in price from 1860 was due, primarily, of 
course, to the changed cunditious arising from the 
civil war, including increased oousumption, diminished 
supplies duo tu the perils of navigation iuoideotal 
to tho war, and an iucreased costarising from these 
combined causos, and from the imporitiou of a high 
rate of duty, ranging up to foity-Ovo per cent, for 
quinine itself, and twenty per cent for the bark. Tho 
high range of piiocs continued to rule for some years, 
reaching the maximum of !S150 per ounce in 1877, 
since which time there has been a gradual decline 
to the present low valu.sof uiuetesn cents for foreign 
bulk. At this junoturo the iufluonoo of the East 
India barks began to be felt. Iu 1876 only 1,777 
bales of this bark was imported into London, but 
the quantity rapidly iucreased to 0/260 in 1877, 13,400 
in 1880, aud 20.092 in 1881. In 1870 the alkaloid 
was also placed on the free list. It is this last 
