24 No. 350, REVENUE, 23RD JULY 1896.
Dr. King who has inspected the plantations on two occasions prior to 1884 it is clear
that their condition has greatly improved during Mr. Lawson's tenure of office, a
result which is to be ascribed to his administration.
(True Extract.)
(Signed) A. T. ARUNDEL,
A g. Secretary to Government.
To the Director of Government Cinchona Plantations.
„ the Board of Revenue (all Departments).
„ the Deputy Adjutant-General, Madras Command.
„ the Public Department.
,, the Financial Department.
,, the Educational Department.
„ the Surgeon-General.
„ the Accountant-General.
3) the Postmaster-General.
„ Resident in Travancore and Cochin.
Copy to the Honorary Secretary, Agri-Horticultural Society.
,, ,, Chamber Of Commerce.
,, ,, Reporter, Economic Products, Calcutta.
APPENDIX.
Report on the Cinchona Plantations and Foctory of the Madras Government.
1. I have, during my present visit to the Nilgiri Hills, gone over and carefully examined
the plantations at Dodabetta and Nedivattain and the one near the Pykara river named the
Hooker estate. I visited these estates originally in 1871 and, in company with the late
Mr. McIvor and Mr. Broughton, made a prolonged and minute inspection of them. And again in.
1878 I made an equally thorough inspection of themin connection with the Commission appointed
by Government to enquire into their condition and prospects. During my present inspection
I have therefore had the advantage of the knowledge and experience acquired during these
earlier visits.
2. Government are familiar, from the reports of the Director, with the composition (as
regards the kinds of cinchona grown) of these plantations. It is therefore unnecessary for me
to do more than remind you generally that on the four plantations practically only three kinds
of cinchona are cultivated. The Dodabetta plantation is essentially one of crown (or
o f
f i c i n a l i s )
b a r k , t h e r e b e i n g m o r e t h a n h a l f a . m i l l i o n t r e e s o f t h a t s o r t o n i t a n d o n l y a b o u t
sixty thousand of the sort known as " hybrid " ; while there are no trees whatever of the red
bark (cinchona succirubra). The Nedivattam plantation, on the other hand, consists of about
a quarter of a million hybrid trees of 89,000 crown barks and of 25,000 red barks. The
Hooker plantation is composed of 373,000 crown barks, 293,000 hybrids and 2,300 red barks ;
while the Wood plantation consists of about 42,000 hybrids. Distributed over all four estates
there are 1,188 trees of various kinds of cinchona which have been raised from seeds from time
to time sent out by the India Office for experimental cultivation. These are now cultivated
merely as curiosities, as they have all been proved to be without value as sources of quinine on
the Nilgiri Hills. I therefore omit them from further consideration. As Government are
aware it has from a very early period in the history of the cultivation of the medicinal
cinchonas in these hills been known and recognised that the best bark to grow for the manu
facture of quinine is the crown or officinalis sort. It has been equally well-known that the
red or succirubra bark is one which contains a larger proportion of the inferior alkaloids,
cinchonidine and cinchonine ; and which, while affording an excellent raw material for the
manufacture of cinchona febrifuge, is an inferior raw material for quinine. The sorts known
as hybrids are trees which, while inferior as quinine yielders, to the crown barks, are
superior to red barks. For various reasons the cultivation of these hybrids was much
favoured by the late Mr. McIvor, and it is this fact which accounts for the large proportion
of them which still exists on the Government estates. Experience since Mr. McIvor's time has
proved that these hybrids are, in the Nilgiris, short-lived trees ; and that their bark, by
reason of the presence in it of so much cinchonidine and cinchonine, is as a raw material for
quinine manufacture much inferior to crown bark. The latter is, moreover, also much more
hardy than hybrid. The policy of Mr. Lawson has therefore been steadily to reduce the
numbers of both hybrids and red barks in the estates, and to replant the areas cleared of
these with crown barks. This policy has been carried out to such an extent that at present