168 VEGETABLE PRODUCTS USED BY NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
flayed is mossed over, and is soon replaced by renewed layers of bark of 
greater value than the preceding.” Mr. Thomson speaks very hopefully of 
the estimated results as regards Jamaica ; and in the circular to which we 
have before referred he thus puts the matter :— 
“ After the sixth or seventh year the yield is estimated not to fall short of 
one pound of bark per plant; the number of plants contained in an acre is, 
say 400, the bark of which valued at 2s. per lb. (a low price), gives £40 per 
acre per annum. At about the tenth year after planting, each intermediate 
tree is thinned out, about 200, in order to make room for the extension of those 
lefc. The 200 trees per acre thus cut down are each expected to yield 5 lbs. of 
bark, or £100. The annual production for the next few years of those remain¬ 
ing in the plantation, will give at least the aggregate of the previous 400 
plants per acre, in consequence of the increasing size of the tree now about 
thirty feet in height, consequently the yield must be largely augmented. 
Each tree, on arriving at maturity some thirty years of age, gives 400 to 
500 lbs. He further notices the advantage possessed by cinchonas over every 
other cultivation in the great difference between the market value of the pro¬ 
duce, and the cost of production. The average market price of Peruvian 
bark, produced by the best species, may at present be estimated at five or 
six shillings per pound, while judging from the progress the plants have made 
in Jamaica, the cost of production of this quantity of bark cannot possibly 
exceed threepence.” 
The Government experiment has been so successful, and there would seem 
to be no possible doubt in this respect, that it will be a matter of surprise if the 
owners of land in Jamaica do not take the matter up, and work it to their 
own decided advantage. Plenty of young plants are now obtainable. It is 
to be hoped, too, that the executive will do their utmost to make cinchona 
one of the important products of the island. In England the course of events 
will be watched with anxiety. 
ON THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTS USED BY THE NORTH¬ 
WEST AMERICAN INDIANS AS POOD AND MEDICINE, IN 
THE ARTS, AND IN SUPERSTITIOUS RITES. 
BY ROBERT BROWN, E.R.G.S., ETC. 
(Concluded from p. 94.) 
2. In the Arts and Domestic Economy. —First I should rank the tree I have 
before spoken of,*—“cedar” ( Thuja giganlea, Nutt.), of which the Indians 
make many articles for domestic use ; for instance, lodges, canoes, salmon-weirs, 
fishing-poles, etc., are made of the wood ; “ tow,” ropes, blankets, mats, cloaks, 
etc., of the bark ; of its tough twigs, withes to sew the canoes together; and Mr. 
G. M. Sproat seems even to think that it has had a powerful influence in form¬ 
ing the present and past habits of the race who use it so extensively .f Though the 
canoes of the natives are chiefly built of this wood, in other parts of the country 
where it is not found “ cotton-wood ” ( Salix Sconleriana , Hook.) is used, and 
the rude “ dug outs ” of the Indians in Southern Oregon and California are 
made of the trunk of Pinus ponderosa. There is no birch in North-west Ame¬ 
rica which could produce bark to make these beautiful crafts of, as on the eastern 
.side of the Rocky Mountains. The bark of the white pine (P. monticola ) is in 
like manner used for weaving blankets and cloaks. The maple (Acer macro - 
* Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., May, 1868. 
f Trans. Ethnol. Soc. Lond. 1866-1867, and ‘ Scenes and Studies of Savage Life.’ 
