burned shrubs and branches of trees are then spread upon the spots of friable earth ; and into each of them 
four or five cinnamon berries are planted with a dibble. Branches of trees are spread upon the ground, to 
prevent the friable earth from being scorched, and to protect the young shoots. The young shoots appear 
above the ground in about fifteen or twenty days. Sometimes the berries are sown in nurseries, and the 
shoots transplanted in the months of October and November. 
In favourable situations the shoots attain the height of five or six feet in about six or seven years ; 
and a healthy bush will then afford two or three shoots fit for peeling. Every second year from four to 
seven shoots may be cut from a bush in a good soil. Thriving shoots of four years’ growth are sometimes 
fit for cutting. 
As four or five seeds are sown in one spot, and as in most seasons many of the seeds germinate, the 
plants grow in clusters, not unlike a hazel bush. In seasons with little rain many of the seeds fail, and a 
great number of the young shoots die ; so that it is frequently necessary to plant a piece of ground several 
times successively. A plantation of cinnamon, even on good ground, cannot be expected to make much 
return before eight or nine years have elapsed. The plantations from which a considerable part of the cin- 
namon is procured are Kaderang, Ekele, Marendahn (Colombo), and Morotta. These are styled protected 
plantations, to distinguish them from a number of extensive fields that were planted with cinnamon by the 
Dutch, and which have since been permitted to be overrun with creepers, brushwood, &c., and many of the 
cinnamon plants rooted up by the natives.” 
On an average of ten years the quantity of cinnamon deposited annually in the magazine at Colombo 
from the jungles and abandoned plantations of our own territory, including what has been collected in the 
Candian country, amounts to 1184 bales; and at Galle, during the same period, 935. 
The peeling commences early in May, and continues until late in October. The rains which precede, 
and occur during the southwest monsoon, produce such a degree of succulency in the shoots as to dispose 
the bark and wood to part easily. The setting in of the rainy weather immediately produces a fresh crop of 
scarlet or crimson-coloured leaves. 
The cinnamon harvest begins by dividing the peelers into small parties, which are placed under the 
directions of an inferior superintendent. When they are to peel in the plantations, each party has a certain 
extent of the plantation allotted to it. A few of the party cut shoots ; while the remainder are employed in 
the wadu (or peeling shed) to remove the bark and to prepare the cinnamon. When the chaliah perceives a 
bush with shoots of a proper age, he strikes his ketta (which resembles a small bill-hook) obliquely into a 
shoot ; he then gently opens the gash, to discover whether the bark separates easily from tbe wood. Should 
the bark not separate easily, the shoot or branch is not deemed fit for cutting. The chaliahs seldom trust 
implicitly to any external mark of the proper condition of the plant, and rarely try a shoot until the scarlet 
leaves have assumed a greenish hue. Some plants never acquire a state fit for decortication. Shoots of 
many years’ growth often bear the marks of numerous annual experiments to ascertain their condition. 
Unhealthy, stunted plants, are always difficult of decortication; and the cinnamon procured from them is 
generally of an inferior quality. 
Cinnamon prepared from the bark of very young and succulent shoots is rejected. It is light straw- 
coloured, thin, and almost without flavour or taste ; and what little aroma it possesses is very evanescent. 
Mildewed or half-rotten and smoky cinnamon is rejected. When the peelers are overtaken with rain 
at a distance from sheds, the bark they have previously collected ferments, becomes decayed, and inodorous. 
In such situations they frequently retire to caves, or very confined huts, where they kindle fires, to procure 
warmth and to dress their food. The smoke arising from these fires often greatly injures the bark, and 
renders it unfit to be manufactured into good cinnamon. To increase the weight, the peelers sometimes 
stuff the quill of cinnamon with sand or clayey earth, thick ill-prepared pieces of bark, &c. &c. When these 
impositions are suspected, the quills are undone, often broken, and the foreign mixture removed. 
This is one of the many causes which prevents the cinnamon from being in quills of nearly equal 
length. Cinnamon produced beyond the river Keymel on the north, and the Wallawey on the south, is 
generally condemned. It is light-coloured, greatly deficient in aromatic flavour, astringent, bitter, and has 
sometimes a taste similar to the rind of a lemon. Even between these limits the cinnamon produced differs 
greatly in quality. Differences of soil, and exposure, are very evident causes of a difference in the quality 
of cinnamon. Shoots exposed to the sun are more acrid and spicy than the bark of those which grow under 
a shade. A marshy soil rarely affords good cinnamon. It has often a pale yellow shade, approaching to the 
colour of turmeric. It is loose, friable, and gritty, and its texture coarse-grained. It possesses little of the 
spicy taste of cinnamon. Very often, however, the cause of the inequality of this spice is not apparent ; the 
bark of different shoots of the same bush have often very different degrees of spiciness. 
That which is considered in Ceylon as of the best quality is of a light yellow colour, approaching 
nearly to that of Venetian gold; thin, smooth, shining; admits of a considerable degree of pressure and 
