324 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS, 
[October 26, 1872. 
it red, and it assumes the same coloration in the cold 
■with sulphuric acid.— Journal cle Pharmacie ct de Chimie 
[4] xvi. 191. 
CINCHONA PLANTATIONS IN BRITISH SIKKIM. 
Tenth Annual Report by George King Esq., M.B., 
Superintendent, Botanical Gardens , and in charge of Cin¬ 
chona Cultivation in Bengal. 
(Concluded from p. 304.) 
12. Mr. Mclvpr, in the body of his report and in his 
evidence, refers to only one disease, and that he calls 
“ canker.” After a very careful examination it appears 
plain to me that two distinct forms of disease occur in 
the Sikkim plantations,—the one, a constitutional 
malady affecting the whole plant and usually fatal; the 
other, local and. by no means fatal. The former dis¬ 
ease is confined entirely to trees which have been origi¬ 
nally planted in damp situations, or in situations which 
have become damp subsequently by the oozing of 
drainage water in the way already explained. Disease 
first attacks the roots of such trees. Its existence be¬ 
comes apparent b}r the discolorization of their leaves, 
which ultimately all fall off. Gradual shrivelling of 
the cortical and woody tissues then takes place from 
the root upwards, and before this process has gone 
far the death of the plant has begun. This disease is 
in fact apparently nearly identical with that known to 
gardeners in England as “ cankerit is not in any 
way infectious or contagious, as some appear to think. 
It depends entirely on a local cause, namely, excess of 
moisture in the soil; and wdiere that does not exist it 
cannot occur. In the cinchona planted on the western 
end of the Rungbee Valley (the peculiarities of which 
will be borne in mind) patches of trees killed by this 
disease are not uncommon. Such patches are invariably 
co-extensive with damp, watery soil, and should never 
have been planted. At the time they were planted, 
there was absolutely no experience whatever on the 
subject of cinchona cultivation to appeal to ; the peculiar 
physical conditions of the Rungbee Valley, as above 
explained, were unknown; and the idea prevailed that 
cinchona in its natural habitats delights above all things 
in shade, moisture of soil, and a misty atmosphere. The 
mode of planting adopted was to form a continuous 
belt, and where these damper places fell in the line of 
extension, they were not passed over. I am assured 
that for some years many of the patches that have now 
died out from this form of disease were for the first two 
or three years extremely healthy, and I do not think 
that those who planted them can be charged with any 
want of judgment. But with the experience now ac¬ 
cumulated, showing as it does that cinchona suffers 
more from an excess of shade and moisture than from 
the opposite conditions, it would be folly to plant in 
similar places. I have accordingly decided to do so only 
on such selected spots as possess good and equal soil with 
free drainage, and all the plants recently put out are 
in such situations. The recurrence of this first and 
fatal form of disease need not therefore, I hope, be an¬ 
ticipated. 
13. The second form of disease does not affect the en¬ 
tire constitution of the plant, but manifests itself in 
patches on the stem and branches. The appearance of 
one of these patches is as if some escharotic had been 
dropped on the bark, which is of a dark, unnatural 
colour, shrivelled, dry, and brittle ; occasionally these 
appearances extend to the wood, but as a rule they do 
not. In size the patches vary; many are about the 
size of a shilling, others are much larger.. They are 
not numerous on one tree, and are often confined to a 
single branch. When small, no apparent affection of 
the general health of the plant occurs, and growth goes 
on unchecked. Where, however, a large patch occurs 
on a small tree, involving the bark pretty nearly all 
round the stem, death results. Death from this disease 
is, however, as far as my observations go, not common; 
and it is a well-established fact that a tree which has 
been extensively affected will, when cut down, throw up 
from its stump perfectly healthy shoots; while in hun¬ 
dreds of trees at Rungbee I have seen illustrations, of 
recovery, the little patches of diseased bark being 
thrown off and replaced by perfectly healthy tissue, and 
the plant apparently as robust as if it never had been 
attacked. I had not sufficient leisure last year during 
the season at which this affection is most prevalent, 
namely, the rains, to make successive observations on the 
state of the diseased tissues, and I am prepared with no 
theories about its cause; I hope, however, to. find out 
something during the approaching rains. This disease 
is not confined like the last to certain spots, but is 
found on plants in all parts of the plantation. I do not 
think it is to be feared much, and I certainly do not 
concur in Mr. Mclvor’s views concerning its danger¬ 
ous nature. In my opinion it must be accepted as 
one of the drawbacks attending the cinchona, experi¬ 
ment in Sikkim, in the same way as high winds and 
dear labour have to be accepted in the Nilgiri cultiva¬ 
tion. Orchard-planting is not given up. in the south of 
England because apple trees are especially subject to 
canker, nor are plantations abandoned in Scotland be¬ 
cause a deadly disease (compared to which this form of 
cinchona disease is a trifle) attacks the larch. 
14. Summary of the year's worlc. —During the past year 
166,285 plants of Cinchona succirubra and 44,500 of Cin¬ 
chona calisaya have been added to the permanent planta¬ 
tion. Propagation has been carried on vigorously, and 
the seed and nursery beds at present contain 600,000 
young plants of the former and 147,500 of the latter 
species. The whole of the plantation has been carefully 
gone over, and every sickly plant has been rigorously 
cut down, while the healthy ones have been pruned and 
thinned. This has taken a great deal of time and 
labour, but I am convinced they have not been ill be¬ 
stowed. A considerable extent of new land has been 
cleared and prepared for planting, and will be covered 
with cinchona as soon as the weather is favourable. 
Some new plantation roads have been made, and the old 
ones have also been kept in repair. 
15. Yield of baric. —N early ahundred and sixteen thousand 
pounds of green bark (equal to about thirty-nine thousand 
pounds of dry bark) have been collected from the 
primings and thinnings above mentioned, not a single 
tree having been cut merely for the sake of its bark. 
In accordance with the recommendation of the Cin¬ 
chona Commission, a quantity of the best of this bark 
has been packed for transmission to England. The 
smaller bark, which it is considered more profitable to 
utilize in the manufacture of alkaloid, has, conformably 
to the instruction of Government, been stored up, pend¬ 
ing the appointment of a quinologist. The bark will 
not deteriorate by being kept, and its storage costs 
nothing. 
16. Expenditure and Revenue. —The budget allotment 
for the past year for all purpose, was Rs. 63,621, and 
the expenditure Rs. 50,463-13-5, showing a saving of 
Rs. 13,157-2-7s. The present is the first year in which 
revenue has been received from the sale of bark. During 
the year 7016 lb. were sold by auction in the London 
market. The bark was very varied in quality, a large 
proportion of it consisting of small quills of little value. 
The average price realized per pound was about one 
shilling and five pence, and the total amount received 
was equivalent to Rs. 5,068-1-2. When the mixed 
quality of the bark is considered, I think the result of 
this the first sale may be looked upon as favourable. 
The sum of Rs. 783—i4 -was received as rent for small 
patches of land within the cinchona reserve which are 
unsuited to our cultivation and which have been let to 
natives. This amount was paid into the civil treasury at 
Darjeeling. 
17. General considerations .—The production in India 
