Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-07-25
Raising CInchona.

y
Java says / ,ancy you would be sur
prised at the modes of Gu ,tivating the
cinchons, as now prsctlsed in Ceylon
lower India and Java. 1 fancy slight
description of 1t will have some interest
for you, After getting the forest felled
and burned off, the land is lined of,
and holes are cut the same as for coffee,
only not so large, eight inches wide and
deep, instead of twenty as for coffee.
The best approved mode is five feet
apart; this gives 2,540 trees per acre.
| Leave the holes open until thoroughly
oxygeniZed, and this point is shown by
the weeds beginning to grow well down
inside the holes. Then put out plants
in shadOwy weather, at four years OF
age, cut off all lateral branches to a
height of five feet from the ground.
Trees if ON fairly good soil should then
be ten feet high. You leave branches
above five feet from tae ground, be-
cause they are the laboratory. a ms
chine that draws the alkaioid- pIoduc-
ing properties from the atmosphere.
At the end of five years you start on
the stems of the cinchona trees (here
you will be astonished) with spoke
shaves. Set the blade of the spoke
shave sufficiently forward to enter the
bark to the point where the cambrium
OF innermost bark, lies. This cambrium
must not be cut; 1t is the machine that
Will grow thick for next years bark
Mats are adjusted at the foot of the
trees to receive the shayings. The men
peg away, and fair days work for an
average coolie On fve-year-trees Is 90
or 20 pounds of the wet bark. This,
when dried, should turn out one third
of its weight in dried bark, the value of
which, Just low, in Colombo (Ceylon).
is one shilling and sixpence, or about SO
cents Fer pound. A fair thing, from
five-year-Cld trees, would be half a
pound of bark per tree. But, like many
other things, many get more, and many
get less
At our present rate of expenditure,
about ten pounds sterling per acre, or
say in equivalent rupees, % or loo
cents to rupee equals S125. Allow
ing LOO trees to the acre, an average
OF 7 cents per tree covers expenditures.
Taken as a whole, clnchona growers
have done very well on soils that were
not too light with clay.
Toe plant wants very graTelly soil,
but will not stand wet feet The variety
of plant now most in vogue in Ceylon is
called the 'Cinchona hybrid" caused
by the mixture of the pollen from the
two varieties. This cross is believed to
possess the greatest immunity from the
various diseases peculiar to any tropi-
cal cultivation over large areas.
The greatest difficulty is found in the
cinchona nurseries, when the young
pants are just above the ground, say a
quarter OF an inch, they damp off in
yellow spots. The only remedy here Is
to transplant at once into new beds,
four inches apart, removing the plants
to the field when four inches high.
The diseases most commonly met
with are two, a peculiar decay of the
roots and consequent death of the tree,
and canker, cause and cure not known.
The hybrid 10 not subject, it is said, to
canker. Plants of like nature covering
large areas generally do produce some
decimating influence, as If nature pre-
ferred variety.
But the plant of all others would
think best to cultivate IL Ceylon Is the
cardamOn. 1t Is bulbous plant, some
thing like hens egg IN shape, with a
root of our American rhubarD plant at
tached to one end of it at right
angles to the longest diameter of the
egg.
The best Malabar plants are for sale
at fifteen rupees per thousand. Plants
not three years old are eight feet hign,
and have by tnat tune developed I'M
mense tufts of long, heavy shoots OF
leaves. Tie handful of fowls feathers
together at the lower end and spread
the tops out IN sort OF radlating tuft,
and you have the shape of the crop
bearing cardamon plant. Some get to
be 10, II and 10 feet in height; the
leaves and shoots are In shape ike the
aloe. They are very thin, with stunted
mid-rib, glossy dark-green on upper
side, and velvety pale green on under
side.
The crop is formed on lateral shoots
proceeding from the cluster If bulbs at
the surface OF the ground, and pushing
their way along the ground IN all direc-
tions from the centre OF the plant. The
little white flowers aad tiny buds spring
from the sides OF these tendrIls, or
shoots. A remarkable popularity Is
that the flower springs from one point
on the tendril, and the carbamon pods,
of which there are two or more, close to
the flower, from another part of the
tendriL. The flower, Ill short, does
not develop into a fruit. 1t seems to
be there as feeder or fructItier, on its
own wee, tiny stem, and each young
cardamon has also tiny stem of its